Sooo… one really needs to be cautious when living life by internet memes.
A lot of times, the attribution is way off… and more often than not, the “quote” isn’t really a quote… it’s more of an amorphous etymological amalgamation of fact and fiction that group-think, Mandela/Shazaam effect makes us all THINK the quote if valid. James T. Kirk never says, “Beam me up, Scotty! There’s no intelligent life any where.” Neither Ilsa nor Rick actually say, “Play it again, Sam.” Everybody says something CLOSE to that, just not that way. Darth Vader never tells Luke… ya know what? Spoiler Alert on that one. Respect the revelations.
All of this is malarkey prelude to explaining today’s meme-able aphorism:
“Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You.”
Lots of folks attribute it to Eleanor Roosevelt. And Ralph Waldo Emerson. Or Baz Luhrmann. Truth is, that exact phrasing comes from Mary Schmich in a 1997 editorial proffering a would-be college graduation speech. But the internet memes consistently say it was Eleanor, even though what she said in 1960 was
“You must do the one thing you think you cannot do.”
Emerson wrote 119 years before that in his Heroism essay:
“Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.'”
And Baz Luhrmann took Schmich’s editorial and set it up as the turn of the millennium spoken word radio hit “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).” [For a fine breakdown of the etymology of the phrase see HERE]
All of this second this is more malarkey prelude to what one thing I did today that scares me.
I signed up for the Transylvania 100K ultra trail marathon.
I actually was all registered and just needed to process my payment when I got… well… spooked. I reread the altitude profile and google searched a race review. Normally I skim such things, as I’m sure folks do here. You look for a photo or a funny phrase but otherwise, ya know, scroll, scroll, scroll, yeah? Anyway, I was reading the guy’s recap and I’m pretty sure I got very pale, as if all the blood had drained from my face… not because of vampires but because I was really, really, REALLY, ridiculously freaked out. Also… because of vampires.
Here’s the stats on the 100K from the official website. The time limit is 31 hours. THIRTY ONE HOURS!
Here’s the elevation profile… <gulp>.
I quickly sent an email to the race director asking if I, being more of a marathoner, could switch to the 50K (which roughly translates into 31.06 miles). I told them that while the 50K would be a struggle, I thought I could finish that. I just felt like the 100K (or roughly, gulp, 62.1371 miles) would be a MASSIVE struggle and I feared I wouldn’t make it to the end.
His reply is below:
Hi Kevin,
Our 100k race is indeed very difficult because of the altitude gain that it has but the cut off times are set so almost everyone can finish the race safely. Besides that you have the option to change the route, during the race, to the 50k after 25 kilometres or to the 80k race after 30 kilometres from the start.
If you want to register to another race now you can just ignore the first entry form you have filled in and fill another one at the race you would like to take part of.
Kind regards,
The Transylvania 100 team
There still remains a chicken hatch I could escape through on race day. And so I finally thought back on the words of that woman who told me to always wear my sunscreen.
I was terrified, horrified, bewildered and all kinds of other -eds… but I also figured if I was going to do one thing I was afraid of, why not face A LOT of fears all at once — brown bears, heights, altitude sickness, vampires, snow, a potentially longer than a day race, vampire brown bears, bears that hunt vampire brown bears (perhaps the Romanian Country Bears Jamboree as they are Van Hel-SINGing bears)… the list goes on and on and on. And on.
A 100K race would by far by the longest distance I’d ever have run in one go…
On the plus side, when I paid my Romanian lei, look at the message they included on my receipt:
Payment Instructions: “Do not postpone what you can do today.”
***
Be afraid. The children of the night are calling.
Nope, nope… that’s probably just my terrified screams.
Ah, ah, ah-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!