A Life Changing Experience
Hello!
It has taken me a little while to pause and really digest the Vasaloppet challenge experience before collecting my thoughts in order to share this experience. What I came to realise, that on February 29, 2016, when I started my 90K cross country ski race from Salen to Mora in Sweden, that this date, and the 11 hours and 8 minutes it took me to complete it, was in all actually a PART of the whole experience, not just the experience itself. The race actually began the moment I committed to taking this challenge THAT was the moment it all began, and I also realised that crossing the finish-line was far from the end of the race, again, in all actuality the race will likely (and hopefully) never, ever end.
I will skip right to the race day itself. Those following along know the story and training required to get me to the start line in Sweden, for those new to this (hello!) the back blog posts, instagram and Facebook pages will pretty much fill in these blanks.
Departing Australia my good friend James Thomas (Founder of Feel the Magic, the charity I supported in the challenge) and I flew through Singapore and Helsinki to get to our destination in Gothenburg… 26 hours travel time going INTO one of the biggest challenges of your life was in itself a challenge, and James was a great barometer of reality along the way. Landing in Gothenburg, Sweden we were met by my friend Oscar, who is the one that told me about the race years ago and planted the seed back in 2012. He was both excited to see us, very warm in greeting us, and also concerned as I was still wearing my shorts and t-shirt from leaving Australia arriving in the middle of winter in Sweden. As he should have been, and as I also quickly became.
We spent a few days sight-seeing the amazing city then we started our journey up north for the race. First we crossed into Norway and were met by the Founder of Team Santander who sponsored my clothes, skis, poles, even my goggles and beanie! The skies, as it turns out were powder waxed and were “some of the fastest you can get”… which only served to scare me! We went from there up to the cabin to settle in before the big day, where Oscar, who was also doing the race for his third time taught me how to apply the “grip wax” to the middle of my skis. This man took on the persona of an old-time doctor with his bag of tricks as he had all various types of wax made to combine with one another to make the perfect mix for the conditions on the day. He even had his own table and iron to apply the wax with… really impressive! One day out from the race both Oscar and James suggested it would be a good idea to at least make sure my new boots that Out There Nordic sent me for the race fit into the skis etc… I wanted to keep my promise that I wouldn’t ski until the day of the race BUT thought it would be a good idea to make sure all the sponsored equipment worked together so we went outside the remotely located cabin into the snow to try it out. To ensure that I wouldn’t go of skiing I went outside wearing ONLY my ski boots, so it would’ve been too cold to go off for any distance. Yes, there is a photo of this, yes its on social media, and yes I apologise for the poor eyes that have seen it.
Then it came time to settle in for the night, we ate our body weight in pasta and generally laughed and joked around in the cabin – with Oscar and I incredibly pensive knowing what we were up against the following day. That said, we both slept surprisingly “ok” and were up and looking at one another with determined faces at 4:10am, ready to go.
THE DAY
We arrived at the start at about 6am, and joined thousands of other people in group stretching activities and all around excitement. It was -18 degrees but that didn’t hold people back from smiling, dancing and keeping their spirits up. There was even a band playing various songs including ABBA covers which seemed to keep peoples spirits high, and their minds off the fact they are about to cover 90K of land by way of physical strength, mental determination and all around crazy ambition. The toughest part came when we had to remove our coats leaving us stripped down to our long sleeve undershirts and race bibs… thinking back on that just makes me shiver! Once stripped down everyone got in their tracks and readied for the start, and all of a sudden, a loud noise sounded, the gates went up and we were off! Despite having trained for months to get to this point, this was the FIRST time I was pushing off to actually ski, and in my excitement and general misunderstanding of how the sport actually worked, I pushed quite hard and ran right into the guy in front of me! I apologized and explained that this was the first time I had ever skied, to which he replied “well then today will be the longest day of your life”… and he was right, ha!
The thousands of people started making their way out of the start area, around the first turn and right into the famous bottle neck that leads up the first mountain climb. As we started skiing up the mountain, by “fishbone” style walking to keep grip I realised I was alongside a guy that was in a “sit ski” as he had no function in his legs, and was doing the entire race using just his arms! Amazing! I was really relieved at this point that not only did training on roller skis set me up in a great way for the technique as actually skiing didn’t feel too incredibly foreign, and I was also relieved as I had never skied up a hill before which wasn’t easy, however also wasn’t as hard as I was thinking it would be. Again, a big testament to the time and dedication put in on the training in the previous months.
