Five on Four – part 2

The team of five – 

This year the race was 828 miles vs last year’s 1124.  I decided we needed only 5 teammates.  I’d do most of the driving.  My wife Marie would be in the passenger seat when I was driving.  I needed two more to fill in for us when we took a break (this would be at least a 24-hour race) and one alternate in case a codriver got car sick (a common thing) or one of us could not perform for any reason).  

I chose my friend Kevin Koval from New York who could drive or co-drive.  My friend Dustin Gebers from Tennessee had never raced there before, but he raced cars for a lot of years.  Lastly, my friend Victor Abitia was a Baja local who knew lots of people and spoke the language and could drive or co-drive.  Kevin and Victor were on the team last year and provided some continuity.  

Team is important.  You need your team to mesh well together – to get along and not compete with each other.  They have to have skills and competence, but humility and good judgment too.  It turns out we’d need the mechanical skills of Dustin and Kevin.

Besides the team IN the car, there was the chase team out of the car.  Six of them.  Then there was the team even before that who built the car months earlier.  We’d be relying heavily on their work and they weren’t even there!  This 1000-cc Honda Talon was stripped down to its frame and rebuilt for racing in extreme conditions.  Besides the stock engine, it was completely customized and partially experimental.  What could go wrong?

Meanwhile, my son Tanner, who has now moved to Hurricane Utah decided he would solo to Baja 1000 on a motorcycle for the fourth time.  He finished the Baja 1000 twice, and DNF’d once due to, of all things, a peanut allergy.  His best finish – 2nd place in 2019.  He hadn’t raced it since.  It takes a while to forget the pain and suffering.

This time he was going for a win.  That was until he saw the competition.  Because of our movies, riders showed up from all over the world to enter the Baja 1000 Ironman class (solo).  It’s perhaps the hardest feat in motorsports just to finish.  22 riders entered, and one got hurt in pre-running the course and was out.  The remaining riders included the best in the world.  A roster of previous winners and finishers and some talented first-timers.  Still, getting on the podium and doing his absolute best was his goal.  He simply didn’t not want to come back to do this yet again.  

Little did anyone know what would happen to him…

Five on Four – Part 1

For those of you that are new to Think Daily, I’ll catch you up. 

I ride dirt bikes.

It’s been a big part of my life.  I raced them with my son in Baja – the 1000-mile-long peninsula on the Pacific Ocean side of Mexico.  If you haven’t seen them already, there are four movies you should watch on YouTube.  “Into the Dust”, and ” Into the Dust 2, 3, and 4″.  That will catch you up to 2018.

Each year on Think Daily I write about my Baja 1000 race experience.  Now I realize some of you may not care to read about racing in the desert.  But each year is guaranteed to be a story in the longest off road race in the world, in a wild land, racing for 24 hours straight or more (up to 53 hours in 2020!)  I always learn things.  And these lessons apply to life in many other ways.

I’ve been back from the race since the week before Thanksgiving, but I haven’t had a chance to write about it yet.  So here I go.  I don’t know how many posts it will take, but when I’m done, we’ll get back to our short self-development Think Daily posts that you have come to know.

“Five on Four”

Five teammates on four wheels.

Why?  I have ridden a dirt bike about 70 times a year for 26 years.  It’s hard work, takes time, and can be risky if you don’t keep your head. But when you love doing something the work seems like fun.  I think most of us have a sport, hobby, or pastime that others wouldn’t think about that we do for fun.  We all have different interests.  And some of us take our interests to the extreme.

For off-road racing on two or four wheels, the place where it gets extreme each year is at the Baja 1000 race.

I won’t give you much of the setup and drama as many of you I think have seen the Into The Dust movie series.  But let’s say, it’s serious business – before and during the race.

I love racing a dirt bike there.  But I had my knee replaced two years ago now, and it still hurts.  I haven’t been able to train like I would need to for this race.  I did solo the San Felipe race in April this year on my new knee and finished the 320 miles in about ten hours.  I’ve raced a few other races on teams where we shared the riding duties.  But the Baja 1000 was the mother of all races, and I just wasn’t physically ready for it again.  After racing it five times in a row, I just knew the suffering it brings even to a perfectly fit younger man.

I don’t want to get old.  But it is happening. My mind says go and my body falls behind.  At age 58 I think I’m doing pretty good, except for my dang knees – both of them.  (Oh and in September I separated my shoulder jumping off a 16-foot-high Quarry wall into the water in Manchester VT.  Who would have thunk it?)

