What's with the Maple Syrup?

Everyone who crosses the finish line of the VT50 / Vermont 50 gets a beautiful medal for completing the course of 50 miles for Mountain Biking or Ultra Running, or 50K running.  You deserve it, it is a beautiful and challenging offroad course with over 8,000 feet of elevation gain, gravel roads, and technical single track trails.  It’s Vermont there are mountains, valley’s, fields, streams, mud, rocks, and roots.  It’s the hardest event I have ever done. 

What is the VT50? – “Individuals challenging themselves at a sport they love.”

What we may come to realize over time is that challenging ourselves is an integral part of the human experience and that in today’s modern world that takes on a much deeper meaning and place. 

It was 15 years ago that I first took this challenge, and it was around a transition in my journey where I was not sure where I was going next.  There had been lots of challenges, hard work, building companies, acquisitions, exits, and closings.  There were health and wellness issues in our family and a newly minted teen on his way to being an exceptional adult.  Life is so rich, complex, and beautiful all at the same time.

At the start into the darkness and unknown it took everything I could muster to cross the finish line it was grueling, brutal, harsh, beautiful, exhilarating, and later powerful.  

“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that things are difficult.”  Seneca

What I have learned from Vermont is that I was capable of doing something that just a few years before I thought was improbable and impossible.  Even now after 14 starts and 14 finishes under all types of conditions is that the challenge remains but that doing hard things creates a foundation and perspective to navigate life with more perspective, resilience, confidence, and gratitude. 

Over the past 15 years when challenges and hard times present themselves, I sometimes return to crossing the finish line, leaning in on that experience and the deeper meaning behind it to navigate stormy waters and adverse conditions.  It makes a difference.

The currents and tides of life are ever changing so we don’t know if we will ride one or ten more times.  What I do know is that the energy and purpose of this great community has inspired and better prepared me to navigate the challenges of life for my family, friends, and eventually millions of others on the ongoing journey to provide solutions to human health and performance. 

The Maple Syrup – is the trophy awarded to the top 3 finishers in various age groups and classifications.  It’s Vermont and you got the medal already.   No doubt after 700+ miles of the VT50 that this is the most treasured and meaningful Maple Syrup in my universe.

Keep pedaling or whatever moves you along on the journey.  

With gratitude and pancakes,

Ted