The sights I soon had the good fortune to see were nothing less than breathtaking – skiing alongside thousands of other people watching the sun rise over the mountain valley in a place you can only see if you’re out there skiing was rewarding by itself. As the race progressed I became more confident in my ability to stay with it – never once did I doubt that I would complete the race and I never took a break outside of the designated check points. I did getsore in my upper and lower back from all the pushing, but following the advice from so many people – I didn’t let my mind take control of the situation, I simply realised my body was feeling a certain way, and just kept pushing. Outside of the blueberry soup and electrolyte supplements I was taking I had a huge helping surprise that I was not expecting. At the second checkpoint somewhere in the crowd cheering the racers on I heard “looking great Josh!”… which hearing a sentence in English was a surprise, but the fact it had my name in it was a shock! I looked over and here was my good friend Erik, whom I had not seen in NINE YEARS since he and I were flatmates in university! He had seen on social media that I was doing this challenge and he drove SEVEN HOURS from his hometown to come support me in the race! I screamed when I saw him and apologized as I wasn’t able to stop at that point to say a long-overdue hello, to which he replied that we would get that chance as he would going to be greeting me at each checkpoint along the way! LEGEND! This man actually made his way to each checkpoint to give me support and even held my skis on two separate occasions where I ran off to go to the bathroom! He was there for all 11 hours of the race.. Again – LEGEND!
The hardest, and by far SCARIEST part of the race was the downhill sections, and (again in professionally waxed super-fast skis) I was really surprised at just how fast you actually fly! In some parts people were taking their skis off to walk down, which I never did… instead I took the advice of my friend and trainer Barbra to bend down, put my elbows on my knees and just “tuck into it”.. .which I did and though it was scary it really felt amazing to be screaming (literally and figuratively) down these mountains! I often get asked if I crashed, and actually happy to say that I did a couple times… all part of the experience right?! I took the advice of a friend of mine in Sydney who is from Sweden who told me “if you think you are going to fall, you will”.. so I would do and think some of the strangest things to keep my mind blissfully numb to what I was actually doing… including singing Lionel Richie (this speaks to my delusional state as I actually don’t LISTEN to Lionel Richie?!) and Lenny Kravitz songs at the top of my lungs… that must have been a real treat for those around me haha
Each kilometer was marked in the race by a big sign showing you how many kilometers you have left… and after all the pushing, I finally made it to my last sign with a big beautiful number 1 on it! From here I skied into a scene that I have been looking at in pictures all year long – the town of Mora and the stadium set up around the final section, and of course the finish line! I used all remaining energy to push as hard as I could to finish strong, and am proud to say that’s exactly what I did. On finishing I was floating… just absolutely floating with excitement, pride, adrenalin, and shock… I had one last surprise for the day as my friends has organised with the presenter of the race at the end to come interview me at the finish! Ha! Here I just laid all my energy out on the ski field and now had to find a bit more to think straight as what I was saying was on the loudspeakers and on camera! I was interviewed about how I had just started skiing that morning, and how I was doing this for the Feel the Magic charity. It was great, as soon as I finished the interview I had a number of people come up after and ask if I was serious, “did I really just ski for the first time in the worlds longest ski race”… a question that I will look back on and smile for the rest of my life.
Oh the other best part of the day was the warm shower after, that was amazing…
Our remaining time in Sweden after the race was spent touring the truly amazing city of Stockholm and visiting with good friends in the country, and I am very glad we gave ourselves the downtime after to digest the experience.
My next blog post will be on the outcomes for the Feel the Magic charity, and my experience mentoring at Camp Magic, which is a 3 day camp for kids living with grief from losing a parent, sibling or legal guardian – and the vasaloppet challenge raised enough money to send 5 kids to this camp… which was another life changing experience in itself.
I have been fortunate to have been interviewed about the Vasaloppet challenge, being the fist of many to come on the Today Show, ABC, SBS Norwegian and SBS Swedish, the Manly Daily and Daily Telegraph... but sitting here, taking my time typing this and recalling the memories has allowed me to really re-live this, and I genuinely appreciate your time in reading it and hope that it inspires you to put a little bit of challenge in your life… you will absolutely amazed at what you can really achieve, especially when doing it for others!
Thank you for reading, and feel free to join the newsletter for additional news and updates :)
Josh
Today Show
"yes, hello - I've got the daredevil skier here ready for studio entry....."
