Learning from Adventurous Expedition

 

I have recently seen World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji and wanted to share the experience as there is so much to learn and it’s was fantastic to know from people who made history from their own journey. Bear Grylls hosted this 671 Km – 11 day brutal course comprises of Mountains, Jungles, Rivers, Ocean and Swamp where teams have to finish without modern technology but just with wit, experience and counting on each other. 66 teams participated from 30 different countries with 264 athletes that were tested physically, mentally and emotionally with hot, dry, humid, windy, chilling cold, wet and muddy conditions. It has 5 Legs: Ocean Leg, Jungle Leg, River Leg, Highland Leg and Island Leg with 31 checkpoints each has cut off time after which teams will be disqualified.

Here are some of my thoughts on what we all can learn from this adventurous expedition:  

Never afraid of shaky starts - Don’t go too fast – Worlds famous team had a shaky start in first hour with their boat flipping upside down, but they believed in themselves and their strengths and made it to 2^nd place at the end of 65km first checkpoint and finally topped the race just under 7 days as true champions. Their advice is never lured into the fact of taking this as a race by going too fast but forgetting that it is an expedition.  Top team until check point 2 wanting to go too fast, hit with a heat wave and one of his team member was down and they quickly slipped into 58^th position at checkpoint 4 within 14 hours into the expedition. Fail early, remove fear, arise, pick up pace knowing your strengths by conserving energy but don’t go too fast and burn out to disappear quickly.

Diversity – It had representation of all colour, creed and race, LGBTQ community, all first time adventure racers (Civilians, Combat Veterans including a 60+ woman with hearing impairment); full women team; daughters with a father who has won an earlier challenge in 2002 wanting to give his girls unique experience; A son wanting to make 60 + year father proud roping in his team to embrace once-in-a-life-time experience by taking care of him while he was suffering from Alzheimer’s; another father taking his 18 year old son into team wanting him to experience the world of adventure under his close watch;  a team of twin sisters from India who happened to be first twin sisters to climb mount Everest and first to climb seven other summits who says “We wanted to prove really that the girls in India are strong, and they can achieve anything”; a team with all 60 + age members with 68 year old captain wanted to prove to the world that “there is no age to stop doing interesting stuff” and go an explore until you have energy and enthusiasm. Diversity gives breadth and depth with different flavours and perspectives with creative talent and innovative ideas.

Divine Discontent – I learned about this characteristic through my “Find Your Everest” program in TCS which is defined as “an attitude to learning and growth that is never satisfied with past achievements but always searching for the next challenge”. Top team exactly exhibited this character, although they have won more races than any other team in the history of the sport as true champions, their captain mentions it all gets pushed aside and every time we just focus on the process and on the basics and going at a pace which is good for our team. They really worked on “Winning Opportunity” when 2^nd and 3^rd position teams are taking rest to climb 1000 feet mountain with rope course facing a skiddy waterfall at night to take advantage in the lead and ended up in top of the table. Teams that work on their strength, curious to learn and improve every single time with never satisfying attitude excel always.

Asking Why Not? - A Women team captain who has 3 kids, finishing her PhD in biochemistry with 3 business and a professional fire fighter have asked the question of why not take this toughest race to be a role model for her kids who can see their parents competing and having these experiences. Another Women who has won 6 Ironman world athlete races and went down from pinnacle to zero due to her health conditions this was her comeback story as she was determined to finish through the line. Another team captain who had fracture to the ribs 2 months before the race, took a decision as he started feeling better without giving it up. There were so many such examples among these 66 teams who have asked why not to find better version of themselves and come out as a strong and matured human beings physically and mentally.

Adapting to the situations and taking calculated risks: There is a situation where a team hit with a severe storm stay put in safe location at night for 3 hours and when rain stopped they supported each other holding their hands as there were no supports to cross high raising water to get to safest checkpoint, it was only team left out in dangerous situation when the race was stopped due to bad weather. When a team swimming through 8 km cold water to avoid hypothermia, one member of team came up with an innovative idea to loosen up all the back up and rest of gear to float and swim easily and helped all of her team adapting quickly to the situation. Navigating though the ambiguity when a team while doing paddle boating lost track due to low water levels but adapting quickly they follow the traces of earlier teams to reach to the next checkpoint. There it literally no idea on what to expect, with so many unknown elements and it is really hard to plan well ahead in all situations. Teams that exhibit adaptability to the given situations taking calculated risks can get past tough situations.

