"One way to pick a future is to believe it's inevitable. "

It has been a long while since my last entry and I received this quote in my e-mail inbox from the "Outward Bound Daily Quote" e-mail that I receive. This quote seemed quite appropriate for me to share considering what I have been through in the past month...


I started off with a climbing trip beginning in the Grand Tetons. Alpine climbing at its finest- late August storms brought a wintery mix, including upwards of three feet of snow above 10,000 feet. So, my climbing party decided that we should head out of dodge... We then went to Devil's Tower and on to the Needles of South Dakota's Black Hills. I will post some pictures at some point- it was challenging great fun, and I truly learned a lot.

But, what really sparked my influence from this quote is the 12-hour adventure race I did this past weekend. Sponsored by the TralBlazers Adventure Racing club, this race took place in the hills of northern Georgia, near the Tallulah Gorge... I was able to race with my friends Zach and Donna- two of my greatest friends from college... point being, without bogging you down with too many details just yet, we raced for a personal team total of 15 hours and 19 minutes (not including a two hour deduction searching for a missing checkpoint marker- equaling an actual 13 hours and 15 minutes of racing).

During the race, I flipped over the handle bars of my bike, significantly injuring my left thigh- a pretty deep muscle bruise on the mid quadracep (right where the two top thigh muscles meet)... However, we knew we were finishing. It was ou first adventure race, so we went conservative on obtaining optionl checkpoints- choosin to stick with just required check-ins. At any rate. For me to finish the race I had to tell myself that my leg didn't hurt, and that it was necessary to run like I was,or to jog like I was, or to shrug off the newly acquired incapacity of upper left leg.

So, I did determine my future...that completing this race was just like facing bad weather in the Tetons; "It's gonna be okay," "You are going to finish safely..."

From the sharp end of the rope to the adventure racing circuit... the power of the human mind, body, and spirit never ceases to amaze me.

More to come later, glad to be back on the scene...

Much love,


Kevin


p.s. Racing with two of my great friends only helped me realize how much missing of my friends I actually do. Yeah - crazy... I think I have a litle bit of "uh oh are we all going to grow apart" anxiety..... any suggestions?