Vitality:
1 exuberant physical strength or mental vigor
2 capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence
3 power to live or grow
The name Vitality OCR (a company I hope to create) comes from a belief of mine, a belief that we are all people of great vitality. As athletes, we have to be.
At one point or another, we've all had to face something that for better or for worse changed our lives. For me, that moment came during my very first obstacle course race… and I use that lightly because I know that Tough Mudder is viewed as more of an “event” than a race.
Any who… this moment came in the form of me being knocked on my ass and sliding down Mt St. Louis in the 2014 Toronto event. I hit my knee on a rock, and got up and tried to shake it off.
The thing is, I was wearing compression pants, and was unable to see the extent of the damage to my knee ( a large, 4” x 2” gash). Being the type A that I am, I pushed on: “NO WAY am I going to stop because of a little bump”…
Or so I thought. As my team and I approached the inverted wall, I very quickly realized that the pain in my knee was not just a “Stinger” as I like to call them; it was a very serious injury.
I pulled up the leg of my pants, saw the cut and immediately hit the ground.. Goodnight Matt.
Next thing I know, I’m in the medical tent which turned out to be a whole lot less of a tent and a whole lot more of a very cold, over crowded bus full of my fallen fellow races.
I later spend the better half of three days in the hospital getting stitches, then having them taken out (very painfully might I add), and setting up an IV. That’s right, not only did I have a giant cut in my leg, I’ve now also got to deal with an infection… one that I would end up fighting for many months.
Fast forward a few years and here I am, sitting on my couch on a very early Wednesday morning writing my first blog post.
Now I don’t tell you all this because I’m caught up in myself, and am looking for some sort of sympathy, believe me… I’ve been that person in the past. But instead, I share this story because until a month ago I honestly believed that I had given up on ever getting back into sports.
I read an article on facebook awhile back (http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/bottled-air-from-banff-sold-around-the-world) about a company called Vitality Air (http://vitalityair.com) that has been bottling air and sending it over to China, at a premium price might I add.
Now although I found this post completely ridiculous I do bring it up for a reason…
That word… Vitality.
Now I’ll admit, I had to Google the definition to get a better understanding of the word (hence the definition at the beginning of this article), but it was something that really stuck.
“capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence” now that’s something I can relate too.
In some strange way, an article that seemingly has no connection to my new found motivation to get back into sports set in place a new mindset. I have the power to grow. As athletes, we display our physical strength and mental vigor in everything we do.
Be it an obstacle course race, recovering from an injury, or hell, even in our every day activities (read: dealing with the bullshit you face on a daily basis) we display vitality. It’s who we are. We can’t help it.
I was recently asked by a friend of mine if I planned to get back into sports, and more specifically, if I would ever run and obstacle course race again.
My response? “ABSOLUTELY”
Amelia Boone said it best: “I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. But I’m really good at suffering.”
Our suffering? The mental and physical torture we put our bodies through. If I know one thing… it’s that we are ALL good at that.
Thanks for reading everyone! This Is officially my first post on Steemit and have been loving the community here so far.
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