And then?

So I am feeling pretty good being fresh off of my half marathon that occurred this past weekend.  I was pretty excited when I crossed the finish line and had managed to shave over seven minutes off of my last half marathon time.  Plus... Jessica took me to McDonalds.  And it was fuckin sweet.  In regards to my time, with my first half marathon I had to wait until three days later until I wanted to work out again given the fact that I was pretty sore.  This time, it was a day and a half and I was out and about and going full speed.  So I am seeing progress.  It’s progress that I am happy with.  It’s not like I am in a platoon anymore or that I am a part of a soccer team or any other type of group related activity where folks work out together.  I’m up at 4:15 in the morning 5 days a week for at least an hour busting my ass and doing the most ridiculous work outs I can find (or that are provided to me via WODs).  I’m out there in the dark where no one can see me; where no one notices me.  I have only me to hold myself accountable.  For those of you who don’t know I also hold a full time job that requires me to travel quite a bit and I go to school full time.  So I don’t exactly have time to breathe much during the week.  Now I would be a bold-faced liar if I told you that I have never turned over, reset my alarm, and slept in until 0630.  Those days are few and far between…. Don’t judge me.

Now if you have the chance and ever want to find out more about the kind of person it takes to surpass the death race, you can look at Jason Jaksetic’s blog.  Guys like him have redefined the word “athlete” for me.  I have an insurmountable amount of respect for that word now.  I feel that the term is let down, misused, or even clichéd these days.  Just because your kid got a fitness award at school, it does not make him an athlete.  We live in a nation where our physical educators (or P.E. teachers), and even our coaches, are a bunch of huge blubbering fat asses.  Who the in the fat-taco-fuck are these people and how in God’s name did they obtain their credentials and their positions as hierarchy to our youth?  Really? You want to teach me about health and education, how to climb up a rope, and make me run sprints for a half hour when, in fact, if you were to jog for five minutes you would run the risk of shitting out your own heart.  Too harsh?  Ok, fine.  So you’re telling me that you would take weigh loss advice from someone whose arm waves… when they wave?  If you would well, then, you can eat it.  Or not.  Yea, don’t eat it.  Belay my last.   Anyways… athlete… good word.   Let it be known to you that I am not an athlete.  I don’t think that I could truly represent that word so therefore, I humbly refuse to consider myself one.  Maybe one day.

So If I have been able to do it correctly, I have actually uploaded a list of the events (at the bottom of the page) that I have signed up for or are seriously considering signing up for.  I was thinking about going through and deciphering all of the different events and who brings what to the table and how difficult they are or how long they are, yadda yadda yadda.   Not going to.  If you would care to know more about a certain event then just simply Google it.  Rest assured that before I take on an event or shortly after it, I will tell you know all about it.  The one that I will probably elaborate more about here in the upcoming months is The GORUCK challenge.  And I am psyched about that event.  It will be a twenty-hour metaphorical kick in the balls.  The Wilmington Iron Man will also be one hell of a mile stone to cross.  And it being only a year away and very little time to prepare for will make the finish line all the sweeter.  These events only represent the small milestones that I am making.  I never stress about them.  They are what I live for.  When I run these events, it is nothing but game day romantics coupled by pure agonizing bliss.  I am an addict because of that feeling.  I beg you, if you can, do something like one of these events.  Get out there; train your but off for a few months and kick ass at the event.  I promise you it will change your life.  Afterwards, you will be scavenging around to almost every race oriented web site looking to sign up for the next ten races.  What they do is inject a practical reason to be in shape.  And you will because you are going to want that feeling again.  I almost come to tears every time I cross the finish line whether it’s a simple fun run or a half marathon.  I’m not going to beg you again.  This is me telling you that you’re missing out and you’re selling yourself short.

                So, as you can see, this weekend I have the Wintergreen Tough Mudder.  I will be running that with my friends Jacob, Nels, and my stepdad, Dave.  It will be epic.  Game day romantics, remember?  I am excited.  Pictures and all of that happy nonsense will surely follow.  In my next follow up, I’ll talk about the Tough Mudder and how awesome it was along with some challenges that I have set for myself.  When I told Carrie from Spartan Race HQ what I planned to do, she concisely emailed me back saying “I dare you.  We dare you.  Give us your best shot.”  And just as an added bonus, I will also share a funny story of how I got in trouble with John Law during one of my work outs.  So stay tuned.  J