“Because it is there”
A simple complexity.
Those that struggle are often asked why? Why would you run all day and all night?
If a marathon is more than enough for most, why run an ultramarathon?
The answer is both strikingly simple and infinitely complex.
Mallory’s response above, on being asked why he wanted to climb Everest, the mountain that claimed him in 1924 – perhaps before the summit, perhaps after – we shall never know – was simple. It was instinctive. And it was probably more than enough for him. But it also betrayed an underlying complexity. A complexity that may have been conscious, but more likely, sub-conscious. I call that complexity the paradox of pleasure – the contradiction of comfort.
In my mediocre sporting universe of modest endeavour I am often asked why I would want to run multiday ultramarathons across the deserts of the world. I am not sure I know – at least consciously.
But certainly, I have never wished to deliver a poetic answer, infused with illusions of grandeur. I have preferred the instinctive, simple, one liner of Mallory. Believing anything more was evidence of a forced, retrospectively engineered imagination, and self indulgent enhancement – driven by a desire to sell books or stories – but not a true reflection of the genuine motivation at the time. A motivation far more simple and instinctive. A motivation that, to the person involved, didnt need an explanation.
But I am now starting to wonder. Is it that simple?
Is it not worth drilling a little deeper to find the underlying complexity? Can something be both singularly simple and unnervingly complex?
And more importantly, does it really matter why we do these things?
Just perhaps, we may ultimately find the answer to be founded in asking a better question. That the question we should be asking is not why we do these things, but why we should do them….
Over the course of this ongoing blog I am going to deliver the MARCH musings on the subject. They will evolve and develop over time – and may, I hope, benefit from the comments and replies of fellow MARCHers…?
The blog is not intended as a swift soundbite, but rather, a more thoughtful and thorough piece. It should take time to read and digest. It should have length and breadth. This blog will therefore take time to consider.
Let us begin…!
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Blog 1 – 23 April 2013
10 years before the oldest existing 100 mile ultra took place (Western States), which itself, took place 10 years before the oldest existing adventure race (Coast to Coast), the oldest existing ultramarathon in the USA took place.
Its origins date even earlier, but to find them, we must first find the man.
Whether or not you have a fascination for ’60’s America (the ’66 Mustang Convertible in my garage suggests I do). And whether that fascination is based on fact or an intriguing myth, one man helped shape the decade more than most, founding a political dynasty – and an ultramarathon – that endures today.
That man was JFK.
And the ultramarathon is the JFK 50 mile.
First run in March 1963, less than 9 months before the fairytale would be cruelly broken on a dreadful Dallas day, 4 men met JFK’s challenge and completed the 50 mile course. To this day, folk still take up that challenge, on that same course, honouring that same fallen icon.
But why do they do that? And why in JFK’s name?
JFK left a broad legacy both celebrated and debated to this day. And for me, a big part of that legacy can be relived and better understood through the words he left behind. Words that indelibly marked out an epoch – benefiting both the present and the future. Words that strived to seek more, but in their meaning and force, instantly achieved more. Words that marked out a plan and a direction, which seemed certain the moment the words left his lips.
The JFK 50 mile ultramarathon started with such words. In a fascinating alignment of new politics and new sport the cover of Sports Illustrated in December 1960 was taken up with JFK and his gorgeous wife Jackie. Pictured in their best camelot complexion, beneath a byline that perfectly and presciently captures the spirit of ultrarunning – “Sport on the new frontier – by John F Kennedy”. The words of the article inside provided the impetus that led to the JFK 50 mile ultra and help us explore the founding question of this blog.
At the time President Elect, JFK’s lead article ‘The Soft American’, made a striking case for greater physical activity. Once again, words that captured both a present and a future need. Words as true today, as they were when they left his pen. To me, his prose reads as poetry so let us consider the detail.
