What's valuable?

When we are asked this question, the first thing our minds go to is what things are worth in dollars – what someone else is willing to pay for it. 

But there are many things that are valuable to you that others don’t care about, or that they would not pay anything for.  

What’s valuable to you and what is valuable to others are two different things.

Buying something, even something expensive, is a means to what you really want. 

What’s that?

What’s valuable to you?

Real food has no ingredient label.

If God made it, it’s good.

If man made it, it’s probably not good.

Health is Wealth

“The man who has his health has 1000 dreams.  The man who doesn’t has but one.”

Eat right.  Move well.  Sleep well.  

Feel good and prevent disease.

Today.

Trouble

Ann Landers spent her life giving advice in newspaper columns.  Here is her advice on trouble – 

“If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful piece of advice for all humanity, it would be this; Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and, when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, “I will be bigger than you.  You cannot defeat me.””

Is that how you are approaching your troubles?

Baja 500 part 2

We kept pushing through the hard terrain.  It’s amazing what abuse these machines can take.  

At mile 90, on our way up a mountain in very rocky switchbacks we had the dust of another vehicle in front of us.  We pushed forward into it and when we were close enough we could see it was 1925, the guy who had passed us earlier.  We were on his bumper easily.  It seemed we were faster in the really technical rough stuff.  Maybe it’s from my motorcycle days with my eye continuously scanning for the best lines for my wheels.

We lit him up to pass him by pushing a button in our car which would light up a blue light in his.  We got by him.  Second palce again.  The guy to beat in front of us.  In just a couple more miles we start seeing dust again.  We charge in and soon see it was 1957 – the leader!  We were on him and got by.  We were leading!

I tried to build a gap, driving fast.  We had 380 miles to go.  We went up the “Summit”, to the top of a mountain and down a very steep very boulder strewn “how the hell did anyone make this trail up here?” course.  

About ten miles later I was surprised when 1957 came by us.  Dang!  Second place again.  The course opened up to a 200 yard wide sandy wash.  The deep sand sucked the horsepower out of my machine.  I could see 1957 pulling away – he had more power – my foot was to the floor and there was nothing I could do.  

At mile 172 I had planned a driver change to give myself a break.  My friend Victor would get in and drive for 40 miles while I took a break in the chase trauck while it sped down the highway to meet him at 212.  It took about 3 minutes to change drivers and refuel.  Too long.  Victor took off 5 minutes behind the leader and 90 seconds in front of 1925.

Twenty miles later 1925 got by Victor, and then he got a flat tire.  Flats happen out there.  Dustin changed the tire and the strapped themselves back in.  I waited with the chase truck with a new spare to swap the flat one.  Victor came in 11 minutes behind the leader and five minutes behind second.  I jumped in the driver seat.

We had planned to get Dustin out for a break for 50 miles while Victor jumped in the navigator seat, but since they got a flat, we told Dustin to stay in the car so we didn’t have to stop to swap Victor out and him back in again in 50 miles.

At about mile 300 we came up on 1957.  He was out of his car with his helmet off.  They had overheated when their electric fans blew a fuse.  Later I learned they fixed it and got back in the race, only to have a flat and break a suspension part later.  They fixed those things and kept going.

We were in second place again, and I was determined to hunt down the leader.  One rough transition, one off camber turn, one whoop section at a time.  We stayed about six minutes behind him for about 100 miles until we got another flat!  Dustin changed it again in the dark, and we were back in the hunt, having lost about six minutes.

We stayed about 13 miles behind the leader, matching their speed.  Again, they didn’t race the first race so we weren’t worried about beating him.  But if we could beat 1957 by two positions we’d make up more points than if we beat him by one.  Oh yeah, and the other motivation – winning the Baja 500!  

In the end, it wasn’t to be.  We had the speed to lead, but two flat tires and the driver change had cost us about 17 minutes, and we were 13 minutes behind.  We took second place in 13.5 hours at 1:00 am.

We came out of the race second in the points with one guy to beat – #1957.

Next race – the Baja 400 in September.

My Baja 500 experience

On June 3 I raced the Baja 500.  It’s the second race of a four-race series – The San Felipe 250, Baja 500, Baja 400, and Baja 1000 which is the longest off-road race in the world.  My goal is a season points championship in the Pro UTV N/A class.  (N/A means normally aspirated, or not a turbo engine).

The first race we lost our electronic control module and the car would not move forward.  We had to get towed five miles by a local (lucky it wasn’t farther and in a worse spot) an we met our pit crew, figured it out, fixed it, and got back in the race.  We lost four hours but finished fourth.  Tough start to try to win the season.

We had been struggling with the suspension setup.  Since the terrain is so rough, having a great suspension is critical.  We finally got it right, and I felt the car was responding well to aggressive driving in rough terrain. 

You know how when you get into a car accident your head goes forward or back on impact?  Well – being in one of these races in a UTV is like getting into 500 car accidents in a day!  It’s rough!

Dustin Gebers was my navigator.  A navigator sits in the passenger seat and looks at a GPS screen in front of him and calls the turns for me so I know what is coming and can drive fast.  “30 left short…40 right long…open”.  Knowing what is around the corner – a slight turn or a hairpin is critical because if you drive off a cliff or into a ditch or boulder it could be catastrophic – or at least you may be out of the race by breaking the car.

We were to start 3rd of 7.  They let a car go every 30 seconds.  We got the green at 10:30 am.  

At mile 15 we passed one car that finished the previous race and got more points than us.  Another car that finished the previous race didn’t show up for this race.  So there was just one car to try to beat – #1957, and he started first and was in the lead.

At mile 50 our tracker lit up blue, meaning a faster vehicle was behind us and wanted to pass us.  There were a bunch of different classes behind us.  We pulled over and were bummed out to see a car in our class, last years season points champion, go by.  Dang.  Third place again.

To be continued tomorrow…

Racing and Life

I have been racing in Baja Mexico for 9 years now.  It’s the off-road racing capital of the world.  Amazing landscapes – desert, mountains, dry lake beds, sand washes (dry river beds), Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez, friendly helpful people, and thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails through it all.

I never considered myself a “racer”, and still feel like the underdog every time I go there.  I like to be the underdog though.  Something about being underestimated motivates me.

I can race a motorcycle or a UTV (small racing buggy).  These days it’s more of the latter.  I have had to learn about the machines and how to drive them fast without making mistakes.  I have gone from rookie to experienced to a contender in each class.  That’s how life is.  You start out a rookie when you learn something new, and if you apply yourself and do your best, and don’t quit, you can end up a pro.

If you do that in enough things, eventually you feel you can do most anything IF you choose to make the commitment – because while you can do anything, you can’t do everything.

When we try things and give great effort, we are really learning about ourselves and what we are capable of.

When we do difficult things and don’t quit, we eventually see the rest of life/tasks/duties as not so difficult.  

Throwing away the good

If your life or something in it is “good”, but you want “great”, you’ll have to leave it behind.

You can’t be the new you and the old you at the same time.

You have to be willing to sacrifice what you are for what you could become.

Stop waiting for permission

When we are kids we have to get permission for everything.  Then we may join various institutions such as college, the military, social groups, etc which have their norms and codes of conduct and lots of people who exemplify “what we’re supposed to do”.

If we wait for someone to give us permission to go for our dreams and break the mold and do something unusual, we’ll be waiting forever.

You don’t need a cosigner to pursue your dreams.  You go it alone, but you have to give yourself permission.

Know what you want

To get what you want you have to know what you want.

If you don’t know what you want, you’ll take anything.

What do you want?