The race that got the best of me

Last Saturday was the Fugitive Run I had been looking forward to it since January however I knew it would be hard and challenging. Knew I would be scrapped sore and bruised just wasn't expecting what happened.

We arrived at the race early which was nice we walked around a bit and could see some of the big obstacles and I admit right then and there I wanted to back out. I am NOT a fan of heights and one wall you had to climb over was 50foot straight up.. The jumps in to the water was a 15 foot jump, 20 foot jump and then the big water slide.

 

My race outfit I laid out the night before. And at the time I debated on those shoes being a bad choice they had always hurt my feet but yet they were light weight (no support dumb move on my part) and they were mesh.

 

Me and my partner before the race and yes we both look very nervous.

That was the water slide it was tall enough you could see it from the parking lot!!!!!!!

The prison we had to "break out" of and they had a coffin set up by the entrance that said Unknown Fugitive.
When the race started you were in the building in the above picture and you had to escape. Either up the wall thru the rafters and out the roof, up the wall and out the windows that were at the top of the wall or you could dig thru the sand and go under the wall. We chose thru the sand and under the wall. I hate tight spaces and made sure someone bigger than me went thru first :) I scurried out of the building and then up a huge hill where you had to crawl under wires. Normally the wires are electric fence and fully charged but they didn't have them turned on that day.

After that you made your way along a steep embankment thru trees brush and sticker bushes to this obstacle.

This ended up being the only picture with me in it. You had to get to the top of the trailer and then you realize there is no way down.... So everyone was jumping down well its at least 8 foot up I hate heights remember... The way it was supposed to work is teamwork like you see above however if you didn't have a team you were on your own getting down. So we jumped... I jumped and well knew I wasn't going to land pretty and tried to roll to the side to break the fall somewhat. Oh I broke it all right.. I knew after I landed my race was done. I was upset and mad not to go on but relieved in a way not to have to jump off the cliff!

We made it back to the car and I could walk just was sore and very scraped up.

Well I decided to go to dr after hours to have it looked at just to be sure since it was starting to swell. (the scrapes look way worse now than they did there) I got to dr after hours walked in and they couldn't do xray on weekend but the dr looked at it felt it had me move bend and twist and had no severe pain so I went on my way... The whole weekend I walked around and we went to the pig roast camped out there. I played washers walked around visiting. I tried to make sure I sat as much as possible tho. By Monday evening my foot and ankle had swelled up and turned a very dark purple. I won't post pictures. Tuesday I got up came to work and had 3 friends that I had been texting over the weekend that had seen the pictures kept telling me I needed to get it re looked at. I was like ok fine to suit you I will. So at noon on Tuesday I drove to a different urgent care clinic and had xrays done.

Well this is what the dr found on those!

A nice pretty fracture of my fibula. She was in shock I was walking pretty normal on it and even more in shock I had never had much pain at all from it. The pain never got to the point I couldn't ignore it or push thru it. Well that ended my walking on it. She splinted it and gave me crutches (which I am so not a fan of  yet) Told me she would set me up an appt with an orto dr for later in the week.

My appt with him was yesterday morning I was nervous scared and freaked out. The picture above looks bad and many people who saw it said be prepared to have surgery to fix it and to be out of commission for at least 4 months.

The dr came in opened up the xray from Tuesday and said oh my.... Not what you want to hear then he tells me we would get another xray and if nothing had moved and no extra gap was found in my ankle joint then I would just get a CAM boot and be on crutches for 5 weeks. If it had moved then I would be sent for surgery for plates and pins.... I WAS SO SO SO glad nothing had moved, he told me my ligaments, muscles and tendons were all in tact and that was what kept it stable and not moved. (made my working out and being active pay off big time there) He told me I would be back to races and working my ambulance job by mid July as long as I bared no weight on my foot for 5 weeks.

I still haven't got used to crutches but very thankful I have quite a bit of upper body stregth and arm strength or I would be more sore and wore out than I am. The whole not putting any weight on it is hard because with the boot thing you think oh its protected I can put it weight on it this once. I am trying to be good and not stubborn but its hard. I also can't drive for 5 weeks since its my right foot and that is really taking a toll on me.

