Monday, February 28, 2011

Dehydration. Not Fun.

After my race Saturday, I didn't drink any water. I don't know if it was because I was so cold after the run that I didn't feel I needed it, or if I was just on a high after finishing and didn't think about it. But I drank a Diet Coke and some iced tea. That was it for the day. 

Stupid. 

Yesterday morning (Sunday), I woke up feeling like I had the worst flu/hangover combination ever. I was shaking and shivering, cramping all over, and unable to hold down any food. I felt so nauseous. All I could do was lie in bed, sip Pedialyte and water, and hope to drop off to sleep. 

It was truly horrible. I felt awful the whole day. And all because I didn't drink water. And the weird thing is, I always drink water. Every day. Tons of it. I have a big glass on my desk and next to my bed, and I sip on them all the time. I just let myself get wrapped up in the race and I never thought to drink water afterwards. 

Well, lesson learned, definitely. I won't make that mistake again. 

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Super Spartan 8 Mile Obstacle Race

Saturday morning, I competed in the Super Spartan. It's an 8 mile obstacle race with all kinds of annoying ways to work your body. And what can I say? The race was everything I hoped for and more. And I feel like a rock star for running and finishing it!

Up at 5:30am. 44 degrees and raining. Hard. Yikes. Drove the hour and a half north to Temecula. More rain, and the temperature dropped down to 40. Arrived at the race site and thought, "what have I signed myself up for?!"

Our heat went off at 10am. And then we "enjoyed":

* A quick run along the lake


* A jump over the fire wall


* A blast from a fire hose and a dash through the cold water


* A couple of miles of crazy hills


* Serious, straight-up hill climbing


* An "Over, Under, Through" Wall


* A balance beam


* A muddy crawl under barbed wire


* More crazy hills


* An 8 foot wall


* A mad dash down the hill to the main area below


* Spear tossing into a target


* A cargo net climb


* A traversing wall



* Back up the mountain for more hills to climb


* And running along the backside of the lake


* And the downhills were steep


* More running on the back hills


* A 50 yard, tarp covered mud, rock and gravel crawl


* Dash back down the hill to the main area below


* Dead-weight lift



* Water bucket carry and tire obstacle


* Water obstacle


* Mental challenge with Rubik's Cube


* Slick mud wall


* Spartan fighters at the end


* A total of 8 miles of running


And all throughout, we had changing weather... rain, icy winds, then later, sunshine. It felt like a little bit of everything weather wise, and I loved it!

It was an amazing adventure and we will definitely run it again next year.

Friday, February 4, 2011

"You are so full of yourself."

Yep. Someone said that to me. And it was a complete compliment. Weird, right? I'll explain. 

This morning, I posted this for my status here on Spark People: 

"A 4 mile run? You bet. Because all this sexy doesn't just happen on its own." 

I received several laughing and joking responses back, as expected. And I also received this: 

"Are you kidding me! You are so full of yourself...I love it! You are the only one responsible for your own happiness. You are a star *******" 

This prompted a lot of internal discussion for me, but before I go any further, let me make one thing perfectly clear. My Spark Buddy that posted it meant it as a complete and total compliment. I know that. Let there be no confusion that I took it as anything different. 

That said, my thought process after reading it was really something. And as I ran this morning, I kept turning this over and over in my mind. And this is what I worked out. 

Old Me would have read that statement like this: 

"areyoukiddingme! YOU ARE SO FULL OF YOURSELF ...iloveit!youaretheonlyoneresponsibleforyourownhappiness.youareastar*******" 

I would have ignored all the fun and humor. I wouldn't have seen the compliments. I would have focused on the "criticism" and let it bother me. I would have read it as an attack, like someone was accusing me of being arrogant and self-absorbed. Old Me would purposely overlook anything good and only see the bad. 

But Old Me left last year. He was tossed out along with the thirty-five pounds of extra weight and the forty-three years of beating myself up. Old Me is just a memory, a reminder of a time when there was nothing I couldn't twist or distort into an attack on myself. And Old Me is my greatest reminder of all the years and energy lost, wasted defending myself from attacks that existed only in my mind. 

And New Me? New Me read that comment, chuckled, and thought, "heck yeah, I'm full of myself... full of sexy and fabulous, baby!" 

Thank you, KRAEG3, for giving me another reminder of how far I have come this past year. I've done more than lose weight. My inward attacks on myself are something else I am proud to say I have run off. 


(Originally posted on SparkPeople.com)