I don’t want to sit on the sidelines.  I don’t want to not be able to do it anymore.  I want to use my knowledge as a Baja racing veteran and compete.  So last year I had a UTV built for racing.  Four wheels.  Easier on the legs, muscles, and easier on the knees.

They say that’s what happens to old motorcycle racers.  “With age, comes a cage” (roll cage that is).

Last year we did well in the 1124-mile race.  We finished 4th out of 12.  My knee isn’t healed yet. Can’t run, can’t bike, can’t squat, can’t do a treadmill or do much on the elliptical.  So, here I am again, on four wheels, when my heart wants only two.

We need to understand WHY we are doing something, and it needs to resonate with who we really are and what we really want.  For me, I wanted to have a great adventure and unique experience with Marie, (now my wife) and some friends.

My personal mission statement is “an extraordinary life of shared experiences”.  This would be extraordinary, and it would be shared.

Motivation – check. Ok, let’s rock this. 

This year, I wanted to go fast and see what I, and we, could do…so let’s find out!

The body keeps score

Eat, sleep, move – and do these things enough and well.

The body keeps score – and from that, you can not escape.

Do you work for the company you work for?

I walk through workplaces including my own and I see people texting.  While texts may be used for work, let’s not kid ourselves, most of it is personal.

Here’s a story I heard from Zig Ziglar 35 years ago that I still remember – 

A fancy rail car pulls up the tracks and stops alongside a large group of men laboring in the hot sun.  The window of the coach opens and a voice calls out – “Bill!  Bill Stafford!  Is that you?” 

One of the men, dripping with sweat, stands up straight, pick in hand, and looks at the face in the window. 

“Yes it is Ron.  It’s me.”

The man in the coach invited Ron into the beautiful air-conditioned rail car and they chatted for a while over some iced tea.  When the man emerged from the car to grab his pick again, the other men looked at him, astonished.

“Bill do you know who that is?  That’s Ron Davidson, the president of the railroad!”

“Yes, I know” Bill said.

“Well how is it that you know the president of the railroad?”

“We started work on the same day 20 years ago” Bill told them.

A minute passed.  Then one dirty-faced coworker spoke up.

“Well now Bill, if you started work on the same day 20 years ago, why is it that Ron is the president of the railroad and you are still out here working in the hot sun?”

Bill looked at them sheepishly and thought for a moment.  He finally spoke.

“Well you see 20 years ago I went to work for 75 cents an hour, and Ron Davidson went to work for the railroad.”

Accept failure like a student

When we are learning, we expect to mess up before we get it right.  

Some things we can learn in a few minutes.  Some things take months.

Some things come in long wave patterns over lots of years.  

If we come to understand that we are always a student, when failure comes we should not be devastated.  

Instead, we should learn the lesson, adjust, and move forward more intelligently.

We may be 47 years old and have twelve years invested only to find out we were doing it wrong or in the wrong situation.

There is no age when you will have it all figured out.  And if you do have your life figured out, you are probably playing very small and safe, and leaving much of your potential and adventure inside of you.

Mistakes and failures are normal.  Learn and keep going.  That’s how you get better.

A storm is coming.

I can predict the future with 100% certainty.  

If you are alive, a storm is coming.  

You can build a sturdy house; you can prepare for it or not, but it’s coming.

I also predict warm sunny pleasant days coming.  For sure.

Whether it’s health, finances, relationships, career, family, or any one of many other things.

That’s life.  Storm – Calm. 

Day – Night.  

Summer – Winter.

Do not fear the storms.  Make the best of it, but you should not be surprised that they come. 

Experience it.

Sleep Training

Early to bed, early to rise….

Before a big event or a competition or an important day – sleep a lot.

When you are fully rested you will feel and perform so much better.

In fact, if I had a choice to study/practice more into the night or get more sleep = I’ll take the sleep any day.

Not a morning person?

I read this recently – “People who claim not to be a morning person, most certainly have been an irresponsible or undisciplined evening person.”

I understand the point.  If you go to bed late, you surely will not be a morning person.  

That makes sense, right?

Sleep is an act of caring

When you sleep ENOUGH, your body will heal, your energy stores will replenish themselves, and your spirit will rise – and this makes the next day a good day!

Sleep enough.  Start early.

Get Karma on your side!

Having a bad day?  Things keep going against you?

Keep giving to other quality people and helping them.

With this attitude – it will get better!