At the time, North Face sponsored an endurance athlete named Dean Karnazes, whose unbelievable feats in marathons and ultramarathons were setting a new bar. I had been a distance runner in high school but not at these crazy levels. So I really wanted to get into what makes an ultra marathoner tick. At some point it occurred to me that it might be fun to do long copy for long copy’s sake and have that be part of the concept.