Week 12 - What's it all about?

This has been an exhausting week. Got home late Sunday evening after the long drive from Las Vegas, and then was up at 4:45 for my Monday morning workout. Flew to San Diego for a mediation Tuesday. Back home and in bed around 1130 and then up early again. Worked till 9PM Wednesday; up early Thursday. Flew to San Jose late Thursday morning; arrived home late. Up early Friday. To top it off, the workouts this week were all long, including extended sets.

Through it all, however, I was happy to be up early and working out. In fact, the busy schedule and lack of sleep added to my sense of satisfaction.

Which all brings me back to my Ragnar Las Vegas experience, and wondering why that all works so well. Why are so many people so thrilled with that experience? Why do they keep coming back for more, even planning their years around multiple Ragnars?

Even though it apparently is human nature to avoid hardship and pain, there is no question that we experience satisfaction, even joy, from doing hard things. My brother-in-law told me awhile ago about certain people at his company complaining that what they do is hard. His response, in essence, was, "Of course it's hard. If it wasn't, everyone would do it." He proceeded to convince the company to adopt as its motto, "We do hard things." The family motto of my neighbors, the Bells, is, "We do hard things." Maybe why that is why I see so many Bells do so much good.

There has been a fascinating string of comment on the Ragnar Facebook page about Las Vegas Leg 24, the 8.8 mile run over a boulder-stewn "trail" in the dark. As I noted last weekend, I heard a lot of R-rated curse words from runners on that leg while waiting to provide aid to my son Brandt. Ragnar asked for comment on Leg 24 on Facebook - whether the leg should be improved or rerouted. A few folks recommended rerouting because of the risk of injury. But the overwhelming majority commented that surviving the leg was a great experience and recommended that it not be changed. It appears that, if anything, Leg 24 will become the signature leg of the Vegas race, just as the Ragnar leg, with its 1678 ascent over 4 miles has from day one been the signature leg of the Ragnar Wasatch Back.

In trying to understand the paradox of why we seek to avoid difficult things but gain so much when we undertake them, I reread Rob Schultheis' book, "Bone Games." I followed that up with Maria Coffey's "Explorers of the Infinite: The Secret Spiritual Lives of Extreme Athletes - And What They Reveal About Near-Death Experiences, Psychic Communication, and Touching the Beyond." Both Schultheis and Coffey come from the community of extreme climbers, who -though Coffey says they would never admit it - aspire to the mountaintops in large part for the spiritual enlightenment that comes in those places closest to the heavens, not unlike, say, Moses or Mohammed. Schultheis writes at length about the initiatory rites of shamans, which consist of various forms of extreme deprivation and pain that ultimately open the initiate to visions and enlightenment. Native Americans named these experiences Bone Games. Coffey writes of miraculous feats of strength, premonitions, psychic communications and other phenomena experienced by extreme athletes. There clearly is a lot going on that we barely understand when we are pushed to the limits of endurance.

For many, Ragnar as a physical test that almost could be likened to a Bone Game. The combination of physical exhaustion and sleep deprivation is sufficient to unclutter the mind and bring the present into sharp focus, thus dispelling stress and worry, opening the mind to the beyond. It would be interesting to know whether, and to what extent, this clear mind causes Ragnar participants experience what they would consider insight or enlightenment. Without question the Ragnar experience has created strong bonds of friendship and has caused many to improve their health and fitness through improved diet and exercise. It would be interesting to know whether this added discipline improves other facets of life, including family and other relationships. I expect that it would.

These positive changes, however, will be lost if discipline is not sustained. Since I was a small boy, I have been taught that we must endure to the end. From this maxim, two concepts emerge. First, no backsliding. We must have the discipline to maintain good habits for a lifetime. Second, this discipline requires endurance. Perhaps that is why endurance sports may have the most to teach us. We are made to endure to our limits. Only by continuing to push our limits can we reach our potential.

As the late, great Steve Prefontaine said, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."