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Week 30: Week 30: Art Deco at the Metropark, Doing the "Impossible" and Burning the Proverbial Ships
No preamble tonight, let’s get it!
Philosophical Dad Stuff
Sunday was one of those days.
I don’t mean the kind that drive us crazy and make up questions our lives.
I mean the affirming kind. Sunday was one of those kinds of days. The ones you hope your kids remember.
Since Mommy got up during the night with our sleep-challenged 3-year old, I was able to get up with the kids on a bright, sunny Sunday morning.
We watched Scooby Doo over breakfast and talks of Minecraft and fake toots (boy humor).
Then we packed up a picnic lunch and headed to a local park that used to be in a swanky part of town where the love seems gone now. It’s a park from another era, with a giant art deco stage in the middle of it.
Since the playground was still wet and icy, we hiked over to the amphitheater stage for lunch.
We sat on the middle of the stage in the sunshine and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with barbecue chips. It was glorious.
Coming home, we built a fire for hot coals, fired up the grill, ate dinner outside on the patio and finished it all off with s’mores over the coals as the sun set.
We often get caught up in our daily grind as parents.
I say it all the time…these days are fleeting.
Soak them in.
Leadership
On Wednesday, May 5th in1954, it was impossible for a human to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
On Thursday the 6th, Roger Bannister proved it was no longer impossible.
His unprecedented and heretofore unheard-of accomplishment stood as the world record for all of 46 days.
A year later, 3 runners would break this barrier in a single race.
Today, elite high-school runners are reaching this mark.
So what?
For a few years, my team at work didn’t send a sales rep to Circle of Excellence (President’s Club). It’s a prestigious achievement, and something all sales professionals shoot for.
And for those few years, we pinned reasons on why that was.
The methodology changed. Our business changed. Our customers changed. Our products didn’t change enough.
Excuses. All of them.
It became our “4-minute mile.” It was no longer thought possible, forever out of reach.
Until one of our names got announced two weeks ago, shattering the perception and banishing the bogeyman once and for all.
What was holding the team back was not execution, or creativity, or intelligence, or productivity.
It was mindset. It was the 4-minute mile.
What is your 4-minute mile?
Couch to Ultramarathon…and Beyond
This past week I was trading messages with a running coach friend of mine.
We were talking about motivation and my “why” for wanting to run 100 miles in the French Alps when he dropped this on me.
“I mean this with all the love in my heart: you have to either be psycho enough or hurt enough to want to run 100 miles. To the point where it’s not even a choice anymore. Your whole life is going to revolve around being a person capable of running 100 miles. It’s less and less about the race and more and more about process and headspace.”
Balance is important to a lot of people. I’m one of them.
But it is possible? Is there a way of becoming “ultra” without going all in? Can my golf handicap go down simultaneously with my mile times?
Over the last few days of planning, I’m beginning to realize the inevitability of his wisdom.
And along with it, two key perceptions.
One is that this won’t be a 10-year hobby. I have specific goals. Once those goals are accomplished, that will likely be the end of the road. I’m not sure going to extremes consistently is good for a lot of people.
Which makes the next statement seem insanely hypocritical…
Two is the recognition that I was actually seeking to “touch the fire.” I wanted something that caused me to become that better version of myself. I was looking for something that would make me “burn the ships” and find out what I was made of.
So here we are on the journey: two winter 50k ultramarathons have been run, and a 100k in the fall to hopefully start earning UTMB lottery entries has been set.
I’ve gotten in tremendous shape. I’ve learned to appreciate where I live more than ever. I’m grown more patient, empathetic, and resilient. My doctor thinks I’m on miracle drugs.
And it’s just the beginning. All the best stuff is yet to come.
Time to burn the proverbial ships.
“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.” -Hunter S. Thompson
Live triumphantly. See you next week.