I lost my first race

In every country, at every opportunity, I have challenged people (children, adults, really anything that’s willing) to race me.

I don’t know what it is, but it’s just super simple, easy to communicate and I love competing with people. There’s just a bond that happens when you invite people to do something with you in fun (and a level of respect earned from children when you beat them).

This past week, I lost my first race of the race. In four months, I had won every race I started and if I’m being honest, probably got a little cocky. As a storm was rolling up to the land we were working on and as the rain began we all started to move toward the shelter. I had been working with a local named Eric and took this as an opportunity to get out some extra energy. Even though, looking at us, most people would’ve bet on him over me, I was pretty sure I at least had a shot.

He accepted my challenge and we darted off. However, he took off THROUGH the field not down the PATH that I was talking about. So I followed him through said field. We came to a part where it had not been cleared so there was maybe 2 feet of brush to hurdle through- no biggie… Until I fell in a hole. Literally ate brush in the last probably 5 seconds of this race!!

The point of this story is not that we raced. It’s not that I was super close to winning even though the odds were not in my favor. It’s not that I lost. It’s not even that I fell.

Once I fell it was a split second before I was up again, sprinting, trying to catch up. That’s the point. We all fall in life, make mistakes, do stupid things, but it’s how quickly we recover that matters. How quickly we brush off the dirt and move on. How quick we are to jump back up and get after it to finish the race we started.

So thanks for the lesson, Eric. Rematch?

Dad, I’m fine (:
My view for the month has been pretty stellar