The Not So Freezing!

So it happened this weekend. The freeze.  My very first obstacle course race.  I was pretty nervous beforehand but as per typical ended up having a great time and loving it. I do think part of that was good company. My cousin Chelsea and her husband Tim went with me. Tim ran the course with me and Chelsea walked around and took photos.  I love these two people; they are awesome and really good company! 

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect but with the exception of like 2 things that I couldn’t do at the end, I managed to do everything, all the obstacles and I surprised the shit out of myself. Seriously, I found out I was tougher and stronger than I realized. It is a nice realization to come to. You are in better shape than you had thought and capable of so much more.  I was terrified of the monkey bars beforehand. Like petrified. But its mental you know. It’s standing there and letting go of your arm and dangling by one arm. It scared me. But it was mental. So mental, like box jumps.  When I got up to those monkey bars and had my hands on the first rung I hesitated. There were a couple seconds that felt like an eternity where I had to will my brain to do it. To just let go.  Which is so classically the story of my life. Just let go and trust.  The reward is at the other side and you just have to believe enough to take the first step.  Once I let go and swung my arm I felt confidence surge as my next arm went and so on and so on. And shit it was fun and easier than I had thought it would be.  I freaking crossed the whole set of them no problem and I was proud!  Cause it was the thing that mentally scared me the most.  But that was at the end of the course. As I’ve jumped far ahead, but nonetheless, it was pivotal moment for me because it reaffirmed that the things we are most scared of are mostly in our heads.

Now let me start at the beginning, we started out running and surveying the scenery. It was a beautiful lovely day and that was nice, but the scenery before us looked hilly. It was. We ran and came to obstacle 1 where we had to crawl under a pit of tarps with water. It was fun but instantly we were on our hands and knees getting dirty. So it begins.  The ground was a bit mushy and dirty and uneven.  Zone 2 was burpees, 25 of them, then on to zone 3 which was The Beast.  Basically get up two stories of walls and then traverse down the backside. I was quite thankful I had a partner in crime to help me out. I needed him to give me a boost. But it was fun and I started to get into my rhythm at this point.

Stop 4 was picking up a log and carrying it thru a tire field, you know that old classic, high knees thru tires with a piece of dead wood on your back.  Classic.  We ran some more and then had to climb up and down a set of ladders before hitting the tire traverse which was a whole field of hanging tires from ropes that you had to get thru jumping from tire to tire. It was actually a lot of fun!  Then it was an Inverted Wall which meant the wall was hanging vertically backwards an you had to get up it and then over. And then another wall. Lots of walls.  I shockingly was able to handle most of the walls fairly easily.  Then it was Balance Beams.  Yeah, pretty simple in design, two balance beams but the transition between them was hard and I fell off twice, before making my third and final attempt where I finally got it.  Close one.  I’m short and the distance between them was far! 

Next up was the lovely parallel bars where we had to crab crawl across the top of them. And then finally we hit what was definitely the ridiculous hard part of the course. That freaking hill!  A giant long straight up, breath stealing hill.  All by itself it would have been hard but we were first told to carry a sandbag up the hill and then back down.  And then for fun we had to drag a cinder block up the hill and then back down.  This was by far the worst and most taxing of them all.  My heart rate was thru the roof. It was ridiculous and taxing and yet you couldn’t help but feel pretty accomplished when you were finally done.  Everything past this was easy in comparison to that crazy hill.

Next we had to belly crawl under ropes up a hill. A tiny hill by comparison.  Then we had to do 25 weighed squats. (Easy peasy!)  Then was tire flip. Not so bad. I’ve flipped tires before at the gym.  And then was a scary teeter totter where we had to walk up and then balance and walk back down. The teeter totter flipped. I had a moment of wanting to panic because I thought I was going to fall off and break something, but I didn’t. I did it!

Then next came one of my favorite moments, it was a wall with a rope that we had to use our feet against the board and then our upper body strength alone to pull us up and over the wall, and I freaking did it! I did it! I was very proud of this and afterwards was on cloud 9!  Next up was carrying a tire about a quarter mile around a pond.  Pretty easy in the grand scheme of things.  Then we had to push an atlas 145 pound stone, do 20 burpees and then push it back. Good times again.  Kettle Hell, 25 kettlebell  swings. (Not a problem for me) and then some more ladders and another rope wall.

The final stretch included 25 box jumps and 50 battle ropes.  And then finally we got to the finisher which included those monkey bars and then an American Warrior Ninja style wall that we had to use our arms and legs to shuffle through. 

Overall I was beyond proud of myself.  The whole course was around 5 miles in distance and we finished in about 1 hour 55 minutes according to my watch.  So below my original 3 hour estimation.  I was beyond proud because I felt great and pretty much managed the whole thing.  I burned like almost 900 calories in those 2 hours. Not shocked at all. It was some pretty tense stuff that left me breathless at points.  But totally worth it.  I completely loved it. 

But with all that said, it wasn’t running. It’s not the same thing at all as running races. It’s a whole different animal, a whole different beast.  It is fun in a different kind of way. It’s more for your gym rat to test their strength, stamina and ability.  I enjoyed it immensely but am not certain I would completely feel the need to sign up for every one of these races.  I am signed up already for a Rugged Maniac race in June which is cool. I totally don’t mind doing some of these here and there in between the running but it doesn’t produce the same exact high for me.  A different kind of high but not entirely the same thing.

It was really awesome to know that I was capable and I didn’t feel out of place at all. I felt like I belonged there which again was a nice feeling.  To feel more capable than you realized.  To know you are strong enough to pull yourself up over walls, that is awesome! To know you can monkey bar.  That was my victory for the day.  I am totally proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and tackling something new and awesome. I am so happy my cousin was brave enough to do this with me.  These are the same cousins that are going to Maui with me in September.  I love them and their desire to do this kind of stuff with me!

After my race I came home and Chris & I took the dogs to the dog park for a 2 mile walk. Then because I was still feeling so great we took the dogs over to my mom’s house where I collected my nephew and we walked them all over to a park and I played on the playground equipment with my nephew.  Good afternoon.

Yesterday I woke up, picked up Amanda and headed to the gym for a brutal killer chest and tricep workout.  Yup, today my chest and upper body is on fire because of it.  That girl makes me work hard!  We did 6 sets of exercises.  6 sets of chest presses and the girl made me use 40 pounds dumbbells, so I was doing dumbbell chest presses with 40 pounds (in each freaking arm) and it hurt!  But I did it. I would never do that on my own, which is why I love that girl!  I love her because I love her as a person on top of the gym setting but it doesn’t hurt that she makes me want to be better at everything I do. It’s nice to have friends that elevate you in life and make you rise to the occasion and that is what she does for me.

After my workout I picked up my niece and took her to the mall to do a little shopping. She needed some workout clothes for the Girls on the Run program she is starting today. It’s at her school its a little self-esteem building group for young girls (elementary age), mixed around the concept of being healthy and active and at the end of the program they run a 5k. But she needed workout clothes, so I took her to Justice which is like this 10 year old girl dream store.  Anyway, Justice and then Claire’s and then we got some pretzels and chatted. It was nice to have some quality one on one time with my niece. 

So overall a perfect weekend I’d say. Life is good.  Now back to the grind today.  And without further ado, in no particular order photos from the weekend. I should also point out that I don't actually hate all the photos or how I look in them. As we all know most of the time action shots are not that great and I've never really had any run photos that I liked but my cousin did a great job and some of these action shots are actually pretty good. Yeah! I can live with them and myself and how I look in them, so this is a huge plus for me!