RUNNING WITH THE BEAR
THE BEAR’S REAL NAME IS EVA, AND SHE WAS BORN ONE SUNNY AFTERNOON IN THE SUMMER OF 2017, ABOUT A WEEK BEFORE THE TARAWERA ULTRAMARATHON, THE WONDERFUL REASON I SKIPPED THAT YEAR’S RACE.
I have been running for 1 years now and, like anyone who takes up the shoes, I have experienced incredible highs and deep lows. In the dark hours, waking up before the day really began, there were two books in those early years that got me through and felt like my link to likeminded people on similar pointless and wonderful journeys.
The first was Born to Run by Christopher McDougall – the inspiring, heroic tale of Caballo Blanco and the Tarahumara. The other was Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.
While Born to Run was a pinnacle in running texts (IMHO), with mythic legendary figures and amazing tales, Ultramarathon Man was more prosaic in some ways. Karnazes’ book, and Karnazes himself, came in for quite a bit of flak, which always felt very unfair to me since his message was get out there and run – there was little more to it than that. He was proof that a regular person can, if they have the desire, push themselves physically and mentally so beyond what we typically define as normal.
What struck me about Dean’s book was his description of The Western States Endurance Run – a 100-mile foot race through the Californian mountains that began as a horse race until one fateful day when competitor Gordy Ainsleigh’s horse was lame, and he thought: ‘Hell, I’ll run the race with the horses and see what happens.’ Again someone who hoped and guessed they could do it and pushed off into the unknown.
Dean’s book was his discovery, or rediscovery,
