Out There
YouTube’s algorithm has historically been poor for me. At least that’s what I like to think. It often recommends things I have already watched or things I have no interest in. So when a little video popped up into my feed title “The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats its Young”, I assumed this was another just weird suggestion that had no resemblance to my interests. I mean, a documentary about running? That has to be very low on my list of things I enjoy. Hell, it might be near the top of things I hate. Growing up I was involved in many sports. I developed skills in a couple sports, the most notable was Tennis where I would go on to Varsity level at my high school, eventually becoming the second or third best at my school. However I had one major weakness no matter how hard I tried. Endurance.
Growing up I was diagnosed with asthma, I have plenty of memories of using a nebulizer in order to help with my coughing. Sitting there, watching T.V. with the nebulizer loudly buzzing and a white mist washing over my eyesight occasionally. Struggling to hear the T.V. I’m sure I turned the volume up on the T.V. in order to hear it over the loud nebulizer, probably annoying my parents (sorry!).
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6AfNI2a5a4
I could never run a fast mile, I think the fastest time I ever got was a little over thirteen minutes, below average. However, I’m not sure if I ever had Asthma. Through middle school and high school I had a form of body dysmorphia. I, and many of my friends, loved bodies of water. Swimming, surfing, scuba diving, and more. For all of these activities I would always wear a rash guard to hide my stomach and chest. At the time I did not think much of it, or at least that’s how I remember my state of mind. I must have known something was off or wrong. In my first year of high school my parents took me to the doctor and I learned about something I had never hear about before. Pectus excavatum. Pectus excavatum is a condition where your breastbones sing into the chest, and depending on the severity, constrict the lungs and heart in worst cases. This could have been the source of my endurance problems and asthma! Over the next year I would undergo surgery in order to alleviate the constriction being caused by pectus excavatum. This would involve the breaking of bones in my chest and the placement of a metal bar that was to stay in over six months to reinforce the rearranged broken bones. I’ll probably write about this another time. After the surgery and recovery, my endurance did improve. Although endurance still remained as my biggest weakness. The pain in my throat, the struggle to breath. and the pain in my ears after heavy exercising still haunted me. I hate endurance running.
Insert photo of the bar here? Or something else.
I ignored the YouTube suggestion about the thing I hate and continued a week or two going about. One night the suggestion popped up again and I looked at it. The race that eats it’s young? What does that even mean? I took a quick look at the Wikipedia article for the marathons and read
The Barkley starts any time from midnight to noon on race day, with one hour till race start signaled by blowing a conch. The race officially begins when the race director lights a cigarette.
A conch? A lighted cigarette starts it? This sounded strange to me a piqued my interest. I decided to jump in a see what this race is all about.
Talk about the documentary here?
These passages could use more work in order to connect my thoughts
Now that I have had some time to digest the documentary, this may be my favorite documentary I have ever seen. The absurdity, the perseverance, and the comradery have inspired me to improve myself. I’m tired of my sedentary lifestyle, I’m tired of mismanaging the precious time I have. I’m now putting into words a new goal. I want to climb Mount Whitney, the largest mountain the the continental united states, and i’m lucky that it’s currently in my backyard.
Talk about one of the runners blogs https://youngrenepics.blogspot.com/?m=1 and the idea of Out There
I want to overcome my self-set limitations.
I want to get Out There.