Goliath!

   New Warrior Dash obstacle, entitled Goliath, looks amazing! Hope Goliath is ready for my fellow warriors and I to kick its @**!!!

Powder Day!!!

   Day 1 on the mountain was awesome, and today (day 2) we woke up to TEN INCHES of fresh powder! Off to carve like crazy!!!

Make like an Ibex at Ibex

   I spent over three hours this afternoon cultivating "trembling hand syndrome" with 33 members of the Adventure Club. A bunch of us had never tried rock climbing before, so we all took a belay class at Ibex Climbing Gym in Blue Springs to learn how not to die, paired up, and then set off climbing the walls. I buddied up with a guy named Kelly—who had climbed years before—so I figured I was in good hands. (At least one of us knew what the heck we were doing!!!)
   The belay class was good... check your buckles, learn to tie a figure 8 knot, hitch up for climbing, tie a safety knot. The belayer takes the safety device and has to constantly pull the rope taught as the climber goes, taking up all the slack so they won't have a large drop if they slip off the wall. Getting my hands in the right places at the right time and pulling the rope the right way seemed daunting at first. (I wasn't 100% sure how bad an accident I could cause if I had my right hand over my left, rather than the other way around as it should be. Yikes!) This was the only time I had butterflies... Turns out this equipment is pretty safe even for dummies. Once I got comfortable with that, I never looked back.

the partner

the challenge

   I started on some easier walls, and pretty much scampered up like a squirrel. (All were approximately 30' high, but the routes for each rope were rated by difficulty.) Fortunately, I don't have any trouble with heights as long as I feel safe and secure with the equipment. So we kept moving around to successively harder climbs, with widely spaced or rounded, slippery barnacles (I don't have any idea what those things are really called!), and sheer angles.

Kelly's having all the fun...

...while I'm belaying.

Go Stella!

Note to self: don't wear light pants; dark harness gives you an outliney, cartoony butt shape! LOL

   After taking turns a bunch of times climbing & belaying, we went upstairs to try free climbing on the shorter (12-15'?) walls. That was fun, too: it was nice to have everyone climbing at once, with no one having to hold a rope. The scariest part of the whole day for me was dropping to the thick blue mats after reaching the top. It crossed my mind that if I landed wrong, this could really jack up my impending snowboarding trip... 

     Those short climbs were surprisingly hot & sweaty. It was a much better workout than I was expecting, which was nice. To "rest", we went back downstairs to scale the tall walls...

Yep, that's me: hanging there & trying to find a place to grab onto  so I can keep going up.

   At this point we were about 3 hours into climbing, and though my mind could have gone all night, my fingers were saying, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?!" I tried the same 5.8 wall twice at the end, and got just  a yard from the top before my fingers completely gave out (while pulling all my weight toward the wall on an angle that came out toward me), and I reluctantly gave the "get me outta here" signal. Honestly, that was the hardest part of the whole day: admitting that I was too tired to get to the top on that last run. I'm gunning for that one next time!!!

Success!

   Just had 3 clean runs in a row, & I feel like a million bucks!!!  ...Champagne may be in order, to celebrate the survival of my kneecaps!

It Is Time.

 

   I spent Saturday morning running 4 miles, wading across creeks in 40 degree temperatures, crawling through mud, scaling 10' walls, swinging across gorilla bars and climbing towering cargo nets. All in the name of fun. And I paid a tidy sum for this opportunity. And I wasn't even being chased by mad dogs or wild assassins! It's called the Ruckus, a new obstacle course-run in selected cities. And I'm so glad they selected ours!

   The excitement was palpable as I met up with others from the KC Adventure Club and lined up in my heat. Much to my joy, I realized in talking to others that they were as nervous as I was—many of us were attempting this type of event for the first time—and many of us hadn't studied the course to even know what we were in for.

   The course began with a sprint, jumping over downed trees, and leading to a series of 6 walls, alternating low (3.5') and high (4.5'). Then we jumped through a series of 3D wooden Xs. Then it was off into the woods and the icy-cold creek crossing. Getting up and down the bank was rough; though I was in the second heat, the ground was already a slick, muddy mess and the banks were very steep. I pulled myself up using grasses and tree roots which made great handles. Then it was a long run through very thick mud, and a series of mud hills and mud pits.

   There was a bottleneck of people at the next big obstacle, in which you had to latch onto 1 of 5 ropes, lock your legs together, reach up and drag yourself across the pit, while upside-down and backwards. As I was waiting my turn, a woman named Vera turned and looked at me and said, "You are WAY too clean!" and used both thumbs to give me some very intimidating dark stripes under my eyes. War paint. Her friend, Laurie, laughed.
   I shinnied across the pit fairly easily and was off running again, with about 5 pounds of mud caked to each foot. With leaves stuck in it—a veritable tar-and-feathering. It was as difficult to move as it sounded. Back up and down a 5', then a 10', then a 20' mud hill. It was a struggle to keep the mud from stealing your shoes—and there was at least one contestant who lost hers, and had to run barefoot!
   We then tackled the 10' wall—for which the rope was already so slick and muddy, I couldn't get a grip, despite wearing weight lifting gloves! A nice guy boosted me up by my feet, then helped his girlfriend up. As I launched over the wall, I peered back over and shouted, "Thanks for the help, man!" and was off and running again.

   The next obstacle was the only one I skipped: a thick pole high above the ground that you had to shinny across. I couldn't reach it due to my stature, and I knew I would have slid off and probably injured myself (seriously) if I had jumped to grab it. I didn't have the arm strength left to hold on, and wasn't dying to fall 10-12' on my back. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid!!! Turns out MOST people skipped this one anyway.
   After this part of the course, we ran around the speedway itself in a large oval, then got back on a muddy straightaway to the start area, where the last half mile or so snaked around, crossing over itself with a ton of obstacles: cargo nets, tires to crawl over, walls to scale, gorilla bars, air loops, hoisting up on to slippery, muddy shipping containers, and more. I kept running into Vera and Laurie, and we cheered each other on.

   My overall finish place was 508 (our of about 1800 who ran), and my time was 50:41.9 (12:40 per mile). My time would have been much faster (about 5 minutes faster!), had it not been for the bottleneck of people at certain obstacles. Had I started the race at the front of my wave, I would have been in much better shape. Anyway, I may have only placed 68th in my age group, but I came home with all my teeth and no broken bones, so really, I'm a winner.

   It was fun to run with Michal, Andy, Krysia, and other members of KCAC, and to hang out with Christy, who organized the event... and brought us homemade atomic brownies to warm us up. (They're full of habanero peppers! YUM!)

   Apparently the event was also held this year in Columbus, as well as Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Heck, if I had known that, I might have gone to Columbus in August to run it, under the guise of visiting family. This was a tough event, but I'd do it again, but not before I did some hardcore upper-body strength-training. I am sore (especially my pecs, tris, and knees) and bruised (especially my arms and shins) but otherwise happy and unscathed.

You're going down, KC Wolf!!!

...at least, that's what Aki says. The Chiefs' mascot kept coming in & out of that door and taunting all the dogs, who clearly wanted a piece of him. Not sure if it was his googly eyes or his pointy nose, his clown pants or the faint smell of vomit that riled them up. It was so incredibly, miserably, freaking hot, that guy must have been dying in there.

"That's the biggest dog I've ever seen!"

Okay, now he's just asking for it:

The showdown:

Success! She chased him off!

Pack of wild shibas in action: