My Spartan Race Story, April 2018

Here comes the first obstacles. Whew…got that done.   Oh…. now the weeds….(Why did they not clear the path before we started.  I’m thankful I have on long pants though. Oh, but this is the Spartan race.) We continued along the path.   More obstacles, more challenges. I’m doing good except I feel a little funny in my head, but I should be RIGHT- I am on an obstacle course.  Now here we go again…what now?  In front of me I see what appears to be 75 yards of barbed wire that is so low to the ground that people are crawling on their belly and others are rolling forward.   Okay…let’s do this.  I’ll try rolling, it seems pretty easy!   I started rolling with my eyes closed. I have my contacts in so I do not want the straw, dirt, from the person in front of me to get in my eyes.  I feel the rocks and dirt in my hair and on my back. I can feel the straw or poking me in my butt, but just keep rolling.

Suddenly I feel like I am spiraling in a deep tunnel, disoriented and nauseated.  I open my eyes… there are a hundred people behind me at least, but I just want to stop the spinning in my head.   I went to the race with other friends, and I could hear Amanda saying.. “Are you okay.”    I said, “I’m spinning…I’m about to puke.”.  She gives me an energy chew… I try rolling again.  NOPE, I need to try something else. I’m getting restless in my spirit. I ask the volunteer if I can just get out and do burpees instead.  Anything to get out of the barb- wire.   She says, “I don’t think you can on this one.”    So…I’m lying here… feeling like I just might die…. but I do not want to stop.    By this time…at least 20 -30 minutes had passed, and I could not shake this feeling.   And there wee a gazillion people behind me.   Amanda calls out my name.  She encourages me to roll twice, then stop and rest.   I rolled twice, then I stopped. I tried to sit up and felt faint.   Nope.. I have to lay back down.   I can do this…I can do this.   Rolling, rolling, rolling stop. Rolling, rolling, rolling stop. Amanda says to me, “Look, you do not have much farther to go.”   I look, and it looks horrible.  I see at least 35 more yards.   But I guess that is better than 36 yards of barbed- wire.  Rolling, rolling, rolling, stop.  Rolling, rolling, rolling, I’m about to puke. B.K.(another team member) gets back in the barb-wire to crawl on one side of me, and Chappy (my personal trainer) gives me some water.  Oh, yes, Water…. I take a sip…and instantly feel better. Rolling, rolling, rolling, stop. Rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, stop.   Oh No, why did I roll 5 times before I stop.   Because I want to get the H*%$% out of here.   Amanda calls out my name again … reorients me…   She encourages me to try crawling.  Yes, I will crawl.   Never mind I am using my legs, and elbows to crawl out life a frog… It felt better than rolling…as long as I do not have to change positions…I think I just may finish the race.   I feel the stings in my skin as the elements of the earth scrap my arms. My butt down low, and my thighs are doing the work. But at least I am not nauseated. I least I do not feel drowsy.  Crawl, Sherina, crawl.  Crawl, Sherina crawl.   Now I just need to keep moving, but not my head. Pull with your arms, Sherina.  Keep going, Sherina. Keep going.   Yes.  Keep going…. I need to hurry and get out of here so I can finish the race.  I feel my eyes stinging with tears, Thank God for the support around me.   This must be what it is like to be in the military when a man/woman is down.   You don’t leave anyone behind.  No matter what.

Before I knew it I had crawled out, with Amanda leading the way.   I was so thankful, but now I am standing again, and now I am drowzy and about to puke again.  Somehow, I completed on more obstacle, and with the symptoms only getting worse.  I knew I had to do the right thing.  I knew my race was over, and I knew they would not leave me.  So  I told them to go ahead without me.   I knew they had a race to finished…and better yet, I knew I had finished mine.

Some of you may be sympathetic because I did not finish, but do not be.   I got so much feedback from the race:

1. You can go further than you think you can…with the right people in your corner.  You see there is not way I would have completed the barb- wire with out Chappy, Amanda, and B.K. staying in the “belly of the whale with me.”   Your inner circle is everything.
2. Stay focused on where you are going, not where you are.    I was beginning the feel the discomfort from the rocks, hay, etc… coming in contact with my body.   But focusing on that was not going to help me get out of there.
3. Don’t make everything about you.   I was sucking the team dry.  My decision to quit took the attention off of me, and onto the team.
4.  In life, you have to run YOUR race.  New International Version
   Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out FOR US.   Freeing myself to run my race, freed the team to run their race.

My trainer was concerned about me physically (my blood pressure dropped very low), but also emotionally. He also wanted me to have a great experience.  Ironically, I did have a great experience.  I had decided before the race that I was going to be a great experience no matter what. It was a great experience the moment I decided to do something outside of my box. lol.  This race literally tested me in ways I had never experienced which says a lot from a women who had three (3) children naturally.   In the past I would  have felt robbed because my “life” experience was not like everyone else’s.  But nope… not TODAY.   Today, I’m good!!    I had a 12 lead ekg, chem 8, to prove it!   (Yes… the nurse ended up getting medical treatment.  lol  better safe than sorry.)

Yep… Today… “There is no failure, only feedback”, and I am good.

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