Extreme Kindness

Erik's Journal - September 8, 2002

Point form day: Up at 6:00am, yoga, drove to the Olympic Nordic center for the start of the Rocky Mountain 8km race, volunteered handing out computer chips for the race, ran the 8k with Chris in about 33min and finished in the top 15, had a 3hour group meeting, short trip to town, did laundry, hiked a local peak called How Lin peak, had dinner, early bed.

Highlight of the day: Running through the shadows of the Rocky Mountains in the cool morning air. It is a really powerful thing to run a race with 1400 other people. There is a magic that is created by the run and enhanced by the mountains. It’s the kind of event that reinforces why it is important to seize the day.

Most inspiring moment: Being at the top of one of those mountains that I had been running in the shadow of only hours before. I hung my feet from a 1500ft cliff. Woah!

Shout outs: All the people at the front desk of the Radisson. Thanks for supporting us. Thank you to all the people in Canmore who gave me directions. Helena, thank you for giving me the heads up in Canmore. Lenora, who, as I was writing this gave us fresh baked bread and homemade jam for our travels tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you to the random person who folded my cloths when I had forgotten them in the dryer. Thanks Jay for taking us up the mountain.

Classic Quote: Responding to a large group of runners who were asking where on their body to place their timing chip I responded, “Anywhere except your shoulder,” “Why not?” “Well, we can’t have anyone running through the finish line with a chip on their shoulder.”
Also: Brad (spoken while on the top of one of the Rocky Mountains), “Ya know, one of these days we should all go to the Philippines and climb Mount Everest.”

My Crux: Having everyone in the group not flow when we need to get things done. We are getting better though.

Physically Speaking: Ouch. Cuts are healing. Muscles are beyond sore and fatigue, they have reached a new level of usage.

Mental Stimulation: Nope.

Big Laughs: Kelly passing wind just before the beautiful server at the restaurant came over and asked how he was doing. We laughed hard for about 10 minutes.

When I finished writing this I was: Sitting in the hotel, pooped and stoked.