Shane Nickerson

Anyone who follows me on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook (or all 3) has been inundated over the last several months, with photos of me running, biking, and training all over Los Angeles.  This healthy living has somewhat taken over my life, and I have significantly changed my diet and lifestyle all in preparation for an event I've wanted to cross off of my list since I first heard about it: The Tough Mudder.

It's a 10-12 mile trail run with at least a dozen military style obstacles scattered throughout the length of the course: freezing cold water, 12 foot high walls, muddy drainage tubes, 10,000 volt live wires.  It's tough, and it's scary.  I've been preparing for it since December and it's now a week and a day away.

When I ran the LA Marathon back in 2004, I had never run more than three or four miles in a row before I started training.  Because it was something I always wanted to do, I decided to commit to the goal of running L.A. and trained for six months leading up to it.  It was a difficult process, filled with simple victories and constant testing of my resolve.  I knew I was physically capable of getting there; I simply had to find the faith in my own commitment to see it through.  It taught me a great deal about how goals are actually achieved.  It helped me figure out my life.  I discovered that hard work is the true key to success.  One audition would not change my life; one moment wouldn't answer all of my career dreams; one lucky break doesn't mean anything without a lifetime of effort leading up to it.

Crossing the finish line is a glorious, life-changing event, but only because it represents all of the work, the sacrifices, and the difficult choices it took to get there.  At that time in my life, it was a major shift to give up my Friday nights to be well rested for long training runs on Saturday.  It was annoying to find time for 12-20 miles of running a week.  My body was always sore.  Months before the race, I wanted it to be over before I was even able to run half of the 26.2 miles finishing would require.  I stuck with it and finished, and succeeding still helps me follow through on goals I set in my life.

The Tough Mudder has been my new mission for 2011-12.  My diet is insane compared to what it was in my 20s and 30s.  I've started to enjoy vegan food and have cut my beer intake dramatically (THAT ONE WAS HARD). I exercise every day: p90x2, biking, running, hiking, trail running, and some sort of organized race on the weekend.  This coming weekend is the Bandit 6k in Simi Valley, which will be my last warm up race before the event it's all been leading up to. 

At the end of the Tough Mudder, you get what seasoned Mudders consider the highly coveted "orange headband."  It's a cheap trophy, but it will mean everything to me.  At 40, I've been proving to myself that I can be better than I have ever been both mentally and physically.  It's a goal that has helped me to become a better father, a better person, and someone I like a lot more than some of the versions of me I've been in the past. 

One more week.

One more tough week.