Mission: Unknown

If you looked up the definition of "creature of habit," I would be highly surprised if there wasn't a picture of me sitting there. My alarm goes off at 4:22 a.m. every morning, I hit the gym, I go to work, I come home, I eat, I sleep.

Repeat ad infinitum. 

If you asked my parents how I handled change or the unknown growing up, they would answer: "Simple. She doesn't." I admit--you threw me off my routine, and I would kick and scream. But at some point, during some strange event of maturation, I began to crave the unknown. I began to want to take risks. Perhaps years of routine have finally pushed me over the edge...

Volenti non fit injuria

To the consenting [willing], no injury is done. In the law, the Latin  maxim of "volenti non fit injuria" is typically used as a defense in a tort action--voluntary assumption of the risk.  To most of us, it's what we so lovingly know as the Death Waiver.

Lately, however, I've realized that this maxim applies with equal weight to the abuse I inflict upon my body: when I injure myself doing stupid things, I have no one to blame but myself. I have only become painfully aware of this in the last year, and especially in the few months leading up to, and post, World's Toughest Mudder.

Let's take inventory:

On Girl Crushes and the Interwebs

A tangential conversation that took place between my girlfriend and I a few weeks before WTM:

GF: "So how are you getting out there?"
Me: "We're driving. 12 hours or so."
GF: "We? Who are you driving with?
Me: "Two guys also racing."
GF: "Have you met this guys?"
Me: "um, I met one at TM Wisconsin." (lie. I haven't met either.)
GF: "So you are driving to New Jersey with two strange men? Please don't tell me you met them on Facebook. Where are you staying?"
Me: "In a house on the Jersey shore with like 15 other racers."
GF: "Have you met this people?"
Me: "Some" (also a lie)
GF: "You are going to end up raped and murdered in a ditch."

(Little did she know that I carried a switchblade in my bra the entire way there. Smart girls always come prepared.)

Adventures in Urban Training: Hills

I do love my view

I live in the middle of a concrete jungle. Picture downtown Chicago, and insert me right there. I live on the 15th floor of a 24-story condo building, and I walk a mile to work to my office on the 32nd floor of a 46-story building.

I am, by definition, a city girl.

Which totally and utterly sucks for training for these types of races.

The Ten Commandments of the World's Toughest Mudder: The Tenth Commandment

(10) Thou shalt never travel alone.

Scene: 8pm on Saturday night. My tent. I had just finished my second lap, and was huddling in my sleeping bag with MRE heaters at my feet, trying to get up the courage to get back out there again. It was cold. And miserable. And I was alone. WTM had set up the pit areas in a line about a mile long, and, while I had met dozens of fellow racers the night before, I had no idea where their tents were or if they were even in them. I had ran the first two laps on my own, not sticking with any particular person. While this was tolerable for the first lap due to the number of people out there, the second lap was only bearable thanks to the amazing Tom Keller that followed me, taking pictures, and encouraging me every step of the way.

But I was lonely, cold, and a bit depressed. My wetsuit and my shoes had frozen solid from being outside my tent for a half hour. And I was scared at the prospect of getting back out there for more laps. By myself.

The Ten Commandments of the World's Toughest Mudder: Part III

(7) Thou shall get your ass into the water
Standing there, staring at it, isn't going to make it go away or magically get warmer. It's December. In Jersey. Normal people don't get into freezing bodies of water at this time of year. And they definitely wouldn't do so, voluntarily, repeatedly, over the course of 24 hours.

So I have two musings on this point.

The Ten Commandments of World's Toughest Mudder: Part II

The guy in the red cap is doing it right.
Everyone else sucks

(4) Thou shall learn how to climb tactical ladders
Yup, those dangly nylon bitches are actually quite simple if you know how to climb them: reverse grip (palms facing towards you), stepping up wrapping your legs around and hooking them into the rear of the ladder. Coming into WTM, I heard horror stories of the "Rope a Dope" at Tri-State. People stuck, ass over backwards, trying to get up the ladders.

Come WTM time, once again, I saw the same thing at both sets of tactical ladders. [begin rage] On the first lap, I waited for 15 minutes at the bottom of the Massive Turd waiting for some dickwad to pull himself up the ladder. And he sat, spinning and spinning helplessly. It kinda reminded me of a fly in a spider's web. Except that this fly was giving me hypothermia from waiting for his ass to die. For the love of god, climb the effin ladder or get down so I can show you how its done [end rage].