Are you Super Spartan tough? Got something to prove, to get over, to get out? This is a great way to get off the couch, out of the gym and return to your primal instincts as you push through our 8+ mile battlefield of insane obstacles and a very technical course that will test your physical strengt...
October 10: Anyone need to buy a baby gift? This is what you should get!!
Each piece is customized with baby's first, middle and last name, date of birth, time of birth, along with weight and length. Your 8"x8" image is mounted onto a 1/4” MDF board over a ¾” back frame producing a 1” thick finished product, it is protected with an 80% UV protective matte laminate and the beveled edges are finished in a matte white. All pieces are ready to hang and available in three color schemes; pink, sage and blue.
October 11: I made Graveyard Pesto Artichoke Dip for our Halloween themed book club. Yep, I cooked.
October 15: Competed in the Hybrid Adventure Games earlier today, now at the Phoenix Coyotes home opener. Best day ever!
October 16: Facebook, why do I have to click to see 5 new stories? How about you just show them to me?
October 18: I know that my Mo is an australian shepherd mix. BioPet breed identification test says she is a bulldog/akita mix. Hmmm. Just not seeing it.
October 21: Grouponing! — with Patrick at India Palace.
October 22: I completed a hike. Distance: 10.51mi Time: 03:23:09 Pace: 19:20min/mi Speed: 3.10mi/h
After about a zillion weeks in various casts, Corky got to stay with us for three more weeks, first with low exercise and then increasing his freedom until we got to the point where we are now. And what point is that? It's the point where Corky tears around the house like a madman, jumping on and over everything in sight. He gets on the furniture, and I don't just mean the couch. He climbs over the couch and hangs out on the side table. He jumps from the couch onto the coffee table. In Corky's mind, nothing is off-limits. He is an agile daredevil!
He also thinks that all toys belong to him, all beds belong to him and all animals belong to him.
He loves the other dogs and he assumes they love him, too. He will go right up to Frankie and try to take the toy right out of his mouth. He will jump on Georgie and bite her ears. Occasionally they oblige him with a game of tug-of-war or wrestling.
Corky really loves to chew on bones, especially if he can do it as a group activity. He'll grab a bone and crawl right onto a canine-occupied bed. My dogs are surprisingly tolerant of this. Well, Frankie is anyway: Mo, on the other hand, does NOT like it when Corky tries to share her bed. Perhaps it is because he uses her as a bed:She growls at him but he is oblivious. He just keeps chewing his bone as if he can't hear her.
"Grrrrr..." Mo: "Why do you let him torment me like this? I hate him."
Corky: "Whee!"
I will be returning Corky to the Humane Society this week. I sure hope he finds a home with other doggies to play with!
Today we competed in the Hybrid Adventure Games, a newcomer on the obstacle/adventure race scene. H.A.G. is different that most obstacle races in that 1) the run is just a run (or as I like to call it, "a hike") and 2) all the fun stuff happens after the run is completed and 3) each of the events is scored separately. Genius idea! I suck at running, but I rock at obstacles... I felt that with the H.A.G. I would finally get credit for my awesome balance beam skills!
The first event is the run, followed by four additional events you could do in any order: 100 yard tire flip, keg toss, obstacle course and archery. They score each event based on the place you finish overall. First place gets 1000 points, second place 995, third 900 etc. Then they add up your totals for all 5 events to determine the winners.
Here is team AZ Swamp Ass.I did not name the team! I couldn't get anyone to dress as donkeys (i.e. asses) so a team costume and the resulting "spirit points" did not happen. But despite my no-fun teammates, I was not going to miss a costume opportunity. I dressed as a cat, which has absolutely no correlation to our team name. A cat was chosen because it is the coolest costume (i.e. cool as in temperature) I own. "Cool" was quite important as it was 100' today. The run and the venue were shade-less and the sun was brutal!We had one fan - Johnny's wife, Kelly. The first event was a 5.4 mile trail run, which I prefer to call "a hike". I hate running. I like hiking. Since it was "a hike", Christy and I mostly walked it. We did give a little credence to the fact that it was a race, thus we ran the downhills. :) I'm very glad I wore the camelbak for the "hike". I would have died out there. There were water stations on the course, but I require a lot more hydration that water stations can provide me!
