She didn’t just compete in these races, she often won them. First
place in the Alferd Packer 80 km run; first place in the Bear 160
km run; first place in the Tahoe Rim 160 km run; first place in the
24 hour Frisco trial run; first place in the Dances with Dirt 80 km
run; her accomplishments go on and on.
successful. She won many races.
The effects of the surgery weren’t all good, however. When they
took out that golf-ball-part of her brain, she lost some things. For
example, her memory was damaged.
She sometimes has trouble remembering important events in her
life. Sometimes she can’t remember meeting people. Her
awareness of time was also damaged.
damaged.
This often causes her to be late. She might be talking to
someone in an airport, not realize how long she’s been talking,
and end up missing her plane. Strangely this isn’t always bad. As
an ultra-runner, it helps her focus.
It helped her focus.
Diane was always an athlete, so she always had good focus, but
now it was even better.
The hardest race Diane has competed in is the Yukon Arctic
Ultra. Many people think this is the world’s coldest and most
difficult race.
coldest and most difficult race.
In this race, Diane pulled a 50-pound sled of supplies for 692 km.
She did this in temperatures that fell to -50 degrees. This took her
10 days with only one hour of sleep a night.
for 10 days.
During this race, many of the other runners were probably
thinking about time. How many days have they been running?
How many hours have they been running? When will it end? Not
Diane. Diane always runs in the present.
present.
One, two, three, four, in, in, out, out. She is breath. She is the
rhythm of her shoes hitting the ground. She is free from worry
and thought. She is free from the past and the future and even
her sense of self. She is in the moment and at her best. She is ‘in
the zone’.
Being ‘in the zone’ or in ‘flow’ is a mysterious state. Many
successful people often have this experience of calm focus,
quieting the thinking mind, losing awareness of time and
performing at one’s best. Some people experience this in sports
or at work.
experience flow in sports or at work.
Diane’s similar experience shows that being ‘in the zone’ is a
brain state. While we all can’t be professional athletes ‘in the
zone’, some people think these high performance states can be
trained in regular people. Read more about it by searching online
for the psychologist, Csikszentmihalyi and his idea of ‘flow’. Or
search for the similar Eastern idea called ‘mindfulness’.
to ‘flow’.
