I apologize for this taking so long to get updated, but we've just been buy...no more than usual...maybe we've just been lazy...:)
Anyway...The adventure week we had a couple weeks ago was EPIC in my book! First I climbed Pinnacle Peak with some friends, then Mara and I skydived, then the next weekend we did the Tough Mudder! It really was one of the toughest things we've done. 12.5mi and 29 obstacles was pretty intense! We ran with a GREAT group of friends and had some of their girlfriends hop around the desert taking picture of us. I had a small camera that took crappy pictures along the way, but thanks to them we have TONS of pictures. I stole some of them from Facebook, but if you want more you can go to my account and see more; I added some of the better ones here.
Overall the course was tough (duh), but for me the toughest part was the running in the desert sand part. My calves definitely did not enjoy that! By mile 8 I was cramping and getting OTM treatments from Mara (& Angleika) the rest of the time. One of the more breathtaking obstacles was the "Arctic Enema". Pretty much a tub of water and you had to swim under a thin board to cross...easy, right? What you can't see is the 5" of ice cubes on the other side of the wall... When you come up into them they wrap around your chest and it is incredibly hard to catch a breath!
The last obstacle was the one the race is known for..."Electroshock Therapy". 10,000 volts and mud...who could want more?! The hardest part about this obstacle was starting it. You had to stand in front of it, waiting your turn, and watching people get electrocuted right in front of your eyes! Eventually we headed on through. We started running, but as soon as we got electrocuted, you tense up and hit the mud and crawl. While I was crawling I got hit again, then the next thing I knew I opened my eyes under the mud (not a good idea by the way). Thing is I had NO idea where I was. One of the shocks must have made me blackout for a few seconds. The rest of the crawl I was barely able to see, but I made it through after a couple for shocks.
It really was a great time! The shocks were tough, but it was all worth the challenge and the people we ran with couldn't have been better!
Other than that, we really have just been up to our same old routine of climbing, running and just flat out enjoying the upper 60s & low 70s we have been having! The bikes have gotten a TON of miles put on them over the last couple weeks!
I'll put some videos from other people who taped the Tough Mudder from either the sideline or by running with a tiny GoPro camera attached to them...we WILL be doing it next year, so start prepping yourself for joining us, Michelle! :)
Here is one of the first person perspective videos...
Here is a taste of the Electroshock Therapy obstacle...
Rohan playing baseball. He is getting pretty good too! The first hit is weak, but the next two are awesome to watch!
More baseball:
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Rohan’s Birthday Week
Well…our little man is 3 years old now! Crazy how time has flown, but we hope we’ve filled his life to date with some pretty awesome experiences…:)
We’ll start off with the Hawkeyes being in town for the Insight Bowl the week before last. Greg & Nico got me tickets and it was a good time tailgating, and watching the game…even though the Hawks lost…:) Rohan had a blast at the Hawkeye Huddle where the fans in town all meet at the convention center and prep for the game. Rohan kept calling it the Hawkeye Puddle…:
We celebrated New Years with friends and had a great time with the host (Kim’s) Nerf gun. He had bought it for whatever reason, but we took it to another level by throwing the Nerf darts since we only had one gun. It was decided we would have a future Nerf War with more guns and more people.
Rohan’s birthday week was pretty spread out and has essentially lasted from the end of Xmas until this last weekend. He had been looking forward to his birthday for weeks now and had been telling everyone how old he will be/is. We had a small celebration on his actual birthday, but Mara had to work that night so we postponed the actual party until a couple days later when we had a BBQ with “his people” as he calls our friends (mostly climbers from the gym). Rohan received 3 Nerf guns as presents from his friends, plus tons of Lightning McQueen cars/gear. We played several rounds of “Storm The Castle” with one group protecting the upstairs, and one infiltrating from downstairs. It was an absolute blast! There will be many more Nerf wars to come! We took time to sing happy birthday to Rohan, and of course spoil him with more presents. One of his favorites was a double sided light saber that he would charge upstairs with while we were playing our Nerf games…hilarious to see…he even had a war cry…:)
The Saturday after his BBQ we meet up with some friends at Pinnacle Peak Mountain to climb a bit. It’s a different type of climbing (traditional) than we are used to (sport), but one of our friends lead the way and took 3 of us through 3 pitches and ~200 vertical feet to the summit of Pinnacle Peak. One of the coolest climbs I have ever done…and very rewarding to summit something like that!
