Blaikie

'Waaaaaaah,waaaaaa-aaaaaah Butler, oh my Gawd, I'll get you Butler, Waaaaaaah, waaaaaa-aaaaaah!'  But no, not that one.  That was Blakey from On The Buses, with Reg 'I've Never Been Remotely Funny In My Life' Varney. 

No, not Blakey, Blaikie.  David Blaikie.  Who he?

David Blaikie is a little-known Canadian who promoted ultra-running for a good few years up to around 2001.  The reason his name still crops up occasionally on runners' forums is because he came up with a wonderful quote about ultrarunning.  I think what he said applies to distance running and training generally and, the first time I read this, I had that 'Oh Yesssss!' surge of recognition you get when someone encapsulates in words exactly what you feel.  I also like it because it appeals to the hippy in me, which is never a bad thing.

Here it is:

'Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility.  It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot.  There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers.  But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense.  The ultrarunners know this instinctively.  And they know something else that is lost on the sedentary.  They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort.  In running such long and taxing distances, they answer a call from the deepest realms of their being; a call that asks who they are.'

Beautiful!