YOU MAY DIE! dun dun dunnnnn

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” -T.S Eliot

I feel that this quote most adequately describes my training with Joe these past few weeks. There have been a lot of questions asked and a fair share of eyebrows raised. My poor dad, whilst delivering the almighty peanut butter and banana sandwich during one of my mountainous treks asked me how heavy that sandbag was. “20? 15-10 LBS?” No dad, not quite. I think he had a harder time watching me struggle snatching that POS onto my back then I did actually doing the squat-to-awkward-press.

My mom, the same. Clearly something is not right when her son is getting up 3 hours before the dawn to do god knows what. I came back home one night after being gone all day and unable to speak, ate half our kitchen, and passed out shortly after I set my 4:45AM alarm for the next morning.

Enter, Chelsea’s perfect quote left for me in my camelback 

No, this race was not part of the grand plan, and yes it was a little last minute. And hey, I don’t really have the best chances at winning this thing. But you can bet your ass that I am going to go out there tomorrow and give this aggressively long obstacle course everything I have. If you know me, you’ll know I am an extremely competitive person and I really hate to lose.

“Sport is about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute. Sport, like all life, is about taking your chances.” -Roger Bannister

Tomorrow the race starts at 8AM. I estimate I will be on course for somewhere between 8-10 hours. Hopefully that is a conservative estimate but as the race organizers have made headlamps mandatory, I will mentally prepare for a rather long day. I will admit that doing this race is partly driven by a financial gain. Cold hard truth of the matter is, ski racing is a damn expensive sport. I love this sport and I want to continue doing it. No, it’s not incredibly likely I’ll come out on top tomorrow, but I am sure going to try damn hard to. In any case, I am so happy to be out there with these incredible athletes and like I said, I don’t go down easy!

I have been training a bit with Margaret Schlachter and she was kind enough to let me throw her spear and jump her wall. Thanks Margaret!!!

Race Packet

Anyway, I have been tapering for the past week and taking it easy. My body has been building all this energy and I am so stoked to let is all loose tomorrow! I am not a person meant to be kept still by any means. A lot of people have asked me if I am nervous. No, I am not nervous. I am just ready. Are you?

On that note I have a big day tomorrow! I hope you will all wish me luck and check back in with my update tomorrow or the next day. Until then, hoping I don’t fall into the deep, deep dark abyss

-Tucker