🔥 You Have a Motor — Part 3
I completed the first five laps in 4 hours and 15 minutes ⏱️ — well ahead of my planned pace.
By then, my carefully labeled nutrition plan was gone. Instead of following baggies and schedules, I grabbed food each lap and fueled based on what my body asked for.
An unexpected benefit of removing distractions was how clearly I could hear myself — my thoughts, my needs, my limits 🧠.
As the race went on, the course itself began to change ⏳.
The freshly laid gravel that felt loose and unstable early in the morning slowly packed down. Paths formed naturally — one side worn smooth from runners bombing downhill, the other etched in from the steady grind of hiking up ⛰️.
Without anyone planning it, the mountain adapted to the repetition.
Lap after lap, chaos turned into rhythm.
The trail began to feel familiar — almost earned.
Over and over, I told myself:
“Justin… you have a motor.” 🔁🔥
Each time I said it, I felt a small endorphin hit — just enough to keep moving.
That mantra carried me forward.
It helped me understand why people like Cameron Hanes and David Goggins repeat phrases to themselves. Saying it out loud matters. It’s belief. It’s ownership. At some point, the only person pushing you is you.
The race itself was simple.
You ran to the top, where there was a bucket full of rubber duckies 🦆 — which somehow felt perfectly on brand for Eugene, Oregon. You grabbed one duck and ran back down, dropping it into another bucket at the bottom. The race workers marked a tally on your bib to track laps.
To earn the medal 🏅, you had to complete ten laps.
By lap five, I was halfway there — confident, steady, well within the cutoff.
Another mantra formed naturally:
“Keep stacking duckies.” 🦆🦆🦆
I started saying it to other runners as we passed each other.
Just keep stacking duckies.
Only the people out there truly understood what it meant.
One duck.
One lap.
One climb at a time.
And that’s exactly what I did.
I finished ten laps in 9 hours and 55 minutes.
✅ Ten laps
🏃♂️ 33 miles
⛰️ 10,000 feet of climbing
I had done it.
At the top of lap ten, emotion hit me again — harder this time 💙. My wife and daughter hiked the final lap with me. Their presence meant everything.
This past year has been one of the most challenging seasons of my life. I made decisions that hurt the people around me, and I am actively working to recover from those choices.
This race was part of that recovery.
The pain.
The push.
The emotion.
They reminded me that no matter the challenge, I have a motor 🔥.
Recovery isn’t one big moment.
It’s repetition.
It’s showing up again and again.
One lap.
One climb.
🦆 One ducky at a time.
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👕 Support the story. Wear the motor.
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Recovery is repetition. Stay in the loop.
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