So there's my race recap and my first ever injury and first ever broke anything.. I am not ok with all this yet but it is better. I am slowly learning patience and learning its ok to ask for help even tho I hate not being my regular independant self. I know everything happens for a reason but not sure what this one was.


Will I do this race ever again NO and not because I got hurt theres a lot more to what I saw and heard while there and I won't try it again. I still want to do a tough mudder maybe next year but for now when I get the ok I will start training for some 5ks and then plan a half in late October.



Almost time!!!!

Less than 18 hours I will be at the start line of the Fugitive Run while my Kenny and the boys are at the pig place shooting the pig for the Annual Pig Roast.

Here is some of what I will be doing in the morning while my kids are having fun playing and helping prep the pig to cook.

The climbing of the rope and wall scares me a lot I know I don't have tons of upper body strength and the jumping off the cliff well lets just say I may need a nudge or some good encouragement. However the bottom picture actually looks fun as long as the rungs aren't to far apart making it hard for my 5foot frame to manage.

After the race I will be joining my family at the pig roast for the rest of the weekend I just looked at last years pictures and cant believe how much both boys have grown!

I decided this year to be relaxed and a cool mom and if the boys want to wear the same dirty stuff two days in a row I will let them... But they will have to clean their hands and faces frequently... They have been counting down the days for a while now and knew when they woke up this morning that it was pig roast time. I hope I am not to banged up to bad from the race to really have a good time. I do know this once I make it there and I plan on having a nice cold beer!!!!

I work Sunday night but I am glad that I will be able to do dinner with everyone that afternoon and visit with people we see once a year.

Less than 48 hours.....!!!!!!

Less than 48 hours until the Fugitive Run... To say I am getting nervous is a understatement.. I have been having weird dreams and bad dreams about the race for over a week now. I am very glad I have a partner to do the race with me and I think she is as nervous as I am. Neither of us have ever done an obstacle course race and we haven't really felt like we have trained for it. I know I haven't I am pretty much going to wing it and hope adrenaline carries me thru.

I put a lot of thought in to my outfit for Saturday and while I know that being in mud, water and climbing over and thru things my clothes may not survive and stains may not come out. I still wanted to do something special since the race is on Memorial Weekend.

I bought this shirt from Walmart online for way cheaper than the same shirt was at our local Kohls (makes no sense to me but tells me there is a huge markup at Kohls)

Notice the little feet on the back in between the shoulders...... I am doing this race for a friend of mine's daughter who she lost almost 13 years ago. This is the first year she hasn't lived close enough to come home on Memorial Weekend to place flowers on her daughters grave. I decided to have a coworker embroidery the feet on my shirt. I told my friend of the idea and she loved it she likes doing races and if she lived here she would have been out there cheering me on. I will do my best to get a pre race picture of me in the shirt to post with my race recap (if I survive the race) next week.

I hope the shirt survives to where I can get most of the mud stains out so I can wear it again, heck even if it don't come totally clean I will still wear it for workouts.

My next delima is deciding on a bra for the race. I am slightly superstitious and have always wore the same sports bra for every race however I don't want to take the chance on ruining it with this one. So I will wear an older one and hope for the best, but knowing I have Kelsey's little feet on my shirt that should be all I need to get thru!

Guess I am a bit weird on having rituals and routines and certain things to wear for each race and not sure how I got started with it other than hey it worked this time lets try it again.

After the race I am meeting up with Kenny and the boys at the pig roast to spend the rest of the day getting ready for the fish fry and enjoying time with friends. I don't work until Sunday night at 7pm so I am going to enjoy my time off. Even if I am super sore and wore out from the race I want to make the best of my only weekend off.

