The Final Battle

Standing on the hill I was thinking. Dwelling on the fact that this could be it for me. I hadn't even finished the first mile and I am about to be hit by this Zombie who is watching us with eager eyes. "Come my pretty", she saying, which was more of a moan then actual words. As I was planning the actual path I was going to take, and looking at the ground with its ruts and the brush around the trail and thinking how am I going to get around this without hurting myself. When all of sudden I hear from the back of our bunch "1...2...3!" Our makeshift team surged forward, I paused for a second and realized my twin has already taken off. Oh, great, she has left me again. I bounced after her and ended right behind her. She was trying to figure the best way to run around the Zombie without grabbing for her when I came up behind and went to her left, while the Zombie went for her right. And as I flew by her I came up with this one thought. The thought that we don't say out loud because maybe this is the true you and not the nice person that you believe you are. But because I am honest to my readers I will tell you my deep dark secret.

I will not hesitate to use you as a body shield to protect myself from a Zombie war.

And that is what I did to my sister. I let the Zombie go for her as I used her as a body shield, and yes, I ran on.
At the bottom of the hill was a wonderful, beautiful water station signaling the end of the first mile and I still have three flags, and yes, I was getting cocky. After hydrating and ready for the second mile I knew now after a rocky start I really could finish this. I was hurting by now, my knee was killing me from when the eagle landed previously and my hip was starting to remind me that I do have Stage Four Arthritis but I pushed on. There was a maze that I flew through, a couple more fields, which I will now admit that I have lost one flag and I have reached the 2 mile water station. Yea, for me!

The Last Mile
If you all have seen my blog you will notice that I posted a picture with an arrow and the word "hill" on it. This was the first of many of the "hills" on the last mile. I would like to say that I breezed right through, but let me say, no one "breezes" these hills. They are made for dirt road motorcycles that requires wheelies at the top. But I will say that I did make it up the hills without sliding back like everyone else was doing. (Thanks Brooks Trail Running Shoes. Always give credit were credit is due.) It wasn't until I ran into a large Zombie that for the record got a little too friendly by slipping her arms around me to steal my two last flags. I was irritated, but well crap happens. So I ended up helping my team by acting like I had flags and ended up being the body shield for others. (See, always remember to pay it forward) I was walking towards the end of the race now and one of the race photographers was taking pictures, and since I had nothing to lose I stopped in front of the photographer and strike a pose. Ta DA! I stood there as he snapped, and when he was done he said, "here you might need this." He hands me a red flag. (Oh, yes, I found a safety box!) The game was on once again!
Well.. on when I make it up another hill and the three Zombies on top of it. ( By the way, I have no idea where my sister is at this time.) I ran as fast as I could up the hill feeling like I was Ms. Flash Gordon, but the truth is it was probably more like Yertle the Turtle. Which didn't give the Zombie any kind of challenge and I will admit that by the time I was at the top, I just tore the flag off my belt and handed it to him. He smiled.
That was it. That was the last hill now there was a couple of last obstacles to complete and a run down the virus infected shoot and to hose off in freezing water line. But it was done. I was handed the medal, my very first one ever. Let's all say ahhh. But to me this was a great achievement.
I would have never thought in my life that I would complete a 5k obstacle course. I am not naturally athletic nor have I  really been inclined to be so, but when I saw read about this race originally, I was compelled to just do it and I didn't quit. I will never be a marathon runner and I will always have to work harder, but the truth of this is I tried and I succeeded.

See you May 11, 2013
http://www.runforyourlives.com/north-cali-overview-2013/

Don't hit the Zombies!

