Running Ultramarathons is Crazy

I recently took a new job and now have a whole fresh slew of colleagues to chat with about running. Or more accurately, I have plenty of new folks who now call me crazy. In my old workplace, people had gotten comfortable with me going into the weekend with anticipation of a 50km trail race or 8-hour timed ultra event. And they listened to my tales on Monday morning when I recapped how the race unfolded. To them, this was a normal pattern of conversation. Of course, this cycle gets old, and the tales become less intriguing, when told every month. The 50km needs to turn into a 50 mile race before capturing colleagues' attention. Soon, the 50-mile race needs to transform into a 100km event to inspire admiration. Finally, even 100km races become normal and only 100 mile trail runs receive the appropriate level of awe. For some reason, the 100-mile races never failed to amuse...those stories always ended with "Chris, you are crazy." Unfortunately, I don't do many 100 mile races. By the way, marathons don't even deserve mention...they are basically training runs. So, in my old job, I just became "Chris the runner" rather than "Chris the crazy runner."

Enter the new work group. Yesterday, I happened to be chatting with several new friends about my "welcome the new employee" email that was about to be circulated. It included a small mention of my running. That was enough to encourage questions...Run often? How far? Do you do 5K races? Ever run a marathon?  You can imagine my response. Yes indeed, I do run...often...at very long distances...and I have raced from 5Ks to marathons...and beyond. Yes, beyond the marathon. Within seconds, I was casually talking about the Umstead 100-mile trail race I was registered for in April. Then the questions started...

• How long does that take? 
• When do you sleep? 
• What about food? 
• Don't you get tired?
• Why?
• Don't you get injured?
• You do realize that you are crazy?

Crazy. Yes, everyone called me crazy. That's the kind of respect ultrarunners deserve!

I suppose running ultra distances (beyond the standard 26.2 miles of the marathon) is a little different. Not sure it counts as "crazy," but maybe it does.  I'm a little too entrenched to make a non-biased judgment. I find it normal. Many of my friends also run marathons and ultras. Guess we are, to put it kindly, "special people." Yes, we are special...and maybe a touch crazy. Crazy can be good.

Anyway, I feel at home in my new position. The people are friendly, competent, and fun. And they find me crazy. It's all good. It's refreshing to have a new group of people that find me crazy. I'm running out of people that don't know I'm an ultra runner. Running is what I do. Running long is my "thing." And, at times, it may indeed be crazy. Wonder what happens when my new colleagues find out I also run barefoot!