Christy and I finished 7th and 8th out of our team of 10 and probably at about half or in the bottom half of the field. Our time was 1:17. I figured it would take 1:30, so we were quite pleased with our time! I took that picture during the first mile. If you click the picture to make it big, you can see that already there are A LOT of people A LOT ahead of us. :) I guess no one told them that this event was "a hike"!
After the run ("hike") we did archery next. Based on my one other previous encounter with a bow and arrow (I kept letting go of my left hand, thus dropping the bow instead of shooting the arrow), I had very low expectations for this event.Perhaps if I stood a little closer to the line, I might have done a little better? However, I did hit the target on one of the three tries and hit the 7 point ring. Woo hoo!! I'm sure I still finished in the bottom half overall, probably even the bottom quarter. Irene rocked the archery - she got the 9 point ring twice and a 2 point ring! Some of the boys on our team did pretty well in this event too. It was definitely fun to do!
Next we went to the keg toss. The most effective way seemed to be to hold the keg in one hand and spin like a discus thrower. Yeah, that would be a horrible idea for me as my coordination issues would make it such that the keg would inevitably go towards the crowd. I saw one girl stand backwards and throw it 2-handed over her head. Doing it this way seemed like the safest option for all involved.The keg went about 5 feet. :( I'm sure I placed in the bottom quarter in this one! Most of team did pretty well. Irene and Christy rocked it for the girls division. Check out how far Irene's keg is flying: Next we went to the obstacle race. I wanted to do this before the tire flip so that my arms wouldn't be too tired to lift myself over the wall. And I was anxious to show off my balance beam skills that I was so proud of in the Warrior Dash! My heat included Wayne, Christy and me. Here is the video of my run. Olivia was filming and she was running to get it all, so it's a little shaky:
As you probably noticed, I really SUCKED at the balance beam. Oops, I guess that isn't my strong suit after all. I was off balance from the very first step! Wayne, however, had no problems!I was also surprised that I couldn't do the overs in one jump. I had to put my feet on the bar and jump down. Wow, perhaps obstacle courses in general aren't my thing! However, I rocked the barbed wire and I was able to get over the wall in one try. I'm guessing I finished top half in this event. No matter how I finished, I love obstacle courses!
Brian, Irene, Daren, Emily and Johnny ran in the next heat. Out of 5, we lost 2 of our racers in this event. The first aid folks had their hands full today! This video shows Brian spraining his ankle on the first over.
Poor Brian! After checking to make sure Brian wasn't dead, Emily continued her obstacle course, only to be done in by the ramp. The ramp:As you run up it, you can't see that there is no other side to it. Emily expected it to be an a-frame and kept running down the down-ramp that wasn't there. I think it looked like this:Happily, she did not make an Emily-shaped crater on the landing, but she did end up with a badly scraped knee, scraped-up hands and a badly twisted ankle. Poor Emily!And that was the end of Brian and Emily's adventure. Sadly, the event that Emily and Brian most wanted to do at the games was the tire flip. :(
After making sure all our friends were going to survive and were appropriately iced down, those of us who were still ambulatory made our way to our last event, the tire flip. The race was 100 feet and you had to flip a tractor tire there and back. Daren had the best form (he's the guy on the far side):Girls got to use smaller tires if they wanted. The tires were a little bit lighter, but they were also harder to control. They had a tendency to flip sideways on the bounce down so you spent more time corralling them before the next flip. It was definitely a workout!
Tire flipping: In our heat, Irene and I were neck-and-neck. I beat her by a teeny tiny margin. My scorer told me that my time was 39 seconds and that was one of the best times she'd seen for a girl so far. Yay, an event that I would place in the top half!
After we finished all the events, we found a very small piece of shade in the beer tent. It was soooo very hot!! A lot of people left instead of sticking around for the award ceremony. Wusses. But, seriously, it was hot! But we stayed because we are troupers. I like to see winners and I was pretty sure that Irene was going to win the women's division in archery. I didn't want to miss that!
