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Week 24: With a Powerful Enough Why, We Can Endure Any How

Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

For me, that punch in the mouth was the 7°F (-14C) temperature when I showed up on the starting line this past Sunday.

True to form, I was almost late to the start, so I’d only had about 30 seconds to stash my drop bag and get in the starting corral. It was probably for the best that I didn’t have time to consider what lay before me. 50 kilometers of frigid, hilly, treacherous, winter wonderland.

I’d skipped breakfast that morning, walking right past the breakfast bar at the hotel and thinking, I’ll catch breakfast over the first 10 miles. This was insanely stupid in retrospect. While I’ve never been a big eater early in the morning, I should have figured out how to get something down considering the circumstances.

It was a mistake I’ll NEVER make again, and I’d suffer for it later as my energy levels ran out.

Lesson learned the hard way.

As it was, my plan was to rely on the aid stations for snacks, water, however else I could get precious calories.

There was just one problem.

Everything froze. The Coca-Cola froze and exploded. Water and gatorade would freeze after sitting on the table for 60 seconds. All the snacks were icy and stuck together. Between that and the arctic temps, it made stopping and eating an uncomfortable decision.

During races like this, a runner should consume about 200 calories per hour. I probably consumed 300 calories total over 7 hours. I would suffer for this as well.

The race began and between the adrenaline, excitement and trying to warm up, I started off much too fast. My heart rate was elevated, and I was jacked.

I took a nasty spill just before finishing the first 10k. To be honest, I was being a bit cavalier on the downhills and when I slipped jumping over a log, it sent me headfirst down a ravine. I’ll have a nasty bruise on my side from the tree stump I hit on the way down.

So it goes.

Also, another painful lesson learned.

Strangely enough, falling so hard made me slow down. It reminded me that I still had quite a long day ahead of me and needed to avoid doing that again, lest I get unlucky and actually get injured instead of just wounding my pride.

Then I fell in a stream about 35k in.

Given water’s propensity to freeze in less than 60 seconds so far below freezing, this was most unfortunate.

However, the funny thing about realizing your worst nightmares is that they rarely live up to the hype.

After a round of vigorous cursing (for warmth), I immediately went into damage control-mode.

I could turn around, and go change at the aid station, but that would add two miles to a day that was already getting longer and longer. Not to mention I couldn’t imagine what exposing cold, wet skin to the elements would do to my already shaky psyche at that point.

Or I could press on and try to run through it. My drop bag was 4 miles away and I could change then if I was freezing.

Up the hill I went.

Being wet did force me to pick up the pace however.

My gloves even froze in the form my fingers were in when they hit the water, curled up from the shock of it.

In the end, it wasn’t that bad really, which is insane to say given the extreme temps. Proper clothing and layering is one thing I got right on Sunday.

And so 7 hours and 33 minutes after starting, I crossed the finish line as an exhausted, depleted and freezing ultramarathoner.

I started, struggled, learned both good and bad lessons, solved unanticipated problems, and still finished.

Yesterday I woke up with a gnarly bruise on my side from the first fall, but otherwise just a little stiff.

Misery naturally precludes introspection in the moment.

But with some time to unpack the experience yesterday, I realized how epic a day it was.

Taking the best shot Mother Nature had to offer and finishing anyway.

Because sometimes you just do things.

Because we live in a world of instant gratification, but the good stuff still lies just on the other side of what we thought was possible.

Because I want to show my kids that these kind of quests and questions are important.

Because hard things make us question every fiber of our soul, but when we emerge victorious, we inevitably ask ourselves, “What else am I capable of?”

What else indeed?

Seven months ago, I was sitting on the couch and got inspired by one YouTube video that ended up changing a lot of tomorrows.

And it’s one solid step towards peak badass.

“We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contests, and you must win.” Edward Gibbon

Live triumphantly. See you next week.