I have lived a very fulfilling 34.5 years of life so far... but NEVER did I think I would hear the above sentence being said about me. But said about me it was, as I walked in to meet the good people at Channel 9 for my segment on the Today Show last Thursday.
It started with a facebook friend request from a person I've never met before, followed by a message stating that my story was seen in the Manly Daily the day before and they would like to discuss further as this "sounded awesome and like quite the story". I accepted the friend request and met an amazing girl named Lauren, a producer on the show... and the phone interview came shortly after.
In between the laughing, sentences such as "are you serious" and "wait... like you've NEVER skied" were said... the fact that she actually lived in Boulder, Colorado likely really drove home the insanity of this to her.. honestly this one one of the best brief interviews I've had for this so far.
They asked me to come in at 7am for a 7:55 interview the next day, and I could barely sleep I was so excited! I went in, after being branded the "daredevil skier" by reception, was escorted into makeup - where I was told I didnt need any but gave me a little powder anyway... HEY, it was early in the morning after all! In the makeup room the girls were laughing about my chances of actually pulling the challenge off... standard really.
I then walked out onto set, awaited my segment which followed a "young vet" segment so as I walked up to the stage I was passed by ducks, dogs and children of all sizes grinning from ear to ear about having been on TV... I could relate. When I went on the hosts were SO incredibly nice and strikingly professional, this certainly wasn't their first rodeo... as it was mine. Our brief conversation wasn't scripted and just had a fun freestyle chat to it which made me far more comfortable, seriously, they were amazing to talk with!
The interview was quick and I got a message from the producers after saying that it went great and they are putting it on their website - INTERVIEW CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE.
Win!
So this was seriously one of the best experiences of my life... and have to be honest has made me hungry to do more. The ability to spread the word about the challenge (this one for Vasaloppet specifically) and the charity (Feel the Magic) was a dream come true. From this a few interesting conversations for other fun stuff has begun so will be updating on this soon.
Im still buzzing from this and continue to wake up smiling knowing without a doubt that I am living my purpose of getting out and making my dreams of adventure a reality, and helping as many people along the way as I can.
I genuinely thank you for reading, supporting and following along. I will keep working hard to keep creating stories to post! Yes!
I am still off my donation mark of $10K - if you would like to help me reach my goal please CLICK HERE :) also feel free to join the newsletter on the outspire.org home page!
Thank you for reading!!
Josh the "Daredevil Skier"
Training by numbers
I thought it would be nice to provide an update of where I'm at currently in terms of stats on my training...
1 - Peanut Butter Sandwiches consumed during training (today was the first, and NOT the last... you can take the boy out of the USA but you can't take the USA out of the boy...)
2 - Times I've fallen (HARD) while going over 35K per hour on the roller skis. Might I add, this has nothing to do with roller skiing being dangerous - it's not - it does however have everything to do with me completely overlooking common sense a few times and not paying attention to you know... where the road ends, etc.
3 - Countries I've trained in outside of Australia (Argentina / Macau / Hong Kong).
4 - Goo energy gels consumed during training (the tropical ones - stay AWAY from the berry ones, they are liquid devil)
5 - Times I have caught people slowing down deliberately to take a video or photo of me from their car. Any press is good press people...
42.8 (k per hour) - Fastest I have gone on the roller skis so far :)
45 (kilometers) - furthest distance skied during one training - THIS WAS TODAY!!! POW!! This is the halfway mark to the 90K Vasaloppet finish line!
60 - days until I get my feet in the skiis for the start of Vasaloppet!
99 (ish?) - expletives of various strength I have emitted during training at the gym, running, 5am starts, roller skiing up hills, etc, etc... I believe this is an integral part of the development??
COUNTLESS - Times I have smiled, laughed and genuinely been overwhelmed along the way by all of the people that have showed support.
THANK YOU!!! :)
Josh
Superstition Shmuperstition
This week at the gym I had the luxury of being paired up to train with a great guy named Angus that has successfully completed two full Hawaiian IRONMAN World Championship races (the hardest out there). As if when he was writing the book of "how to be a badass" he decided doing just the one world championship didn't fit the story quite right..
Anywho, this training session earned me a heck of a lot more than a thorough demolishing physically - I was also fortunate enough to have the breath left after to have a really great conversation with Angus that is already starting to pay dividends in my mindset for Vasaloppet. He told me a key to endurance racing is to have a special "trigger" that you use to reset your mind along the way. He went on to explain, true to form from the advice I've been starting to get from others as well, that your mind will try to shut your body down to protect it long before it needs to quit - and to keep your wandering mind at bay he suggests having a special trigger. He said one of the best IRONMAN athletes out there stops when he hits "the wall", takes his sunglasses off and rubs both lenses on each of his thighs four times, puts them back on and continues on refreshed.
