#lifeworktrailbalance: Why this blog?

#lifeworktrailbalance. In early September 2018, I celebrated what felt like the greatest success of my sporting career. I finished ninth at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a 170-kilometre trail race with around 10,000 metres of climbing, something like the Olympics of the discipline. Ninth among several thousand participants: incredible, beyond anything I had dared to dream. Before crossing the finish line in Chamonix, France, after 23 hours, 12 minutes and 3 seconds, I bowed to the applauding crowd in joy, gratitude and humility. I did not take it for granted then, and I still do not: delivering a performance I had worked towards for years, even decades, on the boundary between possible and impossible.

My name is Florian Grasel. Primarily, I am an entrepreneur and IT problem-solver. More than anything, I am a happy father; our twins were born at the end of 2017. I am an ultra runner, an amateur rather than a professional or semi-professional. And here, I am a writer and blogger.

To be honest, deciding to start a blog was not easy. I thought too much was already being written, with everyone offering often negligible opinions on every imaginable subject. But the more I thought about writing and sharing personal experience, the more I wanted to tell my stories too.

I am no motivational coach, fitness guru or startup billionaire. I am someone in his mid-thirties who has already been through a lot, both positive and negative. This blog is simply about my professional, sporting and private paths, and their challenges and problems. I make no claim to offer universally applicable career advice or turn other athletes into stars. I can do neither, and do not want to.

What I do want is to explore the aspects of my life and the obstacles that other people also face. Anyone pursuing a goal eventually asks similar questions: Why am I doing this to myself? What comes next? Why are these ideas not working? And so on.

I hope my stories motivate and inspire, and perhaps offer some help and direction. I have found a good balance between sport, work and family. Yet anyone who has stood on a slackline or balance board knows that balance is never static. It always takes work. That is what this blog is about: how I found my Life-Work-Trail Balance, and the constant effort it takes to maintain it.

All that remains is to wish you happy reading, and myself happy writing. Comments and feedback are always welcome. I expect a thoughtful, respectful tone towards one another.

Yours, Florian Grasel, aka Trailbeard