Challenge Completed

If you read last Thursday's post, you will know that Stephen and I took part in the Cahoots Duo Challenge this past weekend. It was (in my estimation) a 4-mile course with obstacles placed throughout. Rumor has it there were 24 different obstacles through the course ranging from a patch of mud to a fifteen-foot wall. (The rumor is for the number, not for the obstacles. I know what was there.) All of the challenge obstacles (as opposed to roadblock obstacles) were scored. There was only 1 of those that we did not complete. And another that we didn't know until later that we had done incorrectly. (In our defense, there wasn't a sign or instruction that we had to slide down a tube into muddy water together.)

I have never ran in a race of this caliber before. And actually, I can't really think of any race I've run in before. Unless it's a race to be the first to the downstairs reception area to get a doughnut before my coworkers take all the good ones. Yeah, that's a race I know I can do great at.

Do you know what the most amazing thing about this race was? I finished. Let me be honest here, after about three minutes into the race I wanted to quit. The first obstacle we faced was trekking up a very muddy hill. Most of the racers (Stephen and myself included) did what they could to avoid the mud but not the hill. No matter what though, we went through mud and our shoes were sticky. We continued through and went jumping around large pits, the last of which was full of water. Not caring at that point, we jumped into the water. As soon as we were out, I had to walk. We still were trekking uphill and my body was already yelling at me to stop and die. I just couldn't do this to myself.

Throughout the course, there were many times that I was just physically done. If the hills were absent, I'd have done great. Really, it was going uphill that caused me the most problems.

But then we'd get to an obstacle and there'd be a line for it. Guess what, I loved those moments. Standing around, talking to the other teams (everyone was in a team of two) was just awesome. When it came to the challenge obstacles, none of them were overly difficult. The one we did not complete was scaling a 15-foot wall. Our mistake was that we had Stephen go up first. When it came to my footing, I could not get enough to get ourselves up. Being short for this challenge (plus the assistance beams being muddy) was not a good thing.

The challenge Stephen and I are most proud of is this one:

I honestly don't know who these people are. I do know that the team on the left passed us at one point. Anyway...see on the right how that girl has her feet on a blue board? See the yellow one below it and the red one above it? Well, that yellow board goes all the across the wall. There were two blue ones that you could go up to and back down onto the yellow on for better points. And then there was the red one that you could go up to instead.

Well, Stephen and I started at the yellow (which you kinda need to.) But when we got to the blue we went for it. Once there, we slid over (seriously, sliding was easier than stepping at some points.) We got to the red and went for it. Again, we slid over to the edge, stepped down to the blue. Slid over again and stepped back onto the yellow beam. When we stepped off, people were cheering for us because of having accomplished that. Most teams didn't seem to do it.

The majority of the challenges you had to have a partner to do them with you. The only time it wasn't really necessary was a zipline. This is one of those things that you hold onto a small bar (some teams did it together, but with my broad shoulders, I would have knocked Stephen off, easily. He wanted to go together and I said we needed to do it alone (especially after watching people fall off.) The zipline went over a bunch of dirt, followed by a pretty muddied area with water spraying at you until you cleared a mud hill to safety.

Let me tell you this, I love rock climbing, but the thing I hate most about it is that my hands get sweaty easily and I lose my grip. This was my fear with the zipline. Especially since it was already wet. I grabbed on, ran, and jumped, bringing my legs in front of me. The people in line (I swear we waited about a half-hour for our turn and the line only got longer) cheered as I zipped down. And I made it over the mud hill and landed safely on the other side.

In life, there are challenges that we face. And as much as we feel alone in these challenges, we don't have to be alone. There are people out there to help us if we just let them. Like in the challenge pictured above. The phrase "I got your back" never made more sense to me. In order for me to get across safely, Stephen HAD to have my back. And at the exact same time, I HAD to have his. If one of us tried completing the task faster than the other, we would've fallen. Especially when at the red level, we could have seriously been injured if we fell wrong.

When it came to doing the zipline, I just needed support. He could not hang on there with me. I could not have dragged him along. I had to do it alone, but my fear of falling kept creeping up. Yeah, it was a short fall, but I wanted to make it all the way across. So to have Stephen and the rest of the racers and some volunteers cheer me on, it helped me immensely. I knew I could do it, I just had to drop my fear and go.

There were times when I thought to myself, I just can't do this. And as soon as I ignored that annoying little voice of doubt, I got myself going and made it to the finish line. Our flag that Stephen mad (that was more cape than flag) was hung up at the end of the race with all the other finishers. We did it. We got medals for finishing.

I care about our score enough to know how well we did, but it doesn't take away from the fact that fat and lazy me who hates getting up to get water from his in-office fridge, actually faced a 4-mile challenge and completed it despite my thoughts of "I can't do this." I did it and I'd do it again...but give me a year to recover and exercise. Cause next year when we do it, it's not gonna take us 2 1/2 hours (unless the zipline line gets even longer).

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.