Thursday, August 28, 2014

I'm Retiring...

from ever running a race at Wintergreen again.

We have just returned from the Super Spartan at the infamous Wintergreen Ski Resort.  It is hard for me to imagine that people go there to vacation because my only three visits have been to run races which have been the three toughest to date.  The trip to Wintergreen marked our return to where this journey started and it could be described exactly in the way that A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens begins.

             It was the best of times,          It was the worst of times

The course was just as grueling as I remember it.  My course time has improved each time I have ventured back to the course.  This time the group of three finished in the top 8% of nearly 6,500 racers on Saturday.  That's not bad for a group that typically would reside on a couch just a few short years ago.  This is possibly the most important leadership lesson there is.  Anything is possible if you just have the courage to start.  What began as a dare has turned into a life-changing experience that continues to unfold before us.  We are already plotting and planning for 2015 and we still have many races left this year.  

There were times that I conquered the course such as nailing my spear throw for the first time ever!  There were times that the course conquered me like the monkey bars and the traverse walls.  Even in failure I got further on the traverse wall than ever before.  Unfortunately I have been cursed with big feet which make fitting on the little blocks quite difficult.

That's the beautiful thing about these events.  You can appear down and out or stronger than ever within moments of each other.  If you need further proof of what I'm talking about then look at the two photos below taken moments after each other.  In the photo on the left look at the bottom right corner to see me resting on my long.

Wintergreen continues to challenge me in ways that other courses never do but I have come to the conclusion that I am retiring from this course.  I'm taking my talents to places and courses that I've yet to run along with some favorite course along the way.  We may even follow Pat's lead and take this entire adventure global in 2015.

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