In a World Full of People, Only Some Want to Fly
Why We Run Through the Night When Everyone Else is Sleeping
A meditation on ultrarunning, transformation, and the beautiful madness of the Austin Solstice Circuit
At 7:00 PM on a July evening in the Texas Hill Country, while most people are settling in for dinner and Netflix, a peculiar breed of human will toe the starting line at Pace Bend Park. They'll spend the next 19 hours running a 1.64-mile loop 34 times, chasing 52.7 miles under the Buck Moon.
To the uninitiated, this seems certifiably insane. To those who understand, it's flying.
The Crazy Ones
"You're doing what in July in Texas?"
If you've signed up for an ultra, you know this reaction. The raised eyebrows. The concerned head tilt. The inevitable follow-up: "But... why?"
Here's what they don't understand: In a world full of people content to stay earthbound, only some want to fly. And flying, it turns out, sometimes looks like running through the night in the hill country while the rest of Austin sleeps.
The truth is, we need the crazy ones. The ones who look at 100-degree days and think, "Yes, but it'll be cooler at night." The ones who see a 52.7-mile challenge not as suffering but as possibility. The ones who understand that transformation rarely happens in comfort zones.
The Alchemy of Night Miles
There's something alchemical about running through the night. As the sun sets over Lake Travis and the limestone bluffs fade into shadow, you enter a liminal space where ordinary rules don't apply. Time becomes elastic. The repetitive loop transforms from monotony into meditation. Your world shrinks to the cone of your headlamp and the rhythm of your breath.
This is where the magic happens.
Somewhere around mile 30, when your logical mind has long since checked out, something else takes over. Call it flow state, call it runner's high, call it temporary insanity – but in those dark hours before dawn, you discover parts of yourself that only emerge when everything else has been stripped away.
The Fellowship of the Foolish
Look around at any ultra starting line and you'll see them: entrepreneurs, college students, teachers, veterans, parents, artists, engineers. People who, by day, live normal lives. But underneath beats the heart of someone who needs to know what lies beyond the edge of comfortable.
We're united by a shared understanding that some of life's most profound experiences come disguised as terrible ideas. That growth lives on the other side of "I can't." That there's a peculiar freedom in choosing to do hard things when you don't have to.
When you're grinding out loops at 1 AM, passing the same aid station for the 2nd or 20th time, you're part of an unspoken fellowship. Every head nod from a fellow runner says: "I see you. I get it. We're both beautifully crazy."
The Transformation Contract
Here's what signing up for an ultra really means: You're entering into a contract with your future self. You're betting that the person who crosses the finish line will be fundamentally different from the one who clicked "Register."
And you'd be right.
Because somewhere in those 52.7 miles, between the setting sun and its rise over the Hill Country, you'll meet yourself. The real you. The one who keeps going when every cell screams stop. The one who finds joy in the absurd. The one who chooses flying when staying grounded would be so much easier.
Why We Do This
People ask why we run ultras like it's a problem to be solved. But the answer is simple: We run through the night because we get to. Because in a world that often feels beyond our control, we can choose our challenges. Because there's profound power in doing something that to the human mind serves no purpose except to remind you that you're capable of more than you imagined.
We run because transformation doesn't happen in conference rooms or on couches. It happens at mile 40 when you're hallucinating slightly and your pacer is force-feeding you pickle juice and you somehow find a way to keep moving forward.
We run because flying isn't about leaving the ground. It's about discovering you had wings all along.
The Invitation
So here's to the crazy ones. The ones who will line up at Pace Bend Park this July, ready to chase the Buck Moon through the Texas night. The ones who understand that "crazy" is just another word for "brave enough to try."
The question is: Are you one of them?
The Austin Solstice Circuit takes place July 12-13, 2025, at Pace Bend Park. Yes, it's hot. Yes, it's far and looped. Yes, your non-running friends will think you've lost it. Yes, you should probably sign up.
See you under the Buck Moon.