The weekend

I had planned a special fun day for the kids on Saturday. I knew it was a bit risky as I was working 8pm Friday night until 8am on Saturday morning, I was worried I would get an early morning transfer and not be back by 8. Got lucky we had one call at 2 am so I hadn't got much sleep but wasn't going to let that stop our day of fun. Kenny and the boys met me at work at 8am and we went to breakfast which the boys loved and ate every bite plus some off our plates. I had to be back to work by 5:30 that evening to work a rodeo standby so our schedule would be tight but would work.

We drove to St. Louis and went to the mall to exchange Nathan's shoes we had got for him when we were up there in April. Neither of the boys had ever been to a mall and Nathan was mesmerized by the mannequins in the isles of the stores and had to touch them all.

After we got his shoes exchanged we headed to the zoo the kids were super excited as they had never been (well we took Blake when he was 11 months old but he don't remember) We got close and got stuck in traffic for 2 hours trying to find a parking spot. I was upset because the day was ruined I knew that we wouldn't have time to walk around much and get back to St. James in time for work. I shed a few tears the boys were upset and crying because mommy ruined their fun day. On the way back from St. Louis we decided to stop in Leasburg at Onadoga Cave. I used to go with school almost yearly when I was a kid but hadn't been since I was about 10 or 12. Neither of the boys had ever been to such and Kenny hadn't been to a cave since he was a kid. We stopped there and decided to take the tour.

 We had time before the tour so the boys had a snack outside at a picnic table. I got them each a jacket out of the car and they just didn't understand why they would need it as it was 80+ degrees outside.

 

The cave tour was the same as when I was a kid but it was still fun and neat to see it all over again and to see the boys fascination of the cave. All I had with me was my phone to take pictures with and I was impressed it did such a good job down in the dark cave.

 

They loved looking around and seeing all the formations and hearing how far down below the surface we were. They said the tour was right at an hour and about a mile. We were in there for almost 2 hours and probably walked more than a mile. Our guide was nice and knew her info and we moved along quickly and it still took forever. By the end Nathan was getting tired of the walk and stop and not being able to touch all the cool rocks.

We left there and  headed back towards St. James and both boys fell asleep before we got out on the interstate. On our way back Kenny got a call from Dwayne wanting to do some fishing so the boys got to fish all evening which they loved! I went to work and did a standby at a bull ride and watching kids younger than mine ride sheep and steers gave me chills. Blake has always said he wanted to be a bull rider but I'm not sure I could let him :) It was a good show and no one got seriously hurt which was a good thing.

I got home after the kids were in bed and had to be back at work at 8am Sunday. It was a busy day at work and we ran more calls than I have in the whole time I worked there. I was glad when 8pm came and I got to head home and spend time with the kids and get them ready for bed.

Since our zoo trip didn't work we are taking a vacation day first part of June and taking them during the week. That way we aren't worried about the time and I won't have to rush back to go to work.



Weekly Chase

Time for another weekly chase! Last week my goals were:


1-Challenge goal- Continue to find friends in real life to join in with workouts and healthy food adventures. Still talking to the friend that wants to do a few races together. Hope that once I meet the other girl that I am doing the Fugitive Run with that we can do some workouts together or at least stay in touch after this race.

2-Drink more water than soda.Did really well with this!

3-Focus on getting workouts in this week even if its just something simple as wall pushups, squats and planks. Still doing wall pushups at work and played outside with the kids some this week and stayed pretty active. Apparently I did something this weekend to make my legs sore not sure what but I defiantly worked some muscles.

4-Spend time with the kids of an evening this working 7 day a week is taking a toll on me and I am sure them as well. Did really well with this we had a few stressful evenings with the boys being tired and wanting to argue and whine.

5-Make next Saturday fun and special for the kids and take them to do something fun. I work Friday night and all day on Sunday so since Saturday is open I want to make it count. This didn't go quite as planned however we ended up having fun anyway. I will do a post on it later this week. But the kids had fun and we had some family time which was super nice.


Goals for this week

1 - Challenge Goal continue to work with friends who are healthy and active so nice having those around. I found out the Clean Eating Challenge group I joined at the first of the month is going to continue. I have learned a lot from the group and super glad to see it continue.

2-Drink lots and lots of water this week to get hydrated for the race.

