Monthly Archives: September 2016

strife

Watching this made me tear up a little.  A mother and child lost and reunited while Nadal holds the tennis match.

My own little munchkin (the larger one) came home with a bloody lip today, sustained after a fall from her scooter.  The poor little thing takes bodily injuries so seriously, much as I do I suppose, except worse.  She has been this way since she was tiny, so I guess it’s genetic.  It’s hard because getting hurt is part of life.  Her little sister is much less sensitive.  I do think life is a bit harder for sensitive types.

On a side note, I enjoyed watching Streif.  I’m fascinated by downhill ski racing, so naturally, I’ve been interested in this movie for a while.  It’s not perfect – a bit choppy and over-edited in places – but if you’re interested in downhill skiing, it’s a must-watch.

mixed feelings on the mudder

I love this video with Japanese commentary from the Japanese 4 x 100 m silver.  Letsrun says, “The Japanese Commentary For The Rio Men’s 4×100 Was “Gloriously Passionate” You don’t need to know the language to be able to tell they were psyched about Japan’s silver.”

I participated in the Tough Mud.der Half in Seattle this weekend.  I’d noticed that some colleagues at work were training for it, and asked if I could join.  When I asked, I thought it was maybe a 5K that was a bit more muddy than average, basically a very muddy cross country race.  No.  That is not what it is.  At all.  When I realized the truth, I felt committed and didn’t want to wimp out on the challenge.  What is it actually?  It’s a 5-mile obstacle course.  With very hard obstacles.  It’s billed as “probably the toughest event on the planet.”  Now, I like an athletic challenge as much as the next person, but I’m old, not in great shape, and not really interested in killing myself.  I joined a team of ten from work, and I was the only mother on the team and much older than most.  Plus, I’m me – kind of wimpy and anxious.

In any case, I did finish the Mudder, but I skipped about a third of the obstacles (all of them in the last mile and a quarter).  I’m disappointed in myself for not having the grit to do them all, especially given that all my teammates did all or all but one of them, but I’m trying to give myself credit for what I did do – belly crawl under barbed wire through mud, climb down a pipe, drop into cold deep water (full immersion) and swim under and obstruction, climb over multiple walls, as high as 10 feet high, scale a muddy cliff, etc.

In addition, to say that the Mudder was not my scene would be a bit of an understatement.  It was a huge event with thousands of people, chaotic, very noisy with music blasting, event leaders pumping people up through various announcements, and so on.  Normally, when I participate even in 5K races, I try to find small, low-key events.  I don’t do the big city event races.  So yeah.  The Mudder was a challenge from a mental perspective as much as physical.

I’m now trying to move on and be happy with the result and not berate myself for the obstacles I skipped.  I can’t help but feel my teammates must think I’m a huge wimp, but I also feel that I did what I could, and I give myself a bit of a pass given the tremendous impact pregnancy has had on me physically.  Two years ago, I spent eight months without doing any weight-bearing exercise.  I literally could not / would not even walk a mile.  It’s a long way from there to here.  So yeah, time to move on.

Next up?  A low-key Halloween 5K with a kids’ run for L.