Team Bonding: While this adventure demands very good health condition personally not to remain as weak link in the team, it also demands highest levels of team skills: co-ordination, trust, understanding, motivation, supporting each other physically, emotionally and mentally. There are occasions where the top team on day 1 suffered when their strongest man down with the sun stroke. All other 3 members took care of him, given enough rest for him to come back and finally crawled up the table from 58^th to 16^th in two days’ time finishing at 14^th position in the end. One of the team said it is like four bodies and one soul, eating, sleeping, drinking and eco challenging at the same time. When the chips are down with one of the team member, they have to carry an extra bike or gear to give the worn out one a breather. Team success depends on combination of members, athlete and doctor although a women just came out of her maternity has been instrumental with her experience as per captain of top team. A team member who has done 50 Iron man in 50 days in 50 states although with no Eco challenge experience is a good addition to team with his energy that he brings in for another team. Many teams have own family members with their daughters, sons, spouses to keep the bonding and team spirit going. It was not just between the team but many teams have walked alongside during Mountain trek with 22 hours long haul, reached before cut off time with proper coordination. Two local Fijian teams were teaming up all the way through as one big 8 member team showing the companionship and made their country proud by finishing the race. Teams that were honest, expressed freely, believed and trusted each other, took care of each other came out stronger and had fun together with greater bonding.

Taking tough decisions: Sometimes teams have to make tough decisions to give it a pause, back track if any member is injured and need medical assistance. Teams respecting and understanding the suffer of worn out member and making tough call to pull out is real big lesson to learn as the journey is important not the finish line if you are really hurting and doing damage to your health. A sister and daughter mentioned when they had to quit the race: “My dad and sister are everything, and it’s just a race, and I have them and that’s really all that as important to us”. It reminded me of the journey Jake Meyer (introduced to me by STRATA program in TCS) took to reach K2 summit after 10 years of waiting with 3 attempts as he always says there is family out there who want to see us alive & healthy whether we conquered it or not and there is always next chance. Teams that make tough decisions by understanding what is right for the company or business in a given situation not bothering about short term gains but long term benefits can go to heights.

 It was worth spending time in experiencing these adventure episodes that can teach us a lot more on so many aspects of life very much efficiently than learning courses sometimes. I tried focusing on what we can gain from this rather than reviewing the content as there may be different opinions on content, length, coverage etc., Here are some of the powerful quotes as bonus that I have captured from some of these heroes.

Quotes -

“I don’t know what I am afraid of – I am going to find out”

“I never mind dying climbing”

“Racing provides a really important piece of structure to my life. It gives me something to lean on when things are difficult in other places”

“You Love it and you hate it, this is just a dream race, because it takes you into very special places and puts you in very especially hard situation.”

“You get to a point in life where you have to decide whether the things that set you back will be the things that define you”

“I love the thought of losing track of time and space, and that can only happen through adventure racing”

“In Adventure race of this kind, you cannot let mistakes or bad situations get to you. You just have to forget it and deal with it”

“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we’re last, but what do they call a doctor who finishes last in medical school, they call him “Doctor””

“Don’t limit yourselves dreaming by night. Dream by day”

“You need to know that you’re in danger. That feeling keeps you going”

“Fight till the end, never give up, we’ll do this”

“If a problem has a solution, why get angry? If it doesn’t why get angry? “

“Our goal is push ourselves physically and mentally and explore our limits”

“I just want to experience life to the fullest, as long as I’m alive.”

“Modern life has just got so comfortable, we actually want to get out there and suffer and feel like we are being tested and feel alive”

“I was put on this planet to do hard things. It’s in my core, it’s in my bones, it’s in my blood.”

“It is these experiences that make us really think about what’s important in our life.”

“It’s always the earned victory that makes the better story”

“I know when I am out here that I’m living my best, truest self”

“If you think that you can’t do something well, then you won’t do it, but if you give it a shot, you never know. Just like we did”