My Crowding Issues with Events
14 inches. That’s how much space there was from my chest to the seat in front of me. Go get a ruler and imagine that. Now picture the same in a bouncy plane for 2.5 hours. A plane that departed over an hour late causing me to miss my connecting flight to Germany. Anyone would have issues with that.
One of the reasons I run ultras is because there are less people. You’ll have to really sell me on the experience if you want me to toe the line with 23,000 other people. Dodging and weaving, listening to chatter, ducking out of the way of water cups. Sorry, that’s not for me.
Maybe it’s my sensory issues or need for some type of control. I don’t know and really am not interested in psychoanalyzing at the moment. All I know is, showing up at the start of a 50 mile trail race has a very different atmosphere.
One of those differences is there are no corrals. There’s no wondering of where I stand or what’s your pace. If you believe you are retry fast you go to the front. If not, make your way backwards. Many look at other runners to judge where abouts they should stand. That’s a mistake. Ultra runners need a little padding for fuel so looks can be deceiving.
Ultras are a place where we celebrate individual achievements. Yes, this happens in marathons, but out on a trail, you decide to succeed. The cheers may have been there during training. Along the course you don’t have people cheering you on. As you’re climbing that 13,000 foot mountain, people aren’t chanting your name. Whatever your reason for being there, you choose to move forward. At the end of a race, runners will ask how you did. They’re not asking for your specific time. We want to know if you beat a previous time, we’re faster than expected, or escape injury-free. Tine is relative.
That brings me to another difference … the people. I have done one triathlon. In that event, it was like being in a war zone. A get-the-hell-out-my-way atmosphere. That’s not for me. In the world of ultras, we know we are in it together. If someone is slogging through, you talk to them … about anything. Those few minutes of distraction may be all they need to restart the engine. After all, around the corner you may need to team up to fight a mountain lion.
The largest field of an ultra I’ve run is 800 people. That was quite a bit, but it thins out pretty fast over a 50 mile spread. It creates the opportunity as an event to for runners to have a better experience. Strangers become friends and personal coaches. For me, I get to enjoy nature and people who perceive the world a little differently. People don’t hold to beliefs because someone told them, they seek out the answers. Sometimes there are no answers, but along the way they gain answers to questions they may not have known they had.
Crowds are fine. Once and awhile. As long as I have the opportunity to unplug and recharge.
