The Number 2023

Posted byNicholas RadfordPosted inUncategorizedTags:, , , ,

I’ve been so bad about keeping up with blogs, streams, and podcasts lately. I still owe you a blog about my first ultramarathon experience. Unless something drastic happens between now and when(ever) I write my next blog, I’ll get to that next. While I’ll touch on the 50K in this blog, it will not be the focus. This blog is a recap of the year that was 2023. Undeniably, it was the best year of my decade-long wrestling career. It was also the year I ran two marathons (in addition to my first ultramarathon). Many other fun and eventful things happened this past year, so let’s just dive into it.

First up, 2023 was my tenth year wrestling on shows. I had my first match on January 12th, 2014, so there were a couple of weeks of 2024 included in that tenth year, but of course, I would lose my DOA Grand Championship right before my ten-year wrestle-versary, preventing me from achieving the poetic moment of celebrating the momentous occasion as the champion of the company that essentially birthed me into the wrestling world. But who am I to complain? As I mentioned before, this was my best year in wrestling yet. My first show of 2023 was the day after I returned home from running my second-ever marathon–the Walt Disney World Marathon–and having a lovely vacation, and it’s where Thom Alman and I won our first-ever tag team championships at SOS Pro Wrestling! The Academy would then hold on to the SOS Tag Team Championships for 238 days–making us the longest-reigning title holders to this day–before losing them to C.A.T. in a brutal School Yard Street Fight in September. 

Former SOS Tag Team Champions, The Academy

In addition to dominating the SOS tag team division, DOA Pro Wrestling also became our domain, as we would often be featured at least twice every show, as Thom and Dr. Kliever tore through the tag team division before and after I won the DOA Grand Championship in August and would desperately defend it for 154 until the January screwjob. To reinforce what I said on social media, I truly appreciate all the opportunities afforded to me and look forward to seeing how we can top ourselves in the future.

Moving from one physical challenge to another, I spent all of 2022 training to run a marathon and finally did in November when I ran in the 2022 Seattle Marathon. In 2023, my goal was to improve my marathon time. I did not achieve that with my first marathon of the year–and my second marathon ever: the 2023 Walt Disney World Marathon. I stupidly scheduled two marathons within about a month and a half, not giving myself enough time to recover. In addition to the short turnaround, I came down with my first spell of COVID-19 in December, which made my prep time almost non-existent. So, when I arrived at Disney World for the marathon, I was nowhere near the shape necessary to improve my race time. As such, I had a worse time. But, as multiple people have told me, nobody does Disney races to get a good time because it’s all about having a good time while doing it–and I sure did! 

After learning from my mistakes, I gave myself more time to prepare for my next marathon. In the meantime, I ran some smaller races but eventually signed up for the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon in June. It was a race I’d wanted to do for a while, as it was mostly downhill and featured a portion of running through a pitch-black tunnel, requiring a headlamp (or cell phone flashlight for some) to make it through. I accomplished my goal and substantially cut my marathon time down despite some necessary pitstops along the way.

Wrestling under the Space Needle

While riding the high from finishing my third marathon, and after being influenced by some ultramarathoners on social media (plus learning that my college advisor has completed numerous ultras), I decided it was time to step up my game. 26.2 miles was all well and good, but what about 31 miles? It wasn’t that much more. Five more miles, and I could call myself an ‘ultramarathoner’? Let’s go for it! Without saying too much, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. To be fair, while the Light at the end of the Tunnel Marathon went down a mountain, the Cougar Mountain 50K course went down one mountain, up and down another twice, and back up the first. So, despite everything, I can hold my head up high and say that I successfully finished an ultramarathon, even if it took me about eight hours to complete. Plus, I’m motivated to try conquering another 50K this year and improving my time. Like with the Walt Disney World Marathon at the beginning of the year, I’m applying the lessons I’ve learned.

Running under the Space Needle just a few months after wrestling under it!

Finally, I saved one more story to wrap everything together in a neat package. Hot Academy Summer was the busiest I’ve been in a while. The latter half of the summer featured The Academy performing on multiple wrestling shows, nearly doubling our matches for the year over about three weeks. One specific weekend was particularly notable for how much we had going on. It was Labor Day Weekend, and it seemed like everyone was taking advantage of the long weekend. PAX was happening in Seattle, DUSK Pro Wrestling invited me to make my return to wrestle in Vancouver, BC, for the first time since pre-pandemic, and Grit City Wrestling was holding the first-ever wrestling matches at Bumbershoot. I was there for it all, and I got some awesome pictures wrestling under the Space Needle. Fast forward to a few months later–Thanksgiving weekend, one year after I finished my first marathon. The Seattle Marathon Association implemented a lot of changes since then. One change was that the Seattle Marathon Summer Events added a half marathon to the 5K and 10K that runners could participate in. Not only did I run that race, but I booked it to wrestling training right after. Another change was the location of the start and finish lines for the Seattle Marathon. Last year, when I did the marathon, the starting and finish lines were at Husky Stadium on the UW campus. This year, they serendipitously moved the starting and finish lines to Seattle Center. I made a point early on not to repeat races. There are so many around that it felt unnecessary to do repeats. But since they also hold a half marathon during marathon weekend–at the same time as the regular marathon–I decided to check that off my list, too. Since the race now went past the Space Needle in Seattle Center, I got some pretty sweet pics running under it, in almost the same location I had wrestled under it a couple of months prior. 

Some other fun stories came out of 2023, but this is more of a macro retrospective, so I won’t get into them now. Stay tuned for a blog all about my journey through my first 50K, coming…eventually!

THE WORLD IS YOUR BURRITO!

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