POV: You graduated college and don’t see your friends anymore (how to fix this)
The case for new adventures...
Have you heard of the Splint Paradox?
It states that after graduating college, on average, you will see your college friends only 20 more times in your life.*
Pretty wild right?
As I thought more about it, I started seeing evidence of this in my own life.
Our college group chat was drying up.
There seemed to be fewer adventures and more engagement photos and job promotions.
Sh*t.. we are getting old…
Getting stuck in our ways.
I knew we had to do something.
Something drastic to fight the paradox.
And my buddy Willie gave us the perfect opportunity…
Preparing for a Race We Are Underqualified For
Hood to Coast is a world-renowned 197-mile relay race that has taken place in Oregon every year for the past 40 years.
It’s known as the “Mother of All Relays.”
You put together a team of 12 and everyone runs between 15 - 18 miles split across 3 legs.
We figured participating in this race would be the perfect adventure to get the gang back together.
So for the next 10 months, we did a little training (not enough), sent a bunch of memes in the group chat, and when race weekend arrived, traveled from all over the country to the Mecca of running: Portland, OR.
We painted our team name (Shin Splint University) on our van with the elegance of a skilled kindergartner.
and outfitted ourselves in the coolest merch…
And the night before the race we kicked our feet up thinking we were ready for what Hood to Coast (HTC) had in store for us.
We were wrong…
My friend Sav put it best the night before race day, “I’ll be honest, I could be more prepared for this race.”
Race Day: Full Speed Ahead
So here’s the thing about Hood to Cast… it’s a beast.
36 legs, each one 5+ miles, nearly 30 straight hours of running.
No sleep & no phone service (for most of it).
Just your little running shoes, a headlamp, and some good old-fashioned camaraderie.
You get points (called Kills) for passing people.
You lose points (called Deaths) for getting passed.
You eat beef jerky and energy gels that taste like sh*t so your stomach feels pretty funky the whole time.
You run from the top of Mt. Hood until you reach the glorious finish line in Seaside, OR.
And let me tell you, HTC has never seen such a hot start from such an inexperienced running team.
For the race, we split into two separate vans (6 people per van).
Van 1’s start time: 6 AM.
They came out hot.
While Van 2 was just rolling out of bed, Van 1 was literally at war running down a mountainside.
Van 1 dominated their first leg, but then things started to change.
My old nemesis, the sun, came out to play.
The sun has been messing with me since I was a little olive-skinned mayonnaise-skinned boy, always trying to ruin my perfectly pale skin.
But this time I came prepared with 100 SPF sunscreen (yes, SPF goes that high) so we could push through our first obstacle.
With temps rising to 90 degrees, Van 2 took the baton and pushed forward.
We bulldozed our way into the City of Portland and ran down the waterfront, dodging hippies and niche coffee lovers alike.
Now, there’s a secret to HTC.
Something I’m not supposed to share with you but f*ck it.
If you fundraise money, they grant you access to a secret magical campground at Exchange 18, the official halfway point of the race.
Runners like to call this place “heaven on earth.”
Free dinner, luxury porta-potties, and fresh lavender lattes. It really was like stepping into paradise.
So after passing the baton back to Van 1, that’s where we went.
As Van 1 kicked our feet up at Exchange 18, Van 2 was movinggggg, passing everyone in their wake.
Grandmas, children, didn’t matter, Van 2 was unstopabl — oh sh*t, nvm, looks like they ran into some adversity as well.
It was 6 PM and the sun was still beating down.
Runners were overheating and it became a mental battle to keep pushing.
It was bad, but nothing compared to what SSU would face once the sun went down.
After pushing through adversity, Van 1 arrived at heaven on earth.
We (Van 2) took the baton and reluctantly left our home away from home.
We were about to enter what the running community likes to call “Super Dark Nighttime Eerie Scary Hours.”
And this is where things got interesting.
Running at Night: The Scary Hours
You are required by HTC Law to wear a headlamp after the sun sets and until the sunrises.
Which makes total sense.
Country roads, no lights, need to be able to see.
Got it.
So we had a headlamp and a backup.
But what happens if they break?
Like if they both break?
Hmmm idk, we will cross that bridge when we get there.
Well, of course, this is exactly what happened.
Both our headlamps went down in the first hour of darkness.
And now, instead of hating my arch nemesis the sun, I wanted him back.
Luckily, we were able to find a third headlamp buried in our van and pushed onward.
As we plunged into the night, people started getting tired.
But the pavement didn’t care.
The running still needed to get ran.
And it wasn’t going to run itself.
To help you better understand the experience, imagine this:
It’s midnight.
You have eaten 4 bags of chips, 6 beef jerky sticks, 2 protein bars, and 7 GU gels today.
Your stomach is a circus.
Your team members are turning into zombies left and right, trying to stay awake in the van.
Van driver says, “Alright, 5 minutes till you are up!”
You muster every bit of excitement you have and start to warm up your weary legs.
You whisper “We’re having fun.” to yourself, but you don’t even believe it.
These nighttime runs are you vs. yourself.
You vs. your demons.
Your AirPods are broken, your phone has no service, and your headlamp has pretty much thrown in the towel as far as producing light goes.
Perfect.
