200th post

Well I am certainly not as prolific as Derrick, or Wenley, but I hope I make up for it with a quality of content. Or maybe its just in the ardent and eloquent phrases I use. Hmmm… NOT!

Looking back over the last couple of years I have been shocked at the number of blogs. The number of websites on paddling, and the number of folks out there doing daring trips and expeditions. Certainly I would like to be out there doing that too. Balance is a hard thing to find. I trust that my adventuring life is not over by a long shot. I have aimed to write here about what I see as goals and ambitions. I’ve often written about what I value, and why I spend so much time running, kayaking, skiing, and cycling.

It’s funny I think my wife thought that kayaking would be a fad for me, something I would get over. That certainly hasn’t happened. My love for being on, in or under water has only deepened as the years have gone on. I am certainly less zealous in my evangelism towards sea kayaking than I used to be. And my affection for surfing has grown exponentially.

Why I do it, and why I write about it is more of a navel gazing operation than I am accustomed to performing. The long answer is that testing your limits doesn’t have to be an all or nothing event. You don’t have to go on a three month expedition to the Antarctic sea to test yourself. Each person, each life, is its own expedition/marathon/cyclocross race etc. In fact I would credit someone who balances wife, house payment, children, with marathons, triathlons, short sea kayaking trips with just as much guts and endurance as someone who does
a three month circumnavigation of a god forsaken island with no wife or children. The balancing act in and of itself is worthy of praise. Sometimes my teeter-totter gets out of whack, and I am lucky to have a wife who understands, and will encourage me to get the other leg back on my end to hold it down.

I think really this website is not so much about the thrills and the pain, or the adventures as it is about the balancing act.

People in the office give me that look, (maybe you know the one) whenever I am suited up to run at lunch. They see the tights, the hat, the jacket and the gloves, and think “why on earth would he do this when it is 7 degrees out?” When those of us who are active think, “oh man this is gonna hurt, but I gotta do it.”

In short maybe the reason is…
If a short, goofy, balding mid-western boy with a wife and two young kids can run marathons/cyclocross/swim (ok I sort of suck)/kayak-surf and, ski anyone can do it…