A little bit Savage and a lot COLD

You can tell you are hardcore when you do the Savage Race in rainy, cold weather. Well, some call it hardcore, others call it an unfortunate lapse of judgment. I went with two friends a few weeks ago and we were wet, muddy and cold. Midway through the race, my fingers were so numb, I couldn’t work the buttons on my shirt and I hardly had any grip strength left. In order to get warm, Helen kept running in circles and at one point even did a jumpy, skippy thing that made laugh out loud.

Here we are at the starting line

On a side note, I have a pretty pathetic camera and not only is it slow, but it pooped out shortly after we started. Before the next race in May, I am most definitely getting a different one.

Here, Helen successfully completes the first obstacle in the kiddie race. Yep, she’s that competitive. She wanted to show those 8-year-olds who’s boss. Not really, she was either warming up, or jumping over it on a dare. 

The ICE BATH!! 

(The actual name is really vulgar so I’ve renamed it for this post.)

I was trying to get an awesome shot of the 

huge clamp used to hold the boards together,

 and then Helen decided to jump in. 

It totally ruined my shot. 

AND, she couldn’t wait to get out! 

The wide-eyed panicked look on her face when 

she got out was a highlight of the obstacle. 

Can you see me in this picture? 

NOPE, because I’m underwater. 

Notice the difference between me and Helen while exiting. 

Me = calm, Helen = panicked. :)

The best part about doing the ice bath when the other runners aren't around you is, you can go right under the board instead of standing it the freezing cold water waiting for the person in front of you to get their courage up to do it. The first time I experienced the ice bath, we were with a whole pack of runners and there was quite a line-up. I nearly climbed over my friend, Sarah, trying to get out as fast as possible.

Muddy water and tall boards… yay!

Bootie shot!!!

I was working on my synchronized swinging with the lady next to me.

Hum, what to do.

This one was kind of hard for tall people.

It was easy for Sarah, because she’s mini.

The flower is for O

Sarah on the wobbly boards.

Helen was intense and she nailed it.

Here is a nice shot of her rugby socks.

It was muddy.

And, this is why Helen got fired from taking pictures. 

The first one is okay, but….. 

you see what I mean.

Unfortunately, my camera pooped out right after this obstacle. There were so many others that we did I wish I could have documented. 

I must say, the medals we received for this race were much cooler than previous ones. 

Okay, on to the end of the story. We were so cold, we didn’t rinse off and instead changed at the car and headed off to get something warm to eat. By the time we found a place, I was near death because I was so cold. Okay, maybe not really near death, but certainly doing the bone chilled full body shivering.  Sadly, I had developed a bit of a headache on the course and I didn’t take my imitrex in time. SO, it was a rough drive home. I felt a bit delirious and couldn’t put sentences together. What a mess! It was embarrassing. Overall, doing the course in the wind and rain, AND cold temperature, made for a completely different Savage experience. I wonder if my friends will do it again in the Spring?