No goal – no energy

If you don’t have a goal that energizes you each day, you will feel tired all the time.

I find this to be true for me.  If I do not have a mission, or if it is vague and I have not decided what steps to take next (today), my energy level is down.

Once I get my mind on a worthy goal or the next step toward it, I’m engaged and do not think so much about how I feel, how hungry I am, how tired I am, or my little aches and pains.  I have a job to do!

Do you have a goal you are working toward that energizes you each day?

Dakar – lessons from the longest race on earth. Part 15 – The Finish

January 17th.  Last Stage.  Stage 13.

It was awesome, but I wanted it to be over.  Everyone did.

Funny how you sign up for such an event.  People say “Did you have fun in Saudi Arabia?”  The answer is “No!”  Fun is not the word.  It was not fun.  You don’t do this for fun.  You do it so you can know you can.  That you can endure.  You can plan well enough. That you were tough enough physically and mentally, and that you were smart enough.  That you had the right combination that it takes.

Ted and I packed most of our bags before we started the stage.  We would be staying in a hotel tonight.  No more nasty trailer showers with no hot water.  A soft bed.  

Today was warm.  Hot even.  The first hot day.  We were back in Yanbu.  We made a full giant circle of Saudi Arabia.  5500 miles.  When you are wearing long underwear, a turtle neck shirt, a “balaclava,” which is a stocking cap that covers your neck with a hole for your face, (all for fire precautions), and a warm “onezie” race overalls, on a hot day, it can drain you.  I was grateful I did not sweat much until this stage.  I thought everyone would cruise and chill.  Nope.  We’re still racing hard.  Very dusty.  Cars are pushing to pass.  Rocky canyons mix.  I passed seven cars today.  The last 45 km was along the Red Sea.  You had to pay attention.  One car broke the front wheels off 15 km from finish.  One went off the road and broke the front end.  

Ricky Brabec, the American who was leading the motorcycle class by 3 1/2 minutes, got lost 10km from the finish.  He lost the 5500-mile race by two seconds.  Two seconds.  Heartbreaker.

There it was.  The finish line.  The Dakar finish line.  

We crossed it and stopped.  Our South Racing crew was there to congratulate us and celebrate.  It was a moment to be remembered.  A moment hard-earned by many.

We had to wait 3 hours in line to get on the podium and get our finisher medal.  The coveted Dakar finisher medal. 

We did it.  Dennis Murphy, South Racing, Ted, and me.  We finished Dakar!

After qualifying in Morocco and all that involved…  After having a chest infection for two months before.  The vertigo.  The stomach sick.   

The overheating. The getting stuck in the sand.  Zero visibility.  The dust and rocks.  The sand.  Oh man, the sand.

People ask me if it is harder than the Baja 1000.  The answer is that it is different. You really cannot compare them.  The Baja 1000 you can do on two wheels or four, and share the driving or riding with a team or not.  That makes a huge difference.  It’s like a whole different race depending on those two factors.  The Baja 1000 solo on a motorcycle is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  No question.  And there are no sand dunes in Baja.  Not that we’ve raced on.  But Dakar riders have gone to Baja and hated how rough it was and said they would never return.

In Dakar, you are the only driver.  I was on four wheels.  It’s designed to wear you down day after day after long, hard day.  Make a small mistake, you’re out.  The navigation is far more difficult in Dakar.  No, follow the GPS line.  Road book.  Very different instructions.  

Dakar was the biggest adventure of my life.  The most epic.  

When you do something like this, you come back a little less restless; a little less feeling like you are playing small and missing out on something.  

You feel like you are living while you have the chance.  I believe that’s what we are supposed to do.

Three marbles I will remember forever.

Dakar – lessons from the longest race on earth. Part 14

Friday, January 16. 

Stage 12 – double digits.  It was hard to believe I had come this far.  I was still here.  After so many had crashed out or not finished for whatever reason, I was still in it.  We were.  Dennis and I were a great team.

