By Allen Hamrick
The daily grind of playing house, raising a clan, and keeping the lights on is nearly a 24 hour a day job that leaves little time for fun and adventure. The weekly ritual of scanning the bank book for a little extra to put away allows little time to remember that there is life beyond the 8 to 5 grind. The adventurous life is narrowed down to a couple weeks a year when vacation days arrive, and we become new people until the budget runs low. People do all sorts of activities in that window of opportunity and cleave to being out of our comfort zone for just a little while. The weekend adventurers who hike, bike, 4-wheel, garden, build, run or walk are also a breed that feels the need to separate themselves from society for the sake of sanity. We seek adventure beyond a path well travelled, a path that is rough and full of mud, dirt and water. The need for obstacles that challenge the mind and body is the very primal instinct that makes us animals.
We dream of a path where a beast rages, we pull our swords and slay the dragons in the shadows now covered with cobwebs. The gas that drives us doesn’t cost four dollars a gallon, but needs filled, none the less. Those who become the viking, smear on war paint, and crank up the war cries are not of the status quo. Savage Race 2024 was an event where normal, everyday people climb, pull, crawl through barbwire, swing over and ford brackish water, go from human to beast mode and survive like starving animals.
Some adventure seekers from Clay County, along with others from across the country, participated in the 2024 Savage Race held in Charlotte, North Carolina this past weekend. This race was a brutal six miles and 27 obstacles that took an individual to the brink of collapse and often required team efforts to survive it. People might call it crazy, but those individuals would never know what it’s like to go beyond what they are capable of. Some former Clay County men, along with friends, came together and gutted out the event. All finished a little worse for wear but survived to race again another day.
With the new rail to trail and other venues opening in Clay, an event such as this could give opportunity to people of all ages to try their hand at beating the odds. Maybe this type of course and event could be added in the near future to attract another group of adventure seekers to our majestic corner of the state. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what everybody else does, it’s what you’re doing that matters.
