ollieacompulsiveovereater

I am having difficulty sleeping as these long events (24 hour, 100 mile) play havoc with my sleep patterns for a few days.

Nevertheless, I am glad that I did the race.

I drove back from Minneapolis on Monday and made it in time for a 5:30 meeting. The contrast between the members of a compulsive overeaters meeting and the group of ultra runners/walkers that I had just been with was very stark, at least in physical terms.

It is no secret that the better ultra athletes are slender, and those who finish 100 miles are almost always skinny. I am usually one of the heavier ones (at least in the three times I finished 100 miles). The body types at a support group for overeaters are 180 degrees opposite on the body fat scale.

As far as who shows up and sticks with it long term: typically, the "success" stories are those who were, at one time, somewhere between moderately and morbidly obese who have lost, say, 1/2 to 2/3'rd of their excess weight and have kept it off (say, a former 300 pound woman who now is between 180 and 190 pounds and has stayed that way for a couple of years). Statistically speaking, these types have done themselves a great favor, as the health risks from obesity skyrocket as one passes from being moderately to morbidly obese.

Nevertheless, that isn't all of what I want out of the program. But if I don't go to these meetings, my days of doing ultras will be long gone.
These meetings keep the old tapes "hey, you walked X miles therefore you deserve to eat W, Y and Z" silent.