Guys,

After all that typing last week, here is a shorter Fem Fri on a perennial theme; endurance.

Ada Blackjack was the real deal, surviving an Arctic winter with only a cat for company. It was, in case you had not guessed, not what she had planned:

Blackjack was barely five feet tall and 100 pounds and lacked any wilderness skills. Nonetheless, she taught herself to hunt and trap, picked roots, hauled wood, made her own clothing, dodged hungry polar bears, and cared for Knight [the sole remaining man, who had scurvy]. After he died, in June 1923, Blackjack clung to survival on this treeless 2,800-square-mile expanse of ice and tundra, where summer temperatures hover in the thirties. Living in frigid solitude for the last two months of her two-year sojourn, she frequently scanned the horizon for rescuers. Some days, it seemed uncertain what would overtake her first: scurvy, a ship, or the nerve-fraying despair.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2274756/inuit-woman-who-survived-arctic-alone

This next link – look, okay, I get that you read about people who are better than you so that you know what’s physically possible and can push yourself further – but still, to hear someone talk about a race “really coming together” in the last FORTY ONE MILES is mind boggling to the point of being actively galling. Anyway, read here about Devon Yanko, bakery owner and ultramarathonner:

“It really came together in those last 41 miles to make a truly special performance,” Yanko says. “I just wanted to see what was possible for myself.”

https://trailrunnermag.com/people/profiles/where-has-devon-yanko-been-all-this-time.html

Here is something that is maybe more in the realms of possibility but still extremely punishing physically:

When you’re in a great relationship, it’s absolutely normal to fantasize about the future. You’re loving the movie dates and the long talks, but you’re hating the hike up to his apartment, which is truly unethical, considering it’s four floors up, with two sets of stairs each, making it eight sets of stairs total. This apartment is not marriage material, but he is! Here’s how to see a future with him even though he lives in a fourth floor walk-up.

http://reductress.com/post/how-to-see-a-future-with-him-even-though-he-lives-in-a-4th-floor-walk-up/

Love,

Alex.