A Van Awesome Journey

Hi thanks for finding my blog! I am a wife of an awesome husband and proud mother to two amazing boys. I just quit my job to stay at home with our children and now have all the time in the world to play play play!!! Play with my children and play some games of my own...hence this blog. I entered a contest to be part of an Adventure Race something I have never done before. So I am required to blog weekly on my journey...so here goes..thanks for sharing it with me :).................So what has started out as a blog for reasons mentioned above has now continued into an on going journey that I have been asked to continue to share...and you with me! So thanks for coming along for the ride :)

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Can't forget the video!!!




Click here for the awesome video of the race :)

So how did it go!!??!!!


It was THE craziest CRAZY ever in my life!!! Hills straight up, mud to your knees a sports induced asthma attack and that was just during the first 50min while doing the 15k bike ride! So over all IT WAS AWESOME!!! :D




I will report that I got to do the underwater points that I ROCKED in like 2min...really it was a little too easy but fun non the less and it was cool cause my husband and Dad and his girlfriend had come up for the weekend and they were on land cheering me on at that point, taking pictures and filming....very cool!


We did get stuck at one check point...I think it was CP41. We couldn't find it and got so lost trying that I couldn't even tell you on the map as to where we were. We spent 30min looking for it until Amy and I said we're done here lets move on...we had to drag Shane back to the boat kick and screaming pretty much, all the while me saying, "BROWN let it go!! It's going to be OK!"....boys GESH!


The weather report for the day was thunder storms but the weather ended up being perfect racing weather. No thunder storms, not even rain just overcast which was good cause if it was sunny we would have cooked out there.

God I had SO much fun! It's all I have been thinking about this week as I change diapers, bath kids, do the laundry, do the dishes and make dinner :D The one time that sticks out in my mind was the end 1000000 mile run we did....ok it was more like 4k but it felt like 1000000 miles! It was at the end and we ended up running around the marsh to pick up 2 more check points. I knew we were running late so we just had to book it back. We just kept running and running and running and running some more. A little voice would pop up in my head and say, "God I want to stop!, I can't wait until we are done, Just stop and walk for a min!" But I had to tell it to F off cause running, even if it was slow, was better then walking or stopping all together because that was minutes ticking away!.......we were 9min late and lost 90pts oops! But we made it to the end....THANK GOD!!!!



Next bring on the grub :P We had a great time at dinner and laughing and talking about the day the two other teams won 2nd and 3rd in the all woman's heat!! SO impressed with those chicks! xoxox




So all week everyone has been asking how it went. I was even asked if I was thinking about doing it again next year. My reply, "I was planning on doing it next year at dinner that night!".......




*ive
*ove
*augh
******

Friday, July 23, 2010

It's come to this....




So I came across the letter I wrote in to be entered into the RoackstAR Adventure Race. This is were it all started:


I AM YOUR WOMAN for this adventure race let me tell you! I USE to be the one who sat on the couch eating watching other people’s lives on TV. I USE to be the one who would listen to what others were doing to challenge themselves in their lives, then say, “Good for you!” but never give it a thought for myself to do it.



Then I had my children, both boys… and I started to think. Is this the type of person I want my kid’s mother to be? NO! I want to run and play and keep up with them and so it started…the transformation, body, mind and soul. We didn’t have much money so I had to educate myself on exercise and nutrition. A lot of my fitness is done right in my living room, nothing fancy but instead of sitting on the couch watching TV I started doing sit-ups, jumping jacks and running on the spot. I even joined a Biggest Loser competition to help motivate me even more. It did! I won at the mid-point AND at the end for most weight lost, 8.63% and inches lost. I’m down 4 shirt sizes and almost 4 pants sizes. I don’t know the numbers cause I don’t look. I learned that I don’t need a number to tell me that I feel f’n AWESOME and strong. This is where I have had the most joy in my journey, feeling stronger and doing things that I use to watch other people doing.



This race is the perfect next step in my journey I LOVE doing crazy S#@t like this now! My first crazy thing was climbing all 1776 stairs of the CN tower. I’m doing it again this year and taking 20min off my time…ooooo ya baby!



So I AM YOUR WOMAN!!!!! I will put everything I have into it and then squeeze out some more. We got to show those Mama’s out there that YES you can take care of yourself, feel great and STILL be there for your family :o)






Then the e-mail from Shane letting me know that I was in! WOO HOOO! and bit of OMG!



