I recently read an interesting book that I want to share. It’s Jared Beasley’s The Endurance Artist: Lazarus Lake, the Barkley & a Race with No End (2025).
I picked it up for more of the stories that go around social media every year about what the runners in the Barkley Marathons go through—that grody/entertaining mix of foot maceration, injuries, and general sufferfest out in rough weather and rougher terrain. And the book definitely has plenty of that.
However, the book develops a really interesting theme that has stayed in my mind. It’s basically this: the best endurance athletes are not necessarily the ones you’d identify upfront as the strongest physical athletes (youngest, physically fittest by various metrics, etc.), but rather the ones with the strongest will to find their edge, wherever that may be. These can be raggedy older folks with terrible form who simply . . . do not stop. Or: if you ignore your mind when it tells you to quit, your body can do a lot more than you think. The people who excel in these events can set aside the suffering or even regard it as a gift, because it allows them to explore how far they can really go if they simply go until their body falls out from under them. I ended up being quite moved by the athletes’ stories.
I think the way I might frame it for myself on the bike is: no voluntary stopping (pooped, want a breather), only involuntary stopping (legs stop working).
Wondering whether anyone has read this book/similar works and tried applying this philosophy! Anyway, it’s a fun read, especially while you are cozy in bed and not exerting yourself.