This is how we chose to commemorate our first year in Colorado....we ran a kids obstacle course. It was a "kids" obstacle course only in name and by the fact that the obstacles were smaller than adult obstacles would be and it only lasted 1.8 miles, not 3. But man! That was the HARDEST thing ever! We wanted to do something memorable - we sure achieved that goal!
Here's Chuck and Chloe before the dreaded up-hill run.
Here are Chloe and I coming through the finish line. OMG! It was 95 degrees out at noon when we ran this. They didn't tell us until we got there and checked-in that it was a completely up-hill run. And that it was 1.8 miles. I don't know if we would have signed up had we known in advance. That was a very strategic bait-and-switch. We were there, so we might as well do it. Bennett actually ran the entire thing. Mr. Healthy. It took him only 16 minutes. Chuck came in 10 minutes behind him. He ran like this was a Spartan race or something equally important and challenging. And Chloe and I (who walked all but the first 200 yards and last 50 yards) came in 10 minutes after Chuck.
This was NOT Gavin's cup of tea. He opted out. It's not my cup of tea either, but it was my idea, so I kinda felt obligated to participate. I am slightly clumsy. This fact becomes rather obvious when you see that I'm covered completely in mud from my waist down. I either fell into, off of, or on all the obstacles. I actually sneezed right as I went to grab the rope for the rope swing obstacle (you know, grab on and hold on tight as you swing like Tarzan to the other side over a small puddle of water). Apparently, that sneeze caused me to lose any and all grip strength and I plummeted into the water. I also landed flat on my bottom as I was going down a slide into a mud pit. It just got worse from there. And I hate being dirty. I don't know what was bothering me more...the fact that I, out of the blue. started sneezing every 30 seconds while running this ridiculous race, or that I could barely breathe and needed water before the yellow dots in my vision consumed me, or that I had mud on my hands that I couldn't wipe off. The struggle was real! At one point I apologized to Chloe for not running and she said, "That's ok mom, we only need to run when people are going to be looking at us." I totally agree with her philosophy. We ran up the first 200 yards of the race and we ran past the finish line...in our eyes we were winners.
Welcome to Colorado.