The next 12 weeks that followed have changed me to the core some good some bad. Mer, one of our trainers and someone I would call a Phat friend her accident...that was not good. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her and wonder, "What would she do?" or just remember times that I spent with her and her positive attitude......



Now the good things that happened are too many to post but a few that come to mind is how much fun I had with the team. As I said before I use to just workout on my own and run in the night so no one could see me. But being with these girls had to force me to be with people while working out and in the spirit of teamwork, pay attention to what others were doing around me and either help them or ask them for help...a very humbling experience...but the best thing that came out of that was the laughing. Believe it or not you CAN laugh while you are grunting thru the pain LOL!! and it makes it funner...if that's a word.

A few times while I was out there training either in the woods or on the road I would think to myself, "What am I doing here?" "How did I get here?" "Do I even belong here?"......I'm starting to feel that I DO belong out there, it was waiting for me all along :D


So with that all said and done, the training is done the numbers have been tallied the final two have been announced and now it's the night before......

A lot of people are asking me if I am excited, I say yes but I'm not really sure what it is to be excited about...I just have to wait and see. But I keep picturing me and my team out there doing great and being great. I REALLY hope that they have the underwater point this year and that the thunder holds off cause I'm REALLY excited about getting those!!! I know I'm a geek, the idea of diving into gross muddy, sea weedy water to get some sweet ass points for my team excites me...just like the sweet tread on my new trail shoes that Saucony gave me, also floats my boat...sexy LOL!



So I haven't pack yet and it's 4pm Friday afternoon. I still have to ship the kido's off to Grandmas cause my husband will be coming up to the race with me. A weekend away without the kids, this is what you call a romantic weekend away! LOL!..."I'll just scoot off and do the race for 4 hrs then be right back hun" :D....however on a MORE important note, my nails are Rock Star ready!!!

The race starts at 2pm on Sat July 24/10. Racedayrush's facebook page will be doing live updates so click here for them. Of course it will all be taped and I'll post the video when it's done.

OMG! OMG! here I go......


*ive
*ove
*augh
******

Friday, July 16, 2010

Pictures say it all :D

The amazingly awesome woman that I trained with!






The other winner and my teammate Amy!!!





Two of our trainers from Racedayrush.com







One VERY happy and excited ME!!!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010



WOW long time no blog...... that's what happens with a mother of two young kids and then add in a third for dayacare mon-fri and that equals no time to sit down and one tired mama!

The last training day that we had was about two weeks ago now...and it was F'N HARD!!! We were at Mountsberg Conservation which I HAD fond memories of with my children going to Christmas Town and getting a private visit with Santa, but now a long string of curse words comes to mind when I think of that place PLUS Shane's voice yelling "GET BACK ON YOUR BIKE!!!!!!!"

So it was atleast 2hrs we had a map and ourselves we had to run a part then bike then run then bike then up the stairs of the observation tower to do 10 push-ups at the top then repeat that 5 times!!! only to finish off with 15 burpees on the ground and then back on the bike to the end of the path...pant, pant, pant.......then of course we got to bike back :) CRAZY AWESOME!!! However thouse were not the words running through my head at the time! LOL! Infact for the first time on this journey I thought to myself, "I can't do this!, I don't want to do this!, I want to stop!" and I was SO fustrated when I had to get off my bike and walk it up some of the hills....never mind adding in Shane yelling at us, "Get back on your bike!!!" LOL! That poor boy, I'm sure he heard "fuck you!" from us ladies more that day then I think anyone in one life time would hear!!! ......We love you Shane!!!! =)


Once it was all done we were a wet, muddy, happy crew :) (see picture above)


As we were relaxing with the treats that Shane brought us and basking in his complements......he's such a big softy ;) It was mentioned that that was our last training together before the big race. I was very sad to hear about this and wondered what I would do with my Sun's now! Part of me wishes this wouldn't come to an end but the another part is REALLY excited to do the race. What's awesome is that 7 out of the 10 of us have signed up to do the race anyways, so who ever wins the two spots...well it's just an added bonus :D


So this is it folks!...Thurs, July 15th, we will be told who the 2 ladies are. Wish me luck, all my family and friends tell me that I am a 'sure thing' but I don't know cause I see a lot of other 'sure things' in our group as well....stay tune...da da da daaaaaaaaaaa...