The Other Side of the Line

PC: Moe Lauchert

Jovica Spajic didn’t finish the Spine Race Challenger North. His GPS failed. It was out of his hands. But somehow, that’s when the real story began.

What Norda captured in There Is a Line at 100 Miles isn’t just about an ultra. It’s about the other side of effort—the part that lives beyond results. The waiting. The breakdowns. The quiet, freezing hours where no one is watching.

Running has a way of stripping you down. And sometimes, it’s in the missed checkpoint or the unplanned stop that you see things more clearly: what you’re really doing out there, what kind of people you’ve drawn in beside you, and whether the thing that “went wrong” actually revealed something more lasting.

This piece hits that note without trying too hard. That’s why it stayed with me.