[at-l] testing: certius, altius, fortius was...Record time hiking AT

[sloetoe@yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

--- Shane Steinkamp <shane@theplacewithnoname.com> wrote:
> > but as a testing. Do you ever test yourself Shane?
> The short answer is no.  <snip>
### OWWWwwww!
### But then he says:
> I've done <snip> ... [and] I don't have to test <snip>
anymore.
### So he *did* "test* once upon a time. It just sounds like
he's forgotten that the knowledge of his ability(s) -- vis a vis
the rock face, the long hike, the boating, whatever -- were
LEARNED and not inate knowledge with which he was born.

> I just don't share the mindset,...
> Perhaps [it's] because I'm in the middle of the pack,...
> I don't believe I can compete with real athletes, since I
> don't consider myself to be one, so I don't bother.
### It's not a matter of you-versus-the-world competition,
Shane, but of the "testing" -- like the Olympics: "Certius,
Altius, Fortius" -- faster, higher, stronger. Not faster than
the other guy, able to jump higher than the other guy, or
lifting more stuff than the other guy, just "faster, higher,
stronger." So what the Olympics motto means is *you* go out and
do *your* best, whether the competition is beating your pants
off OR whether you've lapped them all. Doing YOUR best, faster,
higher, stronger. Testing. BE-ing all that you can be. This is
why Olympians cheer each other on: they're truly *all* winners
already.

### For many (for *me*), a throughhike is/was/will be a major
test. If you *pass* the test, then you will sit atop Katahdin
and feel pride. Maybe you'll sew a little "2000 miler" patch on
a pack and feel pride. Maybe at a Gathering, you'll stand with
others who finished the AT in a given year, receive applause,
and feel pride. But to FEEL the pride, you'll have to have had
something on the line to be tested: your pride; your sense of
self; self-worth.

### (And those who want to throw out pearls of evil wisdom like
"Well if it stops being fun, I just won't hike anymore." are
setting themselves up for quitting, and before they've even
left. DON'T leave Springer thinking that every day is just going
to be a peachy fun romp in the woods; there may be WEEKS that
just plain SUCK. "But why backpack if it's not fun?" If you have
to ask the question, ...)

### But mid-pack-ness doesn't matter a bit, Shane. If you were
recovering from a debilitating disease, wouldn't a midpack
finish be outrageous? If you were a vacationing Olympian, would
winning the local 5 Miler by gliding in 0:00.08 in front of the
local guy signify a great performance on your part? [No.] What
matters is that you did well according to your own native
abilities and available training. *That's* what makes it tough:
you're competing against yourself, witnessed by a merciless
clock. And *that's* what makes it FUN, too. [Oops. How did "fun"
get in there? My bad. No room for "fun"; only dreadful
determination.]

### So. Faster, higher, stronger, *farther*. This is
backpacking. This is the AT -- or better, "throughhiking"; it is
going "in back of 'beyond'" to borrow from Colin Fletcher; it is
the spirit driving some of us to wonder what is around the next
corner. From our warm sleeping bags, we may wonder "what does
the sunrise look like on top of this mountain?" This is a
testing. It is athleticism done broadly acrosss the landscape;
it's royal.

### You athlete, you.

### And Pete Palmer? He wasn't trying to beat David Horton (who
had held the record since 1991(?). Palmer was trying to beat the
record that Horton *established* -- to see if *it* could be
broken, not whether David could be "beaten". (This is why *all*
these guys -- on the AT, the LT, the JMT, etc, all share with
each other the intelligence gathered from previous trips, and
why, half the time, when one looks down the list of people
"crewing" the effort, they see names of previous record holders
-- as Horton did for Palmer.) It is the "test" that's the thing.
The same thing that makes the storm-walkers walk, the climbers
climb and boaters boat, and for that matter, the same thing that
makes the mathematicians compute, the engineers ponder, and the
firefighters jump at the bell.

Sloetoe

=====
Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.

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