We look like everyday people, couldn't pick us apart from anyone else in the grocery line. But we're not normal. There's no clear way to rationalize to everyday people why we put ourselves through the 10-12 hour thrashing that is an NUE ultra endurance mountain bike race. During the event, you feel the cramps, the pain of the chafed skin bumping against the seat navigating the mini-tombstone rocks, the faint nausea from the imperfect nutrition setup, and the occasional verbal outburst of 'f*** this trail.' Yet, we don't seem to have good recall of degree of pain. We just remember, 'yeah that was painful.' But without lasting scars or a severed limb, there's nothing holding us accountable for our previous misjudgments. And so pain is yet just another adjective used to describe a trip to the dentist or a stubbed toe. Often people ask, 'which is harder' between Wilderness 101, Shenandoah 100, and Leadville 100. It's so difficult to answer, a...