... I screwed up!
OK, it's true this is a hell of a hard race, it's true it's not uncommon to come back with a "DNF" but honestly, this time, I could (and should) have done better. For various reasons, I end up aimlessly wandering on loop 2, in the middle of the night, with only 4:30 spare to finish 6000 ft ascent, a large part of it on no trail at all (let alone "candy ass"...) and after spending way too much time on searching for book 4, I just call it a day and hike back to camp. 4 hours to come back, and this is yet another Barkley lesson. Even quitting is hard.
Now, to remain positive, let's consider I'm back home with up to 26 hours of instructive experience, 22 of them being spent on the course, and about as much spent "alone, just 100% alone" Out There. The race in itself is just great, tough, and Brett's victory definitely impressive.
I could give a long list of excuses for my failure but this simply does not make sense, moreover, it's useless. Let me conclude on this little joke, it's a guy that asks an old wise fellow how he came out with all this wisdom:
- so tell me, how come you're so wise, what's your secret?
- two words: right decisions
- yeah, sure, but how do you make right decisions?
- one single word: experience
- great, but then, how to you acquire experience?
- two words: wrong decisions
