Ultramarathon Man | Confessions of an All-Night Runner
Dean Karnazes
2005 [Uncorrected Proof]
Chapter 5. The Soiling of the Lexus
- It may seem that ultras are only for rich white people (Also Finn Adharand has recently introduced kenyans to ultra). However, this story shows that the aim of Dean's thirty year old birthday run is not to be productive but rather the contrary. He made a crazy run in the middle of the night not to do better at work but despite he may not thrive as well in that arena. In this sense perhaps similar to the local story of Sebastian Armenault: a seek for meaning, to fill a void. Jurek was not specially rich either, a regular worker that thrived for being outdoors.
- Also there is a search of meaning, of significance of daily activities, and the mood inhancement of a new internal chemical balance as well as changes in relationships when one side feels much better. This is not only a matter that points to direct causes and to change external visible goals, rather the contrary: a yearning moves everything forward. When Dean begins to think of doing a Western States he states that something changed inside him (p. 70):
Somewhere in the soil of my mind, a seed took root.
The reason why ultra in this sense is not about being a productive gear in the chain is that it's a different challenge and a different seek than that of the work world. And again the seed requires a timing of preparation and blossom that is not the same than the immediacy that capital demands. Rodolfo Kusch insists on the importance and value of the timing of nature and just being.