Notes
Spartan Sprint#2, alongside the Championship Spartan Beast, a 14 mile course. We shared a small part of the Beast course, and only a few of their obstacles. Sadly, we had no sandbag carries or rope climbs. We did have a very brutal ascent to the peak of Bear Mtn. About halfway up, I was powerhiking the steep grade and saw a group that seemed to be waiting for the rest of their team to catch up. A girl was doing air squats while she waited, rather than resting. I said, "Hey, that looks like the picture in the dictionary right where it says 'Bad Ass'", to which she said, "No, he's the badass, he's carrying the stone." I looked to the guy she was talking about, who was crouched down. He was wearing a gas mask, full on black chemical warfare mask. He was also wearing about 2 yards of heavy chains, the links were at least 4 inches long and a half inch diameter. Somewhere under there was a rock he was hauling with him for the entire course. He was also wearing a long strip of metal instead of a left foot connected to a prosthesis going all the way to his knee, this was a wounded Veteran. So, I accepted this girl's correction and told this guy, I hope he heard through the mask, what an inspiration he was. This was no joke, I was just infused with this sense of possibility and inspired and just started running where I could only hike before. I kept running for a good hundred yards. I reached back to that memory and broke into a run several more times on the way to the summit. There's always more to dig for beyond the limits of what we 'know', we know we're tired and have done this and that. Despite this 'knowledge' of the immediate past, at any moment something may light a fire that denies those limitations. 'Knowledge' of limitations holds no weight here, remember it is bullshit at best you use to stay safe and should never be accepted as rationalization to surrender your potential. You'll be beaten by the fight but never allow the fight to be beaten out of you.