2006 Year in Review: #1 of Many

Why would you want to run that far?

This would ultimately be the question to encapsulate my year in 2006. It was first asked of me on January 1st when I stopped for water at a roadside pineapple stand during a two-hour run through sugar cane fields and coconut groves along the oceanfront near Poipu Beach, Kauai. And it was asked again two weeks later by the late night bartender serving my friend and me after we had just raced in a 50K (31 miles) in Seattle…in the pouring rain…in the middle of a forest…in the dark.

The question would be asked again in February and twice more in March. Again and again. Month after month. It would be asked by dumbfounded coworkers, skeptical strangers, snobby road cyclists, foreign travelers, impressed (or intimidated?) guys at bars, and indeed by many of you – colleagues, neighbors, friends and yes, even family.

And to be honest, there were many times when I couldn’t help but ask myself, in that same “You must be off your rocker!” tone of voice: why do I want to run these 30 miles? Or attempt 100 miles? On Friday nights, when “kids” my age are out partying at bars, dancing in clubs and living it up, why am I the one sitting at home feasting on pasta, taking shots of Gatorade, popping Ibuprofen and setting the alarm for 6:00 AM? Those of you who know me well can testify that it’s definitely not because I’m an introverted, quiet nerd. Au contraire! (Though bookworm “nerd” I may very well be.)

So just how did I become the former social bee turned weekend recluse? Perhaps my big sisters weren’t lying when they said I had been dropped on my head as a baby...

While this question of why run these insane distances may be specific to me, deviations of it can be applied to almost all of us and those “Ka-razy” things we do. Why does the novice climber aspire to summit Mount Everest? Why does the girl, once cut from the freshman volleyball team, attempt to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and then run 26.2 miles? Why does the salaried employee, who knows he’s quitting, feel the need to work 100+ hours for his client? And the bloodied fighter who keeps getting up only to be knocked down again? Or even the child prodigy who forsakes summer science camp to sit on the bench for his recreational soccer team?

Why do people take chances, make sacrifices, and risk it all? We are neither senseless nor illogical. We know our own mortality and we understand the dangers. Yet still we feel the need to push the boundaries, to set ourselves out there and to lay it all on the line, fully aware that it can completely evaporate – in a flash.

I know I am destined to never win a marathon or set records at any distance; but still I will try. Because I know I can.

Taken in this context, the answers may now seem glaringly apparent. In truth, it is just the minute scratch at a surface as impenetrable as Fort Knox. Or so it would seem…

For after experiencing 2006 and all its glory and consequence, I just may have found the real secret to crack the vaults. It took treks via land, air and water; thousands of miles run through wind, sleet, snow and heat; visits to the biggest cities, smallest ghost towns and everything in between. It took encounters with mountain lions, bears and an enraged mating buck; clashes with the forces of nature; moments of joy, heartache, confusion and awe. And it took 36 hours alone in the Utah desert to find this secret. I experienced it all.

And now, finally, it’s mine to share.

To be continued...