Angus then said his own trigger was pinching his right eyebrow.
I laughed thinking it was a bit superstitious. He didn't laugh. I stopped laughing.
Great point though - if our mind is concerned with protecting us and getting us back to the safe harbour of normal activity rather than endurance racing, it stands to reason that we will need to reset it, or "trigger" it to behave differently. Im taking this advice on and tomorrow morning on my longest training session on the roller skis yet, I will put this in to play when I start to tire. Now, to figure out what my trigger could be... hmm
SO - how do you reset? What do you do when you hit the wall and your mind wanders and just wants to do anything but what you're doing, how do you keep going? I think this is entirely applicable in many daily routines... just don't blame me for getting asked into HR for pinching your left eyebrow with your game face on in the office..
HERE is the link to the Hawaiian IRONMAN World Championship if you're interested :)
Ive started sending out newsletters with updates on the Vasaloppet training, media stuff, and all around news - please subscribe on the home page (just name and email, very easy!) to receive it as well.
Thank you for reading and as always, I appreciate your support.
Josh
Your mind is the devil
.... is exactly what I heard from a deep voice that was not only behind me, but coming up fast as I was roller skiing my way along a deserted two lane road while training very early last Saturday morning.
Concerning? Yep.
The person from which both the voice and these words came from however, couldn't have come at a better time. As he quickly met up with me and kept pace while I was training (easy to do as he was on a bicycle, and looked as if he was BORN on a bicycle despite his advanced years) he continued to instruct me on how to manage the delicate and constant battle between mind and body as we moved along the road. "Your legs are the wheels, your heart is the engine, your eyes are to keep focus on the destination in which you are moving, and your mind - your mind is the devil so get rid of it, its useless!" is what he kept saying. All of this well before introducing himself or letting any commonplace pleasantry get in the way of his new found persistence in bettering me as an athlete. Seriously - amazing guy.
We moved down the road together for about 4 kilometres - the whole time with constant nudging about what I was concentrating on, listening to my body or my mind. We came to a fork in the road where our paths would separate, only then did he tell me his name was Drago and that he was a professional athlete racing for Serbia for many years - and with a kind nod he said "keep that devil away and you will do just fine in your race"... funny as I didn't get a word in edgewise to actually tell him what I was training for. Seriously, amazing guy.
The theme continued as I found myself on a yoga mat for the first time in over a year - attending a yin yoga class last night. The instructor said something that really stuck with me, as I was face to the floor with my right arm somewhere my left leg usually is. In a calm, caring voice (quite the contrast from my brief time with the Serbian coach) she said that as we are holding our poses - to remember that we're not just training our bodies but our minds. It is important to focus on whats going on with the body and let the mind go - then we will strengthen our focus and other challenges in life will seem to become easier as we will know how to direct our mental attention in the appropriate time. I could only choose to agree that yes forgetting my ferry pass at home is less stressful now that I know what my left ankle looks like from all angles.
Seriously though - the mind is a truly wonderful thing that we are fortunate enough to be able to use, but we have to have the fortitude to know when not to let it use us. Im still learning this..
I know I will certainly be recalling the words of both of these people when pushing myself along the tracks in Vasaloppet... Where in life will you need to remind yourself of the same?
3 months and 3 days until race day..
Thanks for reading - and if you like please subscribe for news and updates on the home page :)
Josh
There is nothing there...
In a recent and ridiculously inspirational conversation in a local cafe with Claudine Chicheportiche (we're both Manly Beach residents as it turns out) she, through sheer conviction in her story taught me so, so much. Key points included the importance of mindframe, not accepting "NO" for an answer, and determination - but lets face it, that was going to happen. I mean, this incredibly driven woman is a 4x black belt with more national and global Karate titles than I have had Christmas dinners.
We all know that a simple YouTube search on "motivation" (etc) will provide an onslaught of videos with varying levels of intensity and poorly chosen background music. The key to putting all this theory to use is in surrounding yourself with people turning these lessons in motivation and determination (etc) into practice. Claudine is a prime example of one of those people, and she was kind enough to share with me a story of how she got to "her limit" in both mental and physical capacity during training, and what happened when she got there.
