Enjoy Life

I have been traveling a lot lately and so I took last Friday off from work to help with the Salt Flats 100 ultra marathon. It is something I help out with every year as it is organized by a good friend of mine. Besides it is a great excuse to get away from work and do something adventurous. Don't worry, I am not crazy enough to run in the event, I just provide radio support to ensure that runners stay safe.

There is no need to go into too much detail about the event other than to say that it takes almost the full weekend and requires me to drive around on goat trails not suitable for almost any passenger vehicle. I would venture to say that a stock Jeep would have trouble in sections and a lifted Jeep with oversized tires is a must.

This year I decided to keep my involvement to a minimum and just help with a single aid station. In the past I have helped with two. That can be rather difficult and makes for a really long weekend. It is a good thing too because we did not finish with the last racers through our station until after 8pm. Then we packed up our Jeeps in the rain and made the technical drive from the far reaches of the course back to civilization. I thought I had managed to get through the difficult part until the constant rain soaked the seemingly gentle dirt road to the point of becoming a giant mud field. Getting stuck in axle-deep mud well after dark is not something I wanted to deal with and felt great relief when I got back to the start/finish line after several scary sections at around 11pm. I almost had to go all the way back as we feared several runners were lost. Fortunately they staggered into an aid station shortly after midnight while I helped a bring gas back to my buddy in his Jeep after he ran his tank dry pulling SUV's out of the mud. I didn't get home until 2:30 am the next morning and had given the event all of my energy.

Sunday afternoon I sat with a number of neighborhood friends and asked if anyone had done anything exciting over the weekend. One guy noted that he mowed his lawn while another attended a soccer game for his twin daughters. Both are noble events but I felt guilty as I thought about my exciting adventure. Now as I sit in front of my computer thinking about technology I feel I have to encourage others to get out and enjoy life. Technology makes it so we don't have to spend all of our waking hours hunting and gathering food for our families. Let's use that time to do something worthwhile and fun. I spend my weekdays playing video games and doing boring things. Perhaps that is why I feel the need to get outside and go skiing, sailing, or driving over rough terrain in a Jeep. Hopefully you do too.