One of my favorite moments in the race occurred on the slanted rope wall. Gary scaled it first, with the agility of a mountain goat, then he turned at the top to see if I needed help. I scaled the wall pretty quickly, but I soon discovered that was the easy part. The knots in the rope end about a foot shy of the top and there really isn't a place to put your hand to give yourself a boost over the top. Plus, you're a little reluctant to let go of the rope long enough to grab the top, cause it's a long drop back to the ground. Gary grabbed both my wrists and held on tight while I tried to figure out how to propel myself to the top. As I scrambled for purchase, Gary held fast, at one point pretty much holding up my entire body weight by my wrists. He finally said, "You're going to have to do something." Yeah, he has a knack for stating the obvious. Finally, I heard a shout from below telling me to use the knot. I put my foot on the knot and gained enough momentum to push myself over. Gary scampered down, and I methodically climbed down after him.
The race itself is fun. Muddy and slippery. After the fire pole incident, I was limping pretty badly, but was grimly determined to finish. I was gingerly picking my way through a mud bog, and this really cool young man said, "Here, take my arm to balance." I did and was able to get through the last bog with his help. I loved that. He didn't know me at all, but he saw I was limping and he slowed down his race to help me with mine. How cool is that? Chivalry isn't dead, after all. Gary was there to pull me through most everything, but he's pretty heavily invested in me. This young stranger's name was Hank, and I told him I hope his wife knows he's a keeper. He assured me she did. Don't give up hope, girls! There are really good guys out there. You may have to look in a mud hole to find one. though.
The not so great result of the race is the ankle injury. It is still very swollen and bruised. I can walk without limping today, but I decided to go see my bone and joint guy just to make sure nothing was broken. He's almost on retainer anyway. The good news is that nothing is broken. The bad news is that it's a fairly serious sprain. He wants me to stay off it for 10 days, then he'll look at it again. I think I'll be running again in two weeks. I'm kind of counting on it, so send healing thoughts my way. By the way, explaining how I got the injury to my doctor was kind of fun. His only comment was that it had been a long time since he had seen a fire pole injury. I would bet good money that the last time he saw one, it wasn't on a 50 year old woman. He's awesome though. He's been my ortho guy for many years, and the thing I like the most about him is that he knows the importance of getting his patients back to their sports. He would NEVER tell me not to run again, and I have heard that from doctors before.
Can't say enough how fun this race was. Yes, it's hard, but it's a good kind of hard. There were a lot of glitches with the organization of it that I would like to see fixed, but the race itself was pretty well organized. I probably won't be doing another one this year, but will absolutely do another one, maybe next spring. But, I'm kind of hoping they don't have a fire pole. And, that 86 year old woman better watch her back. She'll be 87 by then. Maybe there's hope for me yet.
If you need a little inspiration, click on the link below to see what a true warrior looks like. I didn't get to see or meet this guy (would have really liked to), but he puts my humble efforts to shame.
And your ankle is precisely why I avoid all warrior type or spartan type races!!! I have enough troubel without firepoles.
ReplyDeleteOh Wow, what an experience....I am glad that you were not injured more... take care.. you have some running to do this year.