Being Thankful, Keeping it Real, Trash Talk, It is What it is.
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Let's start here. A few more stats. Morning naked weight after a coffee and orange - 187lbs. We'll talk about temperature a bit later. it was hot and sunny.
Running always gets my neurotransmitters buzzing. It's like shaking a can of mixed nuts so that the big cashews and brazil nuts come to the top of the sea of peanuts. My mind is pretty free-flowing usually, but running time has always been a time of reflection and where ideas crystallize and come to the surface. I'm not sure if it's the increased blood flow, the monotony, boiling neurochemicals, or what. But it happens. And on these near-thirty minutes of running around the neighborhood, my mind continued down the river of thought that had me caught up last night in the eddies, boils and strainers of insomnia. I've been a mess worrying about this race, especially the first 40 miles. So, while running, I had all these great ideas that seemed to flow so well together. After a few minute cool down, and a cold shower (I was HOT), however, they seem to be creeping back in to the underground wells of my mind. (Sort of like Ottine Dam -- the water goes raging into that crushed structure and down, but never seems to come out the other side. Where does it all go? As far as me and my brain go, I only wish I knew.
I had in mind that this would be a blog to my teammates as well as to myself. A message and a warning about The Safari. We all can read about the river, water levels, view video of portages down the various dams, etc. We can plan for those things and we can make strides towards success. It's the smaller nuances that get overlooked. For me, they were forgotten (somewhat) but seemed to pop out along my run, as if I was re-experiencing the race (or parts of it) in slow motion.
Let me move on. I've been thinking about this portage of word and ideas way too long.
Being Thankful, Keeping it Real, Trash Talk, It is What it is.
I'm really thankful that I have time to sit here in the comfort of my own breakfast table, writing this blog on my MacBook, healthy, safe and sound. And that's really what's the most important thing of them all. I've got a lovely wife and kids to be proud of, a job, good health, a home, some savings and even a few dogs. Life is good. For some people, however, life's not so great. Many of these folks don't choose to be born into a war-torn country, or into poverty or...the list goes on. Though many choose professions that are so vital to the maintenance of happiness and social culture, theirs is not one which received the financial respect deserving of the position. Examples are public servants, teachers, those that give their life to God and serving others (in the right way, not the greedy/self-righteous way), historians and musicians (at least most of them). We can't help everyone on this Safari, but I think our cause of helping low-income, uninsured, working Austin musicians is a worthy cause. We've already generated donations for this cause. It's a win already. We don't even have to take the boat out. People will be helped. Who gives a crap about anything else, right? So, I think all of us should be thankful for being able to even consider doing this race.
Keeping it Real. Nature Giveth and Nature Taketh Away.
First came the touchy-feely part and now the hard-ass part. So we've established that we're thankful. We've signed up for a race and now we don't want to disrespect those less fortunate by taking it all for granted. There are alot of folks out there who only wish they could physically get in a boat, no less paddle. Let's not take this thing for granted and throw away what we've been given by the god's of the universe (or chance or whatever you believe in). In plain English, we're lucky and fortunate. Let's not fuck this thing up.
My run started at an easy pace. I haven't been running every day, and I've been feeling pretty lazy since coming off of cyclocross racing season in Dec/Jan so I just thought if I could finish 3 miles I'd feel better about myself. My email bitching to Team Cuatro Sinko Seis about getting our act together motivated me to get MY act together. An easy pace, became a bit labored. I started at an 8:30 min/mile pace for mile 1, dropped to 8:35 minute/mile for mile 2, then was almost at 9:30 for the third (uphill) mile. It seemed really hot. I made a mental note to remind the guys that we needed to start getting heat acclimated before race day by doing just this.
The power of the mind to either destroy or lift the body is amazing to me. On at least a few occasions, I found myself dejected after thinking that I was closer to home on the run than I realized I was. This quick reaches of the mind to "almost there" only to find that we're "not almost there" can be so demoralizing that it can drain any energy we have left. On the other hand, knowing for certain that "we're just around the corner" inevitably opens up an extra cylinder to power home with even extra speed and energy. Funny how the mind affects the body in this way.
Minds can deceive folk into over-estimating our capabilities and underestimating the path which lies ahead. This is a dangerous combination. I got home, feeling fairly happy (cocky?) about a lazy 8:48 min/mile average (good for me) and was almost certain that my bad-assery pulled this off without water, camel-style in 90 degree weather. That was supposed to be the high, right? Nope. My trusty iphone showed current temperature as 73 degF. Holy crap! It seemed so hot. 90-100 degrees will be an incinerator by comparison. I was somewhat dizzy, tired and felt over-heated (ok, I'm not really as big a wuss as I sound here). Post run naked weight -- 185. Two pounds lost in 30 minutes. Now multiply that over 100 hours. We're not going to be able to count on sitting on our ass for the first day. It's going to be full.on.cardio.strength.and.endurance work. It's going to be a bitch with that quarter metric tonne canoe. Lesson within the lesson: Don't underestimate, acclimate, protect yourself from the heat and stay hydrated ALL OF THE TIME. We were good about this last year.
The pearl of the story here: don't let your brain take you hostage and rob you of drive and energy. Keep it Real. Generate positive thoughts. Remember we won before we started, but we aren't going to piss away an opportunity to showcase what we've been given.
Oh, this is gonna be good. But will have to be continued. It's my bro's birthday and I'm going to hang with him for a bit. He's coming to pick me up, so more later... 2:39pm
Ok it's 5:30pm and I'm back. My creative mind has slowly eroded over the hours. I was going to comment here on a concept of "athlete" vs "caneewbie" that some seem to have. We're not professional paddlers. Canoeing is not all we do. I guess you could call us multi-sport guys. A little crossfit, swimming, running, biking and sailing. We don't have the latest, fastest carbon-fiber canoe and we don't know the river like it's the back of our hand. But I think we did demonstrate our resolve last year and skill. In some ways it was much more difficult for us in a recreational canoe of only 20ft and four guys. We were a bit lucky with favorable water levels, but we did it on grit, determination and teamwork. It's a hard job portaging a 250lb, 40ft long canoe around, and there are alot of things that we need to contend with that others don't have to worry about. That our canoe does not go as fast as everyone else's does not make us any less an athlete than the next person. In short, I'm proud of the guys for their willingness to go the road less travelled. Come race time, it'll be do or die trying for us.
And finally, It is What it is.
It's just a race. It's just another challenge and there's a bit of luck involved. Nature will not always let you know what cards she's playing. Whether it's an unexpected snake in the grass (I almost stepped on a snake pulling our boat around the river bank and walking it through Little Ottine last year at the TWS), unexpected rain or lack thereof, unanticipated injury, unexpected boat damage, etc. We'll do our best.
Here's hoping we'll be standing on the lawn at Seadrift, under that Texas Water Safari Sign by Wednesday the 12. If not, life goes on and the future will continue to offer up enticing challenges.
