The Desert Challenge – Part One
By Colin Nanka, 889 Yoga member and adventure runner who we were cheering on last year as he prepared and competed in a 250km race across the desert in Egypt!
5am arrives and we all awake to start the preparation for the day. At 4:30am, the sun starts peaking over the horizon and if you were sleeping lightly, you could hear the desert start to stir. The first priority was to hydrate. It’s also important to start getting fuel in as soon as you are done drinking, to fill up the energy stores for the long day ahead and digest before the race begins. My choice is a mix of high calorie porridge with strawberries or raisins plus the hot water they provided in the kettles. You have until 6:30am to get prepared and then the camp begins to come alive with whispers of anticipation in other tents, the crinkle of free dried food packs, hot water being poured, back packs being adjusted or plunked in the sand. By 6:55am, the sun has fully risen, the course director is yelling final instructions, the buzz of 160 eager competitors cut through the warm desert air and at 7am sharp the horn launches a surge of bobbing heads into the grips of the Sahara.
Let’s fast forward to Day 2 and we are seven hours into the race. There is miles of soft sand behind us, and never ending sand dunes. The thermometer tops 46 degree Celsius (124 degree Fahrenheit), and I find myself pressed up against the wheel well of a desert jeep, hiding from the harsh sun. My life force is completely empty. And in that small 10’ x 4’ patch of hot sand, I understand what it means to be lost in the desert. My legs feel ok, although they won’t move very fast. I have been drinking as much water as possibly can, but my stomach is queasy. As I try to calculate how long it would take to make the finish line, realizing I will probably arrive in darkness, I agonize over the weight of questions upon me, and one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make.
Am I quitter? What does this mean? Will I be able to run again another day? Are 9 months of training going to slip through my fingers in an instant? Is this all I truly have?
Thirty minutes later, losing the will to continue and justifying my decision, I pull out of the race. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, there is a strange dichotomy of relief and shame, coursing through my veins. I instantly pull out my camera and snap this self portrait to capture a moment…I never want to feel again.
This is my one of my least favorite pictures, one that humbles me most, but one that will keep me motivated for a long time to come.
In this first of five weekly segments I am going to share with you five key character traits that I learned in the desert. I will share a few stories along the way, including what I learned through team mates and strangers, successes and failures and how it impacts everyday life.
Lesson One – Leadership
- We each have an opportunity to show leadership in any circumstance.
- Leadership can be in small details, over time or through action.
There are two stories that illustrate the lesson in leadership. They both involve our veteran leaders.
Daryl is a mid forties CEO of a local company who has won the team competition of a previous race. He is relentless in achieving any goal he sets and was the leader and organizer of our Canadian team, who raised over $100K for a Canadian Charity. Matt is in his late 30’s, a dentist recently retired from the army, self described as being “unreasonable” in his running goals, is a distinguished and world class Ultra runner and previously won a desert race in Chile.
Each of these men, highly successful in life and driven by a relentless spirit to win, brought a unique quality of leadership including drive, compassion and integrity into this adventure.
The sun was blazing down at around 2pm at its peak of intensity during the first day of competition. I had beenon course for over six hours, just finishing a long 10km stretch. It had taken longer than I thought it would today, my pack pressing down on me, back sore, legs heavy as I rolled down the hill to the finish line. I was excited to get the first day under my belt, and as I passed under the flags of the finish I listened to the beat of Bedouin drums hearing encouragement from the race officials and volunteers (they were awesome all week). As they scanned my timing chip, and placed large water bottles near me, I planted myself on a fold up camping chair dug into the sand, dropping my sweat soaked face into my hands, slumping forward and propping my torso up with my elbows. It was at this point, the body started sharing its displeasure of the pounding it took over the last 6+ hours, and thoughts started weighing on my mind.
Ok, that is one day of six!! Gawd my feet hurt! Can my body handle this pounding day after day? What am I going to feel like tomorrow morning? Will my mind be able to handle the stress? Am I ever going to be able to get off this chair? I could really use a nap!
Just as I was beginning to melt down, two big hands grabbed and shook my shoulders. Daryl was the first to arrive, followed by excited congratulations from Matt. They grabbed my pack (25lbs of supplies), and guided my back to our team tent where they filled me in on vital recovery strategy for the next two hours. It included getting my recovery powder mixed with my water and downing at least one bottle in the next 20 minutes, followed by legs propped straight up against the tent walls (at this point I am thinking of my yoga home at 889!), draining the blood towards your core to reduce leg swelling for the next hour. It was really tough to get the liquid down, but the first half hour is the most impactful on your recovery so my team mates were aggressive in making me force it down. After a physically and mentally exhausting day, the camaraderie, encouragement and education was crucial in keeping my spirits high.
In all the commotion, what I had failed to remember was that both Daryl and Matt had just finished their own crushing first day. They had gone through it all the same, and as every one of our other 8 team mates came across the line, they ran over to the finish line to congratulate and take care of them. It may seem like something small or even expected but when exert yourself that heavily, it takes a lot of effort to get your back off the ground and go see how others are doing. Of course, like those before Daryl and Matt, it’s a veteran code to help your team or fellow competitors and a favor I would have the opportunity to return sooner than I thought.
The second story is about integrity and speaking up when the situation requires it. Although it’s acompetition, it’s a community of like minded individuals, who focus on learning as much from their competitors as they can. Our team leaders were staying in a different tent than us newbie’s. I assumed how well they must be doing and the fun they were having. I’ll be honest, the first time I saw their tentmates, they didn’t seem the most engaging types and seemed to have an arrogance, either bolstered by confidence or a lack there of (we will call one of them Kyle). We became accustomed to hearing comments such as “gee guys, what happened out there today. I only finished a few spots behind you; did you guys blow up or have a bad day?” I can tell you our team mates are fierce competitors, but are also big believers in karma, positivity and integrity. They love the desert run spirit of supporting everyone on course and helping others along the way. It’s all part of the journey. Unfortunately, these new competitors did not get it and were bringing a negative energy and tenseness to the tent. As you can imagine, there is enough pressure and strain already.
On the next occurrence, Daryl planned to pull one of the offending runners aside, if they followed regular patterns. Just as we were all settling around the tent, hearing war stories from the day, Kyle rolled in, in a fairly decent time, again a number of spots from our veterans. As expected Kyle piped up again. but Daryl decided to nip this one in the bud before it got out of hand. “You know Kyle, everyone is here to competing hard, and there is a community bond of supporting one another to finish the race. You have done well and we want to see you finish strong. However, your negative comments each day are not welcome in this tent and we’d appreciate if you would keep them to yourself.” Of course, the usual reaction to even constructive criticism is a defensive posture and Kyle tried to laugh this conversation off. Unfortunately for Kyle, he had six other Canadian tent mates focused in on him and Daryl promptly responded “No. Seriously Kyle, you are not hearing me. We don’t want to hear your comments at all and if you can’t refrain from doing that, you are not welcome in this tent anymore.” Silence fell across the tent…message delivered.
The situation was professionally handled with integrity and the behavior changed. Leadership is about investing in others and showing integrity at critical times. (I have changed the names for privacy).