Hero Rush aka amazing awesomeness

6 months ago I never would of thought of competing in my first race. Much less a race including 21 obstacles. With the help of my trainer kicking my behind and helping me gain muscle, lose more inches, and gain even more confidence, I was happy to dive into my first race. 

Waking up I had a slew of emotions. I was excited and couldn't wait to get on the road and accept this challenge being set before me. First off, the weather was amazing. God really blessed us with a gorgeous day to play in the mud. At noon my team was called on stage and asked to set off the siren to start the race. Our first challenge was sliding down the fire pole. Not going to lie. I was like, are you kidding me? You pretty much had to reach out and jump and pray your legs made it around the pole. Knowing some girl ahead of us didn't hold well and ate it, I made sure I was in-love with my pole, holding it close the whole way down.  We ran a large amount of the time.  I would say 2/3 of the time, at least. Which was over 4 miles.

The next obstacle was insane. Walking, roughly, 1/2 mile knee deep in a river. Which was freezing. We would find areas that were higher up, but mossy, then all of the sudden it would fall knee deep. It was crazy, but we stuck as a team, holding hands to help keep each other from falling when one of us may slip. 

Next came different steep hills, climbing up muddy hills. A scary one was when we had to walk through a big building full of all kinds of boards, tables, etc. The "smoke" (fog machine) was so thick you could only see your hand if you held it 2 inches from your face. It was an amazing time to trust each other and working with each other. We had to depend on what the other person tripped over at the start, or run into, or fall over. God bless that person so we could all warn everyone else.  Another scary one was having to crawl through a very tight, very dark crawl space maze type thing. After smacking my head I decided it best to feel all around me so I know where I am going. It was honestly hilarious. If I created this I would put those night vision video cameras in to have some free entertainment later that evening. Come on, pop some popcorn and laugh.

My kick butt moments were the tires. Now, I am used to flipping tires that weigh more than I do. So needless to say this was much easier. Well, 2 of the 3 were. One was designed by The Rock or something. They tied a fire hose, which if you don't know, weights about 12 billion pounds, and it was tied to a good size tire. Not only did you have to drag that puppy, you had to drag it up a steep hill and back down then, you guessed it, you had to run back up that hill to get on course. There were a few times I wanted to curse, give up, or stop at a sushi place and eat. Mind you, this is the boonies, so obviously there was NO sushi places near by. The other two were fun. Two tires were connected by a fire hose. I loved watching people dragging these tires, while I threw those puppies over my shoulder as I jumped a 4 foot wall. Then there were the 2 tires connected that two of us had to toss onto a stretcher and take through a course. Including under barbed wire. I kicked butt with that, but unfortunately Jorge was NOT staying on our stretcher. *Jorge was my injured tire). I would swing it forward and he would decide to pop off. Im like, "Jorge. Pull it together."

The 2 Killer obstacles I could of done without was the rope we had to climb up. Which wasn't happened. It was ok. There were big muscle men that couldn't do it. I tried and thats all. Once we made it to the top, which mind you was up very high and with no sides once up there, my stomach sunk and I just wanted down. You then had to get down. They had a fire hose for your feet and connected by ropes were two more hoses to hold onto. Thinking it would be pure brilliant to put the hoses under my armpits, so i wouldn't fall, I made it. You flip to the side and its hard moving, but I made it. Bruised armpits and all.  The other hard one was the last true obstacle (you also jumped into a very dirty pool and were hosed and then jump over 4 fires). We had to shimmy up this weird tube thing roughly a story tall. The only thing inside were small blocks on the sides, a 2x4 here and there. I enter and boom…freezing cold water being poured down on you by a hose. Not just a trickle, but a freaking rain storm. So looking up to see if I could find something new to grab was hard. There was a moment I didn't know what I was doing and thought for sure I was going to fall on the poor man under me, I made it. It was intense. So now we are up freaking high and its time to jump onto a tarp and trust it holds you. It sends you flying into a nice cold brown pool. Once I hit it my legs fly up ever so sexy like and you hope and pray the photographer did not capture that moment. Seeing I was the only one who flew down at the moment and I see the photographer standing there with his camera on me I have a feeling I will be online. Awesome!

I was almost to the end. I had to jump into a dirty pool while being ambushed my little kids with hoses. After jumping out I ran and jumped over 4 piles of burning logs and crossed the finish line where I was given my medal and a banana. Please don't be too jealous over my banana. I was all smiles and pumped that i just finished my first race. God has brought me so very far on this journey and I am not finished. I am signing up for my next race in October. Warrior Dash, which is very similar to this race.