Uncommon Sense

To be extraordinary….to be above average….to rise above the crowd….

You can’t be normal.

This may look weird to others, and you may question yourself.

But you have to spend your time doing what others don’t, so you can get the results others won’t.

Flawed conclusions

Here is what I am telling you – 

Years ago, you accepted flawed conclusions about yourself.

Then you began to live as if these warped ideas were true.

Well – you were wrong.

You underestimated yourself.

Old you/new you – choose just one

To be a new and better you, you have to let go of the old you.

The new you will have different habits and behaviors and patterns of thinking than the old you.

You have to let go of what you are used to in order to get better.

You can’t have both at the same time.

Choose one.

Just waiting on you…

A great life…a better life…adventure…excitement…love…joy…

it’s just waiting on you…

Doubt is the enemy

The number one thing holding you back is your own doubt and disbelief in your ability.

In most cases, the only reason you can’t is because you think you can’t.

When it comes to what is really important to you and what you really want, doubt is not allowed.

Fantastic Visions

Dream.

It’s ok.

It’s necessary.

You have to see it before you can do it or be it.

Giving yourself a chance

Getting in the game is not about taking a chance. 

It’s about giving yourself one.

African Dust – Rally du Moroc – part 9

I wake up a bit early.  I get up and assess my condition.  I feel better!  I take a shower.  I feel good.  The aches and pains are gone!  The demon has left my body!  I can race today!  Wow!  I get suited up.  Hold on there big fella – I’m not ok -but better.  I think I can do it.  I take the dramamine and the diarrhea meds early.  I go to breakfast.  They are excited to see me.  It’s on!

I learned that because I started yesterday but didn’t finish, I’m still in the rally.  I just got a huge penalty – something like 16 hours.  So now I just want to see how I can do today and just finish the rally.  In Dakar, I’d be out.  But here the rules are different and I am still in!

We start near last at 11:54am since we did not finish the day before.  But the liason is only 40 km today and the special (dirt race part) is 309 km, or 192 miles.  The course was fast and we never stopped.  We made some passes.  Lots of guys broke their cars – but not us.  This is where we’d be catching up in the overall standings if we had not missed a day. 

We finish 19^th of 38!  Consistent and getting better.  I feel even better at the end of the race day than at the beginning.  I am reborn!  I eat a big meal.  Rokas won the championship yesterday, but broke his car today.  So did the factory Can Am team.  They fixed them and finished. 

Day ten of the trip was the last Stage – Stage 5.  We had a 120 km liaison and a 279 km special.  One hour before we had to get in the car I start feeling sick again.  I was sweating and really worried.  I got in the car.  The whole process was getting routine now.  Less stress. 

The course was very fast today.  We were at 100 km an hour for much of it.  Only one car passed us all day.  Rokas broke his car again today.  We passed about 12 UTV’s that were broken.  Often they miss a rain rut and go in hard and break a wheel or suspension part.  70 km from the finish we hear a bang in the front end.  Bruno thinks it’s the front wheel drive.  We switch to two-wheel drive and go on. 

Today we finish 18^th – our best yet!  We cross the finish line at the bivouac and, to my relief, they award us finisher medals.  I felt like I earned that one. 

Bruno and I sit down at the South Racing tent and crack our first beer of the trip.  But I couldn’t finish it.  I was exhausted and my stomach was still not right.

Many thanks to Bruno – I couldn’t do it without him.  And I gratefully acknowledge South Racing and the entire team.  It was one of the most impressive businesses I’ve ever experienced.  They truly went out of their way to give a stranger and great experience in the wilds of Northeast Africa.  Also thanks to Braulio, Tomas, Francisco, AnnMarie, Anna, and the rest of the team.

My stomach has PTSD when I hear the word “Morocco”.  The effects lasted for ten more days after I got home.  I think it was food poisoning. 

Who would have thought a poor kid from Bridgeport Connecticut would wind up finishing this epic race in this epic place?  Nobody.  Except the kid – and that’s all that matters.

Who would think you would ________________________________ ?

You?

Rally du Moroc.  It wasn’t easy.  But I did it, and I have the memory the rest of my life – or at least as long as I have my memory!

