I was at my heaviest 185 lbs and Im 5ft tall. I tried the diets, joined a local gym but never attended- I just paid for it!I just could not figure out where to begin. A good friend of mine invited me to come workout with her, and after multiple invites and rejections, I finally agreed to go. It was just before my 41st birthday, in the heat of July in Georgia, I went for my visit to The Compound. What was I thinking?
We conquered the course with our team and were ready to tackle the Tough Mudder Virginia the following month. Again, we faced another big hurdle… Tropical Storm Andrea came through the night before and tore apart the course, flooding the James River (which was part of the course as well).
From being a very avid runner/cyclist/marathoner to hospitalized and bed ridden I became very depressed and to top it off I was unable to continue nursing school due to my absence.
First, while you are getting a discount or free race out of it, if you are planning on volunteering the first half of the day and running the second, you had best be in good shape. A half day of volunteering and a half day of running will be tough on all but the elite athletes. It is often the equivalent of running two or three laps. The volunteers are required to be there way before the first wave and are expected to often be there well past the last wave. If you are volunteering for a full day, expect a 12 – 15 hour work day, with little to no breaks in the work.
During the race I ran, but it was more than running - it was running away from who I was told I was, the girl that I should be by seemingly everyone else standards, to become a new girl at the finish line, the girl I wanted to be, the mom that is not going to wear the dress and heels to pick up my son, but the one that's climbing a tree, running in the mud, the free girl.
Although running is not a passion of mine, it is great training for the obstacle course racing. The best thing about Obstacle Course Racing is that it provides a challenge for everyone from elite racers, to athletes in training (like me), to those just starting out. It fosters team work and encourages us to become better humans. I never believed in a million years that I would be able to complete a Tough Mudder or a Spartan race.
I don’t let diabetes stop me from doing things, I never have and I never will. It is just an extra obstacle that I have to face. Over the couple of years I have been doing OCRs I have helped a number of other people with diabetes learn how they can do these events or any other event. I don’t hide the fact that I have diabetes, in fact I will tell it to anyone who asks, ‘Why are you running with that pack?’ or ‘What are you doing?’ when I stop and a water station and start pulling things out of my pack.
A look at two different Spartan Race hurricane heats on both sides of the country.
The course had several new obstacles, one of which was the vertical wall with rope. This was fun and to us not as challenging as some others. The course was hilly, rocky and sandy, always an interesting combination.
The rise of the mud run & obstacle race events is a story of extreme success. Over the last three years we are seeing increasingly more race events springing up all over the country with some of the leading race organisers reporting a 2,400% increase in entrants within this short time.
