Lucas Adcock
Staff Writer
Sara and Stephen Simmons have been either cheering-on or competing in the Great Greenbrier River Race for the last five years. The couple from Green Bank are also the owners and operators of Hand-Me-Down Homestead. Following the busy season with Maple Days, the two of them were looking forward to the race and putting their physical fitness to the test.
Sara Simmons has cheered on her husband in the past.
“This was my first year actually participating in the race,” she said, “and my final push to do it was a friend inviting me to be on a team!”
I mentioned that the GGRR demands versatility across multiple disciplines, and asked, “Do you see parallels between that and the variety of skills needed to run a homestead?”
They both agreed that running a small homestead involves daily physical demands, such as lifting or carrying 50 pound feed bags and hay bales, refilling water troughs, and cleaning out coops and sheds.
“All of which,” Sara said, “helps prepare you for racing because they both demand strength, endurance and dedication!”
In this fashion, homesteading is a useful tool for endurance that translates over to physical activity and keeps you in shape.
Sara typically focuses on running.
“Stephen does a lot more training throughout the year,” she said.
Being on the homestead year-round certainly provides them both with a substantial amount of exercise. The question is whether it’s enough to sustain them through the Great Greenbrier River Race. The answer for them both was “kind of.”
Sara said that she’s learned through having livestock, growing a garden, and even running races with Stephen that he is a very self-motivated person.
“He really loves to challenge himself mentally and physically, and once he sets his mind to do something,” she said, “he will achieve it! I am not exactly like that, but he pushes me and gives me motivation through encouragement!”
Sara usually runs back roads near their home which have some flat sections but also some good hill sections, which is actually tougher than the running segment of the Greenbrier River Race because it’s basically a flat run.
So homesteading, exercising – all of these things that help one physically prepare for something as strenuous as a triathlon are not the leading source of physical preparedness. It’s diet.
“Eating a well-balanced diet with home-or-locally grown fruits and vegetables, self-raised meat, and home cooked meals highly contribute to having a healthy body, they said. “Especially a body that you challenge physically on a daily basis.”
So, what does success look like for Sarah and Stephen Simmons?
“Setting out to do something,” they said, “then giving it your all and com- pleting that task or goal, which applies to both racing and homesteading!”
After a triathlon as exhausting as the GGRR, how does it feel for those who complete it – or even attempt it – to return to the pace and rhythm of homestead life?
“Finishing a race is just another weekend in the books,” Sara said, “usually it is back to normal weekly routines of taking care of babies, animals and returning to busy work schedules, with a little bit of training in between.”
The philosophy that Sara and Stephen share is to enjoy every moment in life. To slow down. Enjoy the little things. Learn something new as often as you can and try to be self-sufficient.
“But overall,” they said, “live healthy.”
