October 28, 2008 12:03 AM

Is it harder to run? Or harder to quit?

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for running two marathons in two weeks, but then I checked on Marshall Ulrich and his Running America 08 quest. Ulrich has been running the equivalent of two-plus marathons a day, and doing it day after day after day.

He was nearing the eastern edge of Ohio on Monday, and if he manages to keep his 60-miles-per-day pace going, he will reach the Atlantic Coast in New York and the end of his 3,100-mile cross-country run by Sunday or Monday. He started on the Pacific Coast in San Francisco on Sept. 13.

In one sense, this incredible run by the Colorado resident suggests that when he reaches the limits of human endurance, a determined person can push on through. It's perhaps the biggest reason we run - that sense of getting out there through pain, inertia and other obstacles to reach a goal.

But I have to remember that Running America 08 started out as a two-man run. The other runner - Charlie Engle - was forced to quit running because of injury as the duo was passing through Utah. Engle has managed to continue the trek on a bicycle, however.

So while Running America 08 does speak to pushing the envelope of possibilities, it also holds lessons in listening to our bodies and recognizing that there is a breaking point and a time to quit.

That's a hard realization to come to, and Engle speaks to that in his Oct. 20 blog on the Running America Web site: "After I stopped running, I spent two days trying desperately to will my body to heal itself. It became apparent that it was not meant to be for me and I made a decision to get on a bike and ride to New York." Engle has run across the Sahara Desert. He's not a man who quits, and he has much more to say in his blog about why this decision was so tough. It's well worth the read.

Ulrich, too, has had to deal with some injuries as the run across America has unfolded, but has managed to keep going. And I wonder who faced the greater challenge: Ulrich in continuing to run or Engle in realizing he would have to stop.

I thought about all this as I limped around on swollen feet for several days after the Denver Marathon. I had expected the sore quads and the difficulty descending stairs for two or three days, and I can deal with that. But the feet are a troubling portend of my own running mortality.

I'd been warned, of course: The doctor who performed surgery last December on my right foot strongly recommended I give up running. So far I have stubbornly refused, figuring I could deal with some pain in that foot. But after the marathon, both feet hurt and the left one - the good one -- actually hurt worse.

So now as I look at my medals from the St. George and Denver marathons, I'm forced to wonder if I'm risking permanent injury by continuing to run. It's a tough call, especially since the swelling is gone now, the feet feel pretty much OK again and I already find myself marking the dates for runs I'd like to do in a 2009 calendar.

Posted by Bob Findlay at 12:03 AM | Comments (2)