Why Ride?

A month or more ago, on the bikeforums UltraDistance forum, someone asked:  "What makes you long distance riders want to ride so much?" 

One randonneur (from Pennsylvania) replied in part:  "I have decided I'm going to keep riding long distance until I have a ride where I don't hate myself sometime during the ride." 

Although that was the flippant portion of his reply, it made me pause and think, and this is what I noted in response to the immediately above [I've made four edits from the original]: 

I've hated my bike;
I've hated bicycling;
I've hated randonneuring, sure that it was invented solely as a torture device / method.

I've hated the pain in each of my buttocks;
I've hated the pain in my lower back;
I've hated the pain in each of my feet, calves, quads, hands, and in my right tricep;

I've shed tears of pain because of an extremely painful tendinitis in my right leg;
I've yelped due to the pain as my shorts tried to whittle the end off ... something.

I've hated the rough road;
I've hated the look of the next climb;
I've hated the never-ending FLAT road.

I've been "fed-up" with the person(s) with whom I was riding;
But I've never hated myself (while cycling).

Maybe if / when I ride something beyond a 600?