Sunday, October 14, 2012

If you have to sign a death waiver, it's probably worth doing.

 Last year after Ryan ran the Tough Mudder with his co-workers I decided that it was something I wanted to do. It sounded fun, a little insane, but fun. So we spread the word and found 6 other crazies to join us in the run! This summer I started to train and something crazy happened, I actually started to enjoy running. And not just the enjoyment that comes after a run, but I started to enjoy it as I was doing it! I started to understand what people mean when they say running is mostly mental, I always thought that was a load of BS before. But I really learned if I pushed past the sucky parts it can actually be really rewarding and fun... crazy I know! So for those of you that don't know what a Tough Mudder is a 12 mile and 25 obstacles challenge not a race, that you complete with a team. So last weekend we made our way up to Austin, TX for the Tough Mudder I was feeling super ready even despite getting sick earlier that week. Then the beautiful steady weather in 80 and 90's we have been enjoying for weeks here in south TX decided to drop into the 50's. This weather might have been nice if it where not for the water and mud obstacles especially considering our second obstacle was to swim through and ice pool and we had to swim under this board so I was pretty much numb from mile 1 to 12. I could not warm up! Every time we started to dry off there would be another water obstacle, it was rough. The rest of the obstacles where fun, jumping off a 20 ft platform into a lake, getting over all the walls as a team, a  sideways rock climbing type one, monkey bars, running with a log, the mud mile, low crawls, crawling through tunnels, running up a half-pipe and much more but the worst of the worst where the electricity ones! And they had 3 of them this year and it was much worse than I expected. It was more of a jolt through your whole body than a shock! The last one at the finish line was the worst I got shocked like 5 times because you just have to run though a bunch of wires, luckily it was over after that! But overall it was a really fun time and I would definitely consider doing it again. It felt good to accomplish it and it was super fun to do with Ryan!

Dinner @ Botticell's, carb loading with the team the night before!

Before, still clean and semi warm!

Only picture during the race... and at the worst part.
 Those would be electricity wires you see, and that would be me that slipped in the mud.
Trying really hard not to cry right there.

WE FINISHED AND COMPLETED EVERY OBSTACLE!
That was my goal going into it but I almost did not finish the 2nd electricity
 one, I super panicked but Ryan came back and did it again with me. What a sweetheart :)

Deb and I trying to warm up after the race!

Dirty Tough Mudders.

Then we got to enjoy the rest of our 3 day weekend in Austin. What a treat, Austin is my favorite city in Texas that we have ventured to so far. We pigged out at the food trucks and other delicious local eats. Walked in and around the Capitol building. Explored South Congress and just enjoyed a fun weekend together!








Ryan's new phone came in the day before we left so we had to test out the new features!


Brie in crepes = best idea ever!






I do not know a better way to end a trip than with cupcakes and sprinkles :)