- Image by egarc2 via Flickr
Years ago, when I was a strapping young man, I won the manliest man award on a mountain climbing expedition. Seriously. Our youth group went on Wilderness Trek after my junior year. It was a bonding camp experience. Rough kind of camp. Eighty pound packs on your back for 20 mile hikes kind of camp.
I loved it.
Did I mention that I won the manliest man award?
That summer, I was the manliest. Lately I’ve gotten soft from too much poetry and social media. But then, oh boy, I was seventeen. I drove a beat up 1967 Mustang and it was the summer of my contentment.
I worked at Seaworld of Texas that summer on the Rio Loco raft ride. My job was simple. I put on my park services smile and helped load people onto inflatable boats so they could get soaked. The loading mechanism was a rotating platform. Basically, I worked on a treadmill. In south Texas summer heat.
I wore a lot of sunscreen and drank a quart of water an hour. It was awesome. Seriously, I loved working at Seaworld (even though I never got any free beer).
By the end of the summer, after 8 weeks on the Rio Loco treadmill, I was ready to climb a mountain.
In fact, I was so ready that I made the summit climb twice. That’s right, I climbed to the top of the mountain with the lead guide. Then looked back down and saw some folks struggling way, way, way far down from the summit. So I went after them to give them words of encouragement and help the up. After all, I had been there. They could make it there too.
Apparently, this was a little unusual.
I can’t take the credit though. The Rio Loco deserves all the credit. It got me in shape so that I could do all kinds of good stuff. It didn’t take anything out of me to go back down and climb back up again. My legs were used to 8 hours of treadmill, baby!
The moral of the story: Put in time on the treadmill and you’ll be ready for the mountain.
NOTE: This post is part of Robert Hruzek’s writing project What I Learned From Mountaintop Experiences.
Related articles by Zemanta
- All Entries: What I Learned From Community (middlezonemusings.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b34a24d3-dcb3-4b63-9fb0-6770fcaaad8f)
{ 1 trackback }
{ 7 comments }
Poetry makes you soft? I doubt it.
As compared to mountain climbing and treadmilling, I mean.
You were so darn sexy that summer. And you still are.
A great lesson in preparedness, Marcus! Thanks for sharing it. But c’mon; “years ago, when you were a strapping ‘young man’ “? When was that, last week?
I love it, Marcus. Most of us are so worried about being stuck on a treadmill that we don’t stop and realize what we can take from it…in your case strength and manliness, for others a livelihood, empathy, humor, perspective…
I’d thank you for this post, Marcus, but I’m too busy thanking God for the answer to the question I’ve been asking for the last few weeks.
Robert, you’re right. I’m still strapping.
Terro, thanks for the comment! Sometimes that rat race metaphor gets out of hand. But it doesn’t have to be a rat race–it can be a treadmill.
Diane, it’s always good to see you here. I’m honored that my little post could have helped in some small way.
Comments on this entry are closed.