Crazy?

Recently on one of the ultra-running messaging boards I belong to, a newbie ultra-runner posed a question to the entire community, or a statement rather, in regards to the term "Crazy." It goes without saying that when people hear what you like to do "for fun," and you tell them it's running 50 to 100 miles over the course of a day, that their initial response is to call you "crazy." Our fellow runner, the newbie, was wondering how everyone else in our niche community responds to being called crazy so that they might be better able to respond themselves. Now, certainly I've been called crazy and shrink wrapped over he course of the last few years so I couldn't help but to chime in on this conversation. I think the conversation awards some merit to be posted here. Mainly to share with all of you my thoughts on the topic of being crazy, but also to allow others to start a conversation with themselves. The conversation being, "How do I affect people when I call them crazy? Are they crazy? Or am I the crazy one?

I've been called Crazy quite a few times (or some variation of "That's Crazy" "You're Crazy")over the last 6 years. So I started to come up with unique ways to put it into context as a response to the stereo-typers you speak of.

1.) "If by crazy you mean dedicated... then yes, I'm crazy."

2.) "Well... I like to get it out of the way that I'm crazy.. so that I have no where to go but up from here."

Our friend the Newbie Ultra-Runner also said, "Someone asked me if I was trying to run away from personal issues."

So then we go from crazy to tackling this "running from something." Sure... a lot of runners, many of whom have written books... write about their using running as a coping mechanism. For many it truly is. For many more... their running of ultras is their way of coping with something, to the point that now running ultras has become their sickness. This is incredibly dangerous mentally and in turn... their running to cure their personal ailment has now become an ailment itself.

Since I started running Ultras in 2005, I've done so for a variety of reasons. I've run to prove people wrong. I've run to prove myself right. I've run from and into depression. But recently I realized something... You CAN'T run from something. It's impossible... because when you run Ultras... You're forced to strip yourself to the bones and rebuild yourself... instead of running from something... you're forced to deal with it in your own personal way. You run with it, forcing yourself to deal with it until it's done. This could take one run or many but the bottom line is, you're dealing with your demons; hardly running from them in any way shape or form. Running ultra's forces you to look to your very core an discover if you truly do have a soul and where do you dare it to take you.

So are we ultra-runners crazy? I don't think we're any crazier then the employee who gets paid salary to work 40 hours a week and puts in 60 hours a week. Or any crazier then the worker who has 2 weeks vacation at the end of the year that they never use and let slip away. I guess in this world we're all a little crazy in our own sick ways. We're all trying to hide or run from something. But at the end of the day.. it's the ultra-runners who seem to have their shit together the most.. and we're the ones dealing with the issues head first.

Cheers!