
Run for Your Life - Melchizedek
https://www.kinfolk.com/run-for-your-life/
======
redelbee
I used to run ultramarathons and I’ve since switched to cycling. I find that I
injure myself less on the bike, probably because of my very flat feet and
unwillingness to mix in the strength training that would make me less injury
prone when running. Running isn’t bad for your knees (or any other body part)
but doing it a lot and not paying attention to issues is a recipe for
disaster. I ended up injuring myself repeatedly because I was chasing the
feeling that I got from running.

I’m still chasing that feeling on the bike. I don’t get quite as zen on the
bike. I think it’s because there is more speed involved (going into my mind at
20+ mph isn’t a good idea) and because I’m not getting the proprioception
feedback (there’s just something about ambulating through space that’s
hypnotic). I still get the post-exercise benefits and I’m hoping to chase down
more of the zen as I go farther and farther on the bike.

I think the article has some dubious reasoning when coming up for
justifications for why ultramarathons tend to attract rich white guys. I think
the biggest elements in any endurance sport are time and overall nutrition. If
you don’t have the time to train and the resources to fuel yourself
consistently with high quality food you’re probably not going to enjoy
training and participating in ultra endurance events, no matter how much you
“yearn for a rawer form of human experience” or want to exercise your
“control-and-conquer mentality.” Societal inequality means that the people who
have an excess of time and money can participate, hence the rich white guys.

I’m grateful to be one of the lucky ones who can participate, even though I
probably only qualify for one half of the “rich white guy” descriptor. I’m
fortunate to be self employed, which gives me a lot of control over my
schedule.

Final thought: The anecdote about the Kenyan professional is ridiculous. The
“motivated” amateur calls out the professional for quitting the race when he
injured his toe and says it’s because “he wasn’t there to suffer,” then goes
on to insinuate that the professional only wanted to feel good. In reality the
Kenyan professional relies on running as his profession (one which likely
gives him a better standard of living than almost any other opportunity in his
country) and rightly wants to protect his body as it needs to be in good
working order to do his job. What kind of person puts down a professional for
looking after himself so he can feel better about running a long distance?

~~~
jarnagin
> "Oh, Parkinson, Parkinson!" I cried, patting him affectionately on the head
> with a mallet, "how far you really are from the pure love of the sport—you
> who can play. It is only we who play badly who love the Game itself. You
> love glory; you love applause; you love the earthquake voice of victory; you
> do not love croquet. You do not love croquet until you love being beaten at
> croquet. It is we the bunglers who adore the occupation in the abstract. It
> is we to whom it is art for art's sake.

Excerpted from “The Perfect Game”, by G.K. Chesterton

~~~
philsnow
GKC's famous quotation[0] about "a thing worth doing [...] is worth doing
badly" comes to mind. There's a joy to be had in allowing yourself to not be
amazing at everything you try. For one thing, it frees you to try lots of
things.

[0] [https://www.chesterton.org/a-thing-worth-
doing/](https://www.chesterton.org/a-thing-worth-doing/)

------
762236
The author is confusing pain and suffering --- they are not the same. When you
push your body to its limits, you will suffer, such as forcing yourself to
continue running despite fatigue, but without damaging yourself. If you are
feeling pain, such as a hurt toe (like in the article), or due to a joint
problem, then you have to stop to recover. Pain does not scale when you push
your body to its limits, and can't be ignored. A typical off-the-couch athlete
can successfully ignore pain because they'll go back to the couch and recover
for weeks or so. An endurance athlete that ignores pain will just cause a
larger injury that needs even more recovery time in the long run, and since
the catabolic destruction of fitness during recovery is exponential, you come
out at a disadvantage by ignoring pain. A couple days to recover vs weeks to
recover. If you are in the middle of an event and suffer some type of injury,
you stop --- continuing despite the injury is stupid (and so many people are
taught that they are losers if they stop, which is so dumb --- continue and
hurt your performance at the next event).

~~~
skinkestek
Isn't pain the thing you feel and suffering what you do afterwards or
something?

I.e. once I hit my toe I cannot avoid the pain but I don't necessarily need to
go around suffering all day?

I.e. sometimes when I fry something hot oil hits my hands. The pain is
immediate but I laugh at it instead of going around suffering under it.

Or am I mixing up some words? (English isn't my first language.)

------
01100011
I've always felt that endurance activities, anything longer than a few hours,
build a sort of toughness that you just don't get from regular sports.

I've been on many hikes where it's an all-out mental battle to keep going.
Beyond that, there is a physical aspect of pushing through, hour after hour,
with little rest and food. It's tough on your joints and energy reserves.

I'd encourage everyone to consider pushing yourself. It's amazing what the
human body, even an old one, can do. Don't compete with others. Compete with
yourself. See how many amazing things you can do while you still have your
body.

