No, you can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometime you find,
You get what you need
Ironic this song would come on as I was reflecting on the events of the Chicago Spartan Super of last weekend. It was my 11th Spartan Race. My partner Karl and I knew how to do this. We round up the newbies from our motivational group Team 1DOS for the weekend. We do team bonding on Friday night, this time Cards Against Humanity, which is a whole other topic of hilarity... We get up early, get to the venue, calm the nerves of the newbies, get everyone off and moving, over the walls, under the wire, over the fire, medal, shirt, beer and a fabulous dinner and after party. Yes, we are seasoned at this. Taking people to races and watch them conquer their biggest fears is as near and dear to us as it was when we raced our own first races.
Then it happened. Right at the crest of the hill of mile 7.25 in an 8 mile race. A woman in a red Spartan shirt just beyond the Z Wall suspending the race. There was lightening in the area. She assured us the clock was stopped and we simply needed to wait it out under the trees. Well it damn well better be stopped. We were at 3 hours flat and 15 mins from the finish. We had never done this course in less than 4:45. To be fair, she was just carrying out the directive by the Spartan officials. Poor thing did not stand a chance trying to hold back 100 Spartans less than a mile from the finish. People pushed past and went anyway, not realizing a suspended race did not mean an actual finish when you cross the line. Others were angry. Others repeatedly asking if we would get the medal or the shirt.
But I went down to the demonstration,
To get your fair share of abuse,
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"
Ultimately, we would stand around for about 45 minutes until another official would announce the race was simply over. Dangerous storms were moving in and they had to call the race. We were shown a back way to bag check and would walk past the finish line where the clock was still lit up, suspended for the day. The tents past the line were locked up, as in the tents that held the precious swag. Many of my fellow racers did demonstrate some fuse blowing ugliness. The guy refusing to follow procedure at bag pick up and telling the volunteer to,"F#&k off!" was downright embarrassing. There was another guy who approached the survey kiosk on the way out of the exit tent, angrily slamming the buttons for a negative review saying the same aloud but directing his commentary to all of Spartan Race. From there, we would head to an open field where the dangerous storm would arrive soaking us to the bone, shivering as we waited for an empty school bus to finally take us to our car, which would also not be without peril, as it got stuck in the mud and two of my teammates had to push it out, one of whom had already taken his race socks off and was barefoot.
I suppose it has taken me some time to put together my thoughts on this experience. We had a plan. We had a routine when it came to racing with our clients and it all stopped right there at the Z Wall. I would have to find a different shirt to wear to the airport, the bragging finishing shirt that was our norm was gone. I emptied out my race bag, which for the first time did not require a trip to my medal rack. I had no PR bragging rights that we were sure we would have this time. In the days that followed, Spartan did their level best to make it up to me. A free Super was offered. Well, I did have a team going to Boston, I suppose I could do that. I have raced with all of these people before after all. In fact, I believe I took almost each and every one of them to their first Spartan Races at one time or another. It could be really fun to race together as a seasoned tribe. This is an opportunity I would have missed had things gone according to plan.
As I thought about missing the opportunity to post a PR, I originally let my disappointment cloud the fact that we were on track for by far the best race we had ever done finishing or not. As I considered that, I began to realize that maybe, just maybe, all my time spent helping others in this process, and following the plan race after race, I had missed the fact that I had grown as an athlete and it's probably time for bigger, hyperventilating, scare the crap out of me personal challenges. Maybe what I really needed was to abandon my rigid corporate planning and find a better balance between being motivator and attacking my own goals
No, you can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometime you find,
You get what you need
This all makes me wonder how many times in life we have a plan that gets absolutely destroyed just shy of our destination. How many times we give up on our goals when circumstances change, rather than taking the opportunity to see the lesson and learn to change trajectory. I can honestly say, I have a closet full of race shirts and a wall covered in medals, which truthfully, I "need" about as much as my son needed his cherished Wrangler, or the RC version for that matter. What I needed was to be left shivering in the rain empty handed in order to realize sometimes "according to plan" is actually just complacency in disguise and it's time to go back to the start and try again, only this time a little stronger, a little wiser and to push myself a little more because clearly I am way more capable than I ever thought. So, here's to a new Super with some badass people I am blessed to call friends, and to new goals I never dreamed possible because the best is yet to come.
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