I'm the oldest member of Abu Dhabi Desert Hacks and, as my teammates will undoubtedly agree, I bring to the team a keen wisdom and an unflappable, almost Zen-like, sense of calm. I am the Mr. Miyagi to their collective Daniel LaRusso.
I grew up playing just about every sport I could. I still look back with equal parts nostalgia and awe at the days of returning home from a football (soccer) match only to head straight out to a basketball tournament or best-of-five tennis match.
Like Matt, I played a lot of everything in high school -- tennis, soccer, basketball, golf -- and, as a product of the American Midwest, spent many a weekend camping, hiking, and in later years, paddling. I went on to play soccer for my university and continued with that until I twisted my MCL in half in a gruesome knee injury in 2000.
After a combination of surgical and therapeutic brilliance, I learned to walk again...without a limp. Ever since, I have tried, and at times failed, to keep a level of fitness. But, I know nothing I have ever done will have prepared me for what it will take to complete the ADAC. And thus, the gauntlet has been tossed.
While I agree with the others that there is a smidgen of danger involved in being one of the only amateur teams in the ADAC, I also believe that we -- as human beings -- owe it to ourselves to find out the stuff of which we're made. I would hate to have to tell my unborn children one day that I had the chance to do something incredible but I passed on it because it seemed too difficult. I cannot imagine the look of disappointment on their little faces.
When I doubt my own fitness or ability to finish the ADAC, I think of the sage advice from John A. Shedd in Salt from my Attic (1928), "A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
Least looking forward to: That moment when I feel like I physically cannot go on, and want to give up.
Most looking forward to: That moment when I feel like I physically cannot go on, and push myself to go further.
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