Every year I try to think of a reason not to have the Gut Check. Every year a group of people in the fall ask me about it. That's all the reason I need. One person asking for it. It started with
five.
The original Gut Check was an idea I had to challenge 5 of my friends to test their limits of endurance. They wouldn’t know what they were getting into and I had to be responsible enough not to hurt them while challenging them. It was inspired by my urban commuting. Each day was an adventure before the work day began and after the work day was over. I would be riding or running in hypothermic rain while somebody else was sitting in their climate controlled vinyl lined steel box getting fatter and softer drinking their specialty coffee and eating their scone getting ready for another lined steel box. All the time I was getting harder, or if nothing else keeping my edge.
When I left the Army I pledged to myself that everyday I would keep myself on the cutting edge and it’s a pledge I kept. The challenge was an extension of the pledge to myself that I’d pass on to others. A gift. An acknowledgement of my respect to them. Nothing humiliating or illegal; not a hazing, but a vision quest. The word got out.
The following year, 25 people showed up. There were some good challenges and some good people. A reporter showed up. Some people didn’t get it. The following year, I took it back underground. Only those that I knew. No attention and it was a Gut Check of the purest form. Those will carry on and you’ll never read of them here.
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