BHAG!

(BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS)

My adventures.

goal: SSS CHALLENGE

This was HARD. Sometime around Jun 2020 I signed up for the Stop Soldier Suicide Challenge: 100 miles in 20 days.

Plan. Run. Achieve. Raise Money

Learned: Do hard things.

goal: UHTR

This was HARD. Sometime in June 2023, I picked the Ultimate Hawaii Trail Run hard 10k. Completed on September 16, 2023. It was actually more like HARD 10 miles.

Assemble team. Train. Run. Success

Goal Achieved.

Learned: Do hard things.

GOAL: run a marathon

This will be hard!

I am signed up for the Tacoma City Marathon on Sunday, May 4, 2025!

Training Starts: January 2025.

I kicked my feet, flapped my arms and maneuvered my body all in an effort to keep up with the honu and it changed me forever. 

Ok, I am not Hawaiian, but I would love to be. Honu, is their word for turtle or tortoise. This life changing moment for me happened in September of 2023 on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, on Poipu beach. 

It happened by complete accident. I was there to compete in the 10 Annual Ultimate Hawaiian Trail Run. I had trained for months, and this was to be a huge goal accomplishment for me. I was so excited to compete the run and my thoughts were so focused on "the reason we were there", that touring the island was sort of an "other" thing I wanted to do during the trip. Little did I know it would become something that I would not only cherish for the rest of my life, but it would also become part of my personal ethos. 

We met Cindy (a lifelong friend; long story) at the Airport and headed out to find our hotel. Once we settled into our room, we did the natural tourist thing and headed for the beach. I should share that Cindy lives on the main island and we had trained virtually for months in preparation for this run and so being on another island was certainly not as "fun" for her, but she was certainly in awe of this most beautiful place on earth. After several backroads and missed turns (Are there really any missed turns when you are exploring on vacation?). Anyway, we landed at Poipu beach. As we walked toward the water, we noticed a crowd assembled right at the water's edge. As we made our way to the front I saw, for the first time in my life, a 100-pound green turtle beached about 10 feet from the tide, feet from us, simply basking in the dusk sunlight with not a care in the world of all the human onlookers. It was as if the peace of 1000 years began to wash over me. I was experiencing a calm that I had not felt for a long, long time. I can't really explain it, other than to say that the majestic beauty of those turtles with their predictability, groundedness, and unchanging patterns of their lives was somehow connecting with my soul … and I really needed that. 

After several hours of just sitting on the beach in complete awe of the numerous honu that were ascending on the sand, we returned to our hotel to get a good night's sleep and to get ready for the run the next day.  The run is another story for another time, but I learned in hindsight that the run was really just the goal that brought me to the island, but life had another plan entirely. 

 During the run I could not help but reflect on that amazing experience I had the day before at Poipu beach. I knew I would be back. And so it goes, that after I accomplished this BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) with my running buddy, I found myself back at Poipu beach. But this time I was prepared with snorkel in hand. Just like clockwork, the turtles began beaching in the same spot, same beach, same time as they have apparently been doing for years and years. 

I had secured my stuff on the beach, made sure that Denise and Cindy were settled, and I wadded out into the water to begin my mission: swim with honu. The water was a perfect, sun at 80 degrees, with a slight tide that would gently sway me back and forth and so I waited, on the lookout for the majestic honu. As I floated, I began to take in this moment. The perfect day, the perfect weather, the perfection of the beach setting was straight out of a movie. Children building sandcastles on the beach, swimmers flipping to and frow, nothing but time to simply embrace beauty and tranquility. I began to snorkel around taking in the tropical fish and surrounding coral reefs. All the while on the lookout for honu.  At one point, after about an hour into my adventure, I was standing, about waist deep, looking back toward my wife Denise, waiving and waiting. I noticed several people saying I see one, I see one. I donned my mask, dunked back under the water and began my scan. Then I saw a honu. Calm, majestic, peaceful, simply slowly waving his paddle-like flippers back and forth, drifting toward the beach. I knew to keep my distance, to not disrupt his path toward the beach, so he could beach after who knows how many hours of fishing and swimming out at sea. I began to kick, flip and guide myself in the same direction. As we swam together (I knew he was not really concerned with my presence, but I was telling myself that we were swimming together, as if we were friends) he would exert very little effort to glide along, while I was fighting the tide (just a little) and yet I was able to keep up with no real effort. At one point I was able to ride the current and for a moment, a brief moment, we were both just frozen in time. Just feet from this creature, so beautiful and strong. Moving, yet still, aware but not really concerned, alone and yet together. And then it happened. He turned his head and looked right at me as if to say I see you. My mind drifted to a recent training session at which the presenter introduced me to the Swahili word Sawubona. Which, when translated, means I see you. And now I had "been seen" by this most amazing creature and for a few moments I felt like this was the pinnacle of my existence. I was blessed to be in this moment, at this exact spot on earth, at this exact time, an accidental encounter, that was transforming my soul closer to peace and calmness. It was at this moment that I realized that I both needed this and wanted more of this in my life. The healing that happened at that moment would guide me for the rest of my life. I must be honest and disclose that I have not experienced anything close to this since that day on Kuai. I do, however, reflect on this experience often, tapping into that part of me that, with my eyes closed and my breathing slow, can take me to the well of rejuvenating stability, peaceful transcendence and calm settling that I so often seek. Yes, I will return to Poipu and swim with the honu (turtles) again and in some small way, honor and pay homage to the honu. 

If you to seek such healing, go!

Dennis

[https://www.ultimatehawaiiantrailrun.com/]

[https://www.hawaiigaga.com/kauai/beaches/poipu-beach-park.aspx]