What Went Wrong?

I've been back home now for 24 hours and have some time to ponder what went wrong at Arrowhead. Wednesday, before I left the hotel I had a chance to talk to the co-race director of the event, Pierre, who is also a participant and he reminded me to not be so hard on myself as this is a very difficult event. Everything has to go right. If one thing is off you will not finish and when the event can go 60 hours, there is a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong. Pierre has dropped at the half way point of this event the past 2 years. Pierre knows tough. He was once called the toughest man alive in a Minnesota Monthly article you can read here. http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/February-2008/The-Toughest-Man-Alive-Lives-in-White-Bear-Lake/

Rather than keep beating myself up over what went wrong, I have chosen to focus on what went right and build upon that. When I got home from last year's event, Kristy and I started a list of things I needed to change for 2010. We had 7 items on the list and implemented all of them. I was building. Though I only made it 9 miles further than 2009, I believe we made improvements. I have started my list of improvements for 2011 and truly believe that they will get me closer if not to the finish line.

The body will heal, the memories of the pain and troubles along the way will fade but the positives will remain and there were many. So for now, I will focus on them. I met some fantastic people along the way. We shared some funny stories and helped each other. Learned a lot about myself again and learned how much my family and friends mean to me and how instrumental they are to my success whether I reach the finish line or not. Arrowhead 2010 was a success in many ways.

So on Saturday, I will change my focus to the Fargo Marathon and meet with the group for a 9 mile run. In the next few days, I will give a full race report and give you some of the ugly details of what did go wrong. For now I need to say thank you to all of the well wishes i received via text or on the blog. I am overwhelmed and you guys have touched me deeply. Emotions can run high out on the trail and some of your messages brought me to tears. Again I have to say that you don't know how much it means to me to have your support. I only hope that I provided you with some excitement and entertainment in return. I invite you along for next year.