The Colorado Relay, The Adventure...and the Tribe...
September 22, 2008

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves." Andre Gide (Writer, 1047 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1867-1951)

So I'm in a van with a multiple Western States 100 mile finisher, 2 x Ironman World Championship Qualifier, his wife, a 7x Ironman, and a high-altitude mountaineer....I have the blessing in life to have found myself in a situation where it's not only during a relay, above 10,000 feet in the Rockies...but each and every day, at work and at play, that I am surrounded by the TRIBE...the most unique, inspiring, and absolutely crazy group of athletes I will ever find....

....were competing in the Colorado Relay, a team relay, 170 miles long, 30 hours non-stop, across the Colorado Rockies, up and over 4 major passes, through Brekenridge, Vail, Aspen, and everything in between. I didn't just experience the Rockies, I connected, and it was an adventure...I picked up a spot in the van with my group just a few short days before the race...

I've run harder and longer in both training and racing...but that was not what inspired me...the race was difficult, my legs totaling over 26 miles over 30 hours, on very difficult terrain, and I was averaging under 7 minute miles...but the rawness of the experience and connecting with the people, that's what left me inspired!

It's a tribe, a crazy, whacked out tribe...my ultra people, my endurance people, my Ironman, my ultra marathoners, my crazy drop-of-the-hat-yeah-I'll enter-that-race-people. We follow each others' lives, we grow together, we have our rituals and traditions...and regardless if one of us is going out there alone, or as a group, there is this collective understanding....

Like any tribe, there are the young warriors, yet to earn their stripes, talented, but untested over the long haul....and there are the elders, where wisdom and experience meet inconceivable performance and and level of fitness. I was locked in a van for 30 hours with a nice collection, although it was more like three elders and a young guy like me!

Despite the fact that one may be more battle tested than the other...no one person knows what motivates the other...for the motivation is as unique as the individual themself. Regardless, there is a bond, a thread that is intertwined between the group, and a collective understanding...

...I suppose we're all tapped into something that allows the ego to step aside, even for just that brief period of time....and transcend....pushing the body not for glory or bragging rights...but for something so much deeper than the average person could possibly understand. That's a bond that runs through us...it's a tribe in every sense.

It wasn't until recently that I said, wow, I'm part of this thing, I finally get what these people are all about...my tribe, these are my people!

I wanted to get some of this down, to capture some of these ideas. I will post pictures of the relay, it was spectacular...

August 2008	September 2008	October 2008	November 2008	December 2008	January 2009
February 2009	March 2009	April 2009	May 2009	June 2009	July 2009