A little while ago Claudine crossed paths completely by chance with a trainer that had the required ability to take an athlete of her ability to the next level. And from the story and expression on her face... it didn't sound easy... especially as she was told that during training she was either going to "throw up or quit"... she definitely had her work cut out for her.
But she dug in and faced it... and after surpassing her current threshold of training ability, she said she finally reached it.
The point.
The line.
She was at the edge of her mental and physical ability and she said that's when she got to look at the other side and finally learn what was there..
Nothing.
Nothing at all. She said there was nothing in that defining moment when she ceremoniously achieved more in training than she had ever thought possible.. what she learned as a result is that there is genuinely nothing to fear, or hold back from when pushing yourself. There is no regret, seismic change, or confetti that drops from the sky. Just you, and your newly pushed limit. Congratulations. Now go use it.
Claudine then asked if I have ever truly pushed myself 100% and hit my limit - to which I had to admit, no.. not yet. She didn't say it directly, but I know there was an implied challenge stating something along the line of "what are you waiting for"...
Challenge accepted Claudine, challenge accepted..
I do hope you all see this limit for yourself in your various journeys - you will know when you've arrived.
Thanks for reading and to stay in the loop on updates please subscribe on the home page.
BACK OFF!
If you're anything like me you will focus on something (goal / task / anything) and really think it through. I mean really, really think it through. Write it down or draw it on a board and consider the outcomes and really deliberate all the little steps along the way to make it happen. So much so that it almost suffocates the ability for things to happen naturally.
If this sounds familiar I would like to offer the same advice I've been learning to give to myself:
Knock it off.
Consider the concept of space. In nature it is found in such things as rivers transferring into streams and estuaries - trees into branches and leaves - etc. In ourselves we have veins turning into capillaries, lungs depending on the space around cilia to function, and many, many other things that I don't understand and/or am not clever enough to use as an analogy.
I believe this has its merit in our thoughts and actions as well. Let things breathe - thinking about something too much.. well put it on the shelf somewhere in your mind and just let it be. Things have a way of working out if you just give them the space to do so... we can focus on the main "problem" or "task" etc, so much that we do not allow it to spread out and seek its own resolve.
In discussing this with a friend of mine today, she said that "often execution is not in the doing, rather it is in the non-striving that is a powerful force for creation". I take her advice as she's a mindfulness instructor, running her own business on helping people "get their shit together" at The Indigo Project (link here).. backed up by also being a Psychologist.. yeah, there's merit in those words. More so than my average nature analogies.
Funny, I'm typing this in a cafe and "let it be" is now playing... anyway...
The reason this topic has struck a chord with me is that two amazing things have happened in the past 48 hours. These are things that have happened because I just relaxed on them, and they have found their way to resolve...
- How to spend more time in Latin America. The first of the two amazing things: I had a great meeting here in Buenos Aires by chance with a super inspirational guy that runs a brilliant human-centred design company. He just happened to be here in BA as well (he lives in Mexico) - so a mutual friend connected us. The coffee chat turned into us discovering ways to work together on INCREDIBLY interesting projects overseas and will see me back in Latin America... didnt see that one coming...
- Where to sleep before Vasaloppet in a crowded village. Amazing thing #2: I have been stressing about my accommodation in Sweden for Vasaloppet... apparently the norm is that the competitors (most of the 16K people!) cram into sport facilities close to the town the race starts in... so you're on the floor sleeping in the same room as hundreds of other people snoring and entertaining one another with carb-loaded body functions. PASS. Well, this morning I woke to a message from a great friend that lives in Gothenburg, and fellow Vasaloppet racer saying that I am invited to use their spare bedroom in a cabin close to the start line. WHAT! And more, he's in touch with people to see if he can get me an interview in Vasaloparen (The Vasa Skier) which is the official magazine for Vasaloppet. WHAT WHAT!
Two things I've been acutely aware of - finding myself in Latin America more frequently, and finding a place to sleep before the biggest race of my life so far... sorted! Because? I chose to relax and as the song just said, "let them be".
So... whatever your journey is currently having you face, back off of those heavy thoughts and see what happens if you let things chose their natural path.
Buena suerte and as always, thanks for reading.
Only dead fish go with the flow
When my good friend Nikki (a Sexologist and Author by trade) called and asked if I would go along with her to a body building championship last Sunday as she wanted to take her friend some cupcakes to celebrate her participating in and finishing the comp, my reaction was quick and confident.
Yes.
It wasn't just that I love our catch ups (I do), or am a sucker for red velvet cupcakes (I AM!) - but it was the chance to just see and be a part of something I have never experienced before that quickly saw me trading laundry day to check out something new.
