People always ask me why do I OCR… specifically Spartan Race.
At first Spartan Racing was a sounding board that I was doing well for myself in the gym and the kitchen. Validating that I am succeeding in my efforts. I would only sign up for the open heats, cause I wasn't racing anyone else… just proving myself.
People were like, how could you?! That looks so difficult, so muddy… so NOT ME. In my mind I was like “why not”… I don’t get the hesitation. I have always liked to travel the road less traveled and always taken “calculated” risks.
Then came the stages that changed my whole mind set.
My birth father died when I was seven from leukemia… was very difficult for a young boy to be growing up without a dad. I was fortunate enough to have a loving step-father come into the picture when I was eleven.
The moment that changed my mindset was last January 19th, 2018…
That was the day we buried my step father (had him as a father for 33 years), it was also the same day 38 years to the day my birth father died… was the most devastating day I’ve experienced.
I began to think of memories of my step dad, well since I had him in my life so much we had memories together. I recalled how he loved seeing me come home from my first Spartan… Concord NC Sprint 2017. Was very proud, reminded him of his time in the Army. He used to be a member of the 1st Raider/Paratrooper Brigade (Greece) more specifically… Mountain Raider Companies or LOK (Greek: ΛΟΚ — Λόχοι Ορεινών Καταδρομών, Lochoi Oreinōn Katadromōn). He would teach me there motto from a young age… Who Dares Wins (Ο Tολμών Nικά, O Tolmon Nika) I liked it alot, simple and to the point!
Now with any death, like some I lost my drive for anything extra. However one day I had an epiphany of sorts. What kind of pain can Spartan deliver at a race or event that I have not already experienced (though mentally, emotionally or spiritually). Could ANY number of obstacles and miles somehow equal the pain and suffering of laying two fathers down to rest in the same calendar week? No, no they can’t… not even close. After this epiphany I came to realize that I have endured so much in my life already… I survived... I overcame…I endured and I became stronger for it over time.
So when I see people that say I can’t, I won’t, it’s too muddy, or too difficult. I say this…
What is a more difficult burden to bare, losing a job before the holidays or carrying a 70lb sand bag that’s been sitting in the rain for days…
Whats harder to overcome, applying for a job with MANY other candidates, or scaling a 7ft wall…
It’s all perspective…
We all need to see and understand that the pain and suffering from any mechanism is real, we can’t really avoid it. Yet we must fight through it, we must endure it. So for those that say I can’t never, I say indeed you have already just in a different form. I find using my past moments of pain and suffering to propel me into these events. They also give me the strength that I can complete them.
In conclusion I would like to share a moment from the San Jose Super 2017. As I was cresting yet another wicked incline of the mountains there I was hitting the wall, lungs were on fire, gas was on EMPTY. So I sat by a tree to catch my breath and hydrate. As I was sitting there trying to recover I hear a faint voice “σηκωθείτε ήδη, get up already”. I laughed thinking some Greek guys were giving one another the gears. I heard it again, but louder… thinking man they are really pushing each other. Then I hear… “ Ο Tολμών Nικά,” No one but my step father taught me that, and would really know that reference. San Jose was March, he passed in January. Was he actually at the race with me…or was he there in my mind (that answer stays with me). However that phrase made me get up, and I completed the best Super I have ever done.
We all have it in us, in some form of life experience that we may prefer to hide deep deep inside us. Letting it out has helped me, made me stronger and not just with muscle.
Thank you Joe De Sena, and the rest of Spartan you have given me a great avenue to release the yucky stuff we should not keep inside.
AROO AROO AROO
Spartan Race #spartanendurance
