Dreams Come Alive

Was invited to give a talk last Saturday on my desert adventure. Toiled for quite a while pondering over what the key message was to give the audience. Felt that it was important that not only are they entertained, that there should be an element of education and a lot of value to be gained which they can apply to their daily lives.

Decided on Lessons from the Desert: The SAHARA Way to Making Your Dreams Come Alive, heavily influenced by the myriad of lessons I picked up in the desert. In a nutshell:

Self

Know your strengths, values and beliefs. What is your best self like? You have whatever you need to achieve your goals and you are what you think, so focus your thoughts on those aspects you would like to see more of.

Aspirations

It all starts with having a dream. If you had a magic wand, what would your life be like? What is your vision of who you are and what you have? See it, feel it and believe it. You create your own reality.

Hardiness

Life is an ultra-marathon, not a sprint. As you take action toward your dreams you will likely meet with challenges and obstacles. Learn from your past mistakes and develop your resilience to better bounce back from setbacks.   

Appreciation

You cannot have more without valuing what you already have. When did you last stop to smell the roses? What are the things you have and who are the people in your life that you are grateful for?

Relationships

The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our relationships. Who are your travelling companions in this journey of life? Are you surrounding yourself with positive, supportive people? Whom are you making a difference to everyday?

Adventure

Life is an adventure. When was the last time you did something for the first time? What are you truly passionate about? You’d be surprised how energised you become when you are clear about your purpose in life.

It’s rather uncanny how the number ‘6′ featured so heavily in my Sahara adventure.

26 December - my birthday
36 - my age when I set off on the race
6 - the number of stages in the Sahara Race
66 - my race bib number
86 - my finishing position
126 - the number of competitors
6 - the final number of people in my tent
36 - the finishing position of a tent mate, Micheal
56 - the finishing position of another tent mate, Charl
65 - the finishing positon of yet another tent mate, Steve

And all too soon, the adventure is complete.

A single blog entry will never do justice to the marvellous experience that I have just gone through. That is why it’s taken me 5 full days to compile my race report. The difficulty lies in determining what to leave out – so much I have to say and share; and my mind is a whirlwind of introspection and contemplation.

What is absolutely essential though, is a shout-out to all the wonderful people who wrote on my facebook wall and sent me email messages of encouragement. It absolutely lifts my spirits to read and re-read them and gives me joy that so many others are along for the ride. You people are tremendous!!

Out on the course, it sometimes feels as if the next checkpoint will never materialise, the mind numbing trek seemingly endless. And yet when we sit around the campfire reviewing the day’s events, we struggle to recall even the different types of terrain and landscapes that we had just trudged through.

And as I sit and type these words onto my computer, the happenings of the weeklong footrace are fast becoming hazy. And yet I know that deep down inside, in the depths of my subconscious and in my heart, the entire experience lives on forever.

Over the next weeks I will blog about those nuggets of experiences. In the meantime I am busy making plans for the what’s next?

For those who would like to read my race report, do contact me at thaddeus@dreamscomealive.com and I will email you a copy.

At the Dusit Thani and met with several other competitors. What a bunch of chamnpions. Looking at the competitor profiles, everyone seems to fall into one of three categories. There are the high achievers in business and career, with managing partners, CFO’s, venture capitalists and company directors making a presence. Then there are high achievers in the sporting arena, with past race winners, seven summiters, adventurers, Ironman triathletes and ultra endurance racers making an impact. And there are the high achievers in life: a 73-year old Badwater veteran and a blind man among the list of notable individuals.

There is an air of respect and mutual support that everyone holds here. I do suppose endurance racing is such a niche sport, and it is a sport where everyone goes through pain and suffering. Voluntarily. Which means we all have fast track entry into an asylum. But it is that pain and suffering that pulls everyone together. The true measure of a team mentality is when the mind and body is under stress, not when the team is winning. What do you do when you are being beaten? How do you think when you are being broken?

Ask me again in a week’s time. Right now I just can’t wait to get started. We had a briefing this morning and were told the temperature out there is 51 degrees centigrade. No danger of frostbite then.

Brown. Sand.

Those are my intial impressions of Cairo. There is a distinct lack in greenery in this land; not quite the Garden City that is Singapore, although this is more than made up for by the smiles and graciousness of the people.

Arrived two days ago and have been ensconced in the JW Marriott, engaing in some serious pampering in the form of room service and being sprawled out in the King-sized bed. Braved the traffic and pollution yesterday in a short walk around old Cairo but had to call it a day after about 6 hours on my feet, the dust and noise taking their toll on my senses.

Today is the day that all competitors will arrive and check in at the Dusit Thani. Tomorrow morning we go through an equipment check and then in the afternoon we get bussed out to the middle of the Sahara. After umpteen times packing and repacking, I’ve got my gear down to just over 10kg. The water will add another couple of kg’s; pretty decent weight, I reckon.

Almost showtime…

During race week (25^th to 30^th Oct) you can send an email to me by going to http://www.4deserts.com/sahararace/ and selecting “email a competitor” from the Multimedia tab. Coming in to camp with half a life left within me from a day’s trudging through the sands, I know your thoughts and words would make a world of difference in lifting my spirits and is something I dearly appreciate, so I thank you in advance.  Note that emails sent are not private; they can be seen on the spreadsheet by other competitors.

