Posts Tagged routes

12 step program: the heart’s repair part 1

before the dedication

hey tubby, I'll trade you that beer for some discipline...that's me on the Koh Phi Phi ferry New Year's 2006 pushin' 210 lbs.

It’s a little after 8 am, on an early-April 2007 day.  I’m sitting in my doctor’s office in a really uncomfortable, 70s-era Swedish modular knock-off chair with zero back support.  Leaning forward, elbows on knees, hands clasped, head slung, and to the casual observer, striking a rather serious pose. In reality I’m just trying to take the pressure off my back it but could just as easily be the impending dread weighing on my brow that’s responsible for this posture.

Y’see in about 5 minutes my doctor’s gonna walk through that door and she’s gonna give me some pretty earth-shattering news. Funny thing:  looking back, it turns out this won’t be the true motivation to my change of attitude.  This is just the beginning.  This is just necessary context.  The prologue.

“Frank” she’ll say, as I avoid eye contact, preferring to stare at a photographic audience of newborns adorning all the thank you cards from the host of couples she recently turned into happy parents.

“Your cholesterol is high.  You know that you’ve got a history of heart disease in your family.  You need to make a choice before things get any worse.”

Yup.  I knew it.  Bad news.

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12 step program

frank on the lookout. Lion's Head July, 2009.

Lion's Head Lookout, July 2009. This is where the lightbulb went off.

I figure now that it’s officially February I can start telling this story without being overly concerned that you’ll dismiss things as just another new year’s resolution.

It’s definitely not that.

Truth told this whole thing started last year, on the day before my birthday.  And Between July 15th, 2009 and today, I’ve had some of the more profound, life-changing experiences in a year that seemed to contain no shortage of them.  I’ll cover a lot of them during the course of this series.

For now though, all you need to know is that I’ve been inspired to challenge myself.  To take the Beta motto to heart (hell, it is February after all so this organ’ll definitely be a recurring theme).  To go beyond everything I’ve personally tried already.  To achieve something extraordinary.

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the update…

setting clinic

learing the rope at the USA climbing route setting clinic (can you spot Dustin?)

So, Frank, Dave and Jamie have all been on me to make a blog posting, especially since so much has happened since my last update. And since Mark managed to post something just before he leaves to crush everything in Mexico, I figure I’m out of the ‘too busy excuse.’

Above is a picture taken by Chris Danielson. I attended a level two route setting clinic held by him, and Molly Beard of USA climbing. The point of the clinic is to not just to stuff a bunch of route setters in a gym and let them feed off of each others creative energy but also to help cultivate their talents and, most importantly, to help pick and choose setters that USA Climbing will allow to intern and assist for their National Level comps. They use these clinics to help train setters so that they can run, organize and set regional level comps but also to evaluate which setters will move up to set ABS Nationals or SCS Nationals or US Youth Nationals.

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