Zach Runs Chicago

Last month I tested out a new running app called Motigo. It’s an app that, as the website says, is “the best way for runners and their biggest fans to make race day special.” That might be a bit of a stretch but it is certainly an interesting concept. What Motigo does is let runners receive cheers from their friends and family during a race - it runs in the background of whatever app you're already using (whether it's just to play music or to do some kind of fitness tracking). I know this sounds a bit unnecessary – I thought of Voxer and Snapchat, or just plain old calling someone, but those all require interaction with the phone when you want to be focusing on running – but passively receiving cheers from familiar voices through your headphones while running is an experience I hadn’t considered.

So I gave it a try at the Oktoberfest 5K.

Approaching the starting line with my plan to beta test this app, I realized something about myself with minutes to go before the race start…

"Welcome to the dark side of the running world!" my uncle Jay says to me Monday morning. He's only partly joking... if that much. Because this weekend I did indulge in what to many (including those involved) would be considered the "dark side of the running world." Running a race with my uncle in the Ouachita National Forest sounds innocuous enough. But when you add in the additional fact that the race covered 100.3 miles and lasted almost 30 hours, it certainly starts to sound a lot crazier. And though I only personally covered 48 of those 100.3 miles as my uncle's pacer, I can say with relative certainty, that it is as crazy as it sounds.

Founded in 1991, the Arkansas Traveller 100 was one of the earlier 100-mile races to come into existence. Winding through the mountain trails of the Ouachita National Forest, it's both a beautiful tour of the countryside and a torturous trip to the edge of human endurance. It's also populated with some of the ni…