"Running and Love"; Geoff Roes and Western States

Goeff Roes is running Western States again this weekend.  Again, he's one of the favorites to win.

If you want to understand where he's coming from, read this, one of the great running essays of all time:

"...At the end of the day I very much still ackowledge that it takes a serious amount of 'training' to run Wasatch in 18.5 hours or Crow Pass in under 3 hours, but it's been a shocking, and very comforting revelation to realize that, with being more willing to accept the help of others that this "training" can be so much more fun than I ever imagined. And that by having fun doing it, and coming to love the process of it more than ever, and coming to love myself and the people around me more than ever, that I am now faster than ever. I also think it's worth noting that my shockingly fast times in Crow Pass and Wasatch both included other runners (Eric Strabel and Karl Meltzer respectively) pushing me with record shattering performances of their own. In the same way that I have learned to open up my 'training' to being influenced by other people in my life, I think it's only fitting that it was with the 'aid' of other racers that I was able to run as fast as I did in these races."

Read the whole thing.