African Dust – Rally du Moroc – part 8

Day 8 of the trip.  Stage three today.  But at 3am before my day started I woke up sweating.  Something was wrong.  Soon I was on the toilet.  Then I was yawning into it in technicolor.  I’d hope it was over and done and went back to bed.  Nope.  This process repeated itself many times until 8 am.  I get up, and I know I am in deep trouble.

I manage to get my gear on and go to breakfast.  I have my head down on the table.  I can’t sit up.  I take Dramamine.  One of the guys has diarrhea meds.  I take those.  I lay down on the ground.  I am being attacked from within.  I wonder if my being sick on day one was motion sickness or the prologue of this same enemy. 

I can’t.  Today there are even bigger dunes.  Ok, but I can’t even sit up.  I can’t even drive on asphalt.  In Dakar, if you don’t finish a stage, you are out of the rally.  We were sitting in 20^th place overall in our class, and because I had not broken the car and was consistent, we were catching up each day in the overall standings.

I think about how I must get in that car and be there for eight hours to continue.  But I will surely be sick as a dog and need a bathroom many times in the middle of nowhere.  I am already getting dehydrated as I can’t eat or drink anything.

I am sick, and heartbroken.  We made the call. 

I get in the car with Bruno.  We get the green and drive out of the bivouac onto the paved road.  This was to be the last day at this bivouac.  This stage was not a loop but a one-way northeast to another bivouac.  The pit crews would all pack up and take a five-hour drive on the road to set up at the next location while their race vehicles were out on course. 

I go a quarter mile and pull over in front of the small RV South Racing had.  I get out and climb into the RV.  Bruno gets in the driver’s seat of our car.  I lay down in the RV and try to sleep but I can’t.  First it’s 100 degrees in there and the AC is not working.  Second there are 20 flies in the RV and they keep landing on my face every 10 seconds.  I try to cover up but it’s 100 degrees.  I am swatting and cursing the flies for five hours, sick as a dog.

When we get to the Mengoub bivouac they take me to the medic tent.  I get an IV and two bags of fluid.  I have aches and pains and my breath is hot like I am getting a fever.  My neck hurts really bad.  The French doctor tells me to drink Coca-Cola.  I figure he doesn’t know what he’s doing.  When I get out of there I find my tent and go to bed early.

Ted and I decided I’m so sick that I’d sit out stage four tomorrow too, and rest up for a nice finish on stage five.  I’d be out, and heartbroken that I came all this way not to finish.  I’m not a quitter.  But I did my best. 

African Dust – Rally du Moroc – part 7

I can endure tired.  I can endure hurt.  But dizzy and nauseous?  That’s not about being tough.  I wake up sick still.  I go to breakfast.  Andrew slaps down a box of Dramamine he got from Bradley Cox – a up and coming contender and points leader.  I went on a dirt bike tour with Bradley’s famous father Alfie Cox in South Africa some years ago.  He says take two.  At breakfast I have my head down on the table.  I am scared of the dunes and how they will make me sick again.

It’s time to climb in the car for Stage two of five.  In these rally’s, you start the stage right from the bivouac at a given time.  For example 10:43.  Then you have a “liason”.  The liason is on paved road and it is NOT timed.  This day we had to drive on pavement for two hours to get to the dirt section.  Here you had to start again at a given time and you better be there.  That is called the “Special test” and it is timed.  At the end of the “Special test” you have another liason back to the bivouac that could be as long as two hours or more.  It’s along day strapped in the car.

This day they decided to take the windshield out so I could have wind in my face and air flowing.  Maybe that would help me not get sick.  Well, it was a great idea!  And just as we started the special test after a two hour liason, the Dramamine kicked in and I started feeling better. 

I am driving really well.  I am getting used to what Bruno means when he calls the turns and dangers, and he’s getting used to my driving and starting to trust me. 

Here come the dunes.  I am ready this time.  Today, these dunes are mine.  I figure out how to attack them and crest them sideways at the peaks.  We even make some passes in the dunes.  I am excited!  I know that there will be more dunes, and many dunes in Dakar, and I now know I can do it!

We finish 22^nd today.   I get back to the bivouac and the South Racing team approaches the car to see if I am green or not.  When they see my smile they are relieved.  High fives all around.  We crushed it today!

I eat dinner, brush my teeth and go to bed in my tent.  But my sleep was interrupted by an highly unwelcome visitor…