"I wasn’t a truly genuine trail ultrarunner until March 7, 1992 at the
Wild Oak 50 near Harrisonburg, Virginia. It was a rainy day and
simultaneously, while I was piddling on the run, chewing on an energy
bar and washing it down with Mountain Dew, my nose was dripping and I
farted. That was the ultimate defining moment in my trail running
career, if not my entire life."
- Bob Boeder
"Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes
no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances
on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the
approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted
from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense.
The ultra runners know this instinctively. And they know something else that
is lost on the sedentary. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that
the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In running
such long and taxing distances they answer a call from the deepest realms of
their being -- a call that asks who they are ..."
- David Blaikie
"The people that I have met are not foolish; they are aware of how
tired and cold and hungry and frightened and hurting and discouraged
and disoriented and how possibly injured they will become. They know
they will face great physical, mental, emotional, and possibly
spiritual challenges as they make their way to the finish. This is
what they are racing against. This is their challenge. This is what
I admire."
- Carolyn Erdman
"The race continued as I hammered up the trail, passing rocks and trees
as if they were standing still."
- Red Fisher, Wasatch '86
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