It's Always An Adventure

This past weekend myself and three of my close girlfriends completed the Rugged Maniac 5K Run in Brooklyn. We were incredibly strong and amazing. We had tons of fun and we each surprised ourselves by finishing obstacles I am sure we didn’t even know we could do. It was so much fun. Beyond fun- thrilling, exhilarating and adrenaline pumping. I would definitely do it all over again, I just need to let all of my bruises and aching muscles heal 😉

Finish Line Victory!!! (Me, Meilan, Cass & Rachel) It is hard to tell but we are all completely soaked from head to toe in this pic.

Now, when Meilan first suggested that a few months back that we all sign-up for this mud adventure race that includes 14 different army boot camp style obstacles we were more than just a wee bit hesitant. But Meilan can be pretty unrelenting, stubborn, determined, convincing and soon we were all signed up. It was easy to forget that we had actually committed to this race and we all went about our daily lives. As the race date approached and we started receiving emails describing the course and the obstacles which included words like water, mud, barbed wire, torture, fire, climbing, crawling and not for the faint of heart I started to become a little bit worried. When the email arrived with the waiver that I signed releasing the company from all responsibility of my impending injury or death I really started to freak out. I seriously started to question my own sanity and realized that perhaps this is what a mid-life crisis felt like. None the less, we made our fierce looking Maniac Milf t-shirts (try explaining the meaning of that to your 9 year old!!) and prepared for the race, meaning we all lost sleep and sort of half hoped we would injure ourselves before race day 😉

Maniac Milfs

We all made it to race day, met bright and early at my apartment and made our way to the Aviation Sports Complex in Brooklyn. The two hour subway/shuttle ride there seemed like it was part of the race. It IS always an adventure after all 😉

Sitting at the back of the bus like the cool kids

The ambulance seemed to be following us, we really hoped it was not a sign!

We arrived at the race site and in typical crazy New York insanity there was already exciting action going on in the parking lot as we watched the FDNY douse a car on fire. Let the fun begin!! We shuffled of the bus with our fellow nervous racers and looked around for clues for exactly how intense this race was going to be. We were not disappointed. Earlier start times were finishing up and they were soaked and shivering but they were also laughing and still walking- both good signs!! We used our time to have a few pre-race nervous pees, check our bags and convince ourselves that we could do this! In reality we just wanted to be finished so that we could enjoy a beer =)

There is always a line for the port-a-potty

Ready to kick some Rugged Maniac Ass!! (Notice my hat- everyone was very concerned for the hair/barbed wire issue)

Pretty soon we were at the start line getting pumped up by the energy of the music and people around us. Boom, at noon we were off! And we were doing it- up and down the ravine, over the “Police Line, Do Not Cross” hurdles, up and down the wall climbs, rope climbing, tire running, through the woods, crawling, climbing, dashing, and the most fun of all- jumping into dumpsters (lined) filled with freezing cold water and then using planks to manoeuvre to the next one to do it all over again. It was amazing!! No really, it was. Because we did it. We motivated each other, pushed each other, cheered each other on and finished strong together. What a rush! Best of all, we did it together and we also pushed ourselves past a few limits and challenged our bodies/minds to do some things we didn’t even know we could do. Who knew that I could find a great rhythm to hurdling over police barricades, twenty at a time? This actually may come in handy one day 😉 So, even though we may have thrown out a few curses here and there and at times it would have been easier to give up, we didn’t and I am proud of us!! We kicked some Rugged Maniac Ass, oh yes we did!! So, who’s coming with us next time????

Tired and Wet Feet

Donating our shoes to a good cause

Our sweet, sweet reward 😉

Practicing my new found skill!