This morning was ridiculously incredible. It was absolutely absurdly fun. I don’t think we’ll be forgetting this one for a while, just look at that group photo.
Hold up a second – here’s how the blog is going to work this morning. I’m going to tell you about something that happened to me this weekend, something I relearned, then I’m going to recap today, and try to relate the two. Then we’ll break and carry this incredible vibe through Wednesday. With me? Cool.
This weekend, I ran my first ever college track meet. I’m not in college and I’m not a sprinter so I’m still not really sure how I got thrown into this event (one of the side effects to #verballing for everything). I showed up planning to run a 3K (1.86 miles) with some really fast, super fit racers. I was scared shitless. I was way out of my element and when the dude at check-in told me I can’t race because I wasn’t registered, I walked away with a huge sigh of relief. The nerves in my stomach were gone like that, POOF!
As I was walking away, I started to think that I can easily stand on the sidelines, watch the mens’ heat and leave orrrrr I could figure out a way into this race. I went up to the coach and half-assedly said, “I gotta run this race.” He said “Alright, you’re in.” Woah, what?! Also, SHIT. That was a lot easier than I thought and just like that I was back in the race and those nerves were back quicker than they left. But what’s the worst that could happen right?!
Wrong. At the sound of the gun I was off. I told myself I need to pace this, get in the middle (aka back) of the pack, hang on and turn it up for the last few laps. Well take that plan, tear it to shreds, throw it on the ground and ignite it. I found myself at the head of the pack for the first 3 (out of 15 laps). Nailed it.
And then I almost slipped (yup, spikes apparently help); and then my throat felt like it was on fire (track hack is a real thing). By the end of the third lap the entire pack passed me. Yup, I was in last. The race finished and I remained in dead last by a few seconds. Everything that could go wrong went wrong, but I walked away with the dopiest smirk on my face. Why?! I tried something new, took a risk, and fell flat on my face but left wondering when do I sign up (or sneak into) the next one?
So, where am I going with all of this?
Fast forward back to this morning. We arrived to the DD skate park under the Zakim Bridge. (Huge thanks to the crew over at Charles River Conservatory for creating this space). This place is basically a playground for adults. Created for skaters but almost like it’s really for our shenanigans. It’s an awesomely-overwhelming, maybe a bit intimidating, space. Waayyy too many options for the childish brains of Payne and myself. We had you do variations of exercises we’ve done before except these versions could only be done here at this skate park. Some of them were just plain stupid. The risk of something bad happening was high-er than what was probably a good idea and luckily we all came out of it in one piece (sorry EmSauce)*.
We ran up some STEEP walls (yup – walls, not hills), we dipped down some pools, we push-up’d up ramps, we created a new exercise which crushed our already sexy legs to absolute jelly (jump lunges into a squat). I can’t count the number of times I heard people say, “This is kiiinda scary”.
IT ABSOLUTELY WAS!! Flying down the kiddie pools and around the big “dick-n-balls” pools (technical skate boarder terminology) took a lot of courage. It wasn’t easy and I could see a lot of people went way outside their comfort zone. This morning was full of risky decisions and many of us opted to just fucking do it. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe a little pressure from the crazies around you doing it, but all of us took risks and tried something we weren’t completely comfortable with. A friend and old Boston tribe member, Owen Kendall, told me to simply get COMFORTABLY UNCOMFORTABLE. I repeat this to myself a lot.
Whatever it is that makes you scared or nervous or uncomfortable, try it sometime. Whether it’s signing up for your first half, a full, your first 5K, or something as small as trying to beast up the steep wall of a destination deck – get uncomfortably comfortable.
We’re using this city in new ways, looking at it differently, so you bet we’ll continue to do things that not every one will be comfortable with. No one in the group will ever look at you differently for doing one of the scalable options or not trying the stupid shit our brain somehow conjure up, but I encourage you to try to and go outside your comfort zone a bit. You wont regret it**.
I’m still riding the high from this morning. Thanks for showing up and acting like children with us. The energy of Monday’s are building. Let’s keep em rolling.
Much Love,
Capoze
PS – FRIENDLY REMINDER: Wednesday is the first Wednesday of February – remember to renew your parking pass if you’re planning to park at Harvard. Instructions HERE.
*Hopefully Em and Bojan don’t read down this far, but did someone shed blood this morning!? There was definitely blood, hopefully not from us.
**Unless you get injured. Then you’ll most definitely regret it, but it’s less powerful when you throw that into the end of the blog. #safetythird.
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