Friday, July 22, 2005

Back in the running world there are challenges I can't imagine facing...

On July 12, in 24 hours, 36 minutes and eight seconds, the Seattle man won the Badwater, one of ultrarunning's toughest events. Before the California race, Jurek had never run more than 90 minutes on pavement. Nor had he trained for the intense desert heat, except for arriving a week early to the Death Valley start area. And, he'd just come off of winning another world-class ultramarathon two weeks earlier -- barely any recovery time between two colossally demanding endurance feats...

"You dig down deep, whether it's the deep recesses of your body or your soul. It's very soul-searching in a way," he said. "Even though everything else seems to be unraveling, you try to find a way, a source of strength. And, you don't always know where that comes from."

Unimaginable.
Full article here

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing. Incredible. Inspiring.

Thanks for sharing.

Christopher Trottier said...

Unimaginable is right.

Scott in Washington said...

Beyond unimaginable to a place I wouldn't want to go even if I could.

Unknown said...

ahh...life will not be complete until i get that one under my belt! good to see a wa homie win this year!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Scott's a star, and a fantastically nice person. But! For the true def of "unimaginable" Google a woman in Tucson named Pam Reed. She ran 300 miles straight this past spring. That's correct - 300 miles. It wasn't a race, she just did it to see if she could do it. Took her about 72 hours or some such. About three weeks later she ran the London Marathon, then did Ironman Arizona, then ran the Boston Marathon twice in a row - started at the finish prior to the race, ran *back* to the start and did the "real" route with the rest of the pack. Chew on that!

Bonus points - I have two degrees of separation from this woman because my triathlon coach is a good pal of hers and ran along with her during portions of the 300-miler.

Best of the bestest luck in your 26.2, Rionna! I'll think of you in October as I have my first go at it in Minneapolis www.twincitiesmarathon.org.)

Stacy Sawyer - Ft Collins,CO

Riona said...

Stacey, unbelievable. People are amazing. You're so well connected - I didn't realize you're doing triathlons! Will be thinking of you in October - Skip has my e-mail address btw or it's available here - nice to hear from you!