Divine Madness Running Club is a spiritual community which promotes training for and running

ultramarathon An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of . The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running. Various distances, surfaces, and formats are raced competitively, from the ...

s as a means for personal growth. The “club”/cult was founded by Marc Tizer in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in the 1990s, but now operates primarily from a ranch in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. Tizer, also known as Yousamien or Yo, is described as the organization's

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and also as its

guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

, and former members of the club have further called him a "manipulative, alcoholic, sex-addicted despot". Tizer's training methods include

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...

, food withholding, and forcing club members to consume alcohol and have sex with him and with one another.

Background

While running has become a casual exercise for fitness and

weight reduction Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat (adipose tissue), or lean mass (namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other conn ...

for many, Divine Madness pushes the outer edge of the sport's envelope, specializing in

ultra marathon An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of . The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running. Various distances, surfaces, and formats are raced competitively, from the s ...

s ranging from 50 to 100 miles. The running club is based in

. The mainstream runners in the area are said to appreciate the discipline and the achievements of the club. Some mainstream runners have likened the club to a

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

, due to the club often being more than just a running club. The leader of the club is Yo Tizer, who is often referred to as a teacher rather than a leader. He was quoting saying he preferred the club to be referred to as a “school” or a “community.” For his own runners, he will often test their adaptability by tacking on extra miles in the middle of a training run; group members are urged to finish each run, working through any pain barriers. The top Divine Madness runners live in a rental house in Boulder. Other members of the group, whose ages range from 24 to 59, also live in communal clusters of five or six people. Not everyone agrees with the methods employed. In a civil lawsuit filed in late 1996, Georgiana Scott, John Hunt and Melissa Huntress claim that rather than liberating members of the group, Tizer controlled them through

fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...

, isolation from friends and family and the prohibition of

monogamy Monogamy ( ) is a social relation, relationship of Dyad (sociology), two individuals in which they form a mutual and exclusive intimate Significant other, partnership. Having only one partner at any one time, whether for life or #Serial monogamy ...

. Some members after leaving the group have also voiced their issues about the club.

Preparation

A frequent competitor and previous champion Steve Peterson was known for taking 55-mile training runs in order to prepare his body and mind for the events. Peterson at the time was about to defend his title in the

Leadville Trail 100 The Leadville Trail 100 Run (aka The Race Across The Sky or the LT100) is an ultramarathon held annually on rugged trails and dirt roads near Leadville, Colorado, through the heart of the Rocky Mountains. First run in 1983, the race course climbs ...

. Some runners such as Peterson believe it is a much larger effort adhering to Eastern spiritual traditions,

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

and holistic healing methods. The preparation methods have also featured in the book ''Born to Run''.

Contributors

Fred Pilon, the publisher of UltraRunning Magazine, estimates that there are 8,000 Americans who run ultra marathons, which is defined as anything above the standard 26.2-mile marathon. That group includes Joe Schlereth of Fresno, Calif., who ran 9,021 miles in 1996 (173.5 miles a week), and the

Sri Chinmoy Chinmoy Kumar Ghose (27 August 1931 – 11 October 2007), better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the United States after moving to New York City in 1964.muscle testing, where downward pressure is applied to a runner’s outstretched arm. It is said that experts in this technique can determine muscle strength, emotional state,

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

al need and the correct fit of a running shoe. Tizer has been known to jump in the middle of a group of elite runners at Bolder Boulder, a popular annual 10-kilometer race, to briefly get a close look at their running form. Divine Madness runners succeed by training in groups, as do

Kenyan The Demographics of Kenya is monitored by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in East Africa. Its total population was at 47,558,296 as of the 2019 census. A national census was conducted in 1999, although t ...

and

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

distance runners. Associated with the group are a

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, providing m ...

, a

physical therapist Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease prevention ...

, a

sports psychologist Sport psychology is defined as the study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport. One definition of sport sees it as "any physical activity for the purposes of competition, recreation, education or health". Sport psychology i ...

, a

nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and Human nutrition, nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disci ...

and a registered nurse. Runners eat twice a day, adhering to a regulated diet of carefully chosen proportions. The organic diet is 40 percent fat, 20 percent protein and 40 percent carbohydrates. The group also uses some unusual running techniques, such as a pronounced swinging of the hips, which is designed to rely more on the natural range of motion of the body's joints rather than the burning of muscle fuel for propulsion. The Divine Madness runners, who average 120–130 miles a week, do a 30-mile training run each Wednesday and are a fixture on the trails in Boulder on Sundays when they run for 25 to 50 miles, which can require eight or more hours.

Sexual Harassment

In late 1996, Georgiana Scott, John Hunt, and Melissa Huntress filed a

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

claiming that rather than liberating members of the group, Tizer controlled them through

, and isolation from the members' family and their friends. It alleges that Tizer ''required that female clients sleep with himself and a number of other community clients before being allowed to have sexual contact with their partners.'' Anyone who tried to leave the group or change the norm was subject to ''physical illness and emotional destruction''. A fourth former member of the group, Michele Hirsen, recently filed a complaint with the Boulder police department alleging that Tizer

sexually assaulted Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexua ...

her. In her report to the police, Hirsen said that in his role as spiritual guide and teacher, Tizer always made himself more available to his female students. Hirsen said the following about the subject: ''There's not a lot of room for an individual to have a self, he has emotional and psychological control over everyone around him. He's a manipulative, diabolical person. He has a system where he tries to seduce any woman who comes across his path without concern for their boundaries and sensitivities. Many women felt confused and violated by these interactions.''

Envelope Marriage

In 1989 Yo Tizer began a practice of "envelope marriage", where one male and one female member would each have their name drawn from a hat and then they were "married" for a week in order to break them from their "attachment" to choosing partners. He advised them that he could control fertility by muscle testing and

herbs Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnish (food), garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typi ...

. When the women often became

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

he would order them to have abortions to break their "attachments" to being mothers. Except for his own children, who he allowed to be born and raised in The Community, and for several women whom he deemed so pathologically self-centered that they needed to be broken of their "attachment" to themselves.

References

{{Reflist Running clubs in the United States Sports in Boulder, Colorado 1990s establishments in Colorado