The very definition of crazy

You know how once one dog starts barking, all the other dogs in the area start barking because, I suppose, nobody wants to be the only dog not barking? Well, in that same spirit, Wired Magazine ran a series of articles on hacking the human body -- how to push it beyond its fleshly limits. One of the pieces was a profile of this guy, ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes. I imagine nearly every running site and blog will be posting about this guy in the next day or two because his story is just amazing. And I don't mean "amazing" like "the dude ran 50 marathons in 50 days" but rather "the dude is some kind of freak."

Now in my heart of hearts, I believe that in our distant past, before the domestication of horses, human beings probably ran everywhere all the time, kinda like a 3 year old does today. It makes sense. It's faster than walking, and if you are going from cave to cave, you don't want to be out in the open for very long or the dinosaurs will get you just like that lawyer guy that got gobbled up in the outhouse in Jurassic Park. I figure, like in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, you ran from place to place as much to get back to food, shelter, and orc-free companionship as anything else. Then somebody had the bright idea of letting a horse do all the work, and we've been getting fatter ever since.

So now there is this guy, and he just runs and runs. If you read his story, it starts out messed up. He was out drinking tequila one night and then just started running. Thirty miles later, he decides maybe he ought to call his wife to come pick him up. Yes, this guy has a wife and some kids. When does he find time to run marathons all the time?

The dude offers some tips on how you can be Superman like him. A couple of them are even reasonable, like getting rid of shoelaces, getting a cool watch, and breaking down large goals into smaller, more attainable ones. Fascinating read, if you are into reading about people that are better than you.

Tags: article, motivation, running, jogging