BOSS, the ultimate cross-training, part 1

I finally heard Jessie shouting out to me that I've gone past the entrance to BOSS, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (“the oldest and largest traditional living skills / survival school in the world”). So zoned out was I towards the end of that almost nine-mile walk back to BOSS, under an early June starry night sky, from where we and the other 10 students had thought—hoped?--was the last stop of our 7-day Field Course, in a clearing next to an aspen grove by the side of SR-12 (aka Scenic Byway 12), in Garfield County, Utah.

The Field Course (which is also offered in 14- and 28-day versions) is, as described in the BOSS web site (http://www.boss-inc.com/), “Ultra-light travel through Southern Utah's mountains, mesas and canyons with little more than a blanket, poncho, and a knife. No tents, sleeping bags, stoves, or backpacks, and definitely no watches, radios, or cellphones.” The goal is “to learn to 'live in the now' … and the skills of Ancestral Puebloan cultures.”

The only running in the course was that for the Cooper test, conducted as part of the first-day orientation. Though I was tempted to run those final nine miles back to BOSS, I was in hiking shoes, and I was really, really fatigued, at the end of that last full day (Day 6) of the course. I got up early the next morning (Saturday), under a pavilion next to the fire pit around which we all had gathered in fellowship the previous night after the “walk” and then had slept in drained bliss. I went out and ran; but it was only a half mile test run, in my hiking shoes, between BOSS and “downtown” Boulder (pop. ~200).

So, why am I writing about an outdoor survival course in a running blog?

Because experiencing a BOSS course was very similar to running a marathon. From that first, "Impact" phase of the course, starting some time after sundown the first night, on some road where we're dropped off, to that last uphill segment, which began from where the group of us 12 students had taken a rest-water stop just north of East Deer Creek and ended at that aspen grove by the side of SR-12, similarities abound. Indeed, the final 100 meters or so felt remarkably like the end of a marathon, with a quickening of my pace to the "finish line."

Here's a view of that clearing next to the aspen grove, from SR-12 (Google Street View).

The similarities are physical, mental, and spiritual. And, for both a BOSS course and a marathon, one goes through those three levels in that order.

But, even before starting off on a BOSS course or crossing the starting line of a marathon, there is something else that's similar: both are minimalist in their core. "Know more, carry less" is one of BOSS' core philosophies. Here are all the required back-country stuff for the 7-day course, including everything I was wearing. The same with food: basic, only what's needed.

Though controversy swirls around minimalist running and shoes, it should be uncontroversial to say no sport or activity is as naturally minimalist as running, in terms of what are absolutely needed to engage in it. In Dressing for running, from cold to warm, I'd noted that, once temperature gets above 100°F, my running gear changes to what are shown in the following photo. (jk--but, only in part!) And, even those items are not absolutely necessary. The Cretan runner or the Tarahumara runner shows how minimal is the need for running gear and food.

In part 2 of this post, I'll provide some examples of the physical similarities between a BOSS course and a marathon, or why BOSS is the ultimate cross-training!