Thankful for opportunities…even when they arrive in the middle of the night.

Out at the market with young Sammy

So here we are, 1:27am and Thanksgiving Sunday just transitioned into Thanksgiving Monday. I’ve spent the last 90mins working a miracle in getting my oldest, Samuel, to go back to sleep. I can’t complain though.  I mean, it’s Thanksgiving weekend which is all about being thankful for everything you have, even the opportunity to:

a.      Spend more time with your children regardless of the hour of the day;

b.      Continue to build resiliency in facing the daily challenges associated with being a parent of young children; and

c.      Work on my silent ninja skills in sneaking out of Sammy’s room so as to not wake him again. I haven’t been frozen in one position for as long as I was this morning since that unforgettable moment when I found myself suddenly stuck in a giant heard of buffalo while travelling through Yellowstone National Park.

With young children, you get used to early mornings.

I have to be honest.  Over the last month it has become the exception rather than the norm that I’ve had to put Sammy back to sleep in the middle of the night. He started sleeping through the night once Baby Jack arrived.  However, tonight was one of those exceptions, made more difficult as I realized we ran out of 3.25%milk, the magical potion typically used to get him back to sleep.  When you include the fact that I was more tired than usual after helping prepare and clean up supper for thirteen people (with a broken dishwasher that happened today none the less), well my patience was tested over the last few hours and my mantra that life is an ultra had a touch of reality today. Thus, since I’m already up, why not use this opportunity to explain both why I decided to create the Blog but also my meaning, my thought process of why I believe life really is an ultra.

I’ve always enjoyed writing and while it wasn’t a blog per say, my old MySpace account was more so a journal detailing my incredible hiking adventures in my younger years. The idea to create something more recent has been on my mind for about a year or so. I recently came across a blog while researching the Dragon’s Back race and one post by the blogger in question just hit me. It was raw, it was honest and it was inspirational. I also saw a lot of myself in Allie, and thus could relate.  https://www.alliebailey.co.uk/alliebruns/2022/9/14/the-real-reasons-that-the-dragons-back-race-is-the-toughest-in-the-world

I appreciated her willingness to put herself out there for the world to see. I’ve come to realize that showing vulnerability is one of the best ways to earn trust. It worked during my time in leading one hundred of the finest men and women in the Canadian Armed Forces a few years ago and as I still practice that belief today, it continues to work for me.  Why should we fear showing that we’re human. Why should refrain from a willingness to display our emotions. What’s the worst that can happen.  One of the small handful of readers any blog has (😉) calls you out for being “weak”. Sorry, but I have bigger things to worry about than comments from critics whom I will never meet. 

We all have a voice, and we all have a story.  You never know who your story might inspire or help them deal with many of the challenges faced in their own story. It could also be as simple as offering someone ten minutes to maybe step into someone else’s adventures and take a break from their own. Maybe this is you, the reader right now, and if that is the case I offer you my gratitude, my thanksgiving.

Thankful for this little helper.

So, we answered, why the blog. Let’s discuss the second question: why life is an ultra? I think I first heard my friend Joe use this term although now I use it so often, he actually associates it with me.  So, what exactly is an ultra?  I guess I personally associate it with an ultra marathon but in theory it could be anything that is associated with endurance, with something that takes time and effort. It could be an endurance sport like biking or running. It could be going after something like a master’s or doctorate. You decide your own ultra and thus the many challenges you come across in chasing that endeavor.  But let’s talk about an ultra marathon (ie. Any running event greater than the 42.2 kms associated with a marathon).

When I think about all the challenges associated with ultra’s (both from experience as well as learning from the experience of others) I see a plethora of similarities that we deal with through life in general. 

Putting up the Halloween decorations with dad.

1.      Challenges: Unless you’ve had the perfect life (no one has) you will come across challenges and hurdles that test your resilience over and over again. Some may be small (ie. No milk to help put a child back to sleep), while others could be life changing. This is called living. It’s what makes all the good times, great. We have a saying in the military…no plan survives first contact, and that is exactly the same when running an ultra. You can prepare right up until the point when you arrive at the start. You have a strategy all planned out (nutrition, pacing, hydration, equipment use etc…) but once the horn goes off, anything and everything can and will happen. Unless you planned for everything, something is going to happen to test your ability to adjust and overcome.  That’s life as well. We are owed or guaranteed nothing. Sickness can arrive even to the healthiest of poeple. A case of bad luck can derail the best business plan. An injury can take out your A race. Putting in the work, while making you stronger, still doesn’t mean you will accomplish what you set out to…YET. Challenges are abundant in life, and challenges are abundant in an ultra.

2.      Importance of a Crew: Many ultras (not all) allow you to have a crew, a team. It is your crew’s job to help get you through the race. They keep you motivated when things get hard, they ensure that you are sticking to your plan the best that you can. At times, a crew member might also be a pacer who runs beside you for a section, a moment in life, to ensure that you don’t get lost and are always moving forward. A crew member is no different than those people in your life, you family, your close friends who keep you going when life gets hard. At times they may be your conscience, or maybe they are just an ear that listens to you or a shoulder to lean on or two arms to hug. Crews are a blessing, ask any ultra runner; and friends, family, well, is there anything more important in one’s life?

3.      Experience: If you’re lucky you will get to run in multiple ultras throughout your running career. Each one offers lessons to be learned, opportunities to experience, new people to meet and places to go. Over time, these experiences will help you grow as a runner and will fill your “cookie jar” with new accomplishments that you can then reflect upon when things get tough again. This is no different than when you go through experiences in life. Hopefully, most of one’s experiences lean towards the positive in life, but one should not disregard the importance of opportunities that come out of the hard things we go through. Everything we have all experienced up until this moment in our lives, has had a role in where we are now. Hopefully, you, the reader are at a good moment in your life, but if not, I say, don’t worry (too much). Where you’re at now will help get you not only to where you want to be but maybe where you are destined to be as well. Have faith in yourself as I do in you.

4.      End of the Race: Every ultra has an ending and much like life, we determine how we want to run it. We determine what our vision for that ending looks like. Is it with a podium finish, or do you just want to successfully complete it. Will you be happy with a DNF (did not finish) so long as you know you gave it your all. Did you run your race solo, or with friends and a team.  I, for one want to run my race (ultra and life), primarily with a smile on my face but also knowing that I entered the “pain cave” on multiple occasions but always came out the other side better for it.  Life, like ultras (runs, academic pursuits, business goals) isn’t supposed to be easy…it is however supposed to be lived, to be experienced. I hope that you all find your ultra, that you train for it, that you appreciate the journey but most of all that when the race is over you have peace knowing that you arrived at the start, you gave it your all and when you crossed the finish line, whether in first place, fourth place or last, you did your best and are proud and THANKFUL for having done so.

5.      Let’s Gooooo…and Happy Thanksgiving.

Jack's first Thanksgiving.