Moving forward-- down in the scale

Self:

Lets be honest. Please, lets just cut the crap for once and for all. Changes take time. Unfortunately, most of the time those changes are imperceptible. I worked out, changes my eating habits and and transformed my lifestyle in January 2013. Even when sometimes the weight went down, it felt like nothing was really happening.

Summer came, and soon enough I was doing my first obstacle race (or any race) of my life. I accepted the invitation of my trainer to join his team for the Virginia Super Spartan Race. The venue: Wintergreen. My thoughts... none. I had no idea what to expect. I was sure I was not ready, I was sure my chances of running the entire curse were none. I was sure I was going to be the slowest of the entire team. And all these facts terrified me. But fear do not define us, what define us is what we do with the fear. I used for motivation to train, and given the short time frame, I had nothing else but to hope for the best.

We got there. A ski resort. What did I knew about it? Nothing. So no much thought went into it.
We got our bibs, we got in line, our time was up. First stretch: uphills. My thoughts: "WTF I am doing this? Oh, right, I wanted this." Not a big deal, we kept going. We all paired each other for what we thought would be people on the same running pace. That way we could all help each other one way or the other.

One team mate struggled. And we waited, we hold on to each other. We tried. We met a group of veterans that were running the race: Wounded Warriors.

What a group of amazing people! Some couldn't run physically, however it was obvious they were running. They were killing it.

Our team mate decided he couldn't keep going. And I assume is ok. These races are not everyone's cup of tea. However this guy decided to quit in front of one of these veterans. WTF dude!? How dare you complain because you are out of shape. Not cool. Not cool.

So we kept going. At this point the team was divided in two groups: the "faster ones" and the ones that kept stopping for this guy that quitted on us. But we kept going.

All the sudden, I was officially the snail of the group. My calves where cramping so bad they gave up on me. We have been on the trails for hours to end and we still had terrain to cover. None of us had food. I was the only one with a camelpack. We truly did not knew exactly what to expect. We did, but we didn't.

We were hiking double diamonds slopes... I never saw people running them up. I was crying, I started crawling--literally crawling up hill! I was in pain. I felt terrible that my team mates had to wait for me. But I kept going. We kept moving until the light at the end of the tunnel started shining upon us! Is was starting to get dark and we were getting close to the finish line. We finished: 8hrs in that terrain. We were tired and hungry. I crossed the finish line and started crying, this time out of surprise, over joy, accomplishment, I don't know.

subtle changes. But I am definitively stronger
than I used to be.

What an experience. That August 24th, 2013 changed me. I met people I am glad to call friends. I changed my perspective upon myself too. I always knew I was not a quitter, but is always hard to assess what is the breaking point. I almost broke, but then I didn't.

Once that race passed I took one day off from the gym for recovery. Next Monday, back on track. And right after the changes visible to me and everyone I knew started to appear.

To this day, I keep training and doing races and I hope in my heart I never loose the drive, the fire, the gas, that keeps the engine running. I don't think I can ever go back to a life without running, without working out, and without racing.

So far this year I completed:

1. the Charlotte Spartan Sprint
2.  Loudon County half marathon
3. the Boston to remember half marathon
4.  the Hebron 15K trail challenge
5. DC Spartan Sprint
6. Va Super Spartan Race (yes I went back!)]
7. Tri-State New Jersey Spartan Super
8. SoCal Spartan Beast (technically does not count since they cut it short down 1 mile)
9. attempted the Ohio Trifecta but got  injured and now in recovery. 

Coming soon:

10. REV3 trail running

11.South Carolina Beast 

12. South Carolina Supe and 

13. the Loudon 10K

I never in my life thought I was ever going to be able to run any race. Needless to say attempting 13 and finishing with 12. 

Don't be discouraged by slow progress. It takes time, but if you do changes and stick to them, things will fall where they have too.