(and what you need to interject a little life into your life)

One of my long-time friends emailed me and said – “hey, I’ve got this cabin up in Hayward and I’ve got room for you. Do you want to do the Birkie?”

[The Birkie is a 50k cross country ski race]

I thought about it briefly. Looked at the dates. Nothing on the calendar (unusual). Thought, “hey, can’t be as hard as a marathon and I like the idea of staying in shape.”

Obviously I would need to get clearance from the home front. I asked my wife if she was cool with it. Well…she said yes, but a week or so later her comments made me think she didn’t fully understand what I was getting myself into when she originally said yes.

Anyway, that’s not the point.

The point is this – I agreed to do it because I believed I could do it.

I wrote my friend, said “yeah, I’m in” and I committed to it. Registered online just before the rates went up.

And then as I talked about it with my friends and family, they got all negative and doubty on me – “What? Are you crazy? Shouldn’t you start with something shorter? You don’t even ski!”

Then, last night, while the kids were practicing ski jumping, one friend who has done the Birkie 6 times talked about how he didn’t finish the first 2 times and how hilly it was.

(Hmm. . .ok, starting to sound like more of a challenge).

My wife still questions me about it now as do others.

My point is still this – I believe I can do it – I committed to do it – I am going to do it. End of story.

My advice to those you may be discouraging is this – don’t get all dark on people who are going after something, believe in it, are capable of it – regardless of how crazy you think it is.

My advice to those of you who think you can do something big, outrageous, and maybe even crazy? Go for it.

There’s a reason some experts recommend that you not share your dreams with everyone - they’ll just tell you how impossible they are! (to be clear, though - it’s not like I’ve been dreaming about the Birkie!)

Anyway, I’ve got 107 (+/-) days to get ready. Just got my XC ski poles today so I can practice with the inline skates. . .I’ll keep you posted.

2 Comments »