IN THE ULTRA BEGINNING . . .

WATCHING ULTRA-ATHLETES in action, one can’t help but wonder how they endure the pain and loneliness of competition and training, even finding joy in brutal exertion. Bruce Ogilvie, a leader in sports psychology research and professor emeritus in the San Jose State University psychology department, says these athletes have in common psychological characteristics that drive them to succeed over the very long haul.

“What you find in these people--at least my research on them--is very, very high psychological persistence,” Ogilvie says. “They seem to come packaged more able to sustain both psychological and physical effort over time.” This “package” includes extremely high personal aspirations and a deeply felt drive to achieve their goals, says Ogilvie. At the same time, you won’t find many ultra-athletes bragging about their plans for victory. They are introverted, reserved and extremely self-reflective, meaning they think a lot about their athletic goals and performance but don’t talk about them that much. “They monitor themselves and do their own evaluating,” says Ogilvie. “These athletes set extraordinary goals for themselves, and they like to have their egos stroked with these achievements. They don’t necessarily talk about it (before the event), but they get tremendous satisfaction with the actual end result.”

How do they withstand the pain of burning lungs and muscles for hours on end? Even the most cherished goal must lose its value when you’re vomiting salt water in the middle of an English Channel swim, or when your legs collapse five miles before the finish of the Ironman. Ogilvie says most endurance athletes have extremely high tolerance of pain. When they do hurt, they interpret the pain as the body’s way of telling them it’s time to work harder. “It becomes a positive motivational force--a call to reach deeper,” he explains.

Since the turn of the century and before, ultra-athletes have captured the imaginations of the average human--those of us who interpret pain as the body’s way of telling us to stop. In recent years, such events as the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon and the Race Across America have expanded this interest. Ultra-athletes challenge us to examine our own physical and psychological persistence and inspire us with the strength of their spirit. Some ultra-endurance athletes of the past who performed remarkable feats:

THE GRANDADDY of them all, the legendary Athenian courier Pheidippides inspired the creation of the grueling race known as the marathon. In 490 BC the Persians invaded Greece and a bloody battle ensued on the plain of Marathon. The greatly outnumbered Athenians won. Pheidippides, a professional runner, raced the 22 miles back to Athens and announced: “Rejoice, we have won.” Then he dropped dead. Historians disagree about whether Pheidippides ever actually made such a run, but the story has survived. When plans were made for the first modern Olympics, held in Athens in 1896, organizers included a footrace from Marathon to the stadium, creating a historic link between the heroic runner from ancient Greece and modern endurance athletes.

NEXT TIME you drive to the corner for a quart of milk, think of quiet, determined Edward Payson Weston, born in Providence, R.I., on March 15, 1839. For many years he was the world’s most famous professional “pedestrian.” Weston covered thousands of miles between 1861--when he walked from Boston to Washington to witness President Lincoln’s inauguration (bad weather caused him to miss it by a day)--and 1929, when he died at age 90. In 1867 he walked from Portland, Me., to Chicago in 26 days. In towns along the way, brass bands played and policemen held back cheering crowds. He was the man who made six-day walks a mania for spectators in the late 1870s. In these events, Weston would walk around a track, alone or competing with other “peds.” In six days, he would cover hundreds of miles and win thousands of dollars. On his 70th birthday in 1909 he set out on a walk from New York City to San Francisco. He arrived in 105 days. A year later, he walked back to New York. His last great stroll was in 1913, when he walked 1,500 miles from New York City to Minneapolis.

IN 1910, AT AGE 19, Alf Goullet came to the United States from Australia to be a professional bike racer. By 1914 he had established six world records; that year he earned $11,500. In his book “Hearts of Lions: The History of American Bicycle Racing,” Peter Nye reports that Goullet’s most incredible achievement took place at a six-day track event in Madison Square Garden in 1914. He and fellow Australian Alfred Grenda covered 2,759 miles and one lap, a world distance record that still stands. After the race, Damon Runyon dubbed Goullet “the Babe Ruth of six-day bike racing.” Last month, healthy and energetic at 97, Goullet attended a ceremony in Somerville, N.J., where he was inducted into the newly created U.S. Cycling Hall of Fame.

NICKNAMED the “Flying Finn,” Paavo Nurmi was a remarkable runner from a country that specializes in Olympic distance-running dynasties. In the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games, Nurmi won nine gold and three silver medals. Born to a poor family in Turku, Finland, in 1897, he began his running career when he joined an athletic club as a boy and raced in local events. At 19, he became famous in his country by winning the Annual Finnish Army March, a 15-kilometer event (9.3 miles), in 59 minutes, a remarkable time considering that he ran in full uniform, carrying a rifle and wearing a 55-pound pack. By 1923, Nurmi had set seven world records. His most incredible Olympic “double” came at the 1924 Olympics, where he won the 1,500 meters and, 45 minutes later, was back on the track winning the 5,000-meter event. His final Olympic appearance was in Helsinki in 1952, when he carried the torch in the opening ceremonies.

BORN IN Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1927, Greta Andersen made her first mark on the swimming world by winning the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. She moved to Southern California in 1953, taking a job as a swim instructor in Glendale. Her professional long-distance swimming career began in 1956 when she was the first woman to complete a 10.5-mile race in the Salton Sea. The next year she became front-page news when she won a 21-mile race across the English Channel, the first time a woman had ever beaten the male competitors in this test of endurance. She repeated this feat in 1958. Her most incredible achievement came in 1962, when she swam 31 hours straight to win a 50-mile race in Lake Michigan, at that time a record distance for both sexes.