Ep. 64 Kieran Alger: Going Ultra – Part 1

I love a good quote. There are few things that can be said today, that haven’t already been said by others – most of whom were wiser and more eloquent than me. A favourite of mine, and a repeat offender on this podcast, is Blaise Pascal, the 16th Century philosopher, who said: “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”  It seems that being alone with ourselves, getting quiet and seeing what might come out of our own internal and dreaded lucky dip is something that we have collectively built a whole world around avoiding. Whether it’s our iPhones, our television news, the internet and social media, our daily gossip, our indulgence in the pleasures of instant gratification, or our latest political scandals, we have built impossibly high walls of distraction to protect ourselves from the uncomfortable messages that we might hear if we just took the time to listen to rushing waters that flow inside us.  As Nietzche said: “If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes into you.”  It sounds terrifying, but maybe finding the courage to face that terror is exactly what we need to actualise who we really are, and become who we came here to be. As we’re on a quote trip already, I’d like to offer another favourite, this time from Joseph Campbell, and echoing thousands of years of wisdom from the tao, from zen, from the stoics…  “The cave you fear to enter, holds the treasure that you seek.” In this podcast we regularly explore what it means to get quiet and face ourselves. We’ve spoken to monks, to meditators, to mindfulness practitioners, authors and even entrepreneurs, many of whom share the same wise message about how to live a life. To quote the Ancient Greek aphorism, it’s this: “know thyself.” And who can possibly know themselves better – spiritually, mentally and physically – than those athletes who spend hour after hour alone, with just their thoughts and their bodies for company. I’m talking about the ultra athletes who go far beyond the already gruelling challenge of the 26.2 miles of a marathon, and instead push themselves for hundreds of miles, for days and days of solitude and physical exertion.  What does it take to push yourself to those kinds of extremes? What do you learn about yourself and the world along the way? And what can we learn from these individuals who are pushing the envelope of what’s possible for the human body and psyche that we can apply to our own more modest exertions day to day, as we try to find our path through the tangled undergrowth of life?  I spoke to Kieran Alger, journalist and ultra runner, who regularly pushes himself and his body beyond what most of us would consider to be possible, about what it takes to go ultra, and what we learn about ourselves and our place in the world along the way. This is a two part podcast on Ultra Running. Next week I’ll be speaking with photographer Amanda Eatwell, who just completed her first ultra marathon, to get another perspective on that challenge. www.manvmiles.co.uk www.instagram.com/manvmiles www.twitter.com/manvmiles www.conversationsonliving.com