Well, that was bloody stupid!

Seriously though, Mudder had its awesome moments.  I was completely thrown out to left field many, many times.  The obstacles that I thought were going to be the most challenging for me were not that bad and a couple of ones I looked at before hand and thought "no big deal" turned out to be effing frightening!  From the inspirational speech given at the start of the challenge to the extremely crazy 17 kilometer terrain we had to cover, this was one insane day that I will never forget!   
I did have a moment of extreme fear on the "Walk the Plank" obstacle.  I happily followed my team mates up to the top of a platform, only to find that I would then need to jump a huge distance into water.  Uh, NO.  I let (read: pushed) a few of my team members ahead of me then politely asked the Mudder staff member if I could pass and go back down.  He promptly told me "no, your gonna have to jump".  Well crap.  I was scared shitless!  Why, I don't know? It was just water.  I eventually jumped and struggled to swim to the edge.  I have been  having nightmares about it since!  If I had known that was going to be the obstacle that was going to send me over the edge I would have trained at the damn pool! (swimming with runners on also proved to be challenging!).  Of course everyone keeps asking me if I would do it again and so far my answer is a very clear, absolute HELL NO, however if it had not rained and hailed on us during the event it may not have been such an uncomfortable situation and I would consider doing it again.  We were beyond freezing and it made some of the challenges much more hard, if not impossible (for me anyway).

Although I sit here now two days later covered in bruises and so sore I can't lift my arms, I am still glad I did it (weekend in Whistler was a definite bonus as well)!  The team of young lads and ladies I went with were amazing and so inspirational (not to mention totally effing hilarious)!!  Participating in an event like this with your kid is a truly rewarding, humbling experience.  It's amazing to watch a person who you thought was always going to be dependant on you become a source of encouragement and pride all wrapped up in one.  I feel like I officially adopted two amazing young ladies and four new crazy young men as well.  I suppose its on to the next adventure.  Of course after my poor, old body heals!

 

The Countdown is On

One week today I will be driving up to one of my favourite places in the world (Whistler) to be subjected to all kinds of physical stupidity and fat old lady ridicule.  I have had a few hiccups in the training since January but for the most part I have been focused and have now resigned myself to the fact that I am seriously out of time.  I am still, daily, stressing about my hair, outfit and where I am going to put my ID (because you know I am sure to get asked for ID at the end of the race when I try to buy more beer!).  Out of all this crazy training I have found that I CAN get stronger with hard work (because I can do more than one girly push up now!) and although I still can't stand exercising I have renewed my love of running (Please insert the word "hate" here instead of love.  What I do love is how I feel AFTER running, not the actual disgusting act of running!)  I have also found that working out with my oldest money sucker has not been an act of humiliation as expected but a pleasure that I hope we continue after this insane act of foolishness we all call Mudder. 

 

 

I do not plan to bring my camera to this event (because I have clearly run out of stress time as to where to put a camera!) so I will leave you with this picture that I found online.  This will be me. Count on it!

 

Mud Napping or Death?