When the going gets tough…
Hey Athletes!
I want to take a moment to brag a bit about my amazing FitRiders.
Combined, all of us logged 170,000 minutes of activity since January first! That’s 2,833 hours, 118 days, 16 weeks. I mean you could state it any way you want, but that’s a lot of time spent in the saddle, stretching, walking, running, paddling, even lighting it up on the dance floor!
Each month I run a mini-challenge to encourage riders to keep consistent with being active and log their activities. At the end of each month I will draw a prize ranging from RLA swag to gift cards.
Well this month I did a little something different. As you can imagine it was difficult for ME to keep recording the logs while I was riding the Marcha in Brazil so I combined June and July into one big prize.
But if we are combining the months, it better be a damn good prize. I wanted to let my FitRiders know how much they mean to me so I brought home a busal (halter) from Brazil for the prize. Its hard to get more special than that!
In fact, it was the only souvenir I brought home outside of the clothes I bought to wear during the Marcha and some leftover mariolas (banana fruit leathers) that were my pocket snacks and a couple of gifts given to me by my new friends (ask me nicely on Monday and I will show you one that’s particularly meaningful to me). My spouse didn’t get souvenirs, nor my family, nor the usual friends.
Sorry guys, I just don’t do souvenirs anymore - just stories, photos, and life lessons to share.
So when I drew this special prize, it filled me with joy when the winner wanted to donate it forward. We chatted a bit for ideas and came up with a new awards at the Calaboogie Endurance ride that she manages (and I help manage to a much lesser extent too!).
So we have come up with the Resiliency Award. This is a nominated award that anyone at the ride can win (yes volunteers and crew too!). Now, we could set parameters on what it means to receive this award, but I think keeping it a bit mysterious and open will make it even better.
I want to hear YOUR best stories of resilience, as it relates to this particular endurance ride of course. I want to hear all your stories about what you had to overcome to get to or through this ride. Nominate someone you know who struggled but pulled through, or share your own story.
Here is mine. We entered the first Calaboogie 100 mile (160km) ride ever held. It was during COVID so we hadn’t been able to test out our fitness on any other races because it was the ONLY race held that year. We went big. It poured rain so hard all day, so hard I could feel the rain filling my boots and I would sit in a puddle on my saddle each and every down beat of the posting trot. It turned most of the trail to either slick rocks or deep mud bogs.
We had actually entered in the elevator, starting with the 75 mile and choosing to go on for an additional 25 miles after that completed. I was the only one who elected to go on, people thought I was absolutely crazy for not quitting while I was ahead. What they didn’t know was that I had intended on retiring my horse at the end of this ride. I cried so much.
Bentley had done many amazing things, but he has terrible arthritis and every year it gets more difficult to manage. My vets been telling me for ummm maybe 7 years to retire him, but he won’t quit. Now she says “I have stopped telling Bentley what he can’t do” (That’s the kind of person you want on your team BTW!).
Only two years earlier too he had a horrible accident and a fun hack turned into a Tarantino film and had to undergo emergency major surgery on his hocks. We didn’t know if he would live through the drive to the hospital, or through the surgery, or if he would ever be sound enough to even be comfortable on pasture.
Of course, we don’t tell Bentley what he can’t do, and after nearly 23 hours, we finished that impossible ride. On the last loop as we quietly walked out on trail alone in the dark, he didn’t even look back to camp.
He is one of only 3 horses who has ever been able to successfully complete the course and earn a buckle.
So it seems only fitting that this is the ride to honour resiliency and I am so excited to support this. Oh and I guess me riding 750kms qualifies me as a suitable sponsor lol.
Cheers!
-Sarah
PS After we earned our buckle Bentley once again told immediately me where I could stuff my retirement plans, and thanks to some amazing work by our vet, the magic of stem cells and Bentley’s sheer will to compete, he saw absolutely zero time in retirement lol.
PPS I highly recommend the Calaboogie endurance ride for your bucket list. Check out the facebook group to find out more or you can reply to this email as I may just have a resilient grey horse available to lease ;) And its not all 100 miles… we have 12/25/50/75 milers if any of those are more to your liking!