As we jabbered, the crowd started moving forward. I pretended to listen to the conversation my sister was having and the answers coming from the two women we just met, but I was really just concentrating on the movement of the crowd. My heart started beating loudly and I started getting the nervousness in my stomach. My sister and I hit the end of the tunnel and started running. It was so quiet. Runners were concentrating on the trail with its grooves and ruts that will become the path through the whole race. After we all realized that there no Zombies outside the chute we slowed down to conserve our energy. There was brambles of blackberries along the trail and the heat was sweltering. Coming up a hill a we arrived at a wooden shed like structure. I kept thinking, ok this is it. The Zombies are going to be on the otherside. We all clumsly crawled into the house that was smoking and dark. Mandy is no where to be seen. Great, I have lost her already. A fleeting thought went through my head that I now have had a glimpse of a real Zombie apocalyse. Mandy will leave you. I didn't know what was inside the shed but I stayed near the side of the structure when I fell through the hole. As I worked my way to the other end, I thought one mantra, just run, you can do this. With one last gasp of breath I flew through the opening like a super hero at full strength. I didn't look around me. I just concentrated on running and keeping my flags. As I ran I noticed that I was picking up speed and I was furiously losing control of my legs, and at the same time thinking, slow down, slow down, Oh my gosh, this was going to hurt. As my hips were popping and making noises that I have never heard before, saw a Zombie was in front of me, but instead of slowing down I did the unimagineable. I flew. My legs left the ground, my body formed the perfect line, and my face was pointed to the ground, and for one second of my life I felt like I was a bird. Sigh. Ok, that is not quite what had happened, but when you land in a crumpled heap at a Zombie's feet and your brain is telling you to get up, get up, and the Zombie stops his moaning and clawing and looks down at you and says, "Oh my gosh are you alright?" Then you know that what you just did (falling gracefully) was enough to startled even the most charcter filled person.
After giving the very polite zombie a nod I was back up on my feet running. Now you think I would have learned the first time, but again I realized I was still on a downward hill. Once again my joints in my legs thought they were lubricated enough in the socket to believe that when joints pop louder it does not mean we can just hit superdrive of Go, Go, Go! Once again the old blackberry brambles scraped my knees, and my hands looked like they had been scrubed raw, the ground never looked so distinct a half of inch from my face.
After I quickly recovered from the most recent fall and with the Zombies distracted by others, I moved on. I caught up with my sister who at this time lost one of her three flags and explained to me furiously that the Zombies are grabby. I looked at her incredlously.
Further along we ran into a field with five Zombies and my sister losing another flag. We went under mud filled fences, and over the infamous walls that I explained earlier which was not one of my shining moments. The sun was beating down on us and by this time, we all realized that our wave was gone and we were the last survivors.  We are exhausted, sweaty, and hot when we hit a grove of trees that blessed us with much needed shade. There were a couple of Zombies that we easily flew past. But it wasn't until we came to a very steep hill that we all wimpered out. Breathing hard, legs aching, and the hill never ending I turned behind me and noticed that there was a nice looking girl Zombie behind us, walking as slow as we were . No one gave it much thought and continued to walk at a even slower pace then before, but my gut was telling me that this was a trick! I made my legs go faster, I started putting the other people around me behind me and I knew I was right when I heard the screams.
I caught up with my sister at the top of the monsterus hill, just waiting. There was Zombie about 5 feet in front of us. Our gang caught up and we all stood watching the Zombie and trying to figure out how we, no I mean I, were going to get around her. I still had three of my flags, and I was determine not to lose any of them.

Next Blog: The Final Battle...

Would you like a beer with your Zombie?

