A new chapter in the book of my life

 

One Challenge At a Time was born when a man called Mike Peters came into my life. He provided the inspiration to break the bounds, to go out and seek adventure, to challenge myself physically and mentally and more importantly squeeze every inch out of life because 'All we have is Time'. He was a river that forged the way that I followed. 

Time ran out for my inspiration. He fought cancer with every breath he had. 

One Challenge has been a bit quiet in the year 2025. Focus has needed to be on other parts of my life. 2025 could have been the breaking of me but instead I believe it has been the making of me or the re-making of me as once again I have to forge a new path, face up against a life change thrust upon me.

Out of hardship, character is formed...

I was ruminating this week on how I have survived this year with my soul intact and not become a broken wreck. I thought of Mike and all he went through yet smiling throughout and facing everything headlong. What builds that character? 

For Mike I believe it was just innate. Part of his being. A few people are born that way. For others like me it has to be built, slowly, steadily, learning from experiences. And that is what I believe Mike gave me... the drive and inspiration to set foot (or in most of my cases, 2 wheels) into the unknown and embrace the challenges.

For 14 years, I have thrown myself into the unknown, hesitantly at first, but with the backing and support of all those who follow the blogs and the adventures, I was encouraged to push myself harder, further, into more remote areas. Mike's music often provided impetus and lines from his songs drove the next step forward. If Mike could fight so hard against such a terrible disease, then it was nothing for me to take another step (or pedal stroke) 

Some of the hard days stand out. 

Battling against headwind into Santa Rosa, going up the third hill after Tucumcari, when Mike had confidently told me there was only 'one big hill', standing on a slope defying gravity holding my bike above me as I went up The Wall, the 6 hour hike a bike up 'the reroute... I could go on. But all these hard days added a little extra to my ability to withstand pain, physical and mental. Each experience imprinted on me, adding grit to my being. 

And then after the hard days came reward... 

Standing atop the Grand Canyon, arms aloft... 

Standing at the top of the Annapurna pass, 17500ft of hard graft behind me... 

Arriving at Santa Monica pier, almost on time (Sorry Beki and Randy for the slight delay) to a chorus of cheers from random people gathered from a pub... 

Standing on stage with Mike Peters, having arrived back from Route 66 that day... 

Reward follows hard graft

Happiness and a sense of accomplishment follows challenges. 

It is all these things that I have subconsciously drawn upon over the last 9 months. Facing the unknown has become second nature to me and because of my challenges I can do so without fear of the road ahead. 

Back when One Challenge At A Time was first born, I coined a phrase... 

Fight the Fear

Embrace the Randomness 

but above all

Go With The CraZy! 

I used this phrase as motivation to step outside my comfort zone and just go with it.... turns out, the more you step outside your comfort zone, the easier it is to do! 

Puncture in the middle of nowhere... fixed it

No hydraulic brakes going down a 5 mile 1000 ft descent... no problem

sleeping under a tarp fixed to a digger bucket... got the t-shirt... 

Navigating your way out of St Louis on highway 100 (death trap)... doable

Earthquake in Nepal... no panic

Eating by yourself... so many times.. no one cares.... 

So in the last year when I found myself having to contemplate a very different future than the one I thought I had, there was no panic (other than whether I would be able to afford to keep my cats, snakes and frogs), just a focus of what I needed to do, the direction I would take and the steps needed to get there... with a plan B, C, D.. all the way to Z! (something else my challenges have taught me... always have another plan!) 

And as many of my hardest challenges have proven... work hard, suck it up and the rewards will come. Sometimes, as in this case, the best rewards are those you did not see or envisage. A new career brings many many challenges but the reward of learning new things... becoming proficient (and hopefully skilled in time) at something new, gaining new skills, meeting new people, having confirmation of who your real friends are, having your family support you through the toughest of times without question and seeing new paths open up.. all these things are reward enough for the challenges I have faced... and none of it would have been quite so easy to face without having put myself into situations out of my comfort zone, out of choice, many times before. 

I have been accused in the past year of being resistant to change... I laughed at that. If the last year has proven anything... its that I am extremely good at navigating change and the challenges that inevitably follow it. 

If course there were low points. But there will always be those in life... its how you bounce back from those that matters. My challenges have also prepared me for that... 

During a typical day on some Crazy challenge, I will typically have 100 high moments and 100 low moments... the highs and the lows come so quickly one after the other sometimes... one minute you are soaked through, shivering, pushing your bike up a mountain with no end... and then a rainbow appears and the shafts of sunlight hit the most idyllic spot on the mountain and a peace descends, where a moment before your head space had been telling you that there was no way you were going to reach your goal for the day, you couldn't go a step further and you don't know why you were there in the first place. It is a condensed version of life. 

And the lows make the highs.... well... high. 

If you had nothing to compare them to, they wouldn't be highs. Life would be one long 'meh' 😂

Food tastes better when you are tired cold and hungry 

The sun feels better when you have been soaked through

A tailwind boosts your spirits much more when you have faced a headwind all day

you get the point👌

All this is a long winded way of setting out the reasons why everyone should push themselves out of their comfort zone once in a while.. 

it builds a better you, it fortifies you, it future proofs you... 

Most of us aren't born like Mike Peters, we have to work at it. 

With all that in mind, although my focus has had to turn away from One Challenge At A Time and all that it stands for... it doesn't mean that I'm not without plans for this year 😁

One Change At A Time plus the other slightly Crazy friend (Sam F, that's you!) have signed up for another Ultramarathon at the end of June... shit... only 3 weeks to prepare lol

Together we are taking on the Peak District 100km continuous ultra challenge. 100km without stopping for sleep (except the micronaps I promised Sam😂) 

Hopefully slightly more forgiving terrain than Slovenia, we both have our goals... 

Sam 'to get to the finish' 

Me 'very happy if finish in under 24 hours' 

So keep an eye out for updates in the next few weeks and bookmark 27th to 29th June in your calendars. We will have a tracking link to follow along, a few videos and photos along the route, perhaps also a live feed 😂 and of course the post race blog, with hopefully a guest blog from sam. Hit the like button on my page to get the updates in your feed and feel free to ask any questions re our kit, prep and sanity 😉

This will be in memory of my friend and inspiration, Mike Peters. 

I am not raising money this time but if anyone wishes to donate to Love Hope Strength either in appreciation for our suffering or in memory of Mike please go to

 https://www.justgiving.com/page/onechallenge?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL&utm_campaign=015

Fighting the fear

Embracing the Randomness but above all

Going With The CraZy

LHS