Born To Run

My dad had let me borrow a friend's copy of Born To Run awhile back and it had just been sitting in my apartment for the past few months. Last week, I met someone at the Crooked River Trail Runners group run that was wearing Vibrams. Soooo, I decided to read the book which is about a Tribe in the remote regions of Mexico who are super ultrarunners that run barefoot. I got to this excerpt (which is mentioned in reference to a man's attempt to get members of the Tribe to run organized races such as Leadville) in the book and really liked it, so I thought I would share it...

When Ken (Colorado miner and creator of the Leadville Trail 100) met Aron Ralston, the rock climber who sawed off his own hand with the chipped blade of a multitool after getting pinned by a boulder, Ken made an astonishing offer: if Aron ever wanted to run Leadville, he wouldn't have to pay. Ken's invitation stunned everyone who heard about it. The defending champ has to pay his way back into the race. Heroic grand master Ed Williams still has to pay. Ken has to pay. But Aron got a free ride - and why?

"He's the essence of Leadville," Ken said. "We've got a motto here - you're tougher than you think you are, and you can do more than you think you can. Guy like Aron, he shows the rest of us what we can do if we dig deep."

You might think poor Aron had already suffered enough, but little more than a year after his accident, he took Ken up on the offer. New prosthetic swinging by his side, Aron made it to the finish under the thirty-hour cutoff and went home with a silver belt buckle, thereby stating better than Ken ever could what it takes to toe the line at Leadville: You don't have to be fast. But you'd better be fearless.