Why the fuck am I doing this?

Or, I suppose another way to ask that is why the fuck would any blackbird (not just this one) in his right mind put himself through seven days of running/walking 250 kilometers through one of the harshest environments on the planet?

A few reasons come to mind, but the TL;DR is that if blackbirds are indestructible, I want to find out just how indestructible they are. Read on if you want details.

1. I don't think it's impossible. Yes, it's batshit crazy, and I've watched the Netflix documentary Desert Runners enough times to know that this thing is no joke, but I don't think it's impossible.

2. Throughout my life I've struggled to find something that I could legitimately be proud of. John Nash was in search of a truly original idea. I'm just looking for something that I can look back on and say, "Holy shit, I actually did that," and feel a genuine sense of accomplishmnent. Don't get me wrong, I'm not shitting on my life so far by any means, and I've done plenty of things that others have found praiseworthy, but I've never found much satisfaction in receiving accolades from others for accomplishing things that, at least for me, just weren't that difficult.
   They say that familiarity breeds contempt; I'd say that ubiquity breeds nonchalance. And yes, now I probably sound like a pompous, ungrateful shitbag. Sorry. The point is that me just being me and doing the same thing that I always do is like the rising of the sun. It just happens. You can be impressed if you want to be, but it's going to happen again tomorrow regardless of what you or I think about it. I want to do something different. Which brings me to the next point....

3. Participating in this event is so far outside my comfort zone that it is legitimately three levels up and one universe over. I don't expect this to be fun. I expect it to be the most difficult challenge I've ever attempted. I am not an endurance runner. I am not even really much of a runner at all right now. I did Couch-to-5K when I lived in AZ and worked my way up to being able to run for about 90 minutes straight, but a) that was a few years ago, and b) there's a big difference between 90 minutes and 7 days.

4. Finally, there's the mindfuck aspect of it all. I really want to know what kinds of things I will think about when I'm out in the middle of nowhere with miles to go before I sleep. Will I come to any great epiphanies about life, the universe, and everything, or will I just try to go into zombie mode and put one foot in front of the other?

I have no idea whether or not I will be successful in this endeavour. So many things could go right, or wrong, or in a completely unexpected direction, and it kinda scares the shit out of me when I really stop to think about it. I also think it could turn out to be unspeakably amazing. And so, we run.