Toots and Sally Ride Again

I’ve been lax in continuing my review of How to run 50 marathons in 50 days.

So, to continue…

In the Wired piece the Perfect Human they write:

3. FLIRT WITH DISASTER
In 1995, Karnazes ran his first Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile trek that starts in Death Valley, California, in the middle of summer and finishes at the Mt. Whitney Portals, 8,360 feet above sea level. After running 72 miles in 120-degree heat, Karnazes collapsed on the side of the road suffering from hallucinations, diarrhea, and nausea. He had pushed himself to the point of death to find out whether he was strong enough to survive. He was. Though he didn’t finish the race that year, Karnazes came back the next and placed 10th. He won it on his fifth attempt, in 2004. “Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness,” he says.

Okay. Now, this one I can appreciate. I’m the crazy one who wants to run The North Pole Marathon–Oh YES! it is real. And if that’s not flirting with disaster then I don’t know what is. (And I better get ready, cuz pretty soon I may not have the chance to run this race and I’ll be forced to swim it. Otherwise I’ll be forced to the Antarctic Ice Marathon.) But, IMO, there’s a fine line between flirting with disaster and being a stupid twit. Pushing youself to the point of death is in the stupid twit category. If it is death you want to flirt with, then fine. There are better ways to do that.

Flirting with disaster means pushing yourself to near the point of death. It means you’re going to the edge, but you have the knowledge, skill, training, reasoning, and Jedi mind tricks to pull short of stepping onto the point of death. It means that when you’re 100 feet away from the summit of Mt. Everest, you pull back because your O2 is low. You’ll be back another day.

The same goes for our training. Don’t flirt with disaster as Karnazes seems to define it. You’re ganna get hurt and then you’r ganna be out of the game. No mineral water, dry fruits, fresh fruits and sugar for you.

Karnazes is stupid.

I like flirting with disaster. I don’t like flirting with death.

Death will have to wait a long long time before it gets a spot on my dance card.