Run, Jason, Run

In fact, “run” doesn’t quite cover it.

Before he’s done, Jason will run up and down thirteen major mountain passes, each at least 12,000 feet high. He will run through snow packs, river crossings, and scramble up steep paths over a million treacherous little rocks. He’ll switch on his headlamp tonight and run through the night, keeping an eye out for steep cliffs and treacherous ice. He’ll summit Handies Peak – at 14,048 feet, the highest point on the course – and carefully make his way down, still running. He must run in a giant circle, 100 miles long, through the most beautiful and terrifyingly difficult terrain you could possibly imagine.

He has to run all this in just 48 hours. By Sunday, at 6 am, if he can do it, he will “kiss the Hardrock” and join an elite few athletes who have pushed their bodies and minds to do one of the hardest things imaginable. This is the ultramarathon of ultramarathons, the race of races.

He is strong enough. He is fast enough. He has trained enough. He’s run many of these races, once a year since 2009, but this one is so hard that just qualifying for this race alone took him 4 impatient years, during which he still ran his “usual” 100 mile races. This is his Everest, except climbing Everest might be simpler. But is his mind ready? Can he control his emotions during the easier parts? Can he face the worst parts, believing, no matter what, that he is going to finish? That’s what it’s going to take.

Last year, we asked him how he does it. His answer was typical Jason:

“It is a culmination of a ton of really easy things – one foot in front of the other – that ends up being something special.”

One foot in front of the other… over thirteen mountain passes and 100 miles of terrifying terrain. Sure. Sounds easy. But that’s Jason – a perfect demonstration of a thing we like to say: How you do one thing is how you do all things. 

You can join us in cheering him on – just post on Facebook or Twitter using hashtag #jasonrunsfarther – and you can track his progress  here.

Here’s Jason, one last time, on what will be the toughest part of the next 48 hours:

“The moment. There is a moment in every race that you feel like you can’t do it anymore and there is no way you are going to finish. If you can get through that, you get to the moment. The moment can be defined by the instant you realize you were put to the test and you answered the call and you are going to do it – it’s not at the finish, it is during the race and you make the shift. That moment is what scares me the most – what if I can’t answer the call? What if I am not the man I think I am? That is why I race.”

Run, Jason, run. Your team is behind you.