I’ve known Roger Baldacci for almost 20 years now. We worked on a bunch of pitches together at Arnold when he wasn’t working on the more famous truth anti-smoking campaigns, or on Tyson Foods, or on ESPN. I invited him to be an Ideasicle Expert because he’s a brilliant concept guy, has ridiculous energy, he sees the world differently than most (bring up anything paranormal and watch him go), and he’s a great collaborator.

Well, speaking of his ridiculous energy, he recently trained and ran a Spartan race and I thought the process he went through said a lot about who he is as a person and what he might bring to an Ideasicle X project. Here’s how he described the experience.

Nothing is unthinkable, right? I always wanted to run a Spartan race like my former partner and good friend who runs them all the time. Now he does 100 mile races. I always felt like they were too intense. That I wasn’t good enough to run it somehow. But then I was on a Zoom with the Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena, who said to just do it. Commit. And so I did.

I signed up to running my first Spartan Race, A Sprint—the equivalent of dipping your toe in the water. A 5k with 20 obstacles in Loudon, New Hampshire. If you fail an obstacle you have to do 30 burpees. Ever done burpees? They’re not fun. So my buddy told me “you can train for burpees or train for the obstacles so you don’t have to do them.” I went with the latter.

So while going to Planet Fitness where I normally work out, I would try to simulate the obstacles as best as possible. One of them is to carry a 100-pound ball of cement. So I would stack two 50-lb dumbbells and carry them around the gym. I took the rake off and used the wooden handle and threw it against the hedges in my backyard trying to simulate a spear throw. Knowing the race was only 3.5 miles, I would go on 5, 6 and 7 mile runs. While running I would stop and do 20 burpees every mile or so.

I made a Google doc of all the obstacles in order with YouTube tutorials  and watched them so I could mentally prepare myself when race day arrived. All that preparation served me well as I only missed two obstacles, the monkey bars and the rings—both because I lost my grip on the wet, muddy bars/rings. I was wearing lifting gloves, a rookie mistake I learned soon after when I posted in the Spartan Northeast Facebook group. I have already signed up for my next Spartan Race in Fenway Park this November? Who’s in? I didn’t think I could do it. Until I did.

Nothing is unthinkable. 

Indeed! Congratulations, Roger. I can also tell you Roger DID NOT look like that when we worked together. No washboard abs, no scary big biceps, none of it. So just imagine what he’d do with your idea project if he put his mind to it. When you get to that step in the Ideasicle X process just search his name and you can invite him.

Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of Ideasicle X. Follow him on Twitter @WillOBurns.