Running past midnight

When I started reading the story of Molly Sheridan, mother of three, who at the age of 50 went from not even taking walks to running some of the most extreme ultramarathons on the planet, I found it to be superficial and slightly predictable. But halfway through, my respect for Molly grew. How often do we not hear that we should not judge others by their achievements but instead see the person? However, in the case of Molly, what she has done is so remarkable that it says something deep about what kind of individual she must be. Any sensible person would quickly have found a reason to give up but Molly soldiered on through her first 100-mile race in the Sierra Nevada foothills to Death Valley where she ran the insane 135 mile Badwater ultra endurance race.

For my own ultra dreams, I have been looking for a pair of maximalist shoes with enough cushioning to absorb those 170+ km of asphalt from one end of Öland to the other. Stumbling upon a pair of Hoka Clifton 6 in size 48, I think I have found them. After a morning at home with the kids, I felt so inspired by Molly that I took the new Cliftons out for a test run, roughly repeating the river delta marathon that I did last time in March when it was so freezing cold that I could not even force my jaws into smiling for a selfie. This time around, the wind disguised how much I was sweating and, before I knew it, I ended up with heat stress and a spiking heart rate. Nevertheless, I did complete the full marathon, as per the motto of the organizers of South Devon Ultra, “never give up”.