I was recently listening to a podcast that broached the subject of climbing K2, which is very slightly shorter than Mount Everest, but the path to the summit is much more treacherous than what Mount Everest has to offer. The discussion mentioned that summitting K2 during the winter has never been done until only last year, and there’s no shortage of mountain climbers who’ve tried, and not even come close.
It got me thinking: How would you know when to bail? Pursing victory to the point of injury is not an option, because you still have to climb down the mountain in these cases. There’s no question that the desire to reach the summit is strong, but with a healthy and clear mind – in mid-climb – one would have to determine that to go on would be a fool’s errand.
It got me thinking, on a more metaphorical level, most; if not all of us, have an ‘Everest’ – a goal we’d like to conquer in our lifetime. For most in the western world, financial goals or career platitudes come to mind, but there are outliers who are much less concerned with those sorts of feats and are more inclined toward physical, mental, and emotional challenges.
When do we pull the ripcord?
I don’t have an answer – not a tangible one, anyway – other than to conclude that you’d have to trust your gut to tell you when it’s time to pack up and go home – to fight another day. And you would have to ensure that your gut was trustworthy. It goes without saying that out there on the mountain these decisions are life & death, and it’s quite possible that a persistent enough individual would die up there in pursuit of their goal. It happens pretty frequently.
Personally, I don’t know where the top of ‘my Everest’ is as far as career trajectory goes any better than I know what the limits of my physical training will be. I’m one of those people who’s been pretty good at pretty much everything he’s tried (like, REALLY tried – I’ve half-assed a few things that didn’t pan out the way I would have liked) but I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t lose my life in any of my current endeavors, no matter how hard-headed I became (or… already am).
I know that if I invested a large sum of money into something that didn’t work out, I’d be okay since I have the means to make more money and recover from the loss. Similarly, my body has the ability to recover from most things that can happen along the running trail or any other physical challenge. I can write more songs, I can work more hours, I can replace damaged equipment – these are the benefits of living moment to moment, really, because even valuable stuff is still just stuff, and there’s more money coming. I’m in no danger of damaging the relationships I’ve maintained because my integrity remains intact, and I can’t see an occasion where I would hurt someone on purpose.
… so where’s the line?
Again, I don’t have an answer so I’ll have to leave this topic as rhetoric – just some food for thought. It seems most likely that you’d have to; as mentioned, trust your gut in the moment – in which case I’d have to advocate maintaining your gut health as best you can, because that’s a lot of responsibility to be handled by a single abdomen.
Training this week is bittersweet. It’s truly a magical time to be meeting my fitness regimen outdoors in our river valley here in Edmonton as the leaves are beginning to turn funny colors, but it’s ominous warning that the snow is coming and I’ll be chased indoors before long is palpable. The urge to soak up every ray of sunshine, inhale every stray histamine that floats on the wind, and push every one of my limits, but there are times when my brain flashes forward to the dearth and dread that winter can bring. I MUST worry about that when it’s happening, and maintain living in THIS moment, Here & NOW.
I won’t lie to you… the bicycle commute to work in the morning is pretty chilly, but the rides home in the early evening are wonderful. I’m optimistic that I can keep going into October, but to what end? Thanksgiving? Halloween? Truthfully, right now it feels like riding into October means being on borrowed time, but every ride is a gift… and a slight reprieve from those chilly temperatures is not out of the question so I’ll cross my fingers for that. My girlfriend has ridden into November in previous years, but it’s a shorter (and slightly later) commute.
I dunno… I’ll digress a bit. This level of cold is not unreasonable – but rain this time of year is a deal breaker for me. There’s no merit in subjecting myself to temperatures around the freezing mark while wet – especially when it means missing future training sessions as a result of illness.
The slow transition back to the gym is in sight, but I’m holding out for the time being.
The Conscious Pilgrim 