Saturday, April 30, 2011

I got NEW schwag!

Today my friend Joy and I ran (okay mainly I walked) the Hell Run! It was insane! I had run the Warrior Dash (similar but not nearly as hell-acious) so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect - wrong!
Before starting we ran into a few people that we knew and they said, "it is really hilly." Already scared we tried to blow it off, then we heard a few people say, "it was really hard." This was concerning because these people have run 1/2 Ironman triathlons! Now I was freaking out a bit. Joy and I had agreed we would push ourselves but even pushing myself I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with her so we knew she'd finish first - we developed our after the race plan and proceeded to "challenge" ourselves with this "hard, hilly run."
I started off running with the pack, didn't last long before we went up a minor hill, then we went down a big hill covered with what appeared to be sand - okay... I'm dealing with this. I lost Joy and met up with a lady, Wendy. As we bottle-necked at the first "obstacle" a steep, narrow decline I began to realize that my hopes of actually running this race were coming to a grinding halt. The terrain was uneven, VERY jutted and rocky (not gravel, ROCKS - fist sized rocks that would roll under your feet as you walked/ran on them). As we came down to the bottom of the steep narrow decline we were presented with our next challenge - a VERY steep rocky incline. The math teacher in me would have said it was an obtuse angle, approximately 95 degrees! Oh my heavens! I wish I could have taken a picture, it was truly astounding how steep it was. So to sum it up I spent the next 45 minutes (okay closer to 65) doing more of the same, protecting my behind going down steep declines and then panting and praying up steep inclines all the while climbing walls that were about 4 feet tall, crawling under barbed wire, sloshing through mud pits, creeping through holes and running over makeshift bridges between those insane hills. Wendy - my new friend (because that's me, I like to make friends) prayed with me through a lot of the climbing and we decided that a better name for this race would have been Hill Run! It was seriously that bad. Later I found out that Joy had her own share of make-shift comrades, one of which complained loudly about how hard this was, to which her friend replied, "they said Hell Run, not Heaven Run!" Finally the run ended with scaling a 10 foot wall and flinging ourselves into a cesspool, most would refer to it as a pond but let's be honest about this thing, 7 other heats of 100+ people each had gone before us - they had stirred up every kind of micro-organism and piece of cow poo that was in that thing and it smelled disgusting. Finally there were tires to "jump" through and lastly a nice blazing fire to hurtle!
Did I rock this race - NO! Did I go out and do something, burn some calories and have a good time - YES! I had fun, I feel good (now that I don't smell bad anymore) and I'm proud of myself for going out and putting myself to the challenge. Oh and the best part - I have schwag - a new t-shirt, a cape (yep that is right I have a cape cuz I'm that cool) and a medal that says I finished!
Last note - notice our t-shirts (not planned but so funny). Joy is wearing a Longhorn t-shirt and I'm wearing my husbands "cut the horns off the wicked" t-shirt. We couldn't have done better if we had planned. Fun day!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Aw Man!

5:48 am! I had my alarm set for 7am but at 5:48am my sweet Z came in to let me know he didn't feel well - hoping that he didn't eat a "good" dinner I tried to convince him that he was fine, then I remembered he helped his daddy finish his dinner, he ate plenty! Sadly within minutes of telling me he didn't feel well he proved it! Aw Man! Now our big plans (that included me having an hour here at the house by myself -when was the last time that happened?): B's first baseball game, my hair appointment, taking a walk and going to do some shopping have been completely turned upside down. Waiting for 9am to see if I can reschedule my appt. Jason is going to try to take the girls to B's ball game and I am going to put together my grocery list. I suppose that the good thing (not Z being sick) is that when life does this it makes you slow down. Praying it is over quick and that we all stay healthy.