Sahara Race Website

Race organisers will be posting hourly updates to the website during each stage – these are known as “Breaking News.” You may also sign up to follow RacingThePlanet on Twitter. These updates will keep you abreast of the leaders, the middle of the pack, the back of the pack, weather conditions, etc. In addition at the end of each day, a Stage Update will be posted summarizing the day, as well as videos clips and several hundred photographs.

My head is freshly shaved, my nails are newly clipped and my clothes are crisply laundered. My nerves are also taut as the pre-race jitters return with a vengeance. I deal with it by treating this adventure as if it were any other inconsequential trip.

When I need a boost of positive energy I think of all the well wishers rooting me on and the people who find inspiration in this crazy pursuit of mine. Particularly heartening are the monetary donations that continue to stream in for the School Pocket Money Fund. And there are the several pledges of thousands of dollars that rest on my completing this race.

I spend an inordinate amount of time calculating and recalculating my nutrition. Too much food adds unnecessary weight to my pack; too little and I’ll go hungry – and I eat like a horse when I work out! Too much variety is over the top; too little makes for a painful and unappetising meal. Decisions, decisions, decisions… It is amazing how success in anything lies on the decisions that we make along the way.

I am attempting to take as much of my equipment and food as hand carry luggage on board the plane. There have been past cases where competitors arrived empty handed after the airlines misplaced their check-in baggage containing their gear. Such stress is something I can certainly do without. 

Seems like there is so much to do. Or am I simply creating work to busy my mind? 

Just need to get onto the plane… 

10 days to go; the big week looms and the final list of competitors has been released. And what an exciting star-studded field it is!

Among other superstars, I’ll be racing alongside the fastest woman to ever complete the Seven Summits; a 68 year-old female helicopter pilot who recently completed a circumnavigation of the globe via both poles; Canada’s first blind triathlete who is a two-time World Cup Triathlon Champion; a school caretaker who is the only 70-year-old to have ever completed the Badwater Ultramarathon; previous race winners and professional endurance athletes.

It is such an honour to be in the presence of such champions and to be competing (I use the term “competing” very loosely here) alongside them. Their achievements are simply awe-inspiring and I can’t wait to make their acquaintance and learn what makes them tick.

I have moved past the anxieties and worries that plagued me a couple of months back into a state of heightened anticipation. The preparation and training stage is over and what is now left is to just do the thing.

In many ways it is a huge relief to be in a position where I cannot do much anymore. The task ahead is clearly defined and I’ll be embarking on a brand new experience that will push me to my physical, mental and emotional limits, just the kind of personal exploration I relish.

9, 8, 7, ….     

The following is an excerpt from Born to Run and it tells of Scott Jurek’s first ever 135 mile Badwater Ultramarathon experience in 2005.

By mile 60, Scott was vomiting and shaky. His hands dropped to his knees, then his knees dropped to the pavement. He collapsed by the side of the road, lying in his own sweat and spittle…his friends didn’t bother trying to help him up; they knew there was no voice in the world more persuasive than the one inside Scott’s own mind.

Scott lay there, thinking how hopeless it all was. He wasn’t even halfway done, and Sweeney (the race leader) was already too far ahead for him to see. And the wind! It was like running into the blast of a jet engine.

“There’s no way,” Scott told himself. “You’re done. You’d have to do something totally sick to win this thing now.”

“Like what?”

“Like starting all over again. Like pretending you just woke up from a great night’s sleep and the race hasn’t even started yet. You’d have to run the next 80 miles as fast as you’ve ever run 80 miles in your life.”

“No chance.”

“Yeah, I know.”

For ten minutes, Scott lay like a corpse. Then he got up and did it, shattering the Badwater record with a time of 24:36:08.

For the uninitiated, the infamous Badwater Ultramarathon, held in the middle of summer in Death Valley, is the ultimate in ultra running. The region is a big shimmering sea of salt ringed mountains that bottle up the heat and force it back down on your skull. The average air temperature hovers around 50 degrees Celsius and once the sun rises and begins broiling the desert floor, the ground hits a toasty 90 degrees Celsius that has the runners toeing the white lines on the road so the soles of their running shoes don’t melt.

Lovely.

Am feeling strangely calm and detached from the entire event. It’s almost as if I have surrendered to the fact that the time is now almost upon me and there is just about nothing I can physically do to prepare for it anymore. It’s an unfamiliar liberating feeling to be entirely devoid of stress. Perhaps I am in denial mode and mentally escaping from the monumental task ahead. Whatever it is, I am beginning to relax and take things in stride and this can only be good for me.

The support I am receiving from people around me is absolutely tremendous. The offers of help; self-sacrificing generosity and encouraging words of affirmation strengthen me and shore up my spirit. And it is my spirit that needs stocking up at this point.  Most of my gear has been purchased and most of the food has been tested. All that is left is to pack it all in and shed any excess weight; beef up my own body weight; try out some lunch snack combinations; and go for a few long walks.

I bend and flow with ease and all is well.

Love you all.