TRY IT ALL -

Try it all.

I wrote this with the intention to put it out before BALAP LARI and after an incredible event and turn out yesterday most of this still holds up. We are extremely grateful to have the support of the running community as a whole on this island and while Flowerboy and Continuum are built on different foundations is beautiful to see both come together seamlessly and embrace the beauty and diversity of this island. Times were crazy, lots of people running during their fast for Ramadan and plenty of new faces and a record number of personal bests on a difficult course. Thanks for coming and hope to see you guys for all the upcoming events. Big ups to Johnny and the teams from HYGO and ON for supporting the event.

I usually have things I’d like to write about doing circles in my head and then it takes just sitting down and starting to type before I have any idea of what these ramblings will turn into. 

I was thinking the other day about my chapter of riding bikes and how my experiences in that can be taken into this new chapter of running around. The key takeaway will be not labeling ourselves as one type of anything and being vulnerable enough to fail and try new things. At least attempting whatever it might be to allow ourselves to understand if said thing is for us or at the least get a grasp as to why some people might do it.

I think the fear of failure or looking stupid really holds me back sometimes so hopefully you can relate in some way and these words can encourage you to step into discomfort and give it a go! With our 3rd edition of LOOP DU JOUR coming up I can feel a collective hesitation of our regular run club guests not thinking they are fast enough, not road racers, not competitive or whatever excuse we can convince ourselves that this road racing thing just isn’t for us. Hey, maybe it’s not but until you have been in the energy of a start line  and experienced those nerves it’s hard to say you might not enjoy it a little bit.

I got really into cycling as mostly a mode of transport and quickly realized how much fun it is and how good your body can feel off something so simple. The story of my first “real” bike has quite a funny background and I would have never in a million years have thought it would lead into where cycling took me and the lessons I learned from pedaling around. 

I worked at a skateboard shop and we had quite a turn over of staff, there was never a shortage of characters working there. We had one guy who had worked with us for a couple weeks and one day the conversation of bicycles came up. He mentioned having a super light, fast bike that you could life with one finger. It had flat tires and been collecting dust in his basement. From memory he wanted 80 or 100 dollars for it. Sight unseen I said I would take it.  I went to his house later that night and he pulled out a really expensive looking Lance Armstrong TREK race bike.

*side note : its hilarious that writing brought up this memory!

He told me a story about how he was drunk at some house party and he “borrowed” this bicycle and rode home one night. He was also offering a bunch of random stuff he wanted to sell. I left his house with a new bike and a tv. This bike was super high end at the time, incredibly fast and fun to ride. I started off just using it to commute and slowly started riding further and was really enjoying it. I went to a group ride of a local bike shop and started to get involved in their diverse community of cycling enthusiasts. From a guy named Doug who would make his own sleeping bags and take his kids winter camping. He told me -52 degrees is when your pee no longer goes into the snow but rather makes a pile like filling a slushie cup. To another guy who had just travelled around all of Tasmania on a custom made fat tire bike that could carry 60L of water. This bike shop laid an incredible foundation for me to understand the importance of inclusivity and bringing people together through movement and adventure.

Through this bike shop I started to see all the small niches within cycling and I was always keen to try new bikes and styles of riding them. From homemade tall bikes, cargo bicycles, fixed gears, city cruisers to working on a rickshaw on weekends to make some extra money. Each one provided a new appreciation for the diversity of the “sport”. Eventually I spent enough time hanging out at the bike shop that I ended up working there; at first in exchange for store credit. I quickly accumulated a few different bikes and was introduced to people doing crazy things on bicycles I had no Idea about. Each interaction lead me down a different path of adventure and possibility.

This whole situation eventually lead me to leaving my hometown in Canada on my bicycle without ever going camping on my bike previously with the goal of going snowboarding in Chile. ( thats 16 countries away and some 20,000 km ) I’ll save that story for another time but the takeaway here is that not being scared of looking stupid riding a clown bicycle could would eventually lead me to riding my bicycle for 3 years across continents, learning a new language, immersing myself in different cultures and effectively changing my outlook on life and leaving the conventional societal path way behind.

Not saying you need to be so extreme. However giving things a crack might just open your mind and heart to some amazing opportunities.  Running already allows us moments of clarity, limitless access to our untapped potential and a connection to so many amazing people we can interact with that outside of running we might never meet.

So, this is an invitation to put yourself on a start line, push yourself a little outside your comfort zone. Enter a trail race or just take a wrong turn and see where you end up. You will be amazed at what you can achieve with a collective energy pushing you forward. I promise nobody cares if you don’t have the fastest shoes, look silly or even fail. Try out all types of running. Sprint barefoot, enter a trail race, go run on a track, power walk or just run 500m further than you have ever run. The butterflies in your belly will turn into magical fuel to understand and chase just what we are capable of and an obsession that gives us an incredible amount of life skills that can quickly make us the very best versions of ourselves.

Sign up for Loop Du Jour, sure it’s a race but more so a beautiful gathering of inspiring people moving together on this beautiful island. To share the moments of the run and then have an immediate connection to all that just did the same thing is one of the best feelings in the world. 

FEB 21 . See you there. 

FB