Biel, holder of The Speed Project solo records and a UTMB OCC participant, explains how running became a compulsive release that drives his pursuit of ultra-distance events.
Biel is mysterious but not veiled.
One day he walked up to a mirror and tattooed a cat on his right cheek. Then, in his words, he “compulsively” kept going until his face was full.
He says it was a release. A way to stop caring what other people thought.
Once he found relief, he kept going back to it.
This is a metaphor for running.
“I need something like this to keep me alive.”
We all understand that metaphorically. With Biel, you wonder how literal it is.
He holds The Speed Project’s solo records from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Chamonix to Marseille. Atacama is next.
Biel is a mismatch. You see him and expect one person. Then you talk to him and find someone completely different.
We caught up in the HOKA lounge at UTMB just meters away from the finish line of that day’s race [OCC] to chat not about why keeps going but why he can’t stop.
