As many of you know, I did a Rebel Race with some AMAZING friends and loved ones this weekend. I was all like yeah....I am gonna go zipping through this and falalalalaaaaa....No. That isn't what I thought at all, but I refuse to blog about my inner Sybil terrorizing me up until the minute they sent us off running.
I chose to do this race because I felt the need to challenge myself. I have never been terrific at sports, or particularly athletic, but I love the whole idea about being super fit and having a killer sports wardrobe that fits like a glove. Call me shallow.
Ok, the point.....
We arrived in Haverhill Massachusetts on Saturday and got my little *bib*....which isn't like any bib I knew of....it's a paper number thingy which served as a time chip (we can laugh about my time later) so you can see how you fared against the masses of jacked up RR peeps in full costume, ready to get dirty.
We were in the 1 pm wave....which is not like waving at all either....it's like 500 people chomping at the bit to run off screaming like maniacs into the woods! I was right there with them....doing my little southern version of a happy dance/trot/something-that-resembled-running. 1 pm.....show time.
And we were off! WOOO HOOO! Well, we all ran like champions for about 100 yards, then the course sent us straight up into what I could only assume was the first attempt at Base Camp on Everest.....UP a hill....like you needed a chairlift. Up, up, up.....until you emerge, not on Everest, but onto this vast, sprawling farm like place with clearly marked trails via police tape. I was huffing and puffing along with the back end of the RR-ers when we saw the first of the 26 obstacles that dotted this beautiful farmland. A 12-foot tall wall of hay. Bails of hay....pffffttttt. I am a proper southerner....I can climb onto hay bails. Watch this! And as is so many times the case, I realized I was suffering from bull-dog-mouth/chihuahua-hiney syndrome. OMG....that was HARD, and I couldn't understand why??
Plummeted down the other side, and carried on to the second obstacle. ANOTHER FREAKING WALL OF HAY....only this one was even taller. Seriously, I already have been nursing a wicked cough and it's not like I haven't been a life long HAY-FEVER sufferer....this was intended to be cruel. Oh. SO. Cruel.
But, I did it....wobbly legged and breathing like I needed an iron lung, I did it. More running. Awesome.
Third obstacle....a long line of people chatting happily about what gorgeous weather we were gifted and how they were gonna go eat dead animals slathered in BBQ sauce, and guzzle down beer that would surely overfloweth at such an event. But as we learned, the obstacle that lay ahead was a single person use only....and boy was it a doozy. 20 minutes or so passed as we, one by one, inched our way down this trail to see a slide.....about 60 feet straight down, covered in fast running, muddy water....and at the bottom awaited the blackest, muddiest pool of (please don't make the think Shawshank Redemption here) who knows what.
This was when I felt real fear. I am a huge fraidy cat. Like HUGE. I fear all things high, dirty, wooded, or outside of a mall. No choices here.....go time. I tried to navigate the beginning of the slide on foot....and promptly landed flat on my ass with a girl-like squeal and flew like a bullet into the muddy waters that awaited me below. I'm just gonna put it out there...it sucked. Cold, muddy, dirty and wracked with adrenaline, I managed to get to the side and have myself pulled out by the arm. I was laughing nervously at the fact that I had actually just DID that, but was not really prepared for the thoughts entering my mind...flashback to diagnosis day for my kid. THAT is exactly what I felt like just happened...I ran up and down hills getting prepared for the slippery slope that is diagnosis. You simply cannot sit in the muddy water....you MUST get up....you MUST move on....you simply have no choice. This was my Diabetes Rebel Race.
The very next obstacle were these huge logs that you needed to climb over and then under....slosh, step, fall, repeat....THIS was when I was learning to give him NPH, and Levemir....and this obstacle represented the ever so quick need to hurdle the hell out of the months that passed so quickly after my son was diagnosed.
I know, it's long. I just have to say, that I did the entire race. I climbed over 25 feet high plankboard walls, crawled through sewer tunnels, and climbed over rope courses, I fell off the monkey bars. I got bruised, I got filthy, I got no prize or accolades except that I can say I did it. And just like caring for my son, THAT is all that mattered.
I am a D mama....and Rebel Race ain't got nothing on me. It did, however, completely ruin my outfit....so since I survived, I live to shop another day.