~~~
SketchySeaBeast
Not arguing at all, I've been on hikes I didn't think I could overcome only to
find myself at the peak, but I also think that everyone should put themselves
under a bar they don't think they can squat and find that overwhelming
intensity, focus, and strength inside themselves to succeed at that as well.
Overcoming the adversity of all sorts of physical challenges is an experience
worth having.

~~~
xarope
I've done both, i.e. endurance events (triathlons, marathons, ultras) and
powerlifting/weightlifting (yes, olympic weightlifting). They are different
mindsets.

Training for endurance events require a level of suffering e.g. when I did the
777 (it's a small list of people who have done it - not as small as the
barkley though! - so it's easy for me to prove I've done it if anybody is
skeptical), it was both mentally forcing myself to train to run 2 marathons a
day, as well as the physical effort/pain (I have terrible feet). Another
nightmare was the MdS, 250km in the sahara. Forcing myself to run a half
marathon with a 10kg pack in the middle of day (for the heat
acclimatization)... wouldn't wish that to my worst enemy.

Training for powerlifting/weightlifting is a different type of suffering (I
have medalled in my weight class and age group). You KNOW you can't just dump
10% on top of a PR (whether weight or rep) and "gut-it-out", the way you can
gut-it-out an extra 10-20 minutes on a run/cycle/swim. I guess it's like
topping out on a certain speed for a certain time, in a run. If you can run
16min 5kms, you know how hard it is to get below that, say sub 15mins. It's
not "EASY" to cut your time by 10% in the 5km by just running more mileage. So
it requires a different mindset, willingness to analyze, change training etc.

I think both are complements. Of course, if you have only done one and not the
other, it's easy to say "you should try endurance running, you'd be
surprised", or "you should try to lift heavy weights, you'd be surprised".
Most people will never hit that limit, and won't know what it means in terms
of the effort required to try to transcend those limits.

Oh, and BTW, I do mountaineering for "fun", because on the one-hand the views
you get are amazing, and on the other hand, the preparation required for it is
a microcosm of what, IMHO, you need to do to succeed in life - hard work,
persistence, long term vision etc. And you get to do it with friends, lol
(climbing stairs with a 50lb bag, what fun)

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muska3
No comment on the article, but the website is a beautiful example of a text
first design.

~~~
SilasX
How so? It still has the super annoying fixed header/footers that I have to
kill with special tools.

~~~
frank2
I agree. I don't know why there is not more outcry against the
"position:fixed" attribute or whatever the correct technical term for sticky
elements is.

I use a Chrome extension to try to get rid of them, but the extension does not
work on some popular sites.

------
shard
I wonder if this article from Kinfolk was found by the OP after reading the
recent article posted here about the Three Bay Areas, which used Kinfolk as an
example of a snobbish lifestyle magazine, and went to check it out. I for one
have never heard of Kinfolk until that article.

~~~
eindiran
Do you have a link to the story and/or article you mentioned?

~~~
the_af
I think parent means this, which was posted yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24114354](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24114354)
("The Three Bay Areas").

~~~
eindiran
Thank you!

------
motohagiography
Running seems like its own thing. I often suspect runners are doing a kind of
public penance. Not as many CEOs or executives sailing, skiing, playing rugby,
let alone power lifting or martial arts these days. If choice of sport is a
reflection of the culture, I'd be interested in what it might mean that so
many of the people we elevate have taken up running.

~~~
DoingIsLearning
Running is an activity that exposes you to the fact that you _can_ push past
far beyond what you initially thought was possible.

It's a raw realisation that your body was designed to take so much more than
what you use it for. There is something really primal about that.

I don't know enought about the science around it but I suspect it will be a
combination of hormonal transients plus the _hypnotic_ repetitive motion (it
becomes almost near 'sensory deprivation' after a long enough distance).

I've played/tried most of the sports you listed but nothing I tried (expect
for maybe swimming) really mimicks the intensity of the running experience.

I can definitely see how that empowerment feeling and insights (plus the
runners high) would appeal to C-level people who typically self identify as
having high grit and drive.

------
adv0r
relevant news: [https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/acute-
bronc...](https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/acute-bronchitis-
brings-runner-courtney-dauwalters-record-breaking-attempt-on-colorado-trail-
to-a-halt)

------
zimpenfish
Article title seems to be "Essay: Run for Your Life" and barely even mentions
CEOs.

------
frequentnapper
sounds like masochism to me.

------
bovermyer
I like having intact, functional knees far too much to run regularly.

~~~
mikestew
I run regularly and I, too, enjoy my functional knees.

Oh, wait, you were going with some "running hurts your knees" trope, weren't
you? Apologies. But if you're waiting for an athletic endeavor that leaves you
perfectly healthy even if you do it wrong, well, enjoy the couch I guess. Or
possibly swimming.

~~~
bovermyer
You're making a lot of assumptions here, and you seem to have taken my comment
as some kind of personal attack.

To give you more context - in my specific personal case, running would damage
my knees more than it would give me any kind of pleasure or added fitness.

~~~
zimpenfish
If it's any consolation, I'm in the same boat where running would not be any
kind of sane option for the current state of my knees.

