Meanwhile, his parents Dan and Jamie are off on one of Dan's many work-related trips - to Kona to participate in the various and sundry Ironman activities. This is one of several endurance events Dan has attended over the past few months in the interest of mining for ideas to enhance the Ragnar brand. If nothing else, Dan is learning about the variety of endurance athletes and their motivations. Some, certainly, are all about ego and vanity; some, perhaps, about social connections; and some, a solitary few, about seeking enlightenment.
Before I get to enlightenment, however, there is the matter of my quads. My neighbor, Shane the pilot, drove past my house Saturday morning as I was watching Max ride down the sidewalk in front of our house on a scooter - all intense concentration - together with Tanner Bell's daughter, Maci. Shane asked if I wanted to join him for a bike ride. I had planned to do a run, but no way would miss a ride with Shane. Shane is a great companion but at least 20 years younger, nearly 20 pounds lighter, and a fair amount stronger than me. While he'll go easy for me, a ride with Shane means a good workout, which this turned out to be.
We debated how long and far to go. I suggested an hour and a half out, and then back, which was actually longer than I wanted to go. Having ridden the Timpanogos Alpine loop the day, Shane suggested an hour out, which was perfect. We set out for the Antelope Island causeway. About an hour out, short of the causeway, having had nothing nothing to eat all day, Shane told me he would like to find a gas station and some food. I proposed we had back and stop at the Swan Lake Golf Course along the way, which we did. There we had grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. Well fed, we continued back, taking an extra loop past Dan's house. The final five miles Shane pushed me pretty hard. I could feel the strain on my quads and gluts, but didn't bonk. In the end, this turned out to be maybe the strongest ride I've done -- 35 miles, 2 hours 7 minutes, 16.5 mph average speed, 2000 calories burned.
Along the way I told Shane about my 90-Day results. Shane achieved similar results beginning a year or two ago when he bought his road bike and started doing two-a-day workouts. We also discussed the recent Boyd Packer conference talk and resulting furor. Shane mentioned he has flown for seven years with a co-pilot who is gay. His friend knows a many gay Mormons, four of whom have committed suicide. It is very troubling to me that young gay Mormons find their situation so hopeless that they see no out but to take their lives. The last episode of "Glee," the only TV show I watch, addressed this issue. The father of the gay character suffered a heart attack that left him in a coma. The gay son's friends rally round and many of them try to support him with prayers. He angrily tells them he doesn't want their prayers. He doesn't believe in God. How could there be a God, he asks, when he is ridiculed and reviled for being gay, a condition he did not choose. No God could be so cruel. This is Packer's argument turned on its head. Packer argues God loves his children that and therefore will provide a way for them to lose their gay sexual orientation. The tortured young gay man argues that his being gay is evidence there is no God. Could both be wrong?
The answer to these questions requires enlightenment with which I have not yet been blessed, though I certainly have my opinions. I certainly seek enlightenment, which is maybe the main reason for this blog. I expect answers to questions to come to me because I write. Writing forces me to think and to imagine, and sometimes in my thinking and imagining I find insight.
Last weekend Nina related to me that story of her friend who was accompanied on her nighttime leg of the Red Rock Relay by a tall, blonde man. Except that when she told her friends about this protector, her friends, who watched the last part of her run, told her there was no one there.
Early this week Dan talked about the mental (or maybe even spiritual) experience runners have while running an overnight relay. Team members seem to open up to each other, to reach out to meet each other's needs, to become connected or bonded. This experience is repeatable. We observe it again and again. Runners express enthusiasm, even euphoria, about their experience.
We have described this mental state or feeling as being the result of mental and physical stress achieved in a team setting. Dan wondered if something similar is experienced during ultramarathons or Ironman-length triathlons. When he asked the question I recalled a book I read several years ago by Rob Schultheis called "Bone Games." I reread the book this weekend and came across this:
This is the story Joanna told me a month later back in Kathmandu: "The fourth day out, we were walking in the early morning. It was raining so hard we could barely see a hundred feet in any direction. I had gone on ahead of Francesca, and I came to a stream. it was moving really fast and there was no bridge, just a series of stones. You had to jump from one to the next. I got out in the middle , and then I just froze. The next stone was just too far to jump to, and I was slipping. Once in the water, I would have been swept away, drowned --
"Suddenly a bearded man, a saddhu, appeared beside me; he was wading in the water, bracing himself on a long wooden staff. He spoke to me in perfect English, that funny kind of accented English educated Indians speak. 'Here, let me help you,' he said. He took my arm and helped me the rest of the way across the steam.
"I sat down on a rock, real shaky still from almost falling in the water. A minute later, Francesca came across the stream to where I was. 'It's a good thing that saddhu helped me,' I said. 'What saddhu?' Francesca asked. I looked around and there was no one there.
"'I watched you cross the steam,' Francesca said. 'There was no one else there. You started to lose your balance in the middle, and then, after a few moments, you fulled it all together. I tried to call to you, but the sound of the water was too loud. But there was no one out there with you.'"
There surely is more to the universe than meets the naked eye. Someone, or something, helped Nina's friend Marlilee and Schultheis' friend Joanna. Was it mind, or spirit, of someone from an unseen world? I am convinced we are connected in ways we don't understand and can't yet imagine. I have faith, or at least hope, that in time we will find answers.
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