Ultrarunners' quest for "sprituality"

yeah, screw all you freakin' ultra runners. go to a regular damn church like the rest of us. I don't want any spiritual bs when I'm racing and you shouldn't either. And what's with those silly gaters?

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.

Actually that's not capitalism at all. Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned.

Don't worry. Your childish point is not affected by the fact that you are stupid.

Sounds like you ultra-bangers are after yet another bite. Back to the original post, I think you are forgetting one obvious point - ultrarunners generally are not out to win or beat others or for the competiton, they are out for enjoying the experience, learning from the event and as you said the overall 'spirituality' . Maybe you can not and never will comprehend this?? I have run plenty of k races and marathons but now love the benefits and rewards of ultras (and the people who are not so hang up on beating others for social recognition).

Ultra runners do it for a long time

pete

Church nowadays is the last place to find love, truth, and god. Can you go to a church and give offering and then if you don't like the product that they are selling ask for a refung?

Its less a race of their competitors but a race against themselves. In ultra racing, runners are more strewn across the race course rather than many in a pack in road racing. I have run a few ultra's an agre that running a ultra is humbling but I have not run to the point where its a spiritual experience. I would imagine that the more one runs towards death the more spiritual it becomes.

Is there anywhere that you would go, give a donation, and then ask for a refund?

"How can you get a spiritual experience from competing and trying to beat others?"

Ultra runners are a different species, they trudge through life waiting for their next Ultra experience to lift their miserable existence to an exalted state of perception and joy.

I think your totally missing it. Ultrarunning races are much more than a race. The biggest challenge is with ones self physcially and mentally. There's alot of comradery amidst the ultrarunner communnity and competitors are very supportive of one another. The race atmosphere is very different from shorter races. Except for a few of the top runners I would'nt really say the rest of the field is racing against anything else but themself.... Go run a 100 mile race before you post another thread like this... I bet you will have a different perspective.....

Vex wrote:

I think your totally missing it. Ultrarunning races are much more than a race.

Vex,

I think you are close but still not quite there. The spiritual feeling that is found in Ultramarathoning occurs more in the solitary training runs than in the races. When you are out all alone and mile after mile is passing, you begin to attain a state where your body switches to auto-pilot and your mind begins to 'detach'. This really reaches its pinnacle when you are in the 'depletion miles' where you are running on fumes and experience the quasi-hallucinatory thoughts and - sometimes - visions.

Sorry to break to all you ultra"runners" you aren't getting what you think you are getting at Western States 100, Leadville 100 or whateve

I'm sorry, but this is one of the dumbest things i have ever read. If THEY think that they are getting something spiritual out of it, then I hate to break it to you, but they are. End of story.

...considering that "sprituality" is beyond the realm of perception(in that it is metaphysical)....if someone says that find sprituality in anything....how can you really argue against that??

as for my self being relaxed, calm, whatever you want to call it...is of far more importance that experianceing sprituality.....of course im not a spritual person...

The wackos get all of the publicity, so those are the ones that you hear about. Just like with marathons, the people who get the publicity are not the ones who train hard, yadda yadda yadda, but the publicity goes to to ones with the best "human interest" story. You know, "blind single mom with a wooden leg infested with termites" ... has much more sizzle than guy whow runs 2 x per day, 100+ miles per week.

There are quite a few people in the ultra community that think that their sport is even further marginalized by the wackos that make the paper. As a "for instance" there is a running cult in Boulder "Divine Madness" which garners quite a bit of publicity simply because of their really odd antics. (Guru leader named "Yo", free love between members, yadda yadda yadda. Much more interesting to readers than the Torres brothers.

Vex wrote:

I think your totally missing it. Ultrarunning races are much more than a race. The biggest challenge is with ones self physcially and mentally. There's alot of comradery amidst the ultrarunner communnity and competitors are very supportive of one another. The race atmosphere is very different from shorter races. Except for a few of the top runners I would'nt really say the rest of the field is racing against anything else but themself.... Go run a 100 mile race before you post another thread like this... I bet you will have a different perspective.....

Listen you kook, I already ran 2 100 milers and a few 50 milers. Did I meet the great spirit? No! Some say that in ultrarunning there is no "competition", maybe not like at the L.A. marathon or boston. But ask kooks lik jurek, mackey, macdowell and torrance. They are there to beat each other becasue the could never run a sub 2:30 road marathon. I know this guys, and they want to win while claiming it's so "spiritual!" Please!!!

I think you may have some issues.... Why so angry ? Perhaps your overtrained ????... In order to experience sprituality you must be open to spirtuality.. Running, racing, training, it's all pretty spiritual to me... Why do you run ? Why go thru all the trouble to run the ultra's if you do'nt really get anything out of it ?... At least that's what I think your implying... Anyway, enough of this post for me..

Vex wrote:

I think you may have some issues.... Why so angry ? Perhaps your overtrained ????... In order to experience sprituality you must be open to spirtuality.. Running, racing, training, it's all pretty spiritual to me... Why do you run ? Why go thru all the trouble to run the ultra's if you do'nt really get anything out of it ?... At least that's what I think your implying... Anyway, enough of this post for me..

I think you are missin the point.

R.L. Scribner wrote:

Is there anywhere that you would go, give a donation, and then ask for a refund?

yeah, try doing that at a road race.

how about this: when you go to a race, lets say a half marathon or something like that, with a ton of free stuff. lets say you decided to take and drink a bottle of free propel or gatorade. if they doing like your training methods/ disagree with your philosophy about anything, can they ask for it back?

nice reasoning. learn how to argue.

quest for "sprituality"

I think this just about says it all. An experience of the Sprit.

Spiritual experience surely is an experience of the Self that is an individual experience not bound by time and place or any idea. By its very nature it is beyond the realm of mind. The mind cannot analyse that which is beyond its capacity to grasp, howver much it thinks it can. I think.