Ultra Marathon: any running race longer than 26.2 miles (traditional marathon distance). Typically run on trails, ultra marathons may also be held on roads. Also typically, ultras involve a lot of walking as well as running. You know, because they are SO STINKING LONG.
Finn is a writer and runner with a pretty legit marathon personal best of around 3 hours (consider that most marathon finishers never break the 4 hour mark and you get an appreciation for his fitness level). A lifelong runner, he admits at the beginning of this journey to a bias towards fast events (read: traditional track and road distances) vs. ultra and trail events. But a job offer to run and then write about the multi-day Oman Desert Ultra Marathon (just over 100 miles) seals his fate and begins an obsessive dive into the rich history, training philosophies, and interesting characters that populate the sport. This ambitious immersion culminates in completing the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a trail ultra with approximately a gazillion feet of elevation gain that circumnavigates Mt. Blanc through three countries and is one of the toughest ultra races on the planet.
I would consider this book to be primarily a memoir, and I found Finn to be a likable and entertaining writer with a personality familiar to any endurance athlete or long-suffering loved one of an endurance athlete – Unrealistic expectations? Check. Ability to minimize potential effort/risk? Check. Borderline obsessive personality? Check and Check. As someone new to this type of running, Finn spends a lot of time questioning others as to why they run ultras, and as he struggles with injury and uncertainty, he ultimately decides that “putting our finger on why we do this seemingly mad sport is almost impossible. The real reasons seem to lie just beyond the reasons we give. Sure, we want to win, we want to finish, we want to do our best, we want to find our limit, we want to make people proud…but none of it quite explains it. It’s an unfathomable urge, a deep, primal call, to be out there, to stand facing oblivion, and to come through to the other side.” (228) I totally get this – it’s why I can’t stop myself from finding a new goal each time I accomplish the last one. It’s why I love ultras but also why I love road events – I want to go longer, I want to go shorter and faster, I want to KEEP GOING. I love the work towards the goal even more than I love the actual event I’m working towards; there is peace and joy in the work. There is nobility in the effort. It’s meaningless and it means everything, all at the same time.
As an ultra dork, I was already familiar with most of the people and events that Finn explores (which didn’t make it less interesting to read his depiction, it just wasn’t new to me) with the notable exception of his treatment with NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT), which I had never heard of. Partway into his ultra career he develops debilitating Achilles tendon pain, which remained unresolved after seeing multiple specialists and physical therapists. After working with an “Anatomy in Motion” provider (a similar approach to NKT), Finn is surprised to learn that breaking his left wrist three times may be contributing to the pain in his lower leg. By incorporating the NKT techniques, he is able run harder, longer, and faster with improved form and no pain. As David Weinstock describes it to Finn, “what we’re doing is essentially rebooting the computer in the brain that controls movement. In an NKT session, we interview people, then watch them move. We want to figure out what’s over-working and what’s under-working. Then you release the over-working muscles, or activate the under-working muscles, which helps re-program that dysfunctional pattern in the brain.” (126) What did not surprise me about Finn finding success with this method was that by embracing a systemic approach that views the body as a complex, integrated organism rather than isolated muscles and joints, he was able to resolve the issue.
