I wish the weight of my words could break another man’s jaw, but I’m not that interesting… yet. My pursuit of the Endurance Lifestyle has put me a half mile from shore in the Gulf of Mexico during a triathlon, in a poison dart frog infested jungle in Costa Rica during mountain bike race, a snowy mountain in Colorado while on horseback, helplessly tumbling in the surf at a beach in San Diego after wiping out on an El Nino inspired wave, and a freezing downpour on the Appalachian Trail, not to mention running through a few major cities during a couple of marathons. But, it usually takes someone else to point out that I’ve done a few interesting things in my life– I’m always coveting the experiences of other endurance athletes.
I want to finish a long and steep bicycling climb on a mountain in France (or Italy), I want to swim and run across a Swedish archipelago, SCUBA dive the “graveyard of the Atlantic” off the coast of North Carolina, motorcycle across a South American country to bring aid to deserving children, tackle a grueling mud run, and train with a natural movement specialist in a remote jungle, just to name a few. I’m always searching out the “new” in endurance experiences and was excited to read all the amazing experiences our writers have had in their own pursuit of the Endurance Lifestyle.
One of the new experiences I was treated to recently was a training session with Chapel Hill’s Colin Pistell, owner of Fifth Ape. Don’t be fooled by the business name, Colin is definitely the real deal and not just another marketer trying to capitalize on the “paleo craze”. I had an amazing and exhilarating time jumping, vaulting and crawling all over the Forest Theater in Chapel Hill. The session gave me a new outlook on fitness I hope to carry with me into other endurance endeavors. It also left me sore in muscles often missed during my typical swim, bike and run sessions. You can read more about the results of my wall-jumping in my feature about Colin, “The Power of Play”, which was shot by the awesome Tamara Lackey Studios photographer, Jessie Blakely, who did a bit of climbing herself to capture some amazing shots of Colin.
We also feature in this outdoors-inspired issue a woman speed hiking the Appalachian Trail, a 70-year-old woman climbing to Mount Everest’s Base Camp, and the many “So There I Was…” moments of our awesome team of endurance sports writers.
Inspire. Perform. Endure.
