A Proud and Wounded Warrior!!

Where do I begin?!? Let's start Friday night around 11:30 pm or so. I send Sandra a message "Seriously aren't you even the slightest bit nervous?? Even if you aren't can ya just lie to me?" She replies, "I'm excited like a kid at Christmas".... and so the journey begins... LOL

Saturday morning, 3am my alarm goes off and I spring out of bed! I roll over kiss my husband who is snoring pretty loud, so I can only assume he was in a deep sleep. He doesn't move. I continue kissing him until he gets so annoyed he wakes up and says... "What time is it?" >> "It's 3am. Time to get up!!">> "You need an hour and a half to get ready. I need 10 minutes"  (who knew THAT statement would be so true.. LOL) Either way, up he got! He gets the cooler out adds the half frozen water, then starts loading it with all the food that I prepped for us. Since I was unsure of what kind of food would be available I made sure that we had enough for lunch and for snack through out the day.

Be Prepared. There is never an excuse good enough.

 While he gets everything ready at home I go gas up the car. Somehow I lost my wallet in that 10 min time period. So after a few choice words, frustrated tears and messages being sent that we are running behind, it is found in the driveway. Apparently I DID need that hour and a half that he so kindly suggested to me.

WE MADE IT......SO EXCITED!!!

We pay, we park, we shuttle in on first class limo service, grab our packets of gear and paperwork and go find a spot to get ready. Pictures are taken, laughs are had and shoes are put on. I would just like to say that these kicks below did not survive the trip home. I laid them to rest in a pile that are being donated to countries that can't afford shoes (with the other 10,000 pairs that I am sure made it there too). So at this point we are BeautyFuel'd (who knew how handy THAT would come in.. LOL) and I had the BeautyBum in my bag. I applied on my tushie before we left.

Our Limo Service

RIP Kicks... You served me well

Never leave home without it

It's 8am, the flames roar high in the sky and we are off to conquer the next 3.24 hellish miles of our (ok maybe just mine) LIFE! I quickly came to realize that being 16 days smoke free was going to come in pretty darn handy! I was able to keep a steady pace and not breathe through my shoulders. But to actually breathe with my diaphragm in use.

Screams come from behind the bushes and then we see it, the first muddy jump. We all giggle when we see it because it is only a little jump... and then MORE SCREAMS!! This was an abyss of knee high thick black mud at least 50 ft long. I know this because I went through it. We knew we were going to encounter mud so might as well get used to it right from the get go. Up hills and down hills MANY MANY times, over and under obstacles and then the most amazing words of the day come from the woman that I admire and who inspires ME!!.. " You have GOT to be effin kidding me!!!" as we both stare up the longest climb known to man to the top. I giggled in between my panting for air and said, " I'm sorry and I don't want this to sound mean but that was the most fantastic thing I have heard all day!" Now, I'm not sure if she just kept a slower pace to not lose me or if I kept up to her but either way Sandra kept looking back to make sure I was alive and still coming. And I was always there.

We get to the water slide of death and this is where it should be fun to slide down a slippery tarp on a ski hill right?? Well yes and no. There were a few damages to my body and others later in the day got it WAY worse than me. I looked through pictures online. We get to the bottom and we can hear music and smell fire. That means we were almost to the finish line. Are you kidding me?!?! I'm almost done?? Over the cargo net I go as Sandra waits for me on the other side... " Let's go gurl. We're gonna finish this together!" is what I hear. We jumped some fire and trudged through mud on our hands and knees and then I CROSSED THAT FINISH LINE!!! I held my hands up high and I crossed that line with pride in my heart and a smile on my face. Final time was 51min 58 sec.

That mud was GROSS! and so thick!!

FINISH LINE!!!

I wore my mud and my wound proud!

So here I sit 3 days later, still banged up and sore like you wouldn't believe. I pretty much look like I have been beaten up or I went on a drunken bender and had a fight with the pavement and lost. I also sit here knowing that I accomplished something that I never thought I could do. Who knew that a little comment of "I'm in" would be so life changing. Here are just a few things I learned during this adventure..

 

 

It's healing pretty nicely!

1.   When you think you can't go any further, you really can.
2. A ski hill is nothing more than a big pile of dirt. It can't hold you back if you want to get to the top.
3. Victory is that much sweeter when you have your husband and your friend / coach at the end to say I am so proud of you!
4. You gotta Burn it to earn it NEVER tasted so good!! ( I'll tell you all about that next time )
5. I had no idea that gravel and sand could find its way in to THAT many places on my body.. LOL

And finally.... Wounds heal and fade away but pride of accomplishment stays FOREVER!!