The sport of ultrarunning is certainly tough enough, with athletes running an incomprehensible number of miles, totals that defy logic and the body at the same time. However, it has grown in popularity in recent years, and the sport's most dedicated athletes always seek to push the athletic envelope to places most would not, or could not, even imagine.

The Grand Canyon, one of the seven natural wonders of the Untied States according to the Travel Channel, and an easily recognizable place for anyone who is old enough to have completed the third grade, plays host to millions of visitors each year. Vacationers with handheld cameras, artists with paint and canvas, and campers with headlamps and Coleman stoves flock to this mesmerizing place conspicuously nestled in northwest Arizona to seek adventure and inspiration; however, they are not the only ones.

Normally starting out in the early morning hours, somewhere around 1 a.m., small groups of highly trained and motivated runners dispel the warnings posted on trailheads and begin the rim-to-rim-to-rim run. Equipped with flashlights and handheld water bottles, these runners begin the 47-mile trek along the Bright Angel Trail dressed in shorts and long sleeved tops, their breath smoking in the thirty-degree temperatures. Soon they will shed the sleeves in favor of a smaller top to manage the seventy and eighty degree heat that is the high noon sun, and they will traverse rocked paths and cut trails that dip and dive to an approximate elevation change of 11,000 feet.

The course, which should take an accomplished runner around 14 or 15 hours, will not only encounter varying temperatures, but will also navigate its way through weather extremes, with clouds and storms circulating throughout the canyon. After crossing the Colorado River and edging the Roaring Spring, runners will begin to realize that this task is not one of mere distance and endurance; instead, it is a mental challenge that, if finished, can change a person for life. Surrounded by sheer, breathtaking beauty, each runner has deep time to reflect on the experience within the moment itself, and, in the process, come to understand more of who they are. The journey is both a physical and spiritual one, and then end is truly a beginning.