Dean Karnazes has proven
his incredible talent for long-distance running. Although he ran track as a
young man, he quit after a conflicted relationship with his coach. On the night
of his 30th birthday, however, he decided he wanted a change; so he
walked out of the building he was in and began to run. He didn’t stop running
until he reached the number of miles equal to his age. He ended up running 30
miles straight, all with no training. From that point, he began to push himself
to run extreme lengths and under extreme conditions. Among other
accomplishments, he has run a 135-mile ultramarathon across Death Valley,
California, in heat that reached 126 degrees; he’s run a marathon to the South
Pole in temperatures that reached 40 degrees below zero (in normal running
shoes, not snowshoes); he ran a 199-mile relay alone (it was supposed to
include a team, but he was the only man on the team); and ran 350 miles over
three days, without sleep; and most recently, he ran 50 marathons in all 50
states over 50 days (one marathon per day).
Exercising at a gym seems to be pretty important in our culture, but it's kind of weird to see the social dynamics when you're there. Usually, if you're running an errand, you see others doing the same thing, going about their days and focusing on what's in front of them. The same thing happens at the gym, only everyone is relatively stationary. They don't really go anywhere, except from one machine or area to another. One might think this lends itself to lots of interaction between members, especially since they're all there for the same purpose, but it isn't true. Not only do people generally avoid talking to one another, but they also avoid even looking at one another. It is as though there is no one else there, even though there are dozens on any given day. Most people follow this unwritten rule, unless something in the environment-- say, two people wanting to use the same set of weights-- gives them common ground to interact, or unless they've alr...
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