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!!!