This is Brandon. A person who found out the reason for all of his pain was a rare genetic disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), which basically fuses his spine together. Brandon felt sorry for himself when this happened, but then he got angry and decided to stand up and fight back by challenging himself and this disease by undertaking endurance events. You see circumstances don't make a man, they only reveal him, as Epictetus said. I first saw Brandon running along the trail that I frequent during the week. He's not a "pretty" runner and always seemed to have a grimace of pain on his face. Brandon just kept showing up and I take notice of people who are committed and hardworking because it is a rare commodity in today's world. Brandon was training for a 1/2 Ironman. I gave him some pointers on a final run workout before the race and how to taper. He successfully finished the Ironman which stoked the fire in his soul to go farther. He asked me if I thought he could compete in a 50K trail run 5 months in the future. I told him there was no doubt he could finish the race if he continued to be a Hard Working Mother F*cker.
I started mentoring Brandon and gave him a training plan tailored for his specific needs. We met on a lot of cold wet rainy Pacific Northwest mornings to do runs, when all the sheep were back in their warm dry beds, we were out taking scalps. As Seth Feroce said, I'm in the business of building Mother F*ckers, not snowflakes. Brandon was starting to take some scalps, until . . .
When stalking the impossible the universe will throw all sorts of challenges at you. Plan on it and expect it. Steven Pressfield labels this force Resistance, with a capital "R". Resistance loved Brandon and was going to see how bad he wanted it. Brandon suffered an AS flare up, COVID infection with lung complications, and plantar fasciitis. At times he doubted he could finish the race or even return to his fitness, but he battled Resistance and that inner-bitch voice in his head and found himself toeing the start line of the Ancient Lakes 50K (which actually turned out to be a 55K, that is 34 miles).
This is his journey.
Follow Brandon on instagram: / do.as.is
--CHAPTERS OF THE JOURNEY--
00:00 Intro
01:53 Training Begins
04:46 COVID Setback
07:03 AS Setback
14:22 Plantar Fascitis Setback
16:37 The Comeback
17:24 The Goal
Thanks for watching. Just trying to escape the MatrixFor more of my adventures checkout the instagram / matt_mankey
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30 июл 2024
