Having been part of the Ironman community for a while now, I can say endurance folks are definitely different than your average person. Often very humble, they like meaningful, big, challenging goals that redefine “normal.”
Do they get a kick out of overcoming suffering,.doing something really difficult or what drives them? In the end they don't achieve anything useful. I can relate to it somehow. When I did kickboxing I sometimes wondered why I let myself get beat up for no money, fame or any other reward. Never really understood my motivation other than that I had it.
Is it really that weird? We are all going to die eventually someday. If you want to risk your life doing something you love I think that’s your call, as long as you don’t risk hurting other people in the process.
I mean, what do you think you keep after you die anyway? Does it really matter in the end if you sat at a desk for 40 years and then died quietly in your bed as opposed to falling off a mountain at 40something?
I have avoided having people depend on me all my life, because I felt I wasn’t up to it. It turns out I’m not, due to my health. But it is a way that some people give meaning to their lives.
That’s the decision that’s leading to declining birthrate in western nations, isn’t it? Why give up your freedom and increase your stress by creating obligation by having children?
Everyone I know has different reasons. Some are more altruistic than others. Sometimes it’s done in honor of others who cannot do it, eg disabled, fallen vets, etc. Sometimes just because people want to be more than a desk jockey.
On the (unfortunately) few, rare occasions I've actually pushed myself to my limits (physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise), I've felt more of a sense of accomplishment and a drive to push further, in any of those domains, not just the one I pushed in, than I've ever had before. I certainly wouldn't claim to have anything figured out in the realm except on a personal level, but for me, every time I achieve something that seemed unachievable it's like it unlocks something in every other part of my life.
I think the interesting part is that any extreme scenario requires very specific and likely innovative solutions — its a difficult optimization problem that any engineer would recognize as strangely santisfying. Actually executing the task with your own life at risk is outside of the standard engineering experience, but to have both must make success outstandingly satisfying
well you go up and down some mountains, see strange ice formations that don't exist anywhere at all, get to tweet out sappy tweets every evening, go where no/few men/women have gone before and all.
You make it sound like a nice stroll in the park, not something that exhausts you to and beyond and your limit and tries to.kill and harm you every day.
It's interesting to explore, it's interesting to endure, it's interesting to experience new physical, mental, and emotional states of being conferred by these unique circumstances.
