I want to share the story behind the photo above (left) with our Leadership Council SMC community. At face value, this picture is of me, smiling (kind of!) as I climb over a steel beam several feet in the air. You can see a couple of my friends in the lower right-hand corner of the picture, looking up at me while I climb over. 

On November 3, 2024, I found myself climbing a towering steel structure, just one obstacle of many in the 2024 Spartan Race in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Here is what you can’t see.  I’m 5’1’’ and even attempting this obstacle would have been impossible without a lift to get me going. Next, the beam I was attempting to climb over was twenty feet in the air, the top of an inverted wall that slanted towards you. I had to make it up the inside of the structure and down the other side — and there were no cushions below!

Having been given a leg up from one of my teammates, I began the climb. The first five beams felt manageable until I found myself hanging upside down, parallel to the ground. I completely froze: I didn’t know how to move forward, or how to get back down. The metal was slippery, and my grip wasn’t holding.

That’s when the two people you see in that picture, Rafael Avendaño and Saul Miranda — my fellow teammates, kicked into action. They saw me struggling and talked me through what to do next. “Put your foot here, move your hand there, push up, keep going,” they said. And just beyond the fence was the rest of our San Mateo County team, encouraging me, cheering me on, and when I set my feet safely on the ground, giving me huge hugs and high fives. What a moment!

This was my first Spartan Race, and I set out to reach the finish line with a group of amazing leaders, now friends and teammates, whom I met through our organization, Leadership Council SMC. This shared journey started last spring when one person, SMC Supervisor Noelia Corzo, said out loud that completing a Spartan Race was a personal goal. It just took one person to say ‘great idea!’ and the possibility started to become real. The word got around, others joined in, and the team quickly grew. We began meeting in public fitness parks around San Mateo County. Early in the morning and in the dark we ran, lifted, did pushups, and attempted (!) pullups. We connected and shared stories, and even if we could not train together because of our busy schedules, we cheered each other on, sharing snaps of our runs, walks, and workouts. No accomplishment was too small. 

I never could have made the first rung on that wall alone. I needed a hand to begin the climb. I made progress on my own, but then needed more help just when I could have come crashing to the ground. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. People can accomplish great things together — much more than we can alone. Four years ago, my Co-Founder, Margi Power, and I decided to start an organization that helps connect people who can easily reach that first step on the ladder with people who want to scale to new heights. Now more than ever, we need to look around and make sure we are lifting others, and recognizing when someone might need that crucial help to get over the top. 

‍Thank you to my 2024 Spartan Race teammates, and everyone on Team SMC!