I Needed a Big, Silly Adventure

I Needed a Big, Silly Running Adventure:

Why I Signed up for Vol State 500K

“I need a big silly adventure!” I thought to myself recently, as I looked at an empty race calendar, and a yearning for something bigger. After chasing two one-hundred-mile buckles unsuccessfully, I needed something bigger. Sometimes you need something that doesn’t make sense on paper, something that doesn’t fit neatly into a training plan, a life plan, or any kind of logic at all.

For me, that “something” was the Vol State 500K, a 314-mile run across Tennessee, in July, with no aid stations, little to no fanfare, and no reason other than my curiosity and stubborn joy. I took a big chance throwing my name into the hat of the Vol State lottery, thinking I surely wouldn’t get into the event. So, on a fateful day in August, I thought to myself, “What do I have to lose?” so I pressed the register button on UltraSignup and went on about my day. 

Redefining My Relationship With Running

I didn’t sign up for Vol State to prove anything to anyone. I’m not chasing a time, a buckle, or even a sense of redemption. I just need a big, silly adventure. Something that reminds me of what it feels like to be fully alive, blistered, sunburned, sleep-deprived, and completely immersed in the strange beauty of moving across a state under my own power. This isn’t my first time traversing across a state or doing a multiday style event. That being said, it is way out of my wheel house in distance. And frankly, it is a distance scares the shit out of me and that’s precisely why when I saw my name in the lottery. I had no choice but to accept the invitation and do the thing that scares me the most bet on myself. 

Getting into Vol State has given me a new zest for my relationship with running. The paradigm shift has taken me away from data, splits, time on feet, or any other exhausting data set I’ve paid attention to in past efforts. To me, the data lies in the adventure and what I am learning about myself in this training block that focuses solely on having the adventure of my life and being present in the process for a change.

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What Makes Vol State Beautifully Absurd

Vol State is an absurd concept in the best possible way. It’s running along back roads while the heat index climbs past 100°F. Gas stations will turn into oases. Strangers, also known as road angels, will be offering water and kindness from their front porches. It’s that moment when your sense of time dissolves and your world shrinks to the next mile marker, the next patch of shade, the next reason to keep going.

To me, Vol State isn’t about conquering 500 kilometers. It’s about surrendering to the miles. It’s about accepting that discomfort won’t be the enemy; it’s the teacher. Every mile is a memory, every step a new benchmark, where every blister will become a breadcrumb on the trail back to yourself. 

The Freedom in Doing Something Silly

Because in a world obsessed with metrics and meaning, sometimes the best thing you can do is chase something delightfully irrational. Make it something big and silly enough to remind you that adventure, at its core, is supposed to make you feel something. That something is going to be raw and pure.

Yours from the trail, Joe

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