Thursday, November 6, 2014

A Year in the Making

1 year. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8,765 hours. 525,600 minutes. No matter what way you measure it, it will never compare to the measurement of how much my life has changed over this last year. 

A year ago today I had my first training session with my personal trainer. This was the day that set everything in motion for the last year. And I thank God every day that I got my butt in that gym, got over my fear and embarrassment and opened myself up to someone who could help me. 

It's crazy to think that the only reason that I even went to him in the first place was because I had won four free sessions. And I'm glad that I won those. They changed my life. He has helped change my life. 

Over the last year I have put in a lot of hours at the gym and a ton of hard work, sweat, tears and given up a lot of things that I loved. Cake, cookies, ya know, the good stuff! But I wouldn't trade any of it. Every part of this past year has gotten me to where I am today. And where I am today is the best place I have ever been. 

My Before and After
I love the life that I lead now. And I can't imagine living any other type of lifestyle. And to think about all of the cool things that I have done over the past year that I would have never even attempted before, well it just makes me smile. And it makes me really damn proud of myself and everything I have accomplished. 

Things I have done or accomplished over the last year include:

-Losing a total of 67 lbs
-Down to 18% body fat which is considered to be an "Athlete's" body 
-Ran my first 5k
-Ran in the Big Dog Brag and Dirty Dash mud obstacle courses
-Ran and completed my first Tough Mudder!!!!!!!!
-Became the person I always knew I could and wanted to be


It has been a hell of a year. So many people have helped and supported me along the way and I appreciate it so much. But a special thank you goes out to my Husband for supporting me through all of this and being okay with me spending our money on training. Also, my family and friends (that includes all of you!) who have shown unconditional love and support. And last, thank you to my trainer. I could have never done this without you. You freaking rock at what you do and I appreciate all the help you have given me. And I am glad that I can not only call you my trainer, but a friend. 

Like I said at the beginning of this post, you can measure a year in months, weeks, days, hours and seconds. But I could never measure how much this past year has changed my life and how much it will affect the rest of my life going forward. 


Megan

Friday, October 31, 2014

Five on Friday

Happy Friday! And Happy Halloween!! Let's jump into some Five on Friday. 

1-Happy Birthday to my MIL! I hope it is a great Birthday and I am sure you are excited to have all of your family around for it this year. Hope it is the best one yet!

2-Congratulations to my Brother-In-Law and soon to be Sister-In-Law! They are getting married tomorrow and I am very excited for them! We wish you guys all the best and know that your wedding will be beautiful.

3-Taylor Swift, you have done it again. Your new CD is freaking amazeballs! I can't stop listening to it! Slightly obsessed actually. 

4-KB, thanks for an awesome date the other night. Our night consisted of buying the new Taylor Swift CD (the original reason for our date to begin with, duh!) shoe shopping and a delicious dinner at Olive Garden. I had a lot of fun and can't wait to hang out again soon!

5-Happy Halloween! Hope everyone has a great and very safe night!




Megan

Thursday, October 30, 2014

No Excuses

Ever have one of those huge moments of realization and clarity? Yeah, I had one of those yesterday. I already knew this but it really hit me yesterday that I am not the same person I was at this time last year. 

What prompted this? After being up since 5 am and spending 13+ hours in a car driving to Missouri, my ass still went to the little gym here at our hotel and put in a kick ass hour long workout at 10 o' clock at night! A year ago I would have looked at someone like myself and thought they were nuts. Now? I thrive off of it! I am that crazy person that works out on Vacation and makes sure that no matter what is thrown at me, I get my workout in. That is something that I am damn proud of! 

 
I can never use the excuse that I don't have time for a workout again. And I am absolutely okay with that. I love the new person I have become and the attitude and mentality that I have. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.


Megan

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

PHR Exam

I've been meaning to write about this for a while now, but just haven't been able to find the time. This past September I started taking a class on Wednesday nights from 6 to 9 pm to help me get prepared for the PHR Exam that I am taking in December. For those that don't know what that is, PHR stands for Professional in Human Resources. 

