The Messengers – Draft of Chapter Two

Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 by admin in The Messengers

The Messengers

PDF Version of the DRAFT First CHAPTERS FOR Runplaces

The world record for the fastest marathon is 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds (2:03:59). That’s an average pace of less than 2:57 per kilometre (or 4:44 per mile). It was set in the Berlin marathon in September 2008 by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie. The world record for women – 2:15:25 – was set by Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain at the London Marathon in April 2003.

But as incredible as these times are they are only a very small part of what it means to run marathons. We tend to celebrate the speed of achieving a distance when running, but there are many other achievements which go unnoticed that are equally remarkable. These achievements have nothing to do with speed but everything to do with what is possible from each of our own contexts.

Long distance runners all take the same journey. They try to achieve the goals they set given their own beliefs, attitudes, abilities, courage and commitment. Hundreds of thousands of runners run marathons and ultra events each year and the numbers keep increasing. While we may like to think a personal best (PB) is within our reach most runners don’t enter the next race because they strive to beat their PB. There are many other reasons that they keep coming back to run the long distances.

Indeed, as Jim Fixx wrote in his 1977 best seller ‘The Complete Book of Running’ – a book that transformed thousands of people’s lives, ‘the qualities and capacities that are important in running – such factors as will power, the ability to apply effort during extreme fatigue, and the acceptance of pain – have a radiating power that subtly influences one’s life’ … To learn the meaning of not winning in running is to learn the meaning of not winning elsewhere in our lives. For what we learn through running radiates into the remotest corners of everything we do, making everyday failures seem less poisonous’.

This book represents the collective insights and wisdom of the Messengers interviewed. They come from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, Japan, Netherlands and Belgium. All ages and both genders are represented. The collective experience of all the Messengers easily reaches somewhere between 20,000 to 25,000 marathons and ultra marathons. That’s a lot of official distance, and it excludes any training runs.

The interviews are supplemented with additional material from running magazines, websites, emails from runners, and numerous newspaper clippings and race reports. The Messengers have openly shared their stories with me; not unlike what happens when you run part of a marathon with a complete stranger. In fact, parts of my interviews occurred while I was running.

I met Robbie, for example, who you’ll meet later, in the Windermere marathon in the Lakes District of England. As we were running through the spectacular landscape, not far from Wordsworth’s home and just, literally, down the road from where Beatrix Potter once lived, Robbie was telling me stories about himself, his running and his travelling that would have anyone on the edge of their seats. A great night out. Or a great time spent during a run. I wish I’d had a pen and paper at the time, but it was a wonderful way to run around some spectacular countryside. In any case, Robbie wrote out his story in long-hand pages for me and I was able to see some newspaper clippings as well. I ran for a while with Carla that day too, who a year or so later went on to run her 100th marathon.

These Messengers have a love of life. They have a strong desire for and commitment to health. They have a passion for people and places. They set goals. They live in the moment, enjoying the experience, whatever it may be. Running long distances has saved lives and has transformed lives. These are some of the axioms that have been passed on to me by the Messengers.

George Sheehan, the iconic runner, doctor, philosopher and author, wrote in his book Running and Being in 1978 that ‘running is not a religion, it is a place’. He likened it to a monastery. The monastery is a place for the body, and a place for the mind and for the soul. ‘The monastery is a place for ordinary people, for sinners as well as saints’. He said ‘running … is just such a monastery – a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal’.

Although the runners in this book don’t use these words, the message is the same. It’s as if they have each arrived at Apathia, or if not, are well on the way towards it. Apathia was that state of mind espoused during the Hellenic period of Greek civilization as representing a state of tranquility and peace of mind. One achieved this ‘state’ by being indifferent to pleasure or pain, and simply ‘going with the flow’.

Brenton Floyd ran his first marathon at age ten and went on to run his 100th at age 15. John ‘Maddog’ Wallace ran a marathon in one hundred different countries, and Holly Koester completed her 100th in a wheelchair in 2008. Most of Jeff Hagen’s 100 marathons are actually ultras – more than the 26.2 mile marathon distance. The total distance run for his first 100 is the equivalent of over 300 marathons. Rory Coleman sends himself a birthday card each year to celebrate his ‘cold turkey’ transition from a downward spiraling drinking, smoking, party-goer to a tea-totaling endurance athlete and race organizer. The husband and wife team of Yen Nguyen and Peter Bennett travel the world running marathons. They’re one of several couples whose stories are told in the pages ahead. Pam Reed won outright, twice in a row, the Death Valley Badwater Ultra – 135 miles from the lowest part of the North American continent to one of the highest – Mt Witney, in temperatures that rose above 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Australian Lawyer Ray James successfully battled alcoholism in a large part through his passion of running as he completed over 100 marathons; moving one addiction aside for another. After a heart attack in his fifties, John Dawson realized he needed to get fit.

Two-hundred and fifty marathons later, he was training Simon, the first person with Down’s Syndrome to complete a marathon, and invited to 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence, for doing so. Larry Macon, aged 65, ran 104 marathons in 2008. At twenty-eight years of age Leslie Miller became the youngest female in the world to complete 100 marathons: ‘It’s who you are’, she said, ‘it’s exciting to challenge yourself’. When Linda Major completed her 100th marathon in Frankfurt, the members of the United Kingdom 100 Marathon Club formed a Conga line as they danced together over the finish line to celebrate. Another member of that club, Steve Edwards, will, before he turns fifty in 2010, have completed 500 marathons with an average time of 3:17. Todd Byers has run eighty of his last marathons barefoot. Paul Watts has not let the fact that he is blind prevent him from running over 200 marathons. Dave McGillivray (1978, 2004), Marshall Ulrich (2008) and Jerry Dunn (1991) have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars with transcontinental runs that have taken them across the United States.

Inspiring, passionate and committed. Proud. Transforming lives. Overcoming adversity. Making distance running a lifestyle. Each messenger remarkable for their own individual achievements. These are their stories. They have a passion. They have a love for everything that running marathons provides to their own existence. They are messengers to us all.