Ultramarathoners are interested in self-knowledge through physical exertion. Endurance running, from marathons up, is both a physical and a mental challenge. Sure, so is running 800 meters or five kilometers competitively. It hurts. It takes tremendous focus and resilience to keep going when your body is screaming at you to stop. But it is a fleeting pain, a few minutes of it. Not ten or 20 or 40 hours of it.
This huge quantitative difference in the duration of the race (and of training runs) changes everything. It turns ultrarunning into a journey with an uncertain ending. There will be demons along the way, and they may get the better part of you.
You know almost with certainty that you will finish a 5-mile race, even a half-marathon. But there is no predicting what will happen for longer distances.
Cultures across the globe have used endurance ritualistically to achieve some sense of self-transcendence, a deeper connection with nature often expressed as a sense of belonging to a reality much vaster than what we can conceive through reason. We tend to forget that all thoughts originate from experience, the experience of being in the world.
