Obstacle course

“And yet, approaching the course’s final obstacle I knew I was going to die. My head was spinning; my breath came in painful gasps; every muscle in my body screamed: QUIT! But no. Like a warped dream I watched myself hitting the dirt, belly-crawling like a man pursued by starving cannibalistic Nazis under 90 feet of tiny dangling wires charged with up to 10k volts of electricity. About midway, some fool came bull-rushing by and—ZAP!—crashed to the ground, knocked out cold. Then I was up, staggering like a whipped dog toward the finish line. Crossing the threshold, I fell to my knees. Weeping, gasping for air, I threatened my fists toward the sky.”

“OK – this was my first major surprise. I have not rolled down a hill like that since elementary school! They made this one longer than normal (I think). Because it was a gradual downhill, you could roll the whole thing. I WAS SO DIZZY! I had to crawl periodically just because my head was spinning so much. I think because it was slight downhill, the fastest was rolling but you really paid the price with the dizziness. I ran into a couple of other racers because I was so disoriented. At the end people coming out were staggering for a minute or so just getting their balance.”

“Matt laughed and side-eyed me at the countdown, and we were off. I loved the trail. I loved trying to run ahead of the crowd. It was a nice first mile, the weather was perfect, the trail smelled earthy, and it was green and beautiful. I was really excited. Not the kind of excited where I grunt and yell things, just in quiet, steady anticipation.”