Earned Invincibility

If you listen to podcasts about endurance sports, you'll hear a common theme come up among the hikers, cyclists and runners whose idea of fun is covering long distances under their own power. Many of them are recovering addicts and alcoholics. They often say "I traded one addiction for another." That's me. After a struggle with drinking that stretched back to my teens, I got sober and stayed that way in 2008 at age 43. It took nine months for me to drop 100 pounds. The following year and the year after I rode my bicycle over 10K miles each year. Then I switched to long-distance hiking, completing the Appalachian Trail, a distance of 2189 miles in under six months. The vocabulary of people like me includes the phrase "type 2 fun". This is any activity that leaves one miserable during the event, but is rewarding and fun to remember later. The transition between the misery of doing the thing and the rewarding feeling you get for having done it, is the most peaceful place in the world.…