A Little Mud Never Hurt Anyone

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I have a big day tomorrow. I’m participating in my second adventure race. The first was in January of this year, the Warrior Dash. 3 miles of mud and obstacles. Coach JC talked a bunch of us from bootcamp into signing up. Yeah, we’re a bunch of schmucks. LOL. He even “trained” us for it. I remember looking forward to it until the week leading up to “the day.” That’s when the nerves hit.

I had decided to start in the heat that was half an hour before the rest of my bootcamp buddies. I am still not running. Yet. Anyway, I figured that if I started early, I could finish with them. It worked out perfectly, and I crossed the finish line along with them.

As much anxiety as I had going in, it was the most fun I’d had in a long time. I could not believe that I’d done all but one of the obstacles! I was hooked, and it wasn’t long before I had signed up for another race. The Mud Crusade. Notice the “mud” theme? It took 2 months to get rid of the mud stains in the cuticles on my toes. Now here we go again.

This race tomorrow is still just 3 miles, but there are 18 obstacles where I think there were only 12 in the last one. Coach JC had us working on our arm/grip strength the other day to prepare us for one of the obstacles: monkey bars over some muddy water. I told him he should just have some muddy water if he wants to prepare me for that one, since I’m sure I’ll be swimming under those monkey bars!

There are a few walls I’m worried about. This time, though, I have 3 buddies who have asked if they can start early with me and go it a little slower for various reasons. I can’t tell you how excited I am about that. In the Warrior Dash, I was alone for the first 75% of the race. There were some strangers who helped me with one of the obstacles–thank you to that group of girls in tutus–but other than that it was just me. This time I’ll have my buds with me, and with their help, hopefully I’ll even conquer the walls.

It’s so important to do these types of things when you’re working towards a weight loss and fitness goal. When you finish, the things you did accomplish are great  “medicine.” Those few things that you still couldn’t quite conquer make for even better motivation. The one thing I couldn’t do during the Warrior Dash was climb the rope/wall. Ever since there has been a picture of that thing on my fridge. Next January, that wall is MINE.