I thought today would be an easy day like yesterday.  (“Easy” is a relative term of course.)  Nope.

Rocks all day.  Sharp ones.  I got one flat.  My third of the Rally.  Many of the other South Racing guys got 20 flats in the Rally.  

There were three dune sections apart from one another.  Each was a giant, imposing, scary mountain.  Like 30 story building size.  No kidding.  Maybe higher.  

The first one we failed right at the top and had to turn around.  We were overheating.  Oh my gosh.  Very hot engine.  While we waited there on a plateau, putting water in, Dennis bummed more water off a local spectator, as I observed other cars failing.  90% had to turn around.  Where were they going now.  Around to the left.  We got the car cooled down and went that way.  When you are in the dunes, you have to make fast decisions.  Your foot cannot come off the gas or you will get stuck.  I have to say, I felt like I was a pro dune driver that day.  

The second dune was bigger than the first.  The sand was very soft.  Lots of vehicles were stuck.  A car was on its roof.  A truck on its side.  We came over a crest to find a giant uphill off-camber (leaning to one side) climb to get out.  Vehicles were stuck at the bottom.  I floored it.  We had to abort close to the top.  As I turned down, I realized we were in a giant bowl.  Maybe 200 yards wide and 8 stories deep.  If we get stuck in the bottom of this we are doomed.  I did not want to go to the bottom.  Engine screaming. What to do?  

I tried to go around the circle to buy time, look around, and make a decision.  It was like I was circling a giant toilet bowl.  Around I went.  Half a rotation, building speed and trying to figure out what to do with it.  If I turned more uphill, I’d lose a lot of momentum and traction.  I sped the lowest part of the rim and tried to figure out what was on the other side if I tried to crest it.  

Braaaaaaaaaaaaa!  Around I went – faster.  I did 1 1/2 full circles, turned downhill some to get a straight line up the other side.  Dennis was cursing in his helmet.  Up, up, up – crest!  I made it out!  Dennis starts shouting how that was awesome and great job.  I hope I have that on GoPro!  No time to celebrate averting disaster on Stage 12 – I had to assess where I was now, and how to get back to the race course.

After some fast sections, the third giant dune section came.  We blasted up but had to go off course to avert a race truck.  Giant black lava boulders appeared among the light brown sand.  More and more of them.  We made it to the top, but the course had gone left a long time ago.  We could see it down there.  We moved slowly over big black lava balls from watermelon size to three-foot diameter.   We made it back to the course!  A race truck passed on course as we were coming into it and took a picture of us. I am sure he could not believe what he was seeing. I wish I had that picture!  Oh man, this stage was all drama!  It was wild!  

11 hours in the car.  A semi-final test.  Passed.  We knew the last Stage tomorrow was short – only 140 km.

We were now 17th overall in our class.  We had a 1 pm start time tomorrow, so I could sleep in.  

After all that, first I had to breathe.

Dakar – lessons from the longest race on earth. Part 13

Before going to bed after Stage 10, Francisco, a South Racing staffer came to us with a serious matter.  What could it be?

“We think the engine is on its way out” he says.  Oh $%&^#!

The mechanics could change the engine overnight, but we would get a 20-hour penalty.  I did not care about the penalty, as I was here to finish.  If the engine blew up out there, we were not going to achieve our goal.  We thought about it.

“Go ahead” we told him.  He went back to tell the mechanics.  It would be a very long night for them.

30 minutes later Francisco came back.  The mechanics want to talk to you.  They were great guys and we trusted them.  They were reconsidering.  If something happened when changing the engine they did not account for, missing a part, time delays, etc, we could be out anyway.  We all talked and made a decision.  We’d chance it on the engine that was overheating.  We’d continue to watch the temperature and add water when it got hot.  

Fingers crossed.

January 15. I left my house on December 30, and I am still racing.  Stage 11.  

This race goes to 13 stages.  Ok.  Stage 11.  Today.  ok.  ok.  It’s ok.

