Thursday, February 18, 2016

Real Men...and Ultrarunning

Nope, this is really not a macho post, just mostly an excuse for another cat picture:


Image credit Gary, of a refrigerator magnet in a gift shop.  Sorry, no info as to the maker!  I should have bought it.

The link to Ultrarunning is this: if we--men and women alike--are honest with ourselves, one component of the reason why we are practitioners of this sport is what in the photo above is called "Real Men."  I like to call it the smugness factor.

Remember back to your first marathon, when people that you knew told you how they simply could NOT believe that a person could run 26 miles.  No way.  We smiled and acted all self-deprecating, but inwardly we were hugging ourselves.

Fast forward to the day when you ran your first 50 miler, or later advanced to the point where you ran a 100 miler.  The smugness factor went waaaaaay up, and you knew it.  And you liked it.

The smugness factor is not why I run vast distances in the backcountry, but in my heart of hearts I know it exists.

(Of course, to be the devil's advocate, "It's not bragging if you can do it.")

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