This 5 minute clip from the 2006 movie “Facing the Giants” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805526/) recently made me think about my dedication and drive. It is “The Death Crawl Scene” where an unmotivated person shows himself and his team that if you cannot see the “finish line” you can push your body harder and farther than you thought you could.
Many times our minds quit WAY before our bodies. In this time of instant information and feedback (how many steps you took, how far you have walked|biked|run, how fast you went…), we sometimes prevent ourselves from just going and doing.
This past weekend I left my GPS at home when I went backpacking. I was going with 8 highly-skilled people and, on the Appalachian Trail, you really just follow the white paint marks (blazes) until you reach your destination. With this crew and the well-marked trail, I wasn’t afraid of getting lost.
I’ve not really hiked/backpacked for about a year due to work and injury and, because of this, I wanted a short backpack hike. I knew I couldn’t do more than 5-7 miles. We picked a simple 5.5 mile hike to a camp site and then a 1.2 mile day hike (without stuff in our backpacks) to Chimney Rock overlook. I focused on not twisting my ankle, talking to my friends, and enjoying the hike. I knew we were only going 7ish miles and I could do that.
We got to our camp site, set up camp, relaxed, and then went on the extra hike to a gorgeous overlook. Took our time there and then came back. I knew my legs would only take me 7ish miles. Mentally, that was my limit but because I hadn’t brought my GPS or my smart watch with me to monitor the distance and my steps, I didn’t know how far we’d gone. When some of the others in the group checked their GPSs and found we’d gone over 11 miles I was stunned and thrilled that I hadn’t let my mind stop my body from enjoying a beautiful trip.
