The Origin
From broken to the start line.
In 2005, my company sent me on a 4-year international assignment to China. Weekly travel, business dinners, late nights at the bars — the opposite of my years as a competitive mountain biker. Within a few years, my fitness was gone, replaced with obesity and high blood pressure.
Returning home to startup failures and layoffs, I kept the bad habits. A brief attempt at CrossFit ended with severe knee pain. I felt too old. The reconciliation of age, physical pain, and a less-than-optimal future led to a nihilism that overtook an otherwise optimistic spirit. I wasn't just old — I was broken in every sense.
Then one night, playing the Dakar 2018 video game on my PS4, a ridiculous question crept in and wouldn't leave:
"Could an out-of-shape novice rider over 50 compete in the Dakar before they're too old?"
I tried to kill the idea. I took an engineering approach — broke Dakar down into readiness criteria, goals, tasks, and threats — hoping to find the one thing that would tell me to drop it. Nope. Every objection got refuted: you can do it with enough time, enough work, enough money, and enough sacrifice.
There was a path. So I got off the couch.
I've since completed several rallies including the Sonora Rally in Mexico (2022). It confirmed what I suspected: I need to keep getting faster, and the Skill pillar will take years. The clock is running. The work continues.
What's your Dakar?