I took over some of the HR responsibilities at my work a few years ago and after some discussion, my Boss decided that it would probably be a good idea for me to get certified in the HR field. Not sure if I have ever mentioned this but my College degree is in Accounting and my normal day to day job is in Accounting, so this whole HR thing has definitely been interesting over the last few years. It's a whole world on its own and navigating it isn't always easy. 

These are the study materials they handed out the first day of class! Yikes!
So far the classes haven't been too bad. There is a ton of extra reading and studying outside of class though. I sometimes get overwhelmed with how much there is, but I suck it up and get through it anyways. This whole process has definitely reminded me of when I was in College. I forgot how much I dislike reading for things like this, haha! 

I only have three more weeks of classes left. And I am actually going to miss one of them(tonight's class), so technically two weeks. But I have a ton of reading to do just for those two classes. Ugh. I just keep telling myself that it will all be worth it in the end when I pass my test. Not to mention I am actually learning a lot and can already see how I can start applying it. 

Overall I think taking this class is for the best. It will help advance my career and give me a better understanding of what I should be doing on a day to day basis in regards to all of the HR stuff that comes my way at work. I just can't wait for it to all be done with though. I take my exam on December 5th and will know immediately whether I pass or fail. Gotta love the technology we have now that can give you your results instantly. 

Well, wish me luck everyone! I still have lots of studying to do, but that test will be here before I know it! 


Megan

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Off to Missouri

Happy Friday! Confused by that statement? Ha! Today is my Friday and it is only Tuesday. Yesssssss!!!!

Tomorrow morning we are leaving at O' Dark Thirty and heading off to Springfield, MO for my Brother-In-Law's wedding. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and visiting with my Nephews, and of course the Wedding and a little bit of pampering the day before, but I am not looking forward to the 13-14 hour car ride that it is going to take to get there. Yuck!

Luckily I have plenty of stuff to keep me busy. Reading, studying, my phone, the oh so beautiful scenery that will be Kansas. Yeah, good stuff!  And I have already packed probably way too many snacks. Hey, you have to have some options. Right?! 

And I did find out yesterday that the hotel we are staying at has a small gym! Yessss!!!!! I can still get my workouts in. I might have to get up early to get them in, but I don't mind. It's crazy how much your priorities change sometimes. This is essentially a mini vacation and I am worried about getting a workout in. Oh man. I am definitely not the person I was a year ago, haha! But I am damn proud of that! 

I am working on scheduling some posts for the rest of the week so that I hopefully have something for everyone to read while I am away. I make no promises for a post for each day though. 

Okay lovelies, I hope you have a great rest of your week. And don't be too jealous that today is my Friday. I mean I do have to sit in a car tomorrow for 13+ hours. No one wants to do that. 

Have a great week!



Megan

Monday, October 27, 2014

Weekend Recap

Good Morning! It's Monday, which I would normally hate, but today is technically my Thursday, so no complaints from me today! Here's what went down in my neck of the woods this weekend. 

Friday night I headed straight from work to my SIL's house so that we could get started on our costumes for the 5k we were running the next day. We didn't do anything to extravagant. We just made a tutu and wrist bands and hair bows and head bands. It took longer than I expected, but part of that was due to us taking a break to go get my Niece's Halloween costumes. And holy crap! I didn't realize how expensive Halloween costumes were. I almost never buy one anymore, so it was kind of a shock to see that one costume was $35 or more. Yikes!

I ended up not getting home til about 11 or so and immediately went to bed. I knew that I had to be up early in order to finish the last few pieces of our costumes and not to mention the 5k was at 9:30. So yeah, I was going to be up early. 

Saturday morning I was up at 5:30. I got my breakfast and then got started on the last few pieces of our costumes. Once I finished with those I got myself ready and then headed out to go pick up my SIL, my Nieces and my little Nephew. We left their house around 8:30 and headed up to Palmer Lake to participate in the Creepy Crawl 5k. 

We had a blast. My Nieces got to wear their costumes which they were over the moon about. My official time was 31:53. I was a little bummed because I wanted to be under 30 minutes, but unfortunately it didn't happen. But I have something to shoot for when I run the Turkey Trot next month on Thanksgiving day. I still didn't do too bad though. I was 11th out of 27 in my age division and I was 180 overall out of 480 something participants. Not too shabby if you ask me.


