Your greatest athletic accomplishment

R

Repo Man

Valued Senior Member
I'll start with mine. The Markleeville Death Ride. Though the course changes a little from year to year, both years I completed it, I did the five pass version - one hundred and fifty miles, and fifteen thousand feet of climbing.



Here I am descending from the peak of Carson pass, going fifty five MPH.
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I blew it in the dry climate and didn't drink enough, which really made me suffer. But I finished it, and came back for more next year.

So, what challenge have you completed against all odds?
 
There must be some members who have run marathons, gone on epic hikes, maybe an ultramarathon runner or two?
 
Endurance wise I once had a wrestle last for 90 minutes with no break, and a real fight last for 40 minutes. I've ran about 10 kms many times but never much further than that, I've walked really far but who cares, I've cycled pretty far but nothing extraordinary. The wrestle was definately the furthest my endurance has been pushed.

Skill wise... countless things I did on a skateboard, hard to pin down one in particular. Skateboarding might be a joke to a lot of people, but really there are things I've done on a skateboard which only a handfull of people on earth can do, and if you go back through the history of mankind that number doesn't grow, if you go back just 15 years no one on earth could do things I still can do. I've done things that required truely miraculous levels of skill and balance the likes of which hardly any humans through history have posessed. So yeah, my answer to this thread unashamedly is becoming exceptional in the art of skateboarding.
 
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I did complete a marathon with a raging hangover.
I spent the first ten miles just trying a jog the thing off then I just kept running, I tried raise my pace to cross the finishing line but was wracked with cramp and hobbled over the line.
Yes, part of my preparation involved a bottle of gin.

Came runner-up in a district squash championship.

My personal highlight was bodysurfing a monster swell on the shipwreck coast of Southern Australia.
 
Oh, I sailed around Key West a few times waving at tourists, if you might think that sailing is athletic. :)
 
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Up and down Ben Nevis (tallest mountain in the British Aisles, but still kinda small at 1,344 m) in five hours fifteen minutes.

We prepared by walking half of the West Highland Way;

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From Tyndrum, to Fort William, then on 'rest day' cycled 30 miles around Fort William.

Then on the ascent of Ben Nevis, after having sun all week, it rained. Hence our quick time, nothing to see, we were inside the cloud.
 
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My boyfriend is a Marine and I spend a lot of time on the base with all of Marines and they like to pick on me and they tricked me into doing this training course thing with them. I can't recall a time I was more exhausted (at least right now). It's basically a boot camp obstacle course thing that covers 4 miles and you have to run the thing 5 times. So that's 20 miles + obstacles (like steeple chase kinda huh). Near the end my muscles stopped responding to what I wanted them to do and I had to crawl across the finish line. And then they all laughed at me, because they finished like 30 minutes before me. I hated them, the bastards.
 
Oh wow, its been ages.

In 1983, my junior year in high school, I never missed a single basket. There is a basketball with my name on it in the High School trophy case.
I'm not coordinated; I can't dribble and move. I traveled all the time or I bounced the ball off my foot.
But if they got the ball to me, I could score. Weird how I had that kind of hand/eye coordination but couldn't move my feet while doing so.
 
Orleander said:
Oh wow, its been ages.

In 1983, my junior year in high school, I never missed a single basket. There is a basketball with my name on it in the High School trophy case.
I'm not coordinated; I can't dribble and move. I traveled all the time or I bounced the ball off my foot.
But if they got the ball to me, I could score. Weird how I had that kind of hand/eye coordination but couldn't move my feet while doing so.
Click to expand...

So your very good with balls huh...;)
 
I once went about 35 miles between riding a bike and keeping pace with my friend riding that same bike. That was pretty fun, except that we got lost for about 3 hour in these winding country roads and almost were attacked by someone's pet goat. Also, the fact that I was doing the majority of the running and that I was unable to go to school the next day kind of sucked. That was in eighth grade and the most I'd ever jogged before that was like a mile and a half. I agree with Dr. Lou that skateboarding is pretty hard though. I can do almost anything a certain group of my friends can do physically, and a lot that they can't, but I couldn't even do the simplest skateboard tricks that they were trying to teach me last week.
 
I don't know what mine is, I can't make up my mind on it. I have done quite alot of things that are of a decent standard sporting/physical wise, but I felt like I accomplished something great everytime I got to the top of a climb/hike standing ontop of the mountains looking down at the landscape. I have climbed most mountains in the UK I think, the first ever mountain I got to the top of was Snowdonia in wales, that felt great I remember it vividly. There was a huge thunderstorm as we got more than halfway up but we still hiked through it, there was a sheer rock face drop on one certain point and I sat on this right angled edge like a huge step and dangled my legs off, the wind scared me and nearly blew me off. There was a pile of rocks at the very peak where hikers place columns of stones/slabs to try and claim highest point in southern uk, I kicked them all down and made mine the highest (I was really young).

I best a few of my old teachers in martial arts based feats/bouts of skill a few times, that felt both very proud and accomplished, but also dissapointed in a strange way.

I have never broken any records in speed or weight lifting, I can't lift strongman contest type weights or beat any running times. I have done some charity runs before but I didn't feel like I accomplished much, just ran around bummy esates in london alot. I don't think I could complete the london marathon, 26 miles thats alot.

peace
 
Oh, I can make a small, flat rock skip more than 20 times when I throw it across the water!

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