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quit

[kwit] verb, quit or quit·ted, quit·ting,adjective

1. to stop, cease, or discontinue

2. to release from obligation; free, clear, etc.

per·se·vere

[pur-suh-veer] verb, -vered,-ver·ing

1.to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose inspite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.

vic·to·ry

[vik-tuh-ree, vik-tree] noun, plural -ries.

1. a success or superior position achieved against any opponent, opposition, difficulty, etc.

Today was the Sacagawea Classic at Bohart Ranch, and to make a long story short it was chaos. 36 degrees with rain and snow dumping from the sky made for almost impossible waxing conditions, and within three minutes of the start I was soaked to the bone. My kick wax grabbed every piece of snow, rock, ice, and branch it touched and refused to let go. I was running on super glue. I stopped 13 times in the race to pound the crud from the bottom of my skis. It took me 78 minutes to race 18 kilometers.

2 minutes into the most bizarre race of my career, both physically
and mentally. Pouring rain and... awesome??

Many people dropped out, and a part of me didn’t blame them. I’ve always raced with the philosophy of “You can’t finish first if you don’t finish.”  Personally, if I dropped out of a race every time I was frustrated or exhausted with 10k to go, I would rarely make it to the finish line. Only one person can be first, and to the rest defeat is inevitable. To admit to this defeat before the End would only fill me with woulda-shoulda-coulda thoughts. I don’t like those thoughts.

However to me there’s a difference between pain and suffering. Yeah I totally got spanked by some weekend warriors, including girls, and yeah it took me twice as long as it usually would to ski a race like that, but after crossing the finish I felt like ‘wow, I can’t believe I got to the end of this’ and had to laugh about it. I wasn’t the only one skiing those conditions today, and there was a sort of camaraderie amongst all of us rain-drenched and bedraggled racers that got through it, and I felt proud to be among them.