After the 5k was over there was a 1 mile kids fun run. So my Nieces and my SIL went ahead and ran that while I took my Nephew and walked it. We had him in the chest carrier and running with him in that is impossible, so I took my time and just walked it with him. 

After all the 5k festivities, I dropped my family back off at their place and then headed home. On my way I grabbed some lunch for the Hubs and myself and then went home and scarfed that down. I was starving. We didn't have any plans for the rest of the day, so we sat down on the couch and watched TV for the rest of the afternoon. I also took a good hour long nap on the couch only to be woken up by a certain puppy jumping on me and licking my face. If he wasn't so cute, I would have been mad, but he's adorable, so yeah.

After my awesome nap, I ran to the grocery store and did a little shopping for the week and then headed home to make dinner. I did nothing the rest of the night. It was awesome. I needed a little bit of down time, so it was perfect.

Sunday I was up early so that I could check my Fantasy Football line-up. When you have Calvin Johnson on your roster and there is a possibility that he isn't going to play and their game happens to be in London and starting at 7:30 am,  you have to make it a priority to check his status. Glad I did. He ended up not playing again, so I am definitely glad I checked it.

I spent the rest of my morning watching football and getting some reading done for my classes. Around 12:30 I loaded up the puppy and we headed out to go hiking for a little bit. We hiked for about an hour and then headed back home.

Shortly after getting home the Hubs and I headed up to Denver. We had a few stores we needed to go to and I also had to pick my friends up from the airport. So we went to our stores and got our errands done, grabbed some dinner and then headed to the airport.

We didn't get home until after 9:30, so it made for a long day, but we did get a few things done that we have been meaning to do up in Denver, so it all worked out.

How about you guys? How was your weekend?



Megan

Friday, October 24, 2014

Five on Friday

Happy Friday everyone! This week flew by and I am very thankful for that. How about some Five on Friday?

1-I apparently didn't get the memo about not coming to work today. I pulled into the parking lot right at 8 and there was almost no one here. WTH?! Oh well! I guess I will sit here and slave the day away, haha! Just kidding!

2-Broncos played a hell of a game last night! And it wasn't a bad night for my Fantasy team either considering I have Emmanuel Sanders on it and he scored 3 touchdowns. That's right! 3! 

3-My SIL and I are running in the Creepy Crawl 5k tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about it. And I am excited to make our costumes tonight! A tutu is in my future!

4-It's hard to believe but it has almost been a year since I started working with my personal trainer. I went back and found the posts from when I started working with him last year and it is pretty cool to see how far I have come in just under a year. I don't think I fully realized what I was capable of at that point last year. So to look back at it now and to say "I finally did it!" feels pretty amazing! And I am so thankful that I have such a great trainer who saw what I was capable of when I couldn't. You can read those posts from last year here, here and here

5-Thank goodness it is Friday!! 

Have a good weekend!




Megan

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Quest Bars=Protein Bars on Crack

Have any of you ever had a Quest Bar?

I recently discovered Quest Bars and I have decided that they are the equivalent to crack. I seriously can't get enough of these damn things!

The week before Tough Mudder my trainer gave me a list of things to get for the day of the race and protein bars were one of the items on the list. I really had no clue which ones I wanted because I had never had a need for them before this. I wanted something that tasted good so I got on Google and searched for "best tasting protein bars." The first article that popped up was from bodybuilding.com and it was an article about what protein bars their readers voted the best. #1 on that list was Quest Bars.

After reading through the whole article I went to the Quest Nutrition website and started doing some research. I found that their protein bars have a lot of protein (usually 20 or more grams) and are really low in net carbs, were not too high in calories and made with very few ingredients. Everything I read about them just made me want to try them. So I headed to my nearest Vitamin Shoppe and grabbed like six different flavors. I couldn't decide on just one or two. They all sounded so good. 

And now I am absolutely addicted to them. They are a great pre or post workout snack and they have great flavor! I am particularly obsessed with the Cookies & Cream one.


