Do I Still Need Shugyo

I am sixty years of age. I have practiced karate wholeheartedly since 1976, i.e., about thirty-eight years. I am a Marine and managed to successfully complete ten years starting in 1972 at Parris Island Marine Recruit training. I look at boot as my first real challenging shugyo. 

Although I don’t perform training and shugyo at the same intensity as I did when much younger I still give myself some challenges to keep a hand in but I don’t expend the energies I once did and that seems normal. After all, as we age we must adjust things accordingly. 

Recently I suggested to those who read my blogging that a form of shugyo that they may want to experience is the “Spartan Race.” I had never heard of this challenge until my nephew and his father spoke of it when they came to visit recently. The race they ran while here was in Monterey California. 

I have to say that when I observed a small portion of the race I was intrigued. I guess after a ten year stint on active duty as a Marine I was once again inspired by the challenge found in that race. I spent some additional time researching how this Spartan thing is run along with the levels and the obstacles found in the race. 

You see, it is a race of miles with a lot of obstacles and challenges provided as you run the course. It is a variety of physical and mental challenges that are derived from the military except this one is a collection of those challenges and obstacles combined to put a lot of physical and mental stress and strain on the runner. 

Then as I understood those challenges and the unknown aspects of each race, i.e. you never know when, where and what obstacles will be placed on the route along with environmental challenges such as steep hills, etc. Unlike the military tho these races are one day events while the military challenges the individual, in boot camp, for nine weeks or more. The military will continue throughout your tour(s) of duty provide challenges not to forget the ultimate challenge of combat - if you are selected to participate in combat during your time (I was not selected for combat during my time). 

As a subset of those challenging days in my life, i.e. from 1972 till I retired from civil service and teaching karate in 1999 (I came back to teach for a year in the early 2000’s) where ten years of it as an active Marine I taught and practiced martial arts with its own subset of challenges and shugyo’s. It was a great time but now I have to ask myself why I am intrigued by possibly taking the Spartan challenge.

Is it because it is “loosely” connected to the symbol of the greatest fighting force in history, the Spartans? The Marines are considered the worlds greatest fighting force in modern times (excluding any special forces types, etc.) but still the Spartans have this mystique about them in history. 

Is it because I can sense the down grades and changes as I age and I want to try to reclaim some of that youth through a Spartan challenge? Is it because family are involved and my instinctual need to relate and be a part of that family endeavor sparks a desire to take the Spartan challenge? Is this one of those second childhood things you hear about from men who are aging? 

I am aging really well and I am just entering my winter years, i.e. the years after the age of sixty. My health and age according to the “Real Age Makeover” system indicates that my true age is late forties or early fifties while my chronological age is sixty and that is pretty good. 

I do have some physical challenges in my winter years starting with the aches and pains from the abuses I endured in my earlier years. I have some injuries such as both shoulders have either torn cartilage or the rotator cuff injury I got roller blading. I feel the effects of aging with a history of polio, i.e. I had polio or so I was told by my mother when I was but a couple of years old. I have the shattered elbow from when I was just approaching my teen years. Then there is the aches and pains and restrictions due to stress fractures endured in Marine Boot Camp in the early to mid seventies. Oh and I can’t forget about two years ago falling to the vertigo issue that plagues me even today. They refer to it as meniere’s. 

So, as you can see I have to really contemplate and consider the why’s of taking the Spartan challenge. I should make sure the reasons are not ego driven along with the pride building I might feel due to my aging. Challenges are a good thing. You should challenge yourself daily but the intensity and degree of that challenge should also depend on your free will and the condition of your body and mind at the moment, i.e. at age sixty and over - the winter years. 

Yes, the few described physical challenges are not really all that limiting and with any challenge you have to weigh the good with the bad and then decide whether to take the challenge or not. 

I am training all the time but training for the Spartan challenge or any physical and mental demanding event should be tempered with consideration and prudence. 

I suspect that if I did take the challenge that I would be able to complete it. This is what Marines do after all but even a Marine must evaluate the strategic and tactical obstacles and take a course or direction that will endure success and victory. 

What would be the reason for taking the Spartan challenge and what would be the short and long term effects of that challenge? Many, many questions must be answered and while I take on a bit higher training just in case I go for it those answers should be logical and beneficial for me without ego and pride driven reasoning.

To take the challenge or not to take the challenge, that is my question?