Photo: Thomas GathmanĪnd then there was Jodi Isenor and his wife Karine, who as complete strangers in 2015 had spent good chunks of their weekend trying to glue the pieces back together of this completely shattered novice who had no idea what he was doing. Julian and Fegy with me after last year’s finish. If either of them had run, I would have returned the services in kind. Beyond that there was Julian Jamison and John Fegyveresi, who had crewed for me. I had a long list of people I needed to repay for their support over the years, starting with my wife Jessi, who would get to go through March for the first time in four years without helping prepare for a crazy race in the Tennessee mountains or worrying about where I am for 60 hours. Or if you’d rather just see the footage I grabbed while out there, head over to Youtube (thank you to James DeFilippi for the camera for the weekend).Īfter my finish in 2017 there was never any consideration of coming back to race in 2018. If you just want to find out what happened to Gary’s headlamps, click here. Thank you so much to Jodi and Gary for inviting me to be a part of it. The weekend allowed me to see things from an entirely new perspective, experience what my own amazing support system has gone through the past few years, and reflect on how some incredible people handled adverse conditions and outcomes that were far from their goals.

Seeing close up the attitude and perspective that Jodi and Karine, Gary and Linda, and others had this weekend in the face of the tough conditions and the resulting “failure” was a true privilege, and I hope that some of that rubbed off on me.

Sometimes it’s not the completion of a goal itself, but the experience and the lessons learned in pursuing it that are the most valuable. I witnessed some amazing performances in some unbelievable conditions, and had the honor of crewing for two of those athletes. This year my return to Barkley was a much different experience for me, but one that may have taught me as much as any of my previous three trips there. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

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