Here is a perfectly nice place to sit, in a perfectly nice place to live. Though, I've never sat here, nor do I live here. I do not like to publicly admit my failures, but when it comes to sitting I am one: a failure. I haven't lived in this place, the Berkshires of Massachusetts, since I was 16 years old, and since that time it has felt that I have been on the go at nearly constant rate.
The problem with this pace is that if the mission is merely to be on the go then you tend to achieve that without actually getting anywhere.
I am setting out to go for a very long run on the morning of September 22nd. 100 miles in one attempt. If things go great we are talking about twenty four hours of constant movement. These are the reasons I am doing it.
1. There will come a time when I can not.
2. Instant gratification has not been my friend. This goal demands patience. It has taken many months of affirmative actions to decide to move forward in the direction of the finish line. For all our great complicated problems on this good, green earth that is how all of them will get solved. This is a reminder.
3. "You're running how far?" I am super not above some good old fashioned pride, ego boosting, and some goddamned braggery. Dropping these numbers amongst friends, colleagues, and political opponents is exactly that. This will not get you to the finishing line. But It will get you to throw down your credit card number for a race entry.
4. I failed at an attempt to do this four years ago. I quit at mile 77. To be reminded of community I asked friends and loved ones to support a mile in favor of a cause I love. And in one week they all exceed my modest goal of $1,000. Family, old friends from highschool, out of touch friends from college, supports in my old field of solar, new comrades in the cannabis industry. They all wanted to publicly say, "I believe in you, Shaun". This will get you the finishing line.
5. I don't want to just move without purpose. I want to be mindful of why I am moving. Testing limits of strength and endurance. Testing the limits of my mind, and my commitment and resolve to solving important problems.
6. You're running a third consecutive marathon on your third consecutive weekend. You ran 20 before work on wednesday. You have fifteen plus to do tomorrow. It's late miles, like 23. And Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" comes on. And you're legs are ready to go again.
That feeling is completely intoxicating, and I am constantly chasing that dragon.
See you on the other side, friends.
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Programming Notes
This is the race website: https://gobeyondracing.com/races/mountain-lakes-100/ It sounds as if cell service out there in the woods is pretty poor, so live updates may be hard to comeby. I am aiming for 24 hrs, but they will give me as many as 30 hrs. After that they leave me to the bears. A rough pacing chart and timeline guide is below.
Holy shit you all put in over $1,400 for VoteSolar in a week. That you believe in their work is not surprising, but that you did so because you believe that I can run 100 miles in a sitting is purely bananas. So I better do it. And while I am blown away by this show of support, I believe they deserve infinite funds, and so you should still free to drop a few dimes here: https://secure.votesolar.org/page/contribute/mountainlakes
When I get on the starting line on saturday I will have run more miles at that point than in any other year. It's September. I'm ready.