3-Really pay attention to what I eat this week so I can feel awesome for my upcoming race.

4-Get laundry done and pack everything for our weekend by Wednesday.

5-Survive the race on Saturday.

Fun with the kids.

Last night when the kids and I got home I was busy putting away things and changing out of my work clothes I had passed back and forth thru the kitchen a couple times. Then I saw this on the counter.

My grandma had brought over a double layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing (my favorite cake) and some of her home made cream corn that she had made last summer with corn from the garden.
Two days prior I came home to grandmas fried chicken on the counter.. I think I really like my counters :)

Made me very grateful to have my grandparents across the road from us and for my grandma to still have the capability and energy to cook and share with us. Cake isn't very healthy but I am NOT passing up her cake as I know that she won't always be around to make it.

After the kids ate dinner Nathan begged me to come out and play with them. So I started laundry and went out. First we were in the back yard and Nathan and I ran up and down the hill back there.

Blake was using a weed whacker thing and was knocking down weeds.. It kept him busy and he had fun.. Sure didn't look like much fun for me.. So Nathan and I ran up and down the hill several times and then he decided we needed to go around to the garage.

Santa brought Blake a ripstik for Christmas two years ago. Well we had a friend who's son had one and they looked easy. HA HA HA its far from easy but I decided to get it out last night and try and figure the thing out.

Then Blake wanted to try it.

He hung on to the four wheeler while going around. I am still not sure how to use it and I think I need to search you tube videos for instructions. It can't be that darn hard! So while Blake was playing with that Nathan was riding his bike.

I am going to break down and go to walmart and buy myself a bike both kids LOVE riding and I know Blake and I can go for long rides up and down the road.

Blake told me I could ride his razor scooter thing. So I rode it for quite awhile while Nathan chased me with his bike.

The scooter thing was quite a bit of fun but I would like a bike better. I priced them at walmart I can get a decent one for around 100. And for the exercise and fun I can have with my kids it will be well well worth it.

Kenny got done mowing around dark and the boys helped him move some toys in the yard and they went over to feed Horsey. While they were doing that I went in and took a nice long hot bath in the peace and quiet. Was a nice evening and a very much needed one.

Both boys slept like rocks all night which was good I like when they are wore out at night and go to bed easily :)

What we did last night.

After the kids and I got home last night and after Blake had a major meltdown over who knows what (I think he was over tired) the kids ate so they could go help daddy and great grandpa in the garden.

I am glad that we are finally in our new house and can have a garden although I know it will be a lot of work and headache it will be worth it. Its the first experience of gardening for my kids and Kenny. I have been helping my grandparents in the garden since I was Nathan's age. So I know the drill and what to do etc its all new to the three of them. Well the kids helped pick stuff out of the garden last year.

Couldn't get the whole garden in the picture but this was before it was tilled. My grandpa planted a row of potatos last week and they are starting to pop up.

Nathan carried his chair up to the garden to watch the action. I asked him what he wanted in the garden and he told me corn, taters, maybe cucumbers and maybe peppers and tomatos.

Not sure why the pictures look squished, they didn't look that way on my phone.

 

Anyway my Grandpa is giving Kenny a lesson on how to use the corn seed planter thing. Not sure how he got off that easy when I was a kid we had to poke the hole in the ground with finger and manually place the seed then cover it up... Blake was watching then decided he would rather go across the road and eat cookies and watch cartoons at great grandmas...

 

After they got done with the garden Nathan wanted to give Horsey water. So he made several trips back and forth with his little bucket carrying water. Was pretty cute and he was so serious about his "job".

Our steer still won't let us pet him but he isn't afraid of us anymore either. He is blind but does a great job of knowing where everything is in his pen. My grandma said he hears her when she goes to the mailbox and "stares" at her so she gives him some extra food mid day... Not sure what the boys will think when Horsey gets grown and we take him to the butcher shop.

In between the boys doing the gardening I was inside catching up on the dreaded laundry. Not sure but I think it multiplies when we are gone during the day.