Wow, Henriette! As with most of your athletic feats (and Sue’s!) this is both inspiring and daunting. There definitely was some kind of god, possibly a Greek one, looking out for you and saving you from passing out when you went running up those stairs and turning blue!
PS I somehow don’t get the message from your story that one should avoid pushing oneself to inhuman limits. I get the sense that with all your experience, you might have made it almost a practice to do just that. E.g. you got to where you are today and your extraordinary accomplishments by pushing yourself relentlessly, by pushing yourself “beyond.” That’s why you thought you’d be OK, pushing yourself even a little bit farther. There is joy in that, afterwards and you remind us of that. However I guess the current severe heat is a kind of limit, even for people like you with extraordinary abilities, and the ability to “fly” up or down a hill. it is interesting to revisit the electrolyte factor. You may inspire the super-cautious among us to try harder! But thanks for mixing in a little wise warning, with the inspiration.
Melissa, you have a good point there—that there’s an element of push push push to a certain kind of athletic endeavor, which I’ve certainly come to embrace. Maybe the lesson is that in order to push yourself well, you have to take care of yourself. Take care of the low-hanging fruit of the basics, like electrolytes and taking essential vulnerabilities seriously, so that you can really challenge yourself more.
There's a lot of wisdom in this post! Bravo on training seriously and learning from mistakes, and on racing with aspirational but achievable goals. I'll link to this in my Wednesday newsletter.
Great story and advice as always here’s to sticking with it into our 80s sister
I like that approach!
Wow, Henriette! As with most of your athletic feats (and Sue’s!) this is both inspiring and daunting. There definitely was some kind of god, possibly a Greek one, looking out for you and saving you from passing out when you went running up those stairs and turning blue!
PS I somehow don’t get the message from your story that one should avoid pushing oneself to inhuman limits. I get the sense that with all your experience, you might have made it almost a practice to do just that. E.g. you got to where you are today and your extraordinary accomplishments by pushing yourself relentlessly, by pushing yourself “beyond.” That’s why you thought you’d be OK, pushing yourself even a little bit farther. There is joy in that, afterwards and you remind us of that. However I guess the current severe heat is a kind of limit, even for people like you with extraordinary abilities, and the ability to “fly” up or down a hill. it is interesting to revisit the electrolyte factor. You may inspire the super-cautious among us to try harder! But thanks for mixing in a little wise warning, with the inspiration.
Melissa, you have a good point there—that there’s an element of push push push to a certain kind of athletic endeavor, which I’ve certainly come to embrace. Maybe the lesson is that in order to push yourself well, you have to take care of yourself. Take care of the low-hanging fruit of the basics, like electrolytes and taking essential vulnerabilities seriously, so that you can really challenge yourself more.
There's a lot of wisdom in this post! Bravo on training seriously and learning from mistakes, and on racing with aspirational but achievable goals. I'll link to this in my Wednesday newsletter.
Thank you, Sarah—both for the nice words and the link. I always learn a ton from your pieces. Glad to reciprocate!