The real "Final Frontier".

Everyone knows the phrase "Space, the final frontier". Because you know, Star Trek is awesome. Who doesn't love Yoda and the Jabarwakis?? Exactly. But let's be real here and look at this differently. I don't think Space is the final frontier.

It's time.

Our futures.

The only thing we have left to explore is everything. Nothing exists 5 seconds from now, it only exists now and in the past. Our futures are the final frontier. Ok, put to doobie down and lets get to work.

Anyone who knows me in the realm of fitness knows that I talk about the five year change. Anything can happen in 5 years. Lets be honest, 5 years are going to come and go. in fact, 10 years are going to come and go, but that's a little harder to wrap your head around. So for context, lets stick with 5 years. Right now, you could decide that your done with your desk job, your tired of being single, your ready to have a family, and your ready to become healthy. In 5 years you have time to date someone for 2 years, spend a year preparing for a wedding, have an enjoyable first year or marriage, create, nurture, and birth a baby and Bam. You wake up with a family. Oh, and in that same time frame you could also take night classes, learn Yoga, learn it well enough to become a teacher, graduate and open a studio. Wammo. Now 5 years down the line and your waking up with a spouse, a baby (a little less lonely around the house), and you left your boring career at a desk and are now changing peoples lives through the small business you own teaching yoga and donating time to help youths stay out of trouble.

It doesn't matter where you are in life right now. You will wake up in 5 years. You can wake up in 5 years living in a different state, with a different career, with a family who loves you, and looking back at your life being so glad that you decided to look 5 years into the future.

Currently I'm trying to wrap my head around some of the future possibilities in my life and it seriously feels like they will be as likely as seeing humans explore space beyond our Solar System within my lifetime. I know my own journey from running a quarter of a mile to knocking back 30 half marathons has been crazy. I've fought innumerable personal demons, and still fight one every race morning. Yes, I still hear a voice in my head that says I wont even finish the race. Which is crazy, because to date I have not quit a race yet. It's time to look on to new frontiers, those demons have lost.

Over the last few months I've been following and researching something I didn't even know existed last year. The Western States 100. I've found a really intriguing podcast called Trail Runner Nation which has been opening my mind to potential I didn't even know was within me. A couple months ago I had resigned myself to never finishing a Full Marathon. Honestly. I've finished 26 Half Marathons, and I was doubting myself so hard that I had just straight up told myself I found the limit. 13.1 miles was the limit. Cant do anymore and, so far, I haven't. But there are exciting possibilities coming up.

Western States 100 is a race in California from Squaw Valley to Auburn. 100 miles of single track trails from so high in the mountains that they often experience shin high snow, and all the way down to the dessert floor with 100 degree temps. Think about that for a second. Really. That's almost 4 Full Marathons in 1 day. Unbelievable elevation gains and losses, and very technical terrain. Oh yeah, and you also have to qualify and be picked in a lottery to participate. Not only do people do this, but so many people want to do it that the race organizers reject people.

Ohio has 2 qualifying 100 mile races.


Am I about to train for a 100 mile race? No. The first baby step to take towards even thinking about completing such a feat is to double one of the hardest thing I've ever done. Turning a Half Marathon into a Full Marathon. 13.1 miles becomes 26.2  Two hours of hard work turning into four and a half hours of hard work.

To paint a reality check for you here, the two qualifying races here in Ohio have 30 and 32 hour cut-offs for finishers. There are many steps to take on the journey. But who knows what I can accomplish in the next 5 years. I'm going to wake up 5 years from now regardless, so will I wake up one day with a Full Marathon under my belt? What about a 50K medal? A 50 Miler Belt buckle to hang on my wall? Or maybe the ultimate, a 100 miler belt buckle and the right to say that I submitted official paperwork for the Western States 100?

5 years is going to come and go.

You will wake up 5 years from now.

The future is the Final Frontier.

What will you find in it?