In the taxi to this competition she tells me how important it is to ask yourself "when's the last time you did something for the first time". Think about that... And ask yourself the same.
Theres a saying in Swedish that translates to "only dead fish go with the flow" which is a personal favourite. I like to call on this subtle reminder regularly to check in on myself - am I doing the things I am doing because I am genuinely passionate about them, or am I doing the things I'm doing because they're, well, the things I've been doing.
Shake things up.
Try something for the first time.
Usually start the day tying your right shoe? Start with your left tomorrow. Little things matter.
Don't go with the flow, you're not a dead fish.
Feel free to reach me at josh@outspire.org with any feedback, questions, or suggestions and please subscribe on the home page for updates.
Have a great day.
You ski mine, and I'll ski yours
This journey continues to surprise me!
Today I was contacted by the great guys at ONELIFE Jomack - I can say these dudes are the real deal - and I highly recommend clicking on the link and following their journey. Marcus and I connected via our friends at Roller Ski Australia and the timing was perfect because the dudes are on a rest day today.
Rest day. Lets review what that means to most of us:
Sunday? Yep.
A day off of the gym? Sure.
Netflix marathon after a big night out? Clearly.
Well... to Marcus - rest day means a days rest after just having kayaked THREE THOUSAND K's before charging the remaining EIGHT HUNDRED K'S on their kayak trip from Sweden to Istanbul!
REST DAY. Pfffft...
So once they hit Istanbul its just a simple walk across India before coming to Australia to roller ski across the entire country. Yes, I meant to type all of that. Its this last part that has us crossing paths in a very advantageous way. The two Swedish guys have been cross country skiing before, but never roller skied. I, have been roller skiing but have never cross country skied. So the guys coming here in January to take on a massive roller ski challenge is perfect timing as thats just a month before I go to their country to take on a massive cross country ski challenge... haha yikes.
The lads have been kind enough to ask me to join them on their Australian crossing kick off so I will head out of Sydney roller skiing with them to see them on their way. Likely, I will hit 50K (+/-) and hitch hike back but not without an affectionate wave and a few kind words.
I love seriously this.
Here's Marcus and I matching notes... and realising we're both crazy in very similar ways. Go Team Adventure Beard.
What I learned from my weekend in prison
We've all been there. Well ok maybe not prison but in those situations..
Cruising along somewhere between our pre-determined point A and point B and it hits us. There you are, in a very random situation that on paper is laughable, and internally is somewhere between concerning and anxiety producing.
This was me a few weeks ago. I had just landed in Perth, Australia, on a last minute weekend get away to visit the ladies that run Roller Ski Australia. This would be my first ever roller ski lesson. Ok, I was nervous about that, sure. I was also a bit nervous about the accommodation I had booked for myself googling a simple "cheap accommodation Freemantle" - up came a new hostel built into the area's famous prison. They will also proudly tell you how the prison is the most haunted building in Australia.
Room for one please..
Ok fine I wasn't a prisoner, but yes I was staying in a prison.
None the less, some serious learning took place here. I was way outside of my comfort zone and for the first time training with cross country skiing professionals, on another side of the country of which I knew virtually nothing about, giving it the best effort I could.
Somewhere between calling my Mother while hanging up laundry on a line attached to the prison wall, and roller skiing up Freemantle beach walkway with three incredibly supportive Norwegian women - it hit me. This is it. These are the moments that we live for. Not the pre-determined, well thought out end points - rather the mornings you wake up (voluntarily) inside prison walls just before going out to train for a crazy race that you've committed to.
Life was happening.
Taking in the environment of the accommodation I had booked - the folks at Freemantle Prison YHA have very tastefully provided stories of past inmates and the history of the prison itself located for easy viewing around the "hostel". Reading the stories of the lives that have been lived and consequently lost, inside the walls I have paid AUS $30 a night to stay in really puts things in perspective. We are very fortunate, all of us, to have the freedom to make the decisions and take on the challenges we wish. I like to remind myself (and my poor friends constantly) that life is full of stimulants, and we have the fortune of deciding how we react to them.
So next time you find yourself driving on a deserted highway after midnight to check into a prison to begin training for the worlds longest race in a sport you've only just signed up for... or you know... whatever happens between your point A and point B, remember to enjoy the ride and make the most of it. Its life thats happening, choose wisely.
Please subscribe for news and updates on the home page - thanks for following :)
Josh
