Slow and Steady

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Tuesday Tidbit: Tough Mudder Tahoe Summer

"The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful."
~E. E. Cummings

So about 3 months ago I got this text from my 23 year old niece. Her 21-year twin bother and sister were also part of the group text.
The original text was followed with this motivational statement

Super Hubby, happened to be signed up for this run too. Let me just get a few things straight here. 1. Super Hubby does not run 2. Super Hubby does not workout and 3. Super Hubby was indulging a group of about 8 of his friends. I had wanted to do this race last year with my sister-in-law and her BFF, but things didn't workout. Super Hubby was invited to do this and signed up for this event in January. Also in January a group from the gym I was working out at was putting together a team. I opted out for a couple of reasons 1. I didn't want to seem like the copy cat wife that can't let her husband do anything that she can't do and 2. I ended up having a health issue that side-lined me. When I got this text I held off on saying yes for a couple weeks. That health issue was still plaguing me, but confident that if I put positive energy out in the world, I would get positive outcomes, I signed up on May 1st for this July 13th event. On May 2nd I was told I had to have surgery. So much for putting the positive energy out there, plus a hefty registration fee down the drain. FAIL. 

You may be wondering why I wouldn't register for the event with my gym group so I wouldn't be a copy cat, but signed up when my niece asked. The answer is easy, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for family and in this case, what great memories to create! I was invited to hang with my nieces and nephews and got solidify my place as the cool aunty, my sister can be jealous now LOL

A month's worth of doctors office fiasco's pushed my surgery to June 18th. I went in for a pre-op the week before and wouldn't you know it, no surgery needed. SHIT! I haven't trained at all for Tough Mudder and now I get to do it! Woo Hoo. So I totally worked out right? Uh, nope. I am a self sabotager. Actually, out of frustration I hit the gym in mid-May figuring I'd better get strong so I can heal faster after surgery, not a sufficient amount of cardio, but lots of strength training. I continued this until the week of the race where I of course fell off the wagon. I do this so that if I couldn't finish I could blame it on not working out that week. Makes total sense right?! Uh, no, yes I am a crazy person LOL Without futher delay, I present to you my Tough Mudder Team.
Nephew, Niece, Niece's BFF, Me
Super Hubby and my niece-so super cute!
Sure things didn't go as planned from January to now with my weigh loss goals, my health issue, work or training for Tough Mudder, but I am really happy that my mind and body is strong enough to crank out 10.5 miles, 19 obstacles and 1800 ft elevation gain starting at 6800 ft above sea level. Yeah, I think that makes me pretty awesome. It was easier than I thought it was gonna be, but that doesn't mean it didn't totally kick my ass. I look like I was in a car wreck or something.
An early look at my knees
Just a few short hours later
Ok so I can't complain about bruises when Super Hubby looks like this

Why I Kick A$$: I was slow on the uphills, but overall hung pretty well with kids 10+ years younger than I am.
The Big Picture: It was a shitty spring time, but as my husband always says, things have a way of working themselves out. Maybe that positive energy May 1st registration the day before I my doctor's appt did it or maybe the 5AM gym workouts to get strong helped my health issue go away so I could do this awesome even with my niece and nephew.
Thankful Three
  1. While I didn't do the run with Super Hubby, it is cool that we did the same event the same day and can talk about the obstacles etc. together
  2. For having the fitness level to do something with no training
  3. For being silly enough to wear the crazy T-shirt. If you know me, you know I am usually too embarrassed to be silly.

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