The only problem I have with these is that when I am done eating a bar, I want another one so bad! They are just too freaking good! And I have found a ton of other flavors that I love too! Here are a few of my faves:

-Cookies & Cream
-Chocolate Brownie
-Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
-Double Chocolate Chunk
-White Chocolate Raspberry
-Chocolate Peanut Butter

So if you are looking for a good protein bar or snack, try Quest bars. They are a-maz-ing!

*Disclaimer-I was not paid for this post by Quest Nutrition. I simply wanted to share my love of their product with the world!*

Megan

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Weekend Recap

Happy Tuesday! Sorry my recap is late. Monday's seem to be my most hectic day, so finding the time to blog about my weekend is difficult. But I'm ready to get this show on the road. Here's what went down this weekend. 

Friday started out like it normally does with a session with my trainer right after work. After he kicked my ass I headed home and we went and grabbed something to eat. After dinner we headed home and I went straight to bed. I hadn't gotten much sleep that week and it was starting to catch up to me. And I had to be up early Saturday, so I turned on Gilmore Girls on Netflix and laid down. I was out within 10 minutes. 

Saturday I was up at 4 am. Yeah, I know, ridiculous. I had to be at my friends house at 5:15 to pick them up and take them to the airport so that they could catch their flight. After I dropped them off I headed home and got a few things done and got a 4 mile run in with the puppy. I pretty much dragged him the last mile. He was done, but he did a great job with keeping up and did an awesome job off his leash too when I was able to take him off of it. 


After my run I had to hurry up and get ready so that we could go pick up our friend and go to the Air Force Academy Football Game. We were running late of course, so we missed the first 10 minutes or so of the first quarter, but we did get to see the rest of the game and it was a good game. And a lot of fun to watch. 

After the game we dropped our friend back off at his place and then the Husband headed out to his game night with his buddies. My Brother and my SIL picked me up and we all went out to dinner at Johnny Carino's. Dinner was good. Our service kind of sucked and was really slow, but the food was really good. 

Sunday we were up early again. We had a session at 9 with a photographer to get some family pictures done. And by family I mean my Husband, myself and our two dogs. She did an incredible job with the pictures. They turned out absolutely amazing and I am so excited to get started on our Christmas cards because believe it or not people, it is coming sooner than you think! Like 10 weeks! Yikes! And yay!

Here are the pictures. Again, I absolutely LOVE them!



















After we were done with pictures we headed home and dropped the two fur balls off and then headed up to Denver to meet the In-laws for an afternoon of shopping and lunch. My Brother-In-Law's wedding is in two weeks and I still didn't have a dress. So while the Husband and his Dad went off and looked at the Lego store and Brookstone, my MIL and myself went to Nordstrom's to try and find me a dress. 

I think I had 20 different dresses to try on in that dressing room. It's amazing how many more options you have when you lose weight. This was the first time that I actually enjoyed shopping for a dress because I had so many options. By the time we were done I had it narrowed down to three options. This ended up being the final pick!


I love the color! And the socks really tie the whole outfit together! But seriously, I do love this dress. This is not something I would have ever picked for myself in the past. And actually the sales lady picked this one out. But I love it and I can't wait to wear it in a few weeks. 

After we were done shopping we went and grabbed some lunch and then we headed back home just in time for the Broncos game to come on. They killed San Francisco. And Peyton Manning made history! And it just happened to be a perfect end to a great weekend! Another busy weekend, but a great one!



Megan

Friday, October 17, 2014

Five on Friday

Yep, I suck again. Hey I posted for a week straight last week, and then once this week, haha! You win some, you lose some. It happens. How about some Five on Friday?!

1-Last night my Sister-In-Law and I went downtown to Cowboy's Night Club for the Girls with Guitars event. We got to see the amazing Cassadee Pope! She was incredible. And we had fun! So glad I got to go. And glad my SIL got to go with me!

2-It's 2:00 pm on Friday. My weekend starts in three hours. Need I say more?

3-I'm going dress shopping this weekend for my Brother-In-Law's wedding. I hope I can find something I like. I've come to realize that shopping is just stressful no matter what size you are. I can't ever seem to find exactly what I am looking for. 

