Saturday, August 11, 2012

Warrior Dash 2012

I'm not an active person despite being incredibly active in high school nearly 20 years ago.  I have visions in my head of returning to my former, active self and somehow find a way out of it.  I had a nice romance with a very nice gym for about a year where I frolicked in the pool with old ladies during water aerobics, gave a whirl at spin class (the old man recovering from knee surgery survived longer than I did in that class), fell in love with yoga, and a bunch of other random things that made me feel as if I was really doing something (we will not count the time I was using one of the weight machines backwards feeling like a superstar only to realize everyone was laughing at my ignorance).  I've had my share of flying off treadmills and making a fool of myself in aerobic classes.  But in the last few years, I have done nothing more than take the occasional flight of stairs at work and walk like a mad woman on Black Friday to get the deals.  

Being inspired by some pretty amazing women in my life who are fearless runners, I caught the fever to start running.  I "ran" cross country in high school as a way to train for basketball season.  It didn't go so well.  After my first race my dad told me he could have walked the course faster than I ran it.  I was the only girl on the team for a couple of years.  By the time I would finish my measly 2 miles, the guys would have finished their nearly 3 miles, cooled down, stretched, had a snack, packed up, went to China a back and were waiting for me at the bus.  It never stopped me though.  I had drive. If someone said I can't, I did.  At 12, my brother told me I couldn't detassle corn with him because I wasn't tough enough.  He lasted 3 days and I lasted 3 years just to prove a point.  

One of my fearless runner friends has this amazing ability to convince me anything is a good idea and that I absolutely  freakin' can do it if I want to.  It's a darn good thing she leads me down the right path or else we would be running a large prostitution ring out of the basement of our house all the while claiming it was a "great entrepreneurial exercise."  About 10 days ago I get a message saying we should do the Warrior Dash on the 11th  together.  Why not I say.  It had been on my list for a long time and I had just started officially training to do a 5K. Seemed pretty soon, but okay.  September 11th gives me a few more weeks to be ready.  Um no.  August 11th Warrior Running Goddess says.  Here's the point where I could have bailed.  Any logical 15 year veteran couch potato would have said no.  And then the magical powers of Warrior Running Goddess kicked in.  Without saying another word she had me convinced I could do it (I have no idea how she obtained these magical powers, but if I can figure it out I want those same powers to convince my kids to do their #@!%$ chores). So, I did my usual self-doubting routine which only fueled my determination to do it.  Again, if I shouldn't I will is my motto.   

I give a modest attempt at "training" by running a mile or two in the 10 days leading up to the event.  I initially thought I was sure to die from exhaustion during the Dash but pushed ahead anyway.  I think I ran a only 4 times during those 10 days for a total of 6 runs in the last 8 kabillion years of my life.   The morning of the run I am preparing like I'm a bad-a$$ runner, fueling up on protein and stretching like my life depends on it (I was actually wondering if my life was on the line but threw caution to the wind anyway).  I have my pink tiger striped knee high socks on and am ready to run.  

We wait patiently until our turn to run and then we are off.  A nice slow jog for the first 1/2 mile or so leads us to a creek of water.  I splash through, initiating my shoes in the mud.  The course was supposed to feature 11 obstacles throughout the 5K, with the first being a "large hill."  We discover it is not only a large hill, but has multiple brothers and sisters of hills that we have to battle as well.  We slip & slide.  Warrior Running Goddess is being a cheerleader despite planting herself face first up a hill into the mud.   On the 600th  hill (who the hell knows, there were probably only 4 hills but it felt like forever) I try to navigate the descent down and gravity takes over.  My legs are moving like Wiley Coyote's in a fast circle while my body is no where near keeping up.  Then it happens.  I wipe out, rolling down the hill and landing fast first in the mud.  I look up to see a bowling-ball sized rock just inches from my face.  At this point I'm giggling (maybe just inside because my abdomen was too tired to actually move up and down to laugh out loud) and thankful I didn't get a face full of rock giving me "summer teeth" (some are there, some aren't).  In a strange way, that made me feel fierce rather than embarrassed and we forge on.  

I don't remember much of the obstacles in the middle of the race.  Some tromping through mud again, some walking across tight ropes over a creek, etc.  By about 1/2 the way through it I feel like a complete beast.  Rocky music is playing in my head.  I don't feel like a 35ish year old mother of 2 who does very little to take care of herself.  I feel like Jada - the one who has her fight back.  We come up to a series of small hills which send you plummeting into pits of cake-batter like mud.  Mud is in places it shouldn't be.  Every inch of your body is covered, including my teeth (note to self:  don't scream while sliding down hills).  In perhaps my favorite memory of the day, Warrior Running Goddess says "I think I just douched with mud."  You see, this is one of the reasons I love her.  She's not only fearless, she's funny.  

We tackled all of the obstacles, with only 1 being too tough to finish this late in the race.  The final stretch was swimming into the middle of pond to climb over stuff, leaping over fire and then a belly crawl through the last mud pit to the finish line.  I don't think my body is what finished that race for me today.  It was my gut, my grit and determination to do what I'm not supposed to do.  We had planned on taking an hour and a half to two hours to finish the race and came in right around the 57 minute mark.  

I learned a lot about myself today and the very special friendship I have with Warrior Running Goddess.  I'm really struggling with my transition from a very hands-on mothering role to watching two young men become independent.  I've always been a mom and am terrified of who I will find in a few years when I take a part-time role as mom and full-time role as myself again.  I caught a glimpse of that person today.  She's tough, she's stubborn, and I like her.  As for Warrior Running Goddess, she inspires me.  She calls me on my BS and gives me a wedgie with my big girl panties just to remind me to quit being so irrational.  She pushes me to grow, be my best and never sell myself short.  I needed that swift kick in the butt to get me into this race.  I thought I would finish, get a medal and a fuzzy warrior hat and go home.  But instead I found a piece of my tough, driven self again.  And for that, it was all worth it.  

PS - Ask me again tomorrow if I think it was all worth it when I can't get out of bed!!