Dead.

Yesterday was the Zombie 5k- runforyourlives.com- just north of Baltimore. I started Cross Fit for this. Oh how unprepared I was. For the past few days I've been dreading this, wanting to back out and just forget about it. But after we showed up and got our tags and got ready, I was ready to go. I committed to this and I wasn't going to back out. The zombies were great. They mostly cheered me on, even as they were killing me. The obstacles were horrendous. The course was on a camping site that had hiking trails. There was a lot of up and down to start with. I felt like we had already gone a mile when it was probably just 1/4 of one. We had to crawl thru some black pipes and that was difficult as I couldn't stand up without getting my legs in front of me. Talk about awkward when trying to shift my body around! Shortly before the 1 mile mark there was a crawling section. I was nervous that I wouldn't fit under there and through these small triangles. About halfway thru I had had it and was ready to give up. Luckily there was a really nice guy urging me on and then he waited for me to catch up. My daughter was also at the end cheering for me. I was shocked I made it out. The guy stayed back for me on the next obstacle which was going under barbed wire. His friend was smaller than me but she kept getting caught up on it. That made me nervous as I didn't want to get cut up. The guy monitoring the obstacle helped me try it by lifting up the first barbwire. The way I was crawling he said I was fine and had plenty of room so away I went! The other side was hard and I needed a hand to climb out, but I made it! Down a muddy hill we slowly went to this natural spring (large pond/small lake) filled with now muddy water! They said it was fifty degrees because it's fed from an underground source. I had to wait for a group to pass and as I sat there, I worried about how I was going to get out the other side. All they had was a steep muddy bank and a rope. The water was so cold it took my breath and I could barely inhale. With shallow breaths I swam to the guide rope and then pulled and kicked my way across as fast as I could. At the other side I found my footing and pulled and then shifted my feet and pulled again, next thing I knew I was out and not so cold anymore! It was such an accomplishment to get out of that lake for me. We worked our way further through the course, muddy hills down and up and turning and rocks- not the most awesome thing to walk on. Then we came to the top of a very steep hill. about 2/3 of the way down it was so severe that I got down on my bottom and scooted the rest of the way. I really did not want to fall. And of course what goes up must come down and vice verse! So up we went. I literally bear crawled my way up it was so steep. Finally at the top it was another water station, marking the end of mile 2. The "top" of the hill was a myth, we went a short ways on flat ground and then had to make our way up more hills, luckily not as steep. I went around the mud pit because the footing looked treacherous. Next was a playground full of zombies and then two smokehouses filled with electrifying strings hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't make it thru the window so again, went around. We thought we were close to the end, but we weren't. Down, around, down, up, up, up! The last stretch of uphill was brutal. They had a lot of little hills and then some trees to go over, more mud! We got to the top and worked our way around to the giant slide. I was worried again about getting out of the pool of water so skipped that and headed for the electric fence. After watching for a few I went for it. Made it thru no problem. Full of mud, sore from head to toe, I made it. We crossed the finish line together, my daughter and I, after 3 grueling hours and 58 torturous minutes. It took forever, but I did it.

I'm sure there are some things I missed, but it's now Monday and I really want to finish this post. My calves are still surging with pain but the rest of the aches are fading. And yes, I may do this again next year! Try to cut my time in half maybe. We're in the path of Hurricane Sandy so the gym was closed today. I was going to go to CF, but I guess it's for the best that I'm still kind of in recovery mode. Things look like they'll be shut down tomorrow too.