4-This weekend is going to be busy busy!! Again! I don't think I will ever not be busy, let's just put it that way. I'm okay with that. I love feeling like I am living life to the fullest and taking advantage of every opportunity I get to do something. 

5-My puppy is becoming a monster. He is getting huge! Every time I look at him I think he has grown more. But he loves to cuddle, which I love. But that could be problematic when he is the size of a freaking horse! 

Okay, that's all I have today. I hope you guys have a great weekend and I will try to be better about posting next week!
Megan

Monday, October 13, 2014

Weekend Recap

Good Morning everyone! 

This weekend ended up not being as busy as I thought it was going to be. Which actually turned out to be a great thing!

Friday night started with a session with my trainer. He kicked my ass and then I went home. The Husband and I then went to Kneader's to grab something to eat. That seems to be our thing on Friday nights, a trip to Kneaders. Which is fine by me. It's delicious!

After Kneaders we went to T.J. Maxx and looked at some coats because I don't have a winter coat anymore. Mine are all way too big on me now. Yay!! It's a good problem to have. Unfortunately I didn't find one that I liked so we headed home. I spent the rest of the night watching Hocus Pocus and just relaxing. 

Saturday I was up early. That seems to be the norm for me now. I got myself some breakfast and then headed to the dealership to get my oil changed. I got there before they opened and was the third person in line. It only took them a little over an hour, thank goodness. They originally told me two hours and I didn't want to wait that long. 

After the oil change I headed down to my SIL's to meet up with them. We headed out the the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes and met up with some other friends and their families. I carried my Nephew in the chest carrier for most of it, which was almost another 20 lbs! Haha! I figured it was a good workout. We had fun though walking with everyone and it was for a great cause!


After the walk we went and grabbed some lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then headed back to my SIL's to do some baking. We have been itching to try a new recipe out for these flourless brownies that we found. The secret ingredient is black beans. So we gathered all of our ingredients and went to town. My SIL and I along with my oldest Niece thought they were delicious, but my Brother and my other two Nieces would not agree with that statement, haha! Honestly I couldn't even tell that they had black beans in them. I will definitely be making them again. 

After our brownies were done and we had tasted them, I headed home. The Husband and I went and grabbed some food and then headed home where we did nothing but lounge around the rest of the night. It was perfect and I needed the little bit of rest time. 

Sunday I was up early again. I made a huge batch of whole wheat pancakes for breakfast (and froze the rest for the rest of this week) and then we took the dogs on a good 30 minute walk. After that I ran a few errands and made sure I was back to the house by 11 for the start of the Broncos game. They won which is awesome-sauce. They should have killed the Jets, but they kept it closer than I would have liked, but a win is still a win. 

We were supposed to head up to Denver to visit with the In-Laws after the game, but some things came up and so we ended up not going. So I helped my Brother and my SIL go pick up a race car frame and then spent the rest of the evening on the couch watching football. I actually started to not feel very good after dinner, so sitting on the couch and doing nothing was definitely needed. 

Like I said, the weekend ended up not being as busy as I thought. How was your weekend?

Megan

Friday, October 10, 2014

Five on Friday

Good morning! And Happy Friday! I am glad it is finally Friday and am looking forward to a busy and fun weekend! I definitely need a few days away from work after the week I had. Let's get started shall we?

1-I am absolutely loving this rainy/cold weather we are having. It finally feels like fall. And all the trees are so colorful and pretty and it just makes me happy!

2-I can't wait for next Thursday! Two exciting things are happening. First, I finally made an appointment to get my hair colored! I am wanting something different and I can't wait to see how it turns out! Second, next Thursday night is the Girls with Guitars concert downtown and Miss Cassadee Pope is the headliner! I can't wait!

3-I have been kind of lost the last week because my fitbit quit charging! I was going nuts without it! Luckily mine was still within the year warranty so fitbit sent me a new one and it was waiting for me when I got home yesterday! It's pretty and new and pink again!! Fitbit's customer service was incredible by the way, so if you ever have problems with yours, don't hesitate to contact them.

