Highlight: Danielle DeMuth
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The
Truth about Adventure
by Judy Wolf
Sitting across from Professor Danielle DeMuth in her book-lined office, a computer screen bleeping that it holds messages for her when she has a moment, the last word one might think of is "adventurous." Yet DeMuth has discovered the secret truth about adventure: "That stuff's not as hard as you think it is."
"When you first think of adventure, it's about adventurous vacations or the eco challenge," she says. "The people you see doing these things are all skinny, muscular, tan, and athletic looking." Like many people, DeMuth doesn't think of herself that way. "Because of that definition of adventure, I never thought I could do those things. Because those people are athletic…and I'm more of a sit-on-my-butt-and-read-a-book kind of person."
Then her roommate pushed her to try sea kayaking on a nearby lake. The next thing she knew, she was running the Boilermaker (a 15k race held annually in Utica, New York, and attended by world-class runners from all over the globe). "I did everything wrong," she admits. "I didn't even train, I just went out and ran. I hadn't run more than six miles in 12 years. I wore new shoes. I ate everything you're not supposed to eat the day before. I probably wasn't even properly hydrated, but I did it."
And the funny thing was, she wasn't alone. "You start to notice that it's not those [skinny, muscular, tan, athletic] people doing it. All kinds of people are out there. And when you finish so close to the end, after the big cluster of people who run faster, it's just one person crossing the finish line at a time. You get all kinds of attention. It's kind of amazing being slow….There's no time limit. I guess eventually they take down the finish line and go home, but no one taps you on the shoulder like a dance-a-thon."
Having blown the adventure myth sky high, she then ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. "That's adventurous to me. Anything you see as beyond your limitations, beyond what you normally do." Next on her adventure list are a long hike and a sea kayaking trip in the Great Lakes to explore a series of caves.
DeMuth's advice? "You can take these challenges at the level where you're ready to enter them, and have an adventure." In other words, don't believe the hype. You can walk a race (or part of one). You can kayak on a pond. You can be the slowest person in a marathon. The secret truth about adventure: it's up to you.
Do you have an interesting story to tell? Or know of an adventurous or inspiring tale lived by someone else? Let me know!
Copyright (c) 2002 Judy Wolf
About
the Author:
Judy Wolf (www.judywolf.com)
is a world traveler, freelance writer, speaker, and whitewater kayak instructor.
She's taken numerous, extended solo journeys around the world, traveling by
foot, bus, jeep, camel, truck, boat, train, plane, elephant, and bicycle to
over 30 countries on five continents. She currently lives in upstate New York
with her husband and border collie, where she's working on a book-length travel
narrative about her most recent adventures…that is, when she's not plunging
off waterfalls or entertaining the dog.
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