spartan race - good gawd!

well, i had vowed NEVER to do one of these things, but the ghetto girls talked me into it.  it'll be fun they said ...      oh sure, like i want to haul this 52 year old, inflexible, perpetually stiff body over, through and under a bunch of obstacles along with a bunch of 20+ keeners in spandex and jog bras!  adding to my above mentioned problems, was the mere fact that i had ridden my bike from toronto to collingwood the day before with my amazing friend - the invincible michael ovens.   and THAT was his idea!  but more on THAT in another post.

so we loaded up the silver bullet and headed to hardwood hills. all the girls were pretty nervous but they managed to hold it together. with marion at the wheel, and janner as the navigator, we made it in plenty of time.

anna fair and her family were already there waiting and we grabbed a 'before' shot in front of the big spartan banner.

almost show time !

one of the events was this pulley contraption.  we had to haul a big stone up to the top of the pulley and then let it down SLOWLY!   mainly cuz if you didn't you'd burn the skin off your palms - as janner found out!  there was a big lineup for the 'girl' weight, so we said screw it and went for the heavier stone!  oh ya - ghetto girls rock!

ugh!  then we had to go up and over this cargo net thingy!  i did NOT like this - it was wobbly and you could see down through the ropes!   we all managed to do it though - thank gawd!

and after that moment of hilarity, we had to crawl UNDER this shit!  i got stuck a couple of times and ended up ripping my number off!  it was kinda nasty on the knees!   looks like fair's having fun ...

i don't have pics of the stuff through the middle - too bad as it would have made for some really good laughs!  we had to climb over walls, drag some stuff, carry some stuff, use our hands to walk along a set of parallel bars, and chuck a spear.  i did manage to get some of the mud bog ...

now i've never actually waded through chocolate pudding before - and i know some of you may find that hard to believe - but i can only imagine that it would feel like this ...

oh ya - we also had to jump over the 'fire pit' ...

 ahaaa!   awesome shot of reney!

janner kinda ran through it ...

 almost done ...

this was a really fun section right at the end - monkey bar walks, rope climbs and ring walks!

 

 

come on marion ...

fair getting a little help ...

oh ya!

over the hay bales ...

and head first into THIS ...

my favorite shot of all - reney diving in and fair screaming at her family to get a picture!

ewww!

and finally, up the slippery wall ...

down the rope ...

and we are DONE!

oh ya!  ghetto girls rock!

it took us over 2 hours, but who cares!  we had a blast!

not bothering to shower or change, we dusted off the mud as best we could, and piled back into the silver bullet for a smelly ride home!

so i must say, i really didn't want to do this - not on my list.   however - i'm glad i did.  i had a lot of fun and can't remember the last time i laughed so much.  i am so proud of my girls - they did a kick-ass job and i know every one of them was totally out of their comfort zone for most of the day!

awesome job ladies!  ghetto girls truly do rock!!!  but next time - you're on your own!!!

cycle for sight

well blow me over,  but look what finally arrived!!!!!  i have been nagging my buddy syn martinez from crossfit harlem for MONTHS now for my fucking burpee t-shirt!  remember - the 1000 burpees - on christmas day - with kathy counting and drinking wine ...

so not only did i get a shirt, but i got 2 shirts AND a really sweet hoodie!   see - nagging does pay off!!

the second one ...

and the hoodie!   thanks syn!!!!!!!

ahaaa!   awesome sara!  friday night club!

very kool sky on the way home ..

on saturday i had arranged for my buddy anna v to drive me and my giant to york university for the start of the 2013 cycle for sight ride from toronto to collingwood.   she bugged me all week for the address (so she could put it in her gps thingy).   when she arrived at the treehouse just before 6:30, she had been up all night, left her phone at home, and forgot the gps.   ahaaaa!  for fuck sakes!  so here's me, the one who never drives south of 7, and her, hungover, sleepless and no sense of direction, trying to find our way to keele and steeles!  we finally made it, in a round about way, and met up with my super sexy friend alistair and his partner richard.

i then managed to find my awesome friend michael ovens - the one who 'made me do it'.  here's a shot of us just before the start.

took this of michael and his guide chris while waiting for a light on keele street!

the spread in alliston was AMAZING !!

haaa!  couldn't resist ...

one of my clients was kool enough to volunteer!  and she signed up for the 70k for next year!  waytogo donna!!!

yahoo!  made it!  140k in just over 5 1/2 hours!   great great ride!  and thanks to my buddy geoff for meeting me in collingwood and driving me home!

a huge thank you to all my friends and clients who donated money.   we raised a total of $2,775, and as a part of team 'mike made do it', we brought in $44,095.  this will go to fund vision research.  outstanding!

and thanks to michael for involving me in this - he is one of my biggest heroes and i can only hope that he too will benefit from this one day.

love you my friend ...

fight gone bad

aha!  i've fallen and i can't get up!   see, i do stretch once in awhile ...

friday night club from a week ago.  looks like jay has a big nasty hillbilly beard!

one of the best fnc pics EVER!  'face first in the shitter' ...

kathy and the adorable anthony got a hold of my camera ...

columbine in palgrave ...

sigh

'what' ...

so green !

trying out my montrails ...

aha!  sending a pair of totally smelly sox to the redhead for his birthday!!!!  i even took my shoes off and stomped through a few puddles just to make sure they got REAL muddy!

overheads!

and by the time i remembered to take the fnc picture everybody else had left!

i saw this lovely lady on the rail trail saturday!  she was pretty huge and looking like she'd take my foot off if i got too close ...

i know, one of these days i'm going to really get hurt trying to take pics while riding my bike ...

sunday was 'fight gone bad' day at crossfit!   i almost didn't make it - the goose crossing on parr blvd was taking a long time!

one minute of box jumps

push press

wallballs - this was BEFORE jason i chipped a tooth doing highpulls !

ewwww!  rowing!   i hate rowing!

when the dust settled and scores were tallied, i had 279.  i've done better, but not bad for a sunday!  thanks for the push jay!

and i've said it before - LOVE this chick!

i finished off the day with a sweet 14+k run in palgrave.  guess i should have been paying closer attention though - did an awesome face plant over gawd knows what ...

no harm done, and now, gotta get ready for a krazy couple of days next weekend - cycle for sight (toronto to collingwood) ride on saturday and then the spartan race with my ghetto girls on sunday ...

oh, and i know he's been gone 10 years, but i still miss him.   happy fathers' day dad ...