4-My new iPhone 6 plus needs to hurry up and get here already. Yes I realize I just ordered it last Friday, but still! My old one keeps acting up and I am worried that it is eventually going to crap out before the new one gets here. Ugh! Why did I have to want the super popular phone?! 

5-Is it 5 yet?! Yep, my mind is already there. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Megan

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Venus VoxBox Review

A few weeks ago I received a Venus Embrace Sensitive VoxBox  from Influenster in the mail! I was super excited. This was my second VoxBox and who doesn't love free goodies? The answer to that is no one!

Inside my VoxBox I found a Venus Embrace Sensitive Razor and a few replacement blades and also a few coupons for replacement blades. 


Let me start by saying that I am usually someone who doesn't spend a lot on my razors. It's always been one of those things that I thought didn't matter and it just seemed ridiculous to spend that much money on something that you use a few times and then throw away. 

But after using this Venus razor, I understand why people do spend more on a good razor. This thing made my legs so freaking soft and I didn't have to go over areas multiple times, which is a huge time saver. And I didn't end up with a bunch of cuts or razor burn. Not that I normally have that with my other razors, but occasionally if I am in a rush, it happens. But I have used this razor multiple times now and not once have I had any issues with it. 

This razor has already lasted longer than my cheap ones too. Usually after a few uses, the so called "moisturizing" strip would be completely gone and I would have to toss it, but that hasn't happened to this one. 

I did find one downside to this product, and if I had the right kind of shower it wouldn't be an issue. The razor came with a holder that has a suction cup on the back of it so that you can affix it straight to the shower wall. Well unfortunately the shower wall in my bathroom is one of those plastic insert pieces and the suction cup wouldn't stick to it. So unfortunately I couldn't use that feature. It would have been a great feature though if my shower wall wasn't being so difficult. It would help save on space, which I am sure as most of you know, is always an issue with as many damn products as we use to shower. 

Overall I am very happy with this product. So much that I am no longer opposed to spending more on a better quality razor in the future. No more cheap razors for this girl! 

*I received this product complimentary to test and review and all opinions are my own*

Not on Influenster? Well what are you waiting for?! If you want to join, send me your email address and I will send you an invite! 


Megan

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Tough Mudder Colorado Part 2

When I left off yesterday, we were about 5.5 miles or halfway through the course. If you didn't read part 1, you can find that here

The next obstacle that we came to was called the Funky Monkey. Peaked monkey bars across an open pit of muddy water. This was the one obstacle that I knew I would really struggle on. It has been years since I have gone across monkey bars and I was never really good at them to begin with. I figured that I would give it my best shot and if I didn't make it all the way across, then I would just have to try and make it all the way across next year. 


So I started out and I was doing pretty good. I got up the peak, which is where I thought I would struggle and as I was coming down I realized that I was almost to the end. I was about 5 or 6 bars away from the end when I lost my grip and fell in the water. I was sooooo freaking bummed. I did way better on them than I thought I would, but the farther along I got on them, the more I thought I was actually going to make it. So when I didn't, I was definitely let down a little. But it does give me something to shoot for next year. I will make it across those damn monkey bars!

My trainer
My trainer again and you can kind of see me starting out right behind him
After the Funkey Monkey we had one small obstacle where we had to crawl over and under these large irrigation tubes, but after that we were running again for a while. We didn't hit more obstacle for almost two miles. But I couldn't complain too much because this was the view that we had while we were running. It was absolutely gorgeous up there. 


Once we did start to hit the obstacles again, we hit the area of the course that had like five or six obstacles all clustered together. The first one we came to was the Underwater tunnels. You had to get in the lake and swim underneath all of these barrels. This was actually pretty easy. The water was just pretty cold is all. 


There was also the Rail Garden which was just a bunch of rails that you had to climb over or under. The Pit Fall, which started out with you having to crawl underneath a log that had live wires hanging down from it. I was lucky enough to make it underneath the log without getting shocked. My trainer on the other hand, not so lucky. Once you were underneath the log you were in a huge pit of mud and water that you had to wade across. Again, it was cold. 

There was also the Mud Mile which started off with these huge pits of mud that you had to crawl in and out of. That one wasn't all that hard, but it was crowded. And you really had to rely on others around you to help boost you up or pull you up because some of the mud walls just to get out of the pit were way taller than me. But it was pretty cool to see complete strangers helping each other out so much. And the last obstacle in this cluster was called Walk the Plank. You climb up this wall and walk out on a plank and jump about 12 feet down into a pit of water. I barely had time to think on this one and good thing because as soon as I jumped my stomach dropped out from underneath me. If I would have stopped and thought about it, I may not have jumped. But again, this one was freezing. It was getting a little bit later in the day at this point and the wind was picking up, so you can imagine how cold it was. But I'm glad I didn't hesitate and that I did it. 


Miles 8 through 10 were pretty much all uphill. We walked a lot of it. But if it flattened out or was down hill, we were running. There were a few more obstacles throughout these two miles, but they were actually just part of the terrain. One was called cliff hanger and it was just a huge hill that they watered down and was a muddy mess, but you had to try and run down it. They were things like that. 

The next real obstacle we got to was right before mile 10. It was called Pole Dancer. I wasn't sure how this one was going to go down, but let's just say that I failed epically at this one, haha! There are two poles that are parallel to each other that peak and you have to try and keep your arms straight and get yourself across them. Yeah, I fell right in. I will have to work on this for next year just in case they have this obstacle again. 


Shortly after Pole Dance we came across the 10 mile sign. We knew we were so close to being finished at this point. So we picked up our pace a bit. Everything was pretty much flat or down hill at this point, so we ran as much of it as we could. We got down the hill and towards the finish line and we could see the last few obstacles. 

Everest was one of them. Let me just start by saying that this one was probably the hardest obstacle for me all day. It is a quarter pipe that you have to run up and try to get yourself over the top. There are people at the top to help pull you up, but that doesn't guarantee that you will get over the top of that edge. Trust me, I would know. My trainer had no problems. I knew he wouldn't. He's ridiculous after all. It took me four tries to get up it. And the first three I slid straight back down and let me tell you, that didn't feel very nice. But the fourth try I was able to grab onto my trainer and one other guy and they helped pull me up and over. 


After Everest we had two more obstacles. The first one was Berlin Walls. These walls were about 9 feet tall and were straight up and down. Oddly enough I was able to get myself up and over these walls on my own. I used the joists in the middle to give myself a boost and I got up and over with no problem. The last obstacle we went through was called Devil's Beard. And for something that seemed so simple, it was a pain in the ass. Well for me anyways. It was a cargo net that was staked down to the ground and you had to crawl underneath it. Sounds easy, right?! Yeah, no! My Camelbak kept getting caught on the net along with my ponytail. Not to mention everyone and their mom lost their race bib while crawling through this all day, so there were race bibs with safety pins sticking up everywhere. I was so happy to be done with this one when I finally reached the end of it. 

We had a small distance left to run and then we crossed the finish line and got our sweet orange headbands! 11.1 miles and 23 obstacles later, we had done it. We were now Tough Mudder finishers and now part of Mudder Nation! 



I was extremely proud of both of us. It definitely wasn't an easy task by any means. It was hard! But at the same time it was an absolute blast! I had so much fun running Tough Mudder. And I am so incredibly proud that we did it and finished it. I still can't believe that I was even capable of making it through. It is so crazy to me how far I have come in the last 11 months. If you would have asked me last year around this time about doing something like this, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. But now, I feel like I have no limits and that I can achieve anything that I set out to do!

Now as fun as it was, it didn't come without a few scratches, blisters, bumps and bruises. Here is the aftermath of it. 

My legs covered in mud. 
Check out that tan line! Oh wait, that's mud lines!
These bad boys are from Funky Monkey. Ouch!
On the other hand too! And in the same spot!


My face all covered in mud

My legs two days after! Yeah, and those bruises got darker over the next week!
But even with all the bumps and bruises, it was completely worth it to get this shirt and headband that will constantly remind me of what I accomplished that day! Every time I put this shirt on I will remember how much fun I had that day and how proud I was of myself for accomplishing something so amazing. And that will keep me going! 

Worth it!


Megan
 
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