Where'd I Go Wrong?


Last March I was going to run from LA to Boston. There's two pretty well known marathons in those cities and an idea Charlie Engle and I hatched, was to run them both, including all the ground between. The idea was to break the running and wheelchair records by going 3,100 miles in just 44 days, which is what it would take to make the start in Boston. We road some blog posts on Runner's World.

If you go to those posts, you'll see it starts with a post from each of us explaining that it wasn't going to happen. It was devastating and no fun at all.

Right now is a good time to review the mistakes, that I feel we made, so they don't screw up my current plans - to be the first Handcycle to solo RAAM. I'll be leaving from Oceanside, CA and traveling 3,000 miles by bike in 12 days. In reaching Annapolis, MD by then, I'll do 700 more miles than an average Tour de France in half the time. SO, it is going to be a special race, and even more so because my sister, Bianca Kajlich, is going to produce a documentary film based on it!

I think it's crucially important for me to revisit what wen wrong last year so 1) I don't hate myself if I repeat them 2) because I want to save myself the heartbreak of losing another opportunity, and 3) to learn. I don't want to be overly critical, we tried hard and the timeframe was very short. Still, I'm determined to make it work this time and feel this is a worthwhile exercise.

Mistakes we made:

Not asking enough people for the money. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to ask for, how to ask it, how to present, what our message was, what we could offer, and many other details. I think we needed all of that stuff, but not at the cost of not seeking funding which is the number one thing we needed. In the end we didn't have the funding and we didn't go.

Taking too long to figure out what we were doing. I think it would have been better to commit and adjust if necessary, rather than being indecisive and changing our minds every week. There wasn't going to be a film and then there was. We were going for sponsors and then investors and finally crowd sourcing was a last option, but there wasn't time to launch a campaign.

Being Afraid to Pick up the Phone. After some time of launching off emails, I realized that nobody is going to respond to a random email, if they even look at it. I figured that the best thing to do was just call. It is very hard to get up the nerve to call and the first few lines are the worst. However, if you are passionate about something, you need to try to communicate this to them. Even after a few good calls with people in companies as big as Volkswagen, I didn't just have a change in mindset that would have enabled me to make hundreds of phone calls. I should have been doing it every day. Chances are it would have led to something.

Ultraman Canada coverage on ESPN

WoW! I was not even planning on doing this race, at least not this year. Ultraman Canada ended up being a lot more than I thought it would be. As an event, as a proving ground, as a bonding experience, it exceeded all of my expectations.

I didn't really have this race on my radar, except as a "one day I'd like to", until my plans to Run2Boston with Charlie Engle got postponed (as explained in Runner's World). I needed something on my schedule that was big and new, and this fit the bill.

As I was preparing, some local triathletes that had done the race kept telling me, "Steve Brown [the Race Director] puts on the best event I've ever been to." I didn't really know what they meant by that, but it sounded good (and it really was several people).

I was faster than I thought (and more daunted by the challenges leading up to it, ie - a 10k swim, making the 12hour cutoff for the 173 mile bike) and my bike time straight blew me away. The exact line I'd been using was "Day 2 is going to be tough, it will take me more than 11 hours and I hope less than 12". I finished just a few ticks under 9hr30 (09:29:51). It was one of those days that just felt good and more importantly, opened up a new awareness, to something I have and I'm hopeful that I can tap into that again and again and again.

Outside of the performance, which is really not what draws me to these events, the connections with people were unforgettable. Steve fosters this family feel that truly makes you feel like every other athlete, every crew member, the entire circle of staff and ultra Ohana - is much more than just new friends. It is incredible.

Lastly, my crew was the best. It couldn't have been better from my perspective. I'll only single out my mom, purely to leave the others off my public website. I couldn't really understand why I ended up with my mom as a crew member. It is a bit of a risk, let's say ;) It was the best choice I could have made. She was massively helpful and I'm so glad to have this memory of us together - forever. Thanks Ma! 29th August 2014