This one didn’t exactly go according to plan. If my first endurance challenge had shown me the thrill of success, my second taught me – among other things – that failure isn’t fatal. It isn’t even necessarily failure, with the perspective of a bigger picture. No-one goes through life without facing difficult times, without feeling overwhelmed and outfaced.
Through gritted teeth, I gave this attempt everything I had but no matter how deep I dug, I could not go on. Unable to stop being sick, I finally passed out at the side of the road. I am human. There’s no escaping the fact that it was one of the lowest, loneliest points of my life. But I have now come to view it as a lesson, rather than a failure. You only fail when you don’t get back up and try again.