I guess it’ll just be you and the great outdoors.
There’s a slight pickup of energy at the exchange where you takeoff from.
A glimmer of light amongst a sea of darkness.
You see somebody you think you recognize from high school hoping out of a van, but quickly realize it’s just a mirage.
They call your team number.
“825!”
That means your teammate is close.
Ready to hand off the baton to you.
You take your last yawn, pretending it’s a micro-scream to get pumped up for your leg.
“Here we go.” you whisper.
The baton is yours. Go time.
*end of cutaway scene*
Pretty insane, right?
We passed the baton back to Van 1 around 2 AM and attempted to get an hour of shut-eye.
But that was thwarted by some traffic that forced us to leave early so we could get to our next exchange point on time.
As the world woke up, our spirits were starting to awaken as well.
The jokes started flying, we got some coffee in us, and the anticipation for the finish line began.
Finishing Strong(ish)
As we neared the end, we all focused in on what we came here to do.
Win. And not get shin splints.
Our team captain hooked me up by giving me the final leg.
Which meant I got to bring the baton home for the squad.
However, there was still one challenge left to overcome, and it wasn’t one that I had trained for.
As I was waiting for my teammate at the final leg exchange, I noticed a guy warming up next to me.
He had really bright orange shorts on.
Let’s call him Brad.
Brad would turn out to be the bane of my existence.
You see, up till this point, I had not been passed (killed) at all.
So I was feeling good.
But there was something about the look on this guy’s face that made me think he was going to try to pass me.
My teammate came blazing in and I was off with the baton, heading towards the finish line.
The first mile was glorious.
I sped through the forested section of the leg like a grown-up Bambi.
As the trail spit me out onto the road I already had 3 kills with eyes on my 4th.
But then I got this eerie feeling.
The feeling that somebody was chasing me.
I shook it off.
“Nobody chases Bambi,” I told myself.
I refocused and got back in a rhythm.
I passed 2 more folks on a massive downhill section of the leg.
I looked down at my refurbished Series 5 Apple Watch.
“Holy sh*t, 5:40 pace. I’m cooking!”
I took my phone out and added “Sub 6-minute mile runner” to my Instagram bio.
And then, when I least expected it, I got passed.
This guy must’ve been running a 5:20 pace because he cooked me.
And I didn’t even hear him coming.
All I saw were these damn orange shorts.
For a brief moment I thought “Hell no, I’m not letting Brad pass me...”
I recalled what David Goggins had taught me in his book.
“When you think you are at your max effort, you are really only at 40%”
Grrrrr.
So I pushed to catch Brad!!
As I extended my strides, I quickly realized he was sustaining a pace well above what I could and it would be foolish to try to match him (I still had 3 miles left to go).
Sorry Goggins.
I kept waiting for him to turn around and snicker at me as he ran by, but it turns out that I had completely fabricated this rivalry in my head and so he did no such thing.
In the next couple of miles, I got passed 2 more times, which was humbling (fuel to train harder for next year).
However, none of that matters.
I was approaching the finish line and could hear the roar of a small crowd.
The sleepy beach town of Seaside, OR was electric.
Pretty sure I heard everyone chanting “Shin Splint U! Shin Splint U! Shin Splint U!” but I could have been hallucinating due to lack of sleep.
As I neared the finish, I saw my team there, waiting to cross the finish line together.
It was pretty cool to see them and think about how we had just run 27 hours straight together.
As I pushed through the final hand tunnel they assembled, we jogged together towards the finish.
Finishing time: 27 hours 24 minutes 11.4 seconds.
Super proud of the Shin Splint U team.
Okay, but hold on a second, do you actually give af about this race I ran with my friends?
Of course you don’t.
So why am I telling you this?
Here’s why.
You see, after college, life can take a turn for the mundane.
We can get lost in the shuffle of daily life.
Wake up, eat, email, slack, meeting, lunch, more meetings, coffee, work, grind, hustle, eat, gym, tan, laundry, sleep.
You get locked into your routines.
Days turn to weeks.
And life starts to feel a little flat.
But then one day, you happen to be scrolling through your Photos app.
You look back at the “good ol’ days.”
Reminiscing about how fun and adventurous they were. Oh boy, don’t you miss those days?
Here’s where you have a choice.
You can either accept the fact that you won’t see your college friends much anymore.
Or choose to embark on a new adventure with your old pals.
Sign up for a race.
Go on a road trip.
Start a podcast.
Host an event.
Do something.
Don’t succumb to entropy.
Don’t let a boring life win.
Don’t let complacency win.
In fact, I’ve got a challenge for you right now.
Hit up your college friends.
Propose a new adventure.
Get the ball rolling on something.
Just because you are out of school doesn’t mean you have to stop doing cool sh*t.
In fact, you should be doing even more cool sh*t! You’ve got more resources than you did in college.
So if nothing else, let this tale of Shin Splint University serve as inspiration to embark on a new journey with old friends.
To end, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
Wrap Up
As always, thanks for reading. I appreciate you making it to the end.
Would you be able to do me a favor while you're here:
Until next time,
Flickman
P.S. Follow me on TikTok to see the vlog version of this story
*The Splint Paradox is not real, I made it up