A long stage.  But I realized a pattern.  When the stage was a lot of kilometers, it was faster.  When it was fewer kilometers, it’s not going to be a shorter day – just slower and harder and more technical.  No matter what, you’re going to be in the car all day. 

Suck it up, buttercup!

It was very fast in the beginning.  Then very sharp technical rocks.  Then fast again.  No flats.  I thought it was the easiest stage yet.  We did bend a suspension part in the back.  A rock flipping up no doubt.  Not a problem to drive that way.  Then the low voltage light came on.  Then it went away.  Another long day, but we finished in the daylight.  

We were 18th in SSV for the Rally, and 115th overall.

My neck was really hurting. I went to the physical therapist guy who works for RedBull.  He beat me up.  I ate a fantastic South Racing meal, as they had every night.  Something to look forward to after a hard day eating oranges and nuts at fuel stops for lunch.  I went to bed at 9:30 feeling okay.

Almost there.  Two more stages….  

I was trying not to let my underlying general fatigue come to the surface. 

Not yet.

Dakar – lessons from the longest race on earth. Part 12

January 13, 2026  Stage 9.

Today is a long stage again.  217 km liaison, 420 km special, and 110 km liaison.  Now you might be thinking the liaison road section is a gimme, and yes, driving it is easy.  But it is boring, and cold, and at night on the way back, it’s hard to see. It’s no fun.

I don’t know what came over me, but today I decided to RACE.  I was annoyed with cars passing me.  My Baja instincts kicked in for the whole day.  We were going one way to pitch a tent again.  Well, I killed it.  We passed 23 cars today, and finished 95th overall, and 17th in our class.

There are not too many classes in Dakar like in Baja.  There are two motorcycle classes, an unlimited class, Challenger, SSV (that’s us) stock, classic, and atv.  Oh yes, there is one more incredible class – race trucks.  Not Baja kind of race trucks, I mean truck trucks.  Big giant trucks.  You’d think they’d be slow.  Oh no.  Half of them go by me!  They are fast!  Amazing to watch.  

I did hit a tree today. It was a small tree, and the brakes were locked up when I hit it.  Minor damage.  Not a big deal.  But the power steering was pulling badly to the left.  If I let the steering wheel go we would take a HARD left.  I drove 75 miles like that.

We pulled into the “refuge bivouac”, got our tent and sleeping bag, rehydrated rations from a box, and went to sleep.  No mechanics here. 

In the morning, we faced Stage 10, after another bad night’s sleep on hard ground, we fixed the steering ourselves.  Well, Dennis did. Some guys had flats and had to be extra cautious today.  We did not get any coming here, so we were good.

When I went to start the car, it was dead.  We had a jumper box and got it started.  We left the jumper box hooked up to the car all day.  

The race was wearing hard on everyone now.  This race was designed to break you.  Nothing would be easy.  There’s no calling “no fair”.  This is real.  Suck it up and get it done, or go home.  Nobody can save you.  You have come this far.  Keep going or quit.  If you quit, you still have to get back to the bivouac somehow.  Nights are very cold out here.

I focused on what was in front of me, trying to stay present and not think of how far I had to go.  Do your best in this moment. That’s all you’ve got.

Today would be a big dune day.  We were doing great, but got stuck high-centered at the crest of a dune.  A race truck was in the same predicament 40 meters to our left.  The car was overheating again.  We lost 15 minutes digging out.  At least we were not in a hole.

A while later, there was a long section of small dunes and we were behind a big truck.  We got stuck in the soft sand at the edge of a shallow hole.  We lost another 25 minutes digging out.  

We finished 18th in SSV out of 38 starters back in stage 1, despite losing time twice for getting stuck.  Since there are at least 14 pro drivers who do this for a living in our class, I’m very happy with that.  Well, as happy as you can be when you are beat down, tired, sore, and fatigued in every way.

10 stages complete.  I’m ok.

“I got this”.