My Adventure: by Ethan Hunger
On July 19th, I set out for the fifth time to ruin my day. I spend one day every year trying to create the hardest day I possibly can by doing something impressive enough to gain attention in order to raise money for my local food bank. My goal in doing this is to show that no matter how hard I try to ruin my day, it will never rival the struggles of food insecurity.
On Friday, July 18th, I went to bed at 10 pm and then woke up at 11 pm. I met up with 14 of my best friends around 11:30 pm and we started road biking at midnight headed toward the biggest mountain we could find. By 5 am, we were at Mt. Baker’s Artist Point, watching the sunrise after ~57 miles of mostly uphill climbing. By 8 am, we were back where we started, 115 miles of riding later and the night behind us.
This is where the fun begins! We rolled straight up to JD Elite, a HIIT gym I frequent, to spend an hour moving our bodies as best as we could. At this point, my original 14 companions had mostly split off to go grab some shut eye while I powered on. The HIIT class consisted of mostly bodyweight movements like lunges, squats and jumping jacks. Over 80 people showed up to work out with me and from that class alone we raised over $4,000 for the Bellingham Food Bank.
I went straight from the gym to Lake Whatcom where a safety boat was waiting for me and 3 of my friends. We had originally planned to swim the lake from north to south, but the wind direction was contrary to expectation and quite strong at that. We buzzed on down to the southern end of the lake and we started swimming. The lake is 10 miles long from end to end and the conditions were far from favorable. The longest swim of my life at that point was 5 miles and none of the 3 of us had ever swam over 6 miles. It was set to be a long day. We began swimming just after 10 am and we swam for 6 hours and 53 minutes (including breaks along the way), finishing our swim just after 5 pm. It was a choppy, painfully boring swim that I later described as the least enjoyable exercise of my life.
I had some light cramping around 30 minutes in and then considerate shoulder pain began in both shoulders around 90 minutes in. Those two things only got worse as time went on. The inability to socialize with the guys around me seemed to exacerbate the isolation of it too. I found myself counting the minutes between snack breaks just to clear my head and shake out my arms. It was a long time to be swimming.
The conclusion of the swim marked the end of my uncertainties. I was so relieved to be done knowing that the rest of my day was all things I had done before. I went straight from the lake to the local mountain bike trails for a quick lap. I spent just under an hour on my bike and only seemed to care about getting down in one piece. The sleep deprivation really started to settle in at this point and my nervous system could best be described as “fried”. Luckily for me, I was heading toward my last leg of the day. A run. In the parking lot, I gathered up anyone who had energy to spare and we set out for a run toward the finish line party.
The fitness challenge I’ve set out to do has changed a few times over the years. This is the first time I ever attempted to do the iteration I’ve described so far and this is the first time I haven’t had to run a marathon. This final running leg was only 5 miles and it was everything I ever hoped for. We set out at a healthy pace and were able to hold it until the finish. At that point of the day, all I could think about was excitement. Excitement to be done. Excitement to see all of my friends, supporters, and donors. Excitement to talk to people about why I do this dang thing.
Advice to Others:
I’ll share with you a few words from my finish line speech:
“I often get asked what my “why” is. Last week a friend, Dan Perl, and I had the incredible opportunity to sit down and interview a woman at the Bellingham Food Bank named Maria. Maria is both a shopper and a volunteer. Thankfully, Dan is beautifully fluent in Spanish because I’m passable at best and the interview wouldn’t have gone very well if it was just me.
Even with a language barrier, I would’ve had to be blind and deaf not to understand the importance of the Bellingham Food Bank to Maria’s life.
Here is a condensed version of Maria’s story. Maria never planned on needing to go to a food bank. 9 months ago, Maria underwent an operation that left her unable to work. She has not made a penny since.
Maria talked about the toll that being hungry and financially insecure has had on her physical health, her mental health, and her self-confidence. She moves slowly, but is still able to volunteer at the food bank packing boxes on Tuesdays and Thursdays as her body allows. She takes home an impressive mix of Latin foods from the food bank and uses that food to feed her community. A community that is scared right now and one that could use all the help they can get.
That is my why. Maria is just one face. One story. One person. She is one of the 10s of thousands of people who rely on the Bellingham Food Bank every week. Folks who wake up hungry. I wish that every person was able to see first hand the impact that the Bellingham Food Bank has on these people! These people are fighting so hard to live right now and I worry endlessly about the real possibility that budget cuts are going to take away the only food source that these people can count on.”
I hope that the focus of my fundraiser isn’t lost on people who get caught up in watching me do the fitness part of this. YES, I have fun doing this, but NO, would I be doing this just for fun.
If you’re inspired by my story and would like to make a donation, we are still accepting donations at the link below:
donations.bellinghamfoodbank.org/hvh25
To learn more about my fundraiser, visit here:
