The Release

You’d recognise it when you see it. But unless you’ve experienced it, you might not fully appreciate it.

When a runner crosses the line, drawing on reserves to sprint to a finish that felt out of reach barely an hour ago. Their face showing the turmoil of trying, and failing to hold back emotions too powerful for this moment of physical vulnerability.  

When you invest time, money, effort and family support into a challenge, which feels beyond you at the beginning. Within that is the very human capacity for hope, the hope that you are capable of an outcome you don’t know is possible when you first sign up.

Many of us don’t quite know how to process the intense feelings when you achieve the hard thing you set out to do.

For me it was finishing the 2024 Ring O Fire. Was I laughing or crying? Did a man I’d only known for three days waiting for me with a page from a book mean so much I’d almost burst into tears when I saw him? Oddly Yes.

And I’ve seen it at countless finish lines since.

Trail and Ultra events have a happy friendly aura around them, but don’t let that distract you from the personal stories of perseverance and personal growth that occur every time someone signs up for an event they’re not sure they can do.

And ultimately that’s why so many people do these events, because the feeling of achievement feels momentous, to the point where your feelings, emotions, tears, smiles can’t be held back when you cross the line and you feel, the release.