Who Are You?

The Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge is a long distance, painful and unforgiving test of a rider’s abilities.  It is 20% physical ability and 80% mental stamina; your body, your mind and your spirit will be put to the test.  Every mile will work hard to break you.  The riders who participate in the Challenge all leave the starting line at the same time as a group, but that’s where the “group” part ends.  You must face this ride alone; even if there is a fellow rider next to you on the highway it is a solo ride.  From that point on it is an individual ride and each rider comes out of it with a different perspective.  With some, as they ride those endless miles, the inner barriers that have been built and the façade that has been created by life’s events come crashing down because, with the pain that comes with long distance riding, the ability to maintain that inner barrier, the strength needed to maintain that façade, cannot be sustained.  Others learn just how much pain they can endure and they discover the inner strength to continue when every fiber in their body tells them to quit.  Sadly others learn they may not have the stamina they thought they had.  Truly, the test is not, "Can you finish the ride?"  The real test is can you face who you really are.  Are you comfortable with who you are?  Can you face the world after the barriers and the façade come crashing down?

To state what a person might learn about themselves or discover about their abilities during this test would be speculative at best; each person is different.  Regardless of who you are, regardless of what you think you know about yourself, this endurance ride will be an education in self-discovery.  Chances are you will learn that the person you thought you were is not really the person you are.  This is not a bad thing; to learn the truth about yourself is what must happen if your true desire is to actually be the person you want to be, the person your Mother brags about.  Learning the truth about yourself is the first step; the hardest step.

Whether you finish the ride or not is not an indication of success or failure, what comes after is the true indicator and the results are dependent on you and your level of resolve.  Do you go forward using your new found knowledge, or do you crawl back in a hole and rebuild the façade?  Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.  The Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge is just the beginning of a long and very hard journey.  Hoka Hey 2016; Icimani.