A wee bit of sunburn, scrapes on my knees and elbows, bruised shin and a load of extremely muddy laundry...... that is what I have right now. Well, that and a whole lot more. About a year ago I read "Spartan Up" by Joe Cena. It answered the question,"why? Why pay good money to push your body to the limit? What is the point of the cuts and bruises that follow?" Joe had an easy answer to that. "You'll know at the finish line."
Today, I ran up a beautiful hill to find one last obstacle. A muddy hill to climb and descend followed by a long mud pit that led to a rainbow colored inflatable archway marking the finish. Five miles. Thirty obstacles. What did I know in that moment? Well a whole lot of things.
I learned I can be afraid of heights and still climb the 8 foot wall followed by the ten foot wall without a rope just a little help from my friends. It was a good thing that these were the 2nd and 3rd obstacles as it seemed to help me to start with a bit of confidence. Following that I learned I could carry 50 pounds of sand for a quarter mile without a problem. During that quarter mile though I was able to think about having this plus 27 pounds that I was carrying around every single day two years ago. Somehow the bag of sand seemed a bit easier.
I learned I could swing on a rope over a trench filled with mud despite being terrified I would fall in. I also learned said terror was shared with a trusted team member and not only could I do it, she could too. Somehow sharing the fear and conquering it together made for quite a moment. I learned I could scale a muddy riverbank up and down and up and down and my hip would be rock solid. There were larger rope clubs over walls, crawling yards and yards through mud with overhead boards that kept me low enough to emerge with what appeared to be a muddy beard. There were burpees in a mud pit not as penalties, but as part of the course and of course the running, tire flips, climbing over muddy hay bales and running through the woods over and under trees on their sides. On and on it went. Wet. Muddy. Up. Down.Cimb. Crawl. Mud and the almighty slip and slide.
All at once. There it was. Right in front of me. Fear in an obstacle. Decades of anxiety wrapped into this one thing. Flashbacks of school yard failure right there. A straight 15 foot iron pipe over a vat of mud and a sign that simply said,"monkey bars". Monkey bars. Wow. I never could do it well. I watched the other kids do it like they were some sort of spider monkey. I put this to rest a long time ago along with the rope climb and conquering the awful mile and a half run in junior high named the Cooper. Yet here it was. Monkey bars. I gripped it three or four times until I actually gave it a try. Terrified of looking silly, old emotion had a great team, and afraid of falling in. Irrational fears. Then I did it. Hand over hand. Fifteen feet across. Not one drop of mud. I stood looking at my son stunned. I said to him more than once,"I did it". He just nodded. Ok he may have thought I lost it at that moment, but that by far was my favorite moment of the day.
So as I passed under the rainbow archway I think I learned no wall is too high with a great team to give me a boost, and I am never too old to conquer longstanding fears and being able to see the freedom that comes as those fears faded away. As I sit nursing my wounds and cleaning the mud out of my ears I know in my heart of hearts every ounce of effort I put in these last two years was absolutely worth it.
In reference to yesterday's comment on the quest for the snapdragon.... my snapdragon has shown up. It is the Tristate Sprint in 2017. Crossing the finish line today reminded me once again the best is yet to come.
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