One of the appeals that draw me to the longer races is their cultural aspect. You have more time to connect with people, with the land and its associated cultural context. You have more time to suffer, literally, thus enabling more explosive bursts of bliss and tranquility. As these races are often staged in remote areas, you get to see the world from new perspectives, and appreciate the rare opportunity that you get to do so. I believe in this value chain – perspectives create knowledge, knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding enables compassion. There would not be true compassion without a deep understanding of the issue at hand. Much of the anger and hatred that exists in the world today roots in the lack of perspectives.
The Delirious WEST 200 miler event starts in Northcliffe, an old mining town in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia. As accommodation in Northcliffe is scarce, many runners stay in Pemberton, a half hour drive away. Pemby is a quirky little township, with an excellent cafe and full of karri trees. Karries are eucalyptus variants with straight trunks and shapely branches. As a matter of fact, lots of trees I saw in Pemby have natural bonsai shapes, a reflection of the good balance between sunshine, rain and moisture in the air in the area. In Pemby, you can also find two “fire tower” trees. In the olden days, before we had technologies such as drones to monitor the imminent threat of bushfires, rangers climbed up these trees to look for signs of bushfire. The taller one is about 65m high. They put long spikes into the trunk to make them climbable for tourists like me. My grandfather used to climb towering coconut trees with nothing but bare hands and feet. I am very soft when it comes to climbing trees, and probably have not contributed much to improving the human gene pool in this regard. Apparently, these climbable trees are rare in the world; if they exist, they’re not usually open to the public, due to the involved risks of public liability.
Before Delirious, runners get to experience the Bogan Run. Those who do not venture much outside of metropolitan areas, especially those from overseas, will usually be in for a treat. It’s quirky, it’s fun, and it would serve you best if you approach the bogan run with an open mind. The Urban Dictionary has a definition of the bogan run, which is nothing like the one you will see here. If you’re going to run the 200 miler next day and also run competitively in this Bogan Run, then hats off to you. It probably will take more out of you than you think, not from the effort of running, but from drinking and doing random things that Shaun Kaesler fancies you should do.