dreadedmonkeygod . net

I've mentioned the Great Divide Race a few times, so I thought I'd offer one last update, and a few final thoughts on this year's race.

For those who haven't been keeping up: The Gread Divide Race is a 2500-mile mountain bike race from Roosville, Montana, on the Canadian border, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, following the Adventure Cycling Association's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

Twenty-odd racers started at noon on June 15th. The winner, Jay Petervary, finished on Friday, June 30th, after 15 days in the saddle. Second place finisher Matthew Lee came in about 18 hours later.

Six days later, eleven guys are still out there battling for third, and it looks like it'll be a few days yet before any of them see the finish line.

I've followed the story of Dave Nice, who started last year's GDR, but had to drop after just a few days when his bike was stolen. Showing moxie beyond imagination, he started this year's race on a fixed-gear mountain bike. He didn't finish, but I get the feeling that a lot of riders have been inspired by his effort.

And all the other riders, whose blogs I have yet to discover, are helping to make this race great by continuing to ride, beyond all hope of setting a record, or winning, or even getting close to the record. A week after the winner went home, they're still out there on their bikes, having the time of their lives.

So, why do I give a rat's ass about the lunatics riding south through the heat and the wind and the rain and lightning and the bears and the one-horse towns and washboard roads?

Good question.

I feel like sport is finally reaching back to where it started: human beings travelling under their own power, posessing strength and endurance and will that we today consider superhuman. Eskimos used to hunt orca in sealskin kayaks. Native whalers in Fiji still hut whales with bamboo spears and outrigger canoes, knowing that any moment the whale can drown them all if he dives. Mayan messengers used to run for days along high-altitude ridgelines. Native American peoples settled conflicts with games of lacrosse that lasted days, and spanned miles.

Human beings are capable of incredible things. All of us. The cubicle workers, the couch potatoes, the weekend warriors, the old and the young. Our conception of ourselves has diminished over the years, and we've forgotten that we are animals. We watch the Olympics on TV, and forget that we don't need corporate sponsorship or genetic gifts or even new shoes to run marathons or climb mountains or travel the world under our own power.

Somehow, we don't make the step from "Wow!" to "I want to try that!"

To me, races like the Iditarod or the Great Divide Race remind us what we're capable of. And they make me wonder what we might accomplish if our passion for sport and exploration were channeled into feeding each other, into healing, into peace. Look at what we can do when winning and losing comes a distant second to simply rolling into Mexico after a month under the open sky. Look what we can do when we have our priorities in order.

So, everybody, go do something amazing today.