{"id":335,"date":"2016-01-27T10:02:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T15:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2016-01-28T07:52:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T12:52:29","slug":"countdown-to-antarctica-remembering-to-give-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"Countdown to Antarctica – Remembering to Give Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s taken me a few days to try and process this.<\/p>\n

On the morning of January 25, 2016, I did what I normally do to start my day.\u00a0 I logged in and checked my email and then clicked over to CNN.com<\/a> to check the latest news stories.\u00a0 There, buried in the left hand column, was a link to a story about Henry Worsley, a extreme explorer who set out to do what Shackleton failed to do — namely to cross the Antarctic continent.\u00a0 Worsley sought to do it alone and had traveled for 70 days, facing blizzards and ice and hardships; and this was during the Antarctic summer.\u00a0 On the 70th day, he had to issue a mayday.\u00a0 He was then airlifted out, apparently by a group of marathoners endeavoring to complete a marathon on all seven continents in seven days (the 7 \/ 7 \/ 7 challenge which I briefly looked at doing before the $39,000 pricetag left me gobsmacked).\u00a0 Worsley was suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration.\u00a0 Organ failure led to his passing.\u00a0 He was 55.<\/p>\n

\"CNN<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a bold, crazy, foolish endeavor but it was his lifelong goal.\u00a0 He apparently was always fascinated with tales of Shackleton, the expedition that helps inspire the notion of a failed mission but successful rescue.\u00a0 Worsley died therefore doing what he loved and that’s not nothing.<\/p>\n

Still, the selfishness of me reared its head as I thought, “I’m going to Antarctica.\u00a0 I’m doing this bold, crazy, foolish thing.\u00a0 What am I doing?!”\u00a0 I’m telling myself I’m off on an adventure, doing something I love, and that I’m looking forward to it.\u00a0 But Worsley is a reminder that nature is not to be taken lightly.\u00a0 I worry I’ve been a little too nonchalant about the race and the distances on the last continent.\u00a0 Without a trace of irony, today I bought a goose down parka to take with me for the time I’m on board the converted Russian research vessel, the Ioffe.<\/p>\n

Doubts occasionally creep in.\u00a0 Nagging voices.\u00a0 Fear.\u00a0 But that’s okay, too.\u00a0 Because a little fear is a reminder that life is precious and not to be wasted.\u00a0 So this odyssey, my seventh continent, and a marathon run in a land truly at the ends of the earth, is not something I’m taking for granted.<\/p>\n

I’m incredibly lucky, all the more so due to the love and support I’ve gotten from friends and family.\u00a0 Come what may, I hope everyone knows how much I appreciate them.<\/p>\n

And so as the days count down, I’d like to take a moment to say thank you.<\/p>\n

Words often fail me despite my best efforts, particularly when it comes to emotional or “real” moments in life.\u00a0 I tend to make a joke, or self-deprecate, to defuse and demur.\u00a0 But this is one of those times when I really do need to tell you all this.<\/p>\n

So, ya know, thanks.<\/p>\n

It may not be eloquent or poetic but it is sincere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s taken me a few days to try and process this. On the morning of January 25, 2016, I did what I normally do to start my day.\u00a0 I logged in and checked my email and then clicked over to CNN.com to check the latest news stories.\u00a0 There, buried in the left hand column, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71,126,127,14,128],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antarctica","tag-cnn","tag-death","tag-thanks","tag-worsley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}