The Importance of Suffering

Scott post offroad marathon

When I was in Africa on the TDA I had the opportunity to meet lots of interesting folks from all over the place. There were students having a crack at the fun life before knuckling down to grad school or starting out in the real world. There were bean counters who, in the face of global recession, got out of the game and are laying low in Africa while the financial world deep throat’s a shotgun. There were hardcore riders who’d put Lance to shame in terms of riding while under the spell of explosive diarrhea. There were riders who’d normally not even be called riders – nice folks, but they more identified with the idea that they’d like to have ridden across Africa – vs. actually wanting to ride across Africa. A ride like this is a ramshackle group of people from all over; there is no paradigm for participants.

Even with the diversity amongst, I was a little shocked to read something in one of the rider blogs a few days ago. One of the riders, who isn’t much of a cyclist remarked in their blog, “I’m prepared to challenge myself, but I’m not willing to suffer.” My jaw dropped when I read that line – I guess there really are the whole gamete of ideologies represented, not only in this bike tour, but within the outdoor community. What really got me thinking though was the diametric opposition that my philosophy for adventure sits in regard to the concept of suffering.

Now by suffering I’m not talking about weird self mutilation or other rubbish, such as. What I am referring to is the willingness to push yourself beyond what you thought you could do. The willingness to suffer, to dig deep and see what you find is in my mind an essential element of outdoor adventure. It’s in that shady area of the mind, when you’re hammering on those pedals harder then you thought you could or your muscles are fried and you’re just about to melt out of the crack or you have to double-time it if you expect to get off the mountain before dark. Those are the moment that we all hope to find – not for the joy that is found within them, but what you discover about yourself because of them. Lets be honest, being tired and pushing yourself further then you thought possible isn’t that fun at the time. But as the saying goes, it doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun. That push into the unknown is where the real growth occurs – that’s how we discover new shores in the ocean of internal possibility.

I feel bad for my former ride mate who isn’t willing to push through the pain and transcend the moment into the greater world of self discovery. Maybe by accident they’ll get there and be glad they did. Or maybe they won’t even get close and will always wonder why everyone else was having such a good time. If you’re not willing to dig deep, to try, to push, to give everything – then what’s the point?

~Scott