29029

The THPL journey took a detour to Mt Stratton, Vermont, and participated in a unique and new endurance event.  The event is called 29029 and is named as such because over a two-day period participants “climb” up a mountain enough times to accumulate 29,029 feet of elevation gain.  At Stratton this translated to 17 times up the mountain.  A very different kind of challenge, the same course over and over, the conditions changing as the weather took over and the trail (which went straight up the mountain) got worn down by the 200 participants.  Every time we do something like this we ask, why?  What is it that draws us to something that takes 20+ hours and a lot of strain and discomfort.  And we often find the same answer.  We do them because they are hard, and they provide us the opportunity to test ourselves against the self-doubts that we have, to see how our physical being responds to strain, and to see if we can manage the stress that invariably comes from all of the unknowns and the ups and downs of hard endurance events.  For sure 29029 delivered.  The snow and rain, the mud, the 17 laps, the wicked steep uphill, a fantastic staff, and the opportunity to do hard stuff was indeed delivered. 

Loving life when doing the hard stuff