07/21/2017
When people find our weaknesses we are fearful of those people. Have the strength to never give in to your fears. Sometimes we are afraid to face the darkness of something new or something at which we may not be good. Some days we wake up feeling great & want to take on the world! Other days we wake up depressed & lazy. It's those days we can grow if we can flip that s**t upside down!
Flashback to one of those days for me.
It was hot as hell & I was doing a Rim2Rim2Rim run. It's a 41 mile-ish Grand Canyon run w/ 22,600 feet of elevation change. First 7 miles is a 5k ft. descent then you're in the canyon. When you get to the north side, you have a 4k ft. climb. It's an out & back course so once you get to the top of the north rim, you fill your bottles & head back 20.5 miles for a total of 41+ miles. I was moving good this day and made it to the north rim in good time. I was on pace for a sub-8hr finish. For me, that's moving. I filled my bottles & was flying down hill. Once I got to the bottom of the canyon, I ran into Murphy's law. It was hot as s**t. All I was thinking about was that 7 mile climb back up the south rim! I had one final water stop before I started my climb. I was 2 miles into the climb and only had 15oz. of water left for 5 miles of uphill climbing- I was fu**ed! I was cramping badly and out of salt pills- Merry Christmas, Goggins! Game on! As I neared the top, I ran out of water. I never take a sip of someone else's drink but, on this day, I saw a man drinking a Coke and asked for a sip. He didn't want to say yes but the look in my eyes was that of a wounded animal ready to kill if it had to in order to save it's own life. So, he shared!
As I got to the top of the rim, I again retired from ultra running as I always do after every hard race or run. The next morning I came out of retirement for the 100th time & went for a run.
Our mind is incredibly powerful. If we don't push it we will never know what we are truly capable of doing. It's your responsibility to move forward until you succeed. Spend no time wishing you were better. Spend time training to get better! Getting better isn't 6 min abs. The s**t takes hard work! No shortcuts!
