This past weekend was the Western States Endurance Run, the oldest 100 mile race in the United States. I watched as much of the livestream as I could- I saw the beginning before I went to work on Saturday, and as soon as I got home I watched again until I went to bed. Then Sunday morning I watched AGAIN until the last runner crossed the finish line at 2 pm.
When it was over, I felt so sad- it’s over for another year! I didn’t want it to end. And I wasn’t even running! Let’s imagine for a moment how the runners must feel…
This race is VERY hard to get into. Most runners are selected through a complicated lottery system, after waiting and dreaming of the race for years. Then there’s the months of training, the logistics of organizing crew and pacers, traveling out to California, and then the epic adventure of running this iconic race. I would imagine that, as they approach the finish line, quite a few runners are thinking “Oh NO… it’s over.”
Elisabeth wrote about this same feeling after completing her epic European adventure, and I always feel like this after my big races. I wish I had a solution, but I don’t. I mean- what are we supposed to do- NOT take the family on a 3+ month unforgettable experience, or NOT run the race you’ve been dreaming about? No!
I love these words of wisdom from Joe Corcione, host of the Everyday Ultra podcast. He ran Western States this year, and did a pre-race episode talking about his thoughts and intentions leading up to the race. One thing he said was, ‘The dream is never about achieving the dream…It’s about the person you become along the way. We want the dream not because the outcome is freaking awesome, but because we want to be the person that’s capable of getting the dream.”
When I trained for and ran my big race in March, I became a person capable of running 60 miles on her 60th birthday. Elisabeth became a person capable of taking her entire family to Europe for 100 days, and curating an incredible experience. The actual experience is over, but we’re still the people we became along the way.
My post- Western States letdown is lingering. Maybe I need to find the next dream…
Link Up With Tuesday Topics
Welcome back to Tuesday Topics, as Jenny, from Runners Fly joins Jenn at Runs With Pugs to co-host this link-up! Please join us every week for a new topic! Write on our weekly prompt or choose your own topic! Make sure to add your post to the link up, link back to your hosts, and comment on the other shared posts!
Top photo by Austris Augusts on Unsplash
