Get Off Your Ultra High Horse

Admit it- we all have heard someone say it or have said it ourselves, "I will not pay to do a (5k, 10k, 10 miler) because it's a waste of my time!"  I know I use to say this exact statement until I realized that I was being ignorant and honestly extremely selfish.  Yes, I can run much longer than a 10k and usually do during my lunch hour, but it shouldn't be all about me.

Ultra running is usually a pretty lonely sport.  Unless you have a really special, and slightly crazy, someone then you are usually running alone.  Does that mean that your friends and family do not like to run or are not interested in taking it up?  The answer is NO, they just are not as crazy as we are and have no desire to run that far.  Yes, they think we are crazy!!  Maybe they are working their way to their first half or full marathon. Now ask your self, how many times have those same individuals supported you during your training, as crew members, race or emotional support team, and lifted you up when you DNF'ed?  Is it too much to run the Army 10 miler through D.C. with your spouse or run the Across the Bay 10k in Annapolis with your work buddies?  They have been there and supported you so why would you not be there for them.

Now that the guilt trip is over, let me give some advice on how to be selfish and unselfish at the same time.  Look at the 10k or 10 miler as a speed training day.  Start the race with your friends or loved ones and pace with them for a little while.  Then be a good person and sprint 800 meters ahead, or past the really cool thing everyone wants their pictures with, and pull off to the side and wait for your partners.  Now take their pictures and make sure you get some good action shots.  We all know the ones you get from the race photographers make you look drunk and lost.  Now rinse and repeat during the rest of the race (pace, sprint, stop, pictures).  Make sure you run in with your running partners so you can all cherish the memory with the standard finish photo.

What?  This is an ultra blog so yes I am still going to find a way to help us train without looking like selfish pricks.

- A picture is worth a thousand words, but if you don't take a good one you are going to hear a lot more than that,  Ultra Flunkie