So...Ive been silent about this weekend until now. Unless you havent heard, I DNFed my second Ultra Beast. I was pulled at around the 26ish mile marker of about 30 or so miles. I ran a pretty good race until the 11 mile marker, probably in the top 100-150, when I came across the sand bag carry. If you havent heard, it was up a steep black diamond ski slope with not one, but two, sandbags weighing 60-70 lbs a piece. I weigh 175 so thats 67-80% of my body weight. The only way I can describe it to people is soul crushing. I ran the previous 11ish miles in almost four hours, and by comparison, it took me 2 hours to go 3/4 of a mile for that carry. Add that onto 270 burpees over that time, a dead headlamp up and down 1.5 miles of crazy technical terrain in the pitch dark where I literally ran by a flicker of light from Neils headlamp and halfway by faith, and it was a long day. Two years ago when I DNFed the Ultra Beast...it was a life-changing experience. It was a feeling of emptiness and failure that I hadnt really experienced in my sports life. This DNF is entirely different. As so many ultra runners have pointed out, and Ive come to know firsthand, you just have to embrace the DNF for what it is. A small spot in a much larger picture. Truthfully, I probably wouldve threw in the towel had it not been for seeing Neil Murphy at the drop bin preparing for lap two, along with hearing parts of the Navy SEAL ethos in my head at different times. The same one I just put on a sweatshirt for our BattleFrog merchandise: I will NEVER quit. I am NEVER out of the fight. I will NOT fail. I may have failed the Ultra Beast...but Ive succeeded in pushing my limits even farther than I have in the 80+ races over the past years. Because of that, and the people Ive experienced that with, Im a better person for it. At the end of the day, thats worth more to me than any medal I could ever hang on a wall. To those that offered prerace words of encouragement, those I saw on the mountain and suffered alongside, and to all those that stepped to the starting line...I applaud you. More than anything, I thank you. Until next time.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:43:52 +0000
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