If you’ve recently been in the need of some inspiration, I highly recommend watching Semi-Rad creator, Brendan Leonard’s, most recent film “How to Run 100 Miles”. I especially recommend watching the last few minutes, maybe a couple of times. I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s inspiring. In my opinion, it gets the stoke going (I mean, I legit got the goosebumps).
I’m someone who loves endurance. I was a cross country runner in middle and high school and ran my first marathon before graduating. From there, I found the lung bursting joy of mountain climbing and soon after the quad burning past time of long distance cycling. Endurance can be so challenging yet makes so much sense to me. It’s all about ‘just keep going’. Your legs are screaming at you to stop? Keep going. The blisters on your feet are growing so big they’ve picked up their own personality? Keep going. Your arms feeling like they’re about to fall off if you push your ski poles into the ground one more time? Keep going.
My cross country coach use to yell at us the last 400 meters of the race “It’s all heart from here!” And he was right. There comes a point in almost every endurance activity, whether it’s a 50 mile ultra marathon, a day spent cross country skiing, or a long multi pitch climb, when you have to shut your brain and muscles up. At this point, you rely solely on your guts and passion to get you through. Those times when the training is done, the pain is starting, and your doubt is kicking in, are some of the reasons I love the hard and grueling sports of endurance.
“How to Run 100 Miles” helped remind me of the pain, joy, and celebration that comes with these long and hard activities. There’s something special about finishing something you didn’t know if you would be able to complete. The moments when you cross the finish line and fall over right there from pure exhaustion, but you made it. The moments when you rappel off the climb as the sunsets because you push yourself to the last moment of sunshine. Those moments when all of your hard work is recognized. I could go on and on about endurance and all the lessons you learn from it, but I think it’s better to learn and understand on your own. I know I’m itching for my next big endurance challenge.
Maybe you’re not interested in any endurance activity at all. That’s okay. The thing is life is full of endurance moments. So I challenge you. The next time you want to quit your run early or the next time you stare a long hard week of work in the face on Monday morning, remember “Just keep moving. It’s all heart from here.”
Written By: Lydia Huelskamp