I was starting to get impatient because the Coyotes home opener started at 4:00 and the arena was over an hour away. I didn't want to miss puck drop! Just as I was about to give in and go, it was announced that the scores were tallied and awards started. Yay! They asked us to leave the beer tent to come over to the podium area. Really? Too sunny. Too hot. We wanted to stay in the shade of the tent. So, we decided to take the tent with us. :) We carried it over to the podium area, then a couple others followed suit with another shade tent. Voila!
They announced the run (aka "hike") winners first. Yeah, no one from our team. I had thought Irene and Christy did well in the keg toss, but Irene's toss of 19 feet was shattered by a girl with 39 feet! WOW! So, no winners on our team. The obstacle course was not won by anyone in our group either. But... Irene DID win the women's archery competition: A Pabst blue ribbon and a 4-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon!
And...guess who won the tire flip? Um... I DID!! I was so shocked and so happy! I couldn't stop smiling for about an hour!Look at how tall the men's winner is!! He definitely had leverage going for him! His time was 24 seconds. Mine was 39!! Dang!
So excited!!!! Irene and I with our Pabst blue ribbons:Despite our awesome showing, our team did not win the team division. I can't wait to see the results of all of the events to see how we all placed. I think we did pretty well as a team, but we could have used a few more people to bring up our point totals! Next year!!
This event was really awesome! I can't wait to do it again! And you should do it with me! Join my team for the next H.A.G.!!
Then, with no time to take a shower to clean off all the sweat and dust and dirt and sweat, I changed into winter clothes on the drive to Glendale. Ew. At the game I got even more prizes, a free t-shirt and a free taco coupon from the Taco Bell blimp! Woo hoo! Ok, so the t-shirt wasn't really a prize - all fans got one. But I did have to fight for it since my entrance was out of shirts when I got there and then I had to find someone to trade their medium for my extra-large, so I felt like it was a victory nonetheless. AND, the Coyotes won 4-1! Hurray!
Isn't this picture cute? He had been awake all of 60 seconds and he yawned and stretched in the timespace between clicking for a picture and the phone actually taking a picture. The delay is usually annoying but it worked to my advantage this time!
Now Corky's cast has finally been removed. He is restricted to limited use for the next few weeks and then he should be cleared for adoption. That is if we can keep him to moderate use! All he wants to do is play, play and jump up on furniture. He especially loves tug-of-war with Frankie. I feel like the fun police because I always have to put a stop to it. Mo and I could go into business together.
September 3: Getting in some mountain bike practice for the Gilmore Adventure race....took my bike to the mountain preserve and walked it up and down some hills.
September 5: Jill was tagged in Christy's photo. "Hiking Shaw Butte with Pat and Jill"September 5: Jill was tagged in Emily's photo. "Never too old for party hats! Thanks Jill" September 5: I really do hate the end of a 3 day weekend. Boo.
September 7: I finally got off my lazy bum and biked to work!
jill's cycling workout on SportyPal.com
cycling 9.20 mi in 00:44:55
Average speed: 12.30 mph -- Calories: 302
September 7: Last night at 10:00 pm I saw an Australian vacation deal on Living Social. Tonight at 10:00 pm I had 8 people already paid and ready to go. I love spontaneous friends!
September 9: Now that's some serious thunder!
September 18: Just jumped over a rattlesnake on my hike. Yikes!
September 23: Gilmore Adventure Race tomorrow. I'm so excited!!!!
September 24: Storming the Castle took first place in the womens division at today's Gilmore! Adventure Race. We also took home lots of scrapes, scratches, prickers and in my case, a pretty bad sunburn...all worth it! September 27: Up:Down:September 27: I'm feeling tough today. Are you?
Jill has signed up for Tough Mudder Arizona, a 10+ mile obstacle course through ...
September 28: 80 dogs are on the county shelter's euthanasia list for tomorrow morning. 80! Most are on for URI (just a cold) or "deterioration" which means they've been in the shelter so long that they are getting depressed or going stir-crazy and the shelter is running out of space. These are nice, friendly dogs of all breeds. And this is just ONE day's list. I am so sad.
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