The Pursuit of Happiness & Endurance Sports

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

In a book I read when I was very young, the author wrote about the “wheel of life.” Sometimes you’re at the top, but you’ll always come back down. And if you’re at the bottom, you have nowhere to go but up. It’s not that profound, but it’s true.

I’ve found it to be difficult to find sustained happiness because it’s human nature to need problems to solve, or something to overcome, or someone (or something) to fight against. We can’t have happiness without struggle. And many of us live in a way that offers no glaring problems or threats: food is abundant, war is not on our doorstep, safety is relatively common, etc. Small things seem big because our perspective is limited. We create challenges and problems because it’s boring and uncomfortable for us to sit back and just be content. If we’re not solving problems or overcoming challenges, we don’t feel useful and then, why are we here? Life is easier to justify if we’re working toward something, which is (I think) one of the most interesting things about endurance sports.

I’m currently training for an ultra marathons (100 miles), which presents a new and interesting challenge, a thing to overcome, and a thing to strive toward. Ultras are physically and mentally challenging, which scratches a certain itch. I’m a human…