JFK started by going back to the beginning of modern sporting contest to remind us that sport – and extreme sport – was always a foundation of successful culture and community:
“Beginning more than 2,500 years ago, from all quarters of the Greek world men thronged every four years to the sacred grove, under the shadow of Mount Cronus, to compete in the most famous athletic contests of history—the Olympian games. During the contest a sacred truce was observed among all the states of Greece as the best athletes of the Western world competed in boxing and foot races, wrestling and chariot races for the wreath of wild olive which was the prize of victory. When the winners returned to their home cities to lay the Olympian crowns in the chief temples they were greeted as heroes and received rich rewards. For the Greeks prized physical excellence and athletic skills among man’s great goals and among the prime foundations of a vigorous state.
Thus the same civilizations which produced some of our highest achievements of philosophy and drama, government and art, also gave us a belief in the importance of physical soundness which has become a part of Western tradition; from the mens sana in corpore sano of the Romans to the British belief that the playing fields of Eton brought victory on the battlefields of Europe. This knowledge, the knowledge that the physical well-being of the citizen is an important foundation for the vigor and vitality of all the activities of the nation, is as old as Western civilization itself. But it is a knowledge which today, in America, we are in danger of forgetting.”
Bringing forward the analysis to modern times JFK immediately illustrated the decline in fitness evident in American youth:
“But the most startling demonstration of the general physical decline of American youth came when Dr Hans Kraus and Dr. Sonja Weber revealed the results of 15 years of research centering in the Posture Clinic of New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital—results of physical fitness tests given to 4,264 children in this country and 2,870 children in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
The findings showed that despite our unparalleled standard of living, despite our good food and our many playgrounds, despite our emphasis on school athletics, American youth lagged far behind Europeans in physical fitness. Six tests for muscular strength and flexibility were given; 57.9% of the American children failed one or more of these tests, while only 8.7% of the European youngsters failed.
Especially disheartening were the results of the five strength tests: 35.7% of American children failed one or more of these, while only 1.1% of the Europeans failed, and among Austrian and Swiss youth the rate of failure was as low as .5%.”
Lamenting this decline he then addressed the key basis for this blog – why all this mattered. Why sporting fitness, and addressing the failures above, was important:
“…the harsh fact of the matter is that there is…an increasingly large number of young Americans who are neglecting their bodies—whose physical fitness is not what it should be—who are getting soft. And such softness on the part of individual citizens can help to strip and destroy the vitality of a nation.
For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of America’s most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it to dwindle and grow soft then we will destroy much of our ability to meet the great and vital challenges which confront our people. We will be unable to realize our full potential as a nation.“
Driving further forward in addressing the reasons why it mattered JFK emphasised the important connection of body to mind:
“For physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body; it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound bodies.
In this sense, physical fitness is the basis of all the activities of our society. And if our bodies grow soft and inactive, if we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capacity for thought, for work and for the use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America.
Thus the physical fitness of our citizens is a vital prerequisite to America’s realization of its full potential as a nation, and to the opportunity of each individual citizen to make full and fruitful use of his capacities.”
Compelling words and sound argument. But where did these words take matters?
Well…to the foundation of the oldest ultramarathon in America!
Upon taking office, JFK challenged his military personnel to complete 50 miles in a day – as a foil to his ‘soft American’ concerns first voiced in the article above. The challenge was taken up, inside and outside the military – indeed JFK 50 milers sprung up across the country. But the JFK 50 mile still remains to this day. Taking place in Washington County, Maryland, travelling part of the Appalachian Trail and ending at Williamsport, Maryland.
So what we have learned from this JFK inspired story?
We have learned that one of the oldest ultramarathons in the world owes its origins to the musings of a young man destined for greatness. An unexpected champion of ultrarunning.
And in the story of that ultramarathon and that young man’s musings we have been reminded that the physical and mental health of an individual, and a nation, can turn on the depth of that individuals and that nations sporting endeavours. That throughout history nations have understood – whether consciously or subconsciously – that physical activity is vital to their survival and their success.
It seems the question of this blog has an old and worthy history – and one we must keep exploring…!
