He Keeps Running to Process His Painful Past

AS HE APPROACHED the 25th hour of the race, Kamran Talattof tried not to think about it.

-  THEO KAHLER

The remaining miles of frozen Indiana trails didn't bother him. He welcomed the pain ahead. He wished the race demanded all of his attention. But Talattof couldn't keep the intrusive thoughts from creeping into his head the harrowing memories of his home country of Iran that had haunted him for so long.

For years, desert heat, sandy singletrack, and high altitude had partially distracted Talattof during the grueling ultramarathons he'd grown to love. The conditions helped him temporarily forget about the trauma of his twenties, when he was an aspiring professor who became trapped in Iran. But the flashbacks always returned. They had once again invaded his headspace during the 2013 Indiana Trail 100 Mile Run.

RUNNER'S WORLD+ MEMBER

KAMRAN TALATTOF

AGE 67 FROM TUCSON, ARIZONA

WHY I RUN BECAUSE RUNNING IS MY LIFESTYLE.

In the distance, Talattof spotted three lights in the dark. Suddenly, he was transported back to the streets of Tehran. The lights reminded him of an anti-aircraft mechanism that used to light up the Iranian sky. His heart began to pound as he neared them on the trail. But soon, the three lights turned into one, and the sinister machine transformed into another runner's headlamp. Talattof took a deep breath.

As he traversed the cold Indiana night, running was Talattof's escape. But no matter how fast he moved his feet, it was also his captor.

Keep up the fight / Talattof grew up in Iran but left the Middle Eastern country for the U.S. to attend graduate school in the 1970s. After receiving his master's degree in education from Texas A&M University-Kingsville, he returned to his home country to visit family in 1979. But political turmoil was brewing. Iran's pro-Western government-led by its monarch, the Shah-collapsed on February 11, 1979, ushering in a restrictive theocratic regime.