To celebrate his 40th birthday, Chilean ultramarathoner MatÃas Anguita ran 40 marathons in 40 days. What compels a person to never stop going?
Five times over, Anguita has completed the Atacama Crossing, a self-supported, seven-day ultramarathon, which is part of the 4 Deserts Race Series, a circuit that includes races across the Gobi, the Sahara, and Antarctica. Nobody before Anguita has run the length of Chile in consecutive days. No runner before him has crossed the Atacama Desert so many times.
A shot for the ages. A collapse for the ages. One year later, the Heat and Spurs are back in the NBA Finals to do it all again.
I watched Ray Allen play for my favorite team for five years. He goes to the same spots and does the same things the same ways — not just for weeks, or months, but for years and years and years. He’s the closest thing we have to an NBA robot. He treats 3-pointers like tennis players treat their serves, golfers treat their swings and pitchers treat their delivery — quick jump, quick release, perfect form, line drive, bang. Every shot looks the same. Watch Ray long enough and you instinctively realize when he’s heating up, when he’s shooting from a spot he likes, and when he’s thrust into a situation that — even if it seems chaotic — happens to be perfect for Ray Allen and Ray Allen only.
With seven seconds left in Game 6, suddenly, we were in one of those situations. And I knew just from watching him backpedal those first two steps.
