I am fixing to head to Las Vegas, NV for another Spartan Race. Something that a year ago today had never crossed my mind, and had you asked me about it, I would have thought you were crazy! A question posed in another group brought up a flood of emotions from my journey the last year.
May 2013 I did the Spartan Sprint which is a 3+ mile course. When I finished this race I felt defeated and upset. My friends never left me on the whole course and that was fantastic, but that also hurt too because I know I slowed them down soooo much (even though they were laughing and saying nah we didn’t want to go faster). Then the team started talking about and planning the Beast in December 2013, “There is no way I can do this” is what I kept saying to myself because I was scared to death. My excuse to myself was that I couldn’t afford it (which I couldn’t), and that brought comfort. I was blessed with a race voucher by our fearless leader and Team Captain Paul Almanza. That freaked me out even more so because I didn’t want to let anyone down that was willing to give me the opportunity (that I had convinced myself I couldn’t do anyway). So I started training more and pushing myself more to be able to do this great big scary thing. The Texas Beast came, and I finished! I cried! Part of the reason I cried was because I never thought in my life that I would be able to do something so hard. The other part (the bigger part) was when we came to the finish line coming over the slippery wall, I heard LSS cheering for us as we came up. Let me explain why I got all choked up at that moment. It was freaking COLD. Like 30 degrees-ish and it was dark. The people that were waiting there in the dark and cold weather huddling around a fire had finished the race anywhere from 2.5 to 4 hours before, or volunteered that day and their shift was over, were out there waiting for us to finish! That was the most amazing thing to me. The best of all, I didn’t feel defeated, I felt accomplished!
That sealed it for me that there is no better team in the world then the Lone Star Spartans. I wanted to do as much of this as I could with them to help everyone else I can, like they did for me, and to continue to push myself further everyday.
That first race, they took every step with me,and it tore me down so that I could build a much better me. That second race, they knew I would finish so they waited for me to get there.
Last thing I want to say is thank you Lone Star Spartans. You not only saved me from my lazy ass couch sitting self, but you also changed my relationship with my daughter in such an amazing way.
