I apologize for the delay in this blog.
It sounds odd, but I wanted to relish in what I achieved. Keep it my own for as long as possible. This is truly the first time I had no regrets or disappointments, so self criticism. I just had to hold it close.
Don't get me wrong, I was scared s***less. Hands shaking, have to pee every five minutes scared! The moments waiting in line to start the race, that was the worst. My poor brother had to listen to me yammer on about nothing and everything at a high rate of speed. But he grew up with me. It wasn't anything new.
I started off running. Did for a quarter of a mile. Pat took off. He had his own goals to meet. First obstacle was a mile down the path. Just a crawl in a sand tunnel. Easy! Water hazard, not so easy. I've never had upper body strength. President's test in elementary school was always a joke. I've never done a pull-up in my life. Luckily, there were strong men there who plucked me out of the water onto the floating coolers like I was a piece of seaweed.
There were other obstacles. Balancing on chain ropes, climbing up and down muddy hills. It was then I realized when you joke about taking a nap on those muddy hills, the masses rally around you to help you up. Sarcasm is wasted on those raising you up to succeed (which I was humbly grateful for).
There are some obstacles they don't feature on their website. Why? Because they suck royal a**. The balance beam over the water pond full of dysentery (I stayed upright), the rope wall side scoot (I did not stay upright) and the countless walls that my knees are still pissed at me for.
But the worst was by far what I call the birth canal. Picture thick metal rings with laced rope stretched around them. They are like that fun fabric tunnel CeCe's crawls through at her friend Miriam's house. Only this was the tunnel from hell. Everyone was going in on their backs. Big mistake. My lack of upper body strength struck again. I managed to pull myself through four of those rings, being coached by my 'doctor', the super sweet. burly man in the horns. When I got to the end, my arms gave out. I just said, "How the f*** am I supposed to get out!". All of a sudden my 'doctor' got out his forceps (aka another really nice burly man in horns) and pulled me free. Now I know how CeCe felt.
The obstacle I feared the most was the 20-foot rope lattice climb. At the end of all of this, I thought there was no way I would be able to do it. After the fact, my entire family all thought I would skip it. In the picture above, you can see me at the top straddling it. It was one of the easier obstacles I did! Then I jumped fire, army crawled through mud and was done!
Even now I get chills thinking of it.
I did it. So many people wanted me to succeed but didn't think I could, including me. Those same people were ecstatic that I could prove them wrong, including me. There is not one thing I would do differently. Even better, I can't wait for my next adventure. I'm addicted now. Addicted to the accomplishment, to inspiring others, to feeling more amazing that I have ever felt.
Thank you to Trena, Cory, Julie and Pat for being my support system. There is no way I could have done this without you as cheerleaders. And here is to all the people who don't try because they think they can't or are afraid they will be judged. I am here to tell you the only one that matters is you. You deserve this!
