Dakar – lessons from the longest race on earth. Part 1

The Longest Yes of my Life

I live in Connecticut.  That’s 6500 miles and a big ocean away from Saudi Arabia.  What was I doing here?

Well, 8 years and one knee replacement ago, I became the oldest SOLO motorcycle rider to complete the longest NON-STOP off-road race in the world – the Baja 1000.  It took 34 hours.  I was and am very proud of that.  I worked for it.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done – well, maybe with the exception of the years I failed – four of them – two before and two after the year I finished it in the time limit.  

1000 miles in one shot on a dirt bike over rough terrain is…well…it’s a towering challenge.  It’s pain.  It’s glory.  It’s hell.  It’s everything you have – physically and mentally.  Less than 50 riders have done it.  My son Tanner has done it multiple times and won it in spectacular fashion in 2022.  

I was 54 years old when I checked that box.  So now I can “retire”, right?

But one of my mentors, Jim Rohn, said, “How much should you do?  Do as much as you can, as best you can, for as long as you can.”

How do you know you can?  You try.  Really try.

We made movies about our racing in the desert.  They are called the “Into the Dust” series on YouTube.  Free for all to see.  Into the Dust (1) has five million views.  Into the Dust 4 is when I finished the Baja 1000 Ironman class (solo).  It was a personal triumph of grand scale.  But one commenter (should I say “hater”) wrote, “Yeah, but Dakar is longer.”

I do not know who that guy was.  He was probably sitting on his couch swilling a beer at 6 pm on a Monday, I don’t know. 

In the years since 2018, I entered the Baja 1000 every year.  I failed in 2019.  I finished in 54 hours in 2020, but I was over the time limit and not an official finisher.  In 2021, I began racing on 4 wheels in a UTV, or “Side by side”, originally recruiting my friends to be on my team to drive and navigate.  My girlfriend Marie was my navigator for two years.  (I am sorry for beating her up like that, but she subsequently married me, and then retired from racing – lol).  In 2023, we won the Baja 1000 on four wheels, and I became one of only four riders/drivers to win on two wheels and four. (In 2015, my first Baja 1000, my son and I won as a team).

But that comment….”Dakar is longer”…..

I have a big jar of marbles on my vanity.  There is one marble for each week I will live to get to 100 years old.  Each weekend I take a marble out.  I reflect.  I look at the marbles left…..     

Time….

I made a call. 

“Chris, How can I get into the Dakar Rally?”