Afterwards we met Heather, John, Nelly, Matt, Don and Mary at Spinato’s Pizza. Nelly and Don had graciously offered their skydiving vouchers to Mara and I, so we paid them back in food…:) Heather and John were nice enough to take Rohan overnight so Mara and I could get up early and jump out of an airplane…and that’s just what we did! We got to the Casa Grande airport at 8am and were on our way up to ~10,000ft to jump in about 30min. It was awesome! Be sure to check out the video below!
All in all an AMAZING couple weeks, even after the whirlwind of Xmas and New Years when most people are slowing down a bit. We don’t even stop there…next weekend we are running the Tough Mudder race which was recently increased to 12.5mi and 29 obstacles! We have a great group of people to run with so it should be a blast! Can’t wait to post pictures of it! In the meantime enjoy what we have here:
My skydiving video (skip to 2:00 for the jump...):
Irena & Jen Walk Into A Nerf War Zone:
Singing Happy Birthday (I was REALLY late getting the camera start so I only caught the end...):
We’ll start off with the Hawkeyes being in town for the Insight Bowl the week before last. Greg & Nico got me tickets and it was a good time tailgating, and watching the game…even though the Hawks lost…:) Rohan had a blast at the Hawkeye Huddle where the fans in town all meet at the convention center and prep for the game. Rohan kept calling it the Hawkeye Puddle…:
We celebrated New Years with friends and had a great time with the host (Kim’s) Nerf gun. He had bought it for whatever reason, but we took it to another level by throwing the Nerf darts since we only had one gun. It was decided we would have a future Nerf War with more guns and more people.
Rohan’s birthday week was pretty spread out and has essentially lasted from the end of Xmas until this last weekend. He had been looking forward to his birthday for weeks now and had been telling everyone how old he will be/is. We had a small celebration on his actual birthday, but Mara had to work that night so we postponed the actual party until a couple days later when we had a BBQ with “his people” as he calls our friends (mostly climbers from the gym). Rohan received 3 Nerf guns as presents from his friends, plus tons of Lightning McQueen cars/gear. We played several rounds of “Storm The Castle” with one group protecting the upstairs, and one infiltrating from downstairs. It was an absolute blast! There will be many more Nerf wars to come! We took time to sing happy birthday to Rohan, and of course spoil him with more presents. One of his favorites was a double sided light saber that he would charge upstairs with while we were playing our Nerf games…hilarious to see…he even had a war cry…:)
The Saturday after his BBQ we meet up with some friends at Pinnacle Peak Mountain to climb a bit. It’s a different type of climbing (traditional) than we are used to (sport), but one of our friends lead the way and took 3 of us through 3 pitches and ~200 vertical feet to the summit of Pinnacle Peak. One of the coolest climbs I have ever done…and very rewarding to summit something like that!
Afterwards we met Heather, John, Nelly, Matt, Don and Mary at Spinato’s Pizza. Nelly and Don had graciously offered their skydiving vouchers to Mara and I, so we paid them back in food…:) Heather and John were nice enough to take Rohan overnight so Mara and I could get up early and jump out of an airplane…and that’s just what we did! We got to the Casa Grande airport at 8am and were on our way up to ~10,000ft to jump in about 30min. It was awesome! Be sure to check out the video below!
All in all an AMAZING couple weeks, even after the whirlwind of Xmas and New Years when most people are slowing down a bit. We don’t even stop there…next weekend we are running the Tough Mudder race which was recently increased to 12.5mi and 29 obstacles! We have a great group of people to run with so it should be a blast! Can’t wait to post pictures of it! In the meantime enjoy what we have here:
My skydiving video (skip to 2:00 for the jump...):
Irena & Jen Walk Into A Nerf War Zone:
Singing Happy Birthday (I was REALLY late getting the camera start so I only caught the end...):
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