I am a Rugged Maniac!

The good news?  I wasn’t dead last.

 

The bad news?  I was last in my age group.

Sigh. That’s just how it works, I guess.

I finished 2199 out of 2230 people. There were 31 people slower than me! Like I said, I wasn’t dead last! But darn near.

Here is some interesting information. Every year I run I have a better chance of winning or placing in my age category, because the older you get, the smaller the group. There were 9 people in my age category this year; 5 female and 4 male.
If I was just four years older, there would have been only two people in that age group, both males. I would have placed first for the women in the category! Yes! There is still hope for me!


Me, shaking at the top of the Cargo Net Climb



Amber on the Cargo Net climb

Putting results aside, the run was fun, but really hard. Only 5K (3.1 miles), it was way harder than the half marathon (13.2 miles) I ran last June! I couldn’t have done it alone. I lost count of the number of people who helped me over, under and through obstacles.


Amber on a hill

Everywhere I turned, there was always a helping hand reaching back for me, sometimes my daughter Amber, sometimes a stranger. Oh, the kindness of strangers! They tugged and pulled and boosted me over seven foot barricades, 20 ft. cargo net walls, up muddy hills, through worm-hole tubes filled with mud and water and under barb-wire covered mud holes and down a high-speed suicide slide into a muddy water hole where I had to pull myself over big round floating tubes that blocked my way. Did I mention the hills? Lots of hills! Did I mention the water? Cold freaking water!

Yeah. Totally fun, LOL!

I could be in better shape. I’m still working on it. But here’s something I like to keep in mind, and it can be applied to anything and everything in your life:

Dead Last Finish
Beats Did Not Finish

Which Greatly Trumps Did Not Start

Unknown Author

Amber on the Suicide Slide

Did I want to quit? Hell, yes. Especially when I severely bruised my ribs halfway through the course trying to get over a wall. But there was no way I was going to quit unless they carried me off on a stretcher. You just can’t quit in front of your kids, right? So I’m glad I finished!

Even so, it’s more important to start. You will never know what you can accomplish unless you start! Even if you fail, at least you tried.

Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

Wow, that is perseverance! What would the world be like if Edison had quit?!