4 time winner of the RAAM (Race Across AMerica) -- 3,000+ miles from Pacific to Atlantic, 100,000+ feet of vertical climb, in less than 8 days of nearly continuous cycling.
Stats from a recent race:
Miles cycled: 2,530
Elapsed time: 7 days, 19 hours, 20 minutes
Total sleep: 9 hours
Calories consumed: 100,000
In all decisions, Stanovnik governs [Robic] according to a rule of thumb that he has developed over the years: at the dark moment when Robic feels utterly exhausted, when he is so empty and sleep-deprived that he feels as if he might literally die on the bike, he actually has 50 percent more energy to give.
Some people ‘‘have the ability to reprocess the pain signal,’’ says Daniel Galper, a senior researcher in the psychiatry department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. ‘‘It’s not that they don’t feel the pain; they just shift their brain dynamics and alter their perception of reality so the pain matters less. It’s basically a purposeful hallucination.’’
Ultramarathoners, defined as those who participate in running events exceeding the official marathon distance of 26.2 miles, now number some 15,000 in the United States alone. The underlying physics have not changed, but rather our sense of possibility.
‘‘I am older now, but I have the feeling that I am stronger than ever before. Now I am reaching where there is nothing that is too hard for my body because my mind is hard. Nothing!’’
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