Pushing Beyond the Pain: Taking on the Beast

The pains that we will endure during these upcoming months will without doubt be the most enjoyable pains we have ever experienced. They will be the pains associated with mountain climbing, elk watching, dog following, and early alarms. We are drawn to the pain like a bug to a midnight lantern. It’s calling to us like a beacon in the night, so very close and pushing us so very hard to reach out. However, there will be moments when we find ourselves weak and weary from the day’s events, forced to lean on a large rock and dream of a warm shower. But those are the moments that we must fight through, overcome, triumph over, because in the end, it will be the worst pains that lead to the greatest successes. And isn’t that one of the goals when the season begins? Success?

Hunting provides us with an unparalleled outlet. It’s a chance to prove that we can still head out in the blackness of a cold fall morning and make something of ourselves. Prove to ourselves that we are not some pampered race that only survives within the confines of our man-made dwellings but that are still our ancestors offspring. Prove that while we may choose a life that has many advantages, we can still get down to the raw basics of human instincts and bring home some well earned meat.

There is no denying that we have been given modern rifles, compound bows, and state of the art shotshells, but we must still go out and seek our prey; seek the prize and at the same time test ourselves. There are only so many roads out there and for the many hunters like James and I, which put great value on a trip through the backcountry, your endurance will be pushed to limit. You will climb mountains that seem to touch the sky, walk through snow with water logged boots, the feeling in your toes gone hours before. Your eyes will wander when not a single animal has been seen all day, but we will not stop. And by pressing on, moving forward, we will test the capabilities of not only the human body, but the human mind.

With the archery season less than two weeks away I feel that I have much to do to prepare. My shooting aside, which has unfortunately gone AWOL (not fun by the way), I know that besides hitting my mark, I must first track down the elk that I seek, and in this country, that is no small task. There are rocky ridges to climb, lingering summer temperatures to deal with, and legs to be tested. Ever since early summer I have been forced to put any long hiking aside to deal with some personal issues in my life. Ones that have kept me away from the hills and mountains that in the past have molded my legs into steel and expanded my lungs to take on the challenge. But since our spring bear season my life has been turned upside down and I have not done the things I need to cover the ground I want. However, that does not mean I will not cover it all the same.

For myself, and everyone out there, endurance and pain are not simply physical, they are a state of mind. William James is quoted as saying, “Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction”. In this he implies that we must only tackle our minds to experience our true potential, the true potential of our bodies. We are so often derailed from where we want to go or what we want to accomplish because we simply can’t get past the mental hurdle. We feel the pain and the fear begins to set in. It takes over like a cancer, infecting your mind and radiating pain to all your extremities. And that is when the decision has to be made. You can either give in to the pain, or fight it, break through, and take yourself beyond your known limits. And that is not to imply you need to be some superhuman, or that by doing so you will tackle Mt. Everest, but when you begin to take on the things you fear most, like pain, you begin to tackle yourself and your limits. From there, the possibilities, and distances you can cover, are endless.

An excerpt that has inspired me and subsequently this post comes from the book, “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall, which reads:

Strictly by accident, Scott (Jurek) stumbled upon the most advanced weapon in the ultrarunner’s (or in our case, hunter’s) arsenal: instead of cringing from fatigue, you embrace it. You refuse to let it go. You get to know it so well, you’re not afraid of it anymore. Lisa Smith-Batchen, the amazingly sunny and pixie-tailed ultrarunner from Idaho who trained through blizzards to win a six-day race in the Sahara, talks about the exhaustion as if it’s a playful pet. “I love the Beast”, she says. “I actually look forward to the Beast showing up, because every time he does, I handle him better. I get him more under control.” Once the Beast arrives, Lisa knows what she has to deal with and can get down to work. And isn’t that the reason she’s running through the desert in the first place – to put her training to work? To have a friendly little tussle with the Beast and show it who’s boss? You can’t hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I head into this season unprepared but hold tight with the knowledge that when the burning begins and the pain starts to present itself, I will not let it defeat me. I will not let it stand between me and the animal I seek. There is too much at stake and I have been there before. The time is here.

 Now, who’s ready for the fall?