The Inspiration

What follows is the first blog I wrote about the GDR, which I published on 7/28/08 over at  http://www.mybasecamp.net.  It details how I became inspired to participate in the GDR (I have since chosen to race the Tour Divide along with my great friend Paul Barrera)

A couple weeks ago, I was moseying aimlessly through the airport gift shop as I awaited my flight to Dallas, marveling at the vast array of shameless price tags on undeserving products all around me. After chuckling at a $6 bag of chips, my eyes were drawn to the magazine stand, and more specifically, to one of the best outside magazines in publication, a magazine by the name of, well, Outside Magazine. Although I already had a subscription, this issue was hot off the press, and I hadn’t received mine at the house yet. So I snatched it up, gouging be damned, and boarded my plane shortly after.

The flight from Houston to Dallas is about 45 minutes. When I boarded the plane and got situated, I opened up my new mag and started reading. The next thing I knew, the pilot announced that we were preparing for landing. Startled, I looked at my watch. Yup, 45 minutes had indeed elapsed. He wasn’t just messing with our heads, as I had briefly suspected. And then a realization hit me: I’d been sitting there in my chair reading for almost an hour with a big honking grin on my face.

After wrestling my mouth muscles into submission, I reflected on the article which had enraptured me to the point that I had just traveled through time. “The World’s Toughest Bike Race is Not in France,” written by one Jon Billman, had just changed the focus of my life for the next couple years.

See, apparently, there’s this thing called the Great Divide Race which has been held annually since 2004, but had eluded my attention up to this point.  Billman had participated in the ’07 race, and he details his entire 25 day experience in the July edition of Outside.

If you’ve never heard of it either, fully self-sustained mountain bike adventure race starting at the Canadian border and ending at Mexican border.  It follows the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, which roughly parallels the Continental Divide. That’s right baby, we’re talking 2500 miles of athletic endurance in pristine mountain settings, armed only with your wits, your rig, and whatever you can strap on to it. No vans following you, nobody handing you water as you race by them, no pre-planned assistance, no luxuries, and no prizes for winning, (much less completing) the race. You sleep where you fall over, you ride in the rain, you eat on the ground, and you drag your bike to the nearest one horse town if you break down. If you get eaten by a bear on the trail, hey, you shoulda had some bear mace in your stuff sack.

“Uh, yeah,” said one buddy who I told about the race, “that sounds real appealing there, Ton.” I know it sounds nuts. That may be why there are only around 20 competitors in the race each year, and why half of them drop out within a week. Scratch out a handful more in the following week or two due to malnutrition, illness, bike failure, or just plain exhaustion and you end up with only a few racers eventually riding quietly over the finish line, without a hint of fanfare.

Yeah, I don’t think the offices of the GDR need to worry about reinforcing their door jambs anytime soon.

But if you’re still reading this, chances are you could be like me, and that maybe, just maybe, you have a big smile on your face right now, just as I did when I first read about the GDR. Yeah, I know your type. You want to do it. You’re crunching the numbers right now aren’t you? “Hm, let’s see, right now I have 68 hours of vacation. If I don’t use any of that from now until next year, and if I start training next week, maybe I could be ready in time-“ and so on and so forth. If you’re thinking that, then you probably recognize that a race like this is something infinitely more substantial than what it looks like to the room service types.

“But you’re going to have to take a month off of work to do it!” declares my rational, and perhaps more sensible friends. “How are you going to pull that off?”

True, I have an 8 to 5 just like most folks. Sometimes its an 8 to 7, or even an 8 to 9, with weekends thrown in for good measure.  And though it seriously hampers my outdoor hobbies, it is a necessity which I happen to value quite a bit in the current economy. That being said…screw it.

Many moons from now, I will be physically incapable of leading an adventurous life. In those golden years when my journey on this planet nears an end, when I have grandkids in my lap, or when I’m with old friends, or when I have quiet moments of reflection, what will be my fondest memories to share? What will I speak of proudly, or think upon with satisfaction? A meeting I attended at work once? A slide show presentation I delivered in a conference room? “Hey Little Billy, did I ever tell you about the time I loaded three Linux servers in one day?”  Mmmm, I’m not seeing it.

More likely, I will think back to a certain miraculous evening in Colorado when, after riding 120 miles on my bike that day, I took a break from setting up camp to watch a mountain sunset so gorgeous that it brought a tear to my eye. More likely, I will speak with pride about having once persevered through hardships and tests of endurance the likes of which only a handful of people on this earth had ever emerged victorious from. 

You know what? The whole job thing….it’ll work itself out. Jobs are there to support your life, not the other way around.

I’m gonna to go for it. Or I’m at least going to try like hell to go for it. When it comes to mountain biking, I’ve never been more than a weekend warrior, and I have precisely zero races under my belt. So I’ve got some serious training to do, especially if I’m trying for a 2010 entry. In fact I have a great many obstacles to overcome if this is going to happen for me.  Those will be detailed in a future post.  I’ll be posting updates in this blog on my training progress, all comments and tips are welcome!

Check out the Great Divide Race web site, and be sure to read A Day in the Life to get a feel of what the race entails.

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