VIDEO: Errol "Rocket" Jones, Trail-Running Elder

Errol “Rocket” Jones has been running ultras for about three decades. Along the way, he’s become a well-known figure in the Bay Area trail-running scene and beyond—an “icon,” according to one friend interviewed in this video, “The Pleasure and the Pain,” by REI.

And at 65, he’s still going strong. As he explains, he has his sights set on running another 100-miler, a distance he hasn’t finished in three years. Here, he reflects on ultrarunning and the rewards of suffering (“There’s a saying about pleasure being the child of pain”), while logging miles on segments of the scenic Bay Area Ridge Trail. Trail Runner contributing editor Sarah Lavender Smith also makes a cameo.