I love to sing. I sing to almost every song on the radio, I sing songs in my head. Singing is one of my greatest passions. If I didn't have music well...let's not go there. The thing is, singing requires no physical activity on my part. I don't dance maybe a little shuffle here or there, but singing requires only my voice and I like to say I have gotten pretty good at it over the years. My sister and I head to the dive karaoke bar that has a flamboyant K.J that should be in a show like Gypsy, but his choice is to play songs that drunk people think they sound good too, me included I am sure. Truth is, I haven't sang in awhile and I am looking forward to ONE beer (race tomorrow must be at form) and a song. Well, as the night turns into three songs, and three pints of  Hefeweizen beer with one big glass of water before the fourth pint is started I knew that I was in for a hard day tomorrow. We all said goodbye to each other at midnight with my sister giving me a hard look of a Jägermeister aftershock telling me I will be over at the house by 9am to pick me up for the Run.
Mandy is right on time. My hair is french braided on both sides so my loose A-lined cut won't get in my eyes when I  am swerving away from Zombies. I have taken three Advil (precaution), I have wrapped my right ankle as tight as it will go without cutting off the blood, and I have my brand new orthopedic running shoes on, so I am as prepared as I can be. All I keep hearing though is Brian's voice in my head to be careful, and this where I get nervous. What if I can't complete the run? I will have to go back to Reno and tell everyone that I failed. It is funny there is a lot of things that I will never be able to do. Like climb a gym class rope, cross the monkey bars, get my round butt over a retaining wall while running from Zombies, and falling with graceful thump onto the side. (Yes I did this, and it took my sister a few minutes to catch her breath from laughing so hard.) Anyway, I was determined to get through this with my flags or no flags, to be able to just say I did it. We get to a place that looked like a grass filled shaded area that is about two hours outside of Portland in Washington. It was beautiful, it looked perfect and I thought this won't be too bad. Now even though we were up North we all have noticed this summer it has been incredibly warm. And with the Northwest this was no exception, and put humidity on top it. As my sister and I parked the car and walked up the hill to check in I noticed something peculiar. After you pass the tree lines all you see is dirt and sun, and ninety degree hills. Oh good lord, we are at a motor cross race course, and as I look around it doesn't seem so easy. We get checked in and the first thing we noticed was a big beautiful sign that says BEER in haunted Zombie font. My sister and I had the perfect twin moment, we looked at each other and started walking towards the beer sign. We have an hour and half till our run time and nothing sounded sweeter.
Time to line up. We head up again another hill to our starting point when I realize I have to go the bathroom. (Yes, I have a point) so I head down the hill to the port-o-zombie potty did my business and headed, yes you guess it back up the hill. By the time I get there my sister is waving to me hurry up, we are the last ones to line up in the "dessert line" (really slow people) Fast people were the "Appetizers", and medium runners were "Entrees." So as we are waiting to start, a couple of ladies with red neck trucker shirts with eagles spreading their wings, or a lion jumping out the bush over their tank tops. Mandy and I liked them automatically. We chatted on why were doing the race and how we plan to accomplish this task. We all agreed that we will run as team and work together. By this time I have told them about my C.P and that I will need help IF there was a retaining wall. They think it is wonderful that I am doing this race and what an inspiration that I am. It is really hard for me to say thank you for the compliment because I am nothing special. I have mild C.P, there are folks out there that have it much worse. My friend Angie recently explained what these wonderful ladies were really complimenting about. "They are not giving you empty praises, they are praising you because of the person that is standing in front of them is smiling and is talking with all the passion in the world for this one race. Take the compliment Casey, you deserve it."

Mom, you are going to let Zombies chase you?

"What is the worse that can happen?" I said to my husband Brian as I am packing my bag to leave for Portland. Running shoes, check. Ankle brace, check. band-aids, check. Advil, check. Yes, I preparing for the apocalypse, oh I mean the run/obstacle course 5k that my twin and I are going to participate on this muggy August weekend. He looked at me with his stoic expression like he was choosing his words very carefully. "You could fall and break your hip." God bless it, I knew I could count on my darling husband to give me the absolute truth, and it was. About a year ago I had my second right hip arthroscopey. The goal of the procedure was to shave the ball and the socket of the joint to allow my hip to sit correctly or as good as it could in the joint. The medical term is called Femoral Acetabular Impingement (FAI) and it is a condition of too much friction in the hip joint or bones getting too close to each other and "pinching" or impinging each other. This time we were fixing what is called Cam form. The Cam form is when the femoral head and neck relationship as not perfectly round. The first surgery I had when I was 31 was called the Pincer impingement and this when the socket or the acetabulum has too much coverage of the femoral head. Regardless, it was found during the  2nd surgery that I have Stage 4 Arthritis in the hip after many years of really not walking like a "normal" person. It is funny that I say that because it is true, I remember my sister saw me about 2 blocks from where she waiting for me one day, and she told me when I met up with her that she can always tell from far away if that was me because of the distinct way I walk. Not too much of limp, but just enough sideways motion that makes me look like I am a living breathing leaning tower of Pisa. see, just a little sideways.
"Honey, I said I promise I will not call you from the hospital, but I can do this." He said, "I know you can sweetie, and you will do great. I just want you to be careful." Now at this time my son Luke is bouncing on our bed and running through the mantra of a 5 year old of "look at me, look at me!" Until he hears the word Zombies and stops his pursuit to break our bed and says, "mom you are going to let Zombies chase you? Why?" This leads into explaining this weekend and that the Zombies are not real, and the truth is I ended up having one of the most memorable conversations with my son so far because I felt that we had, well you know, a connection. The kid loves Zombies, see that is my boy.
During the last six months I had been so excited about this run and telling anyone that would listen about this run and how I was going to complete it and survive. No matter what comes during the race I will get through it, or the correct term is my sister will help me over it.

Really? Zombies?

Hello again. Wow, I make a blog then I leave it for two weeks. Well...you know how it is, working full time, as well as being a parent and wife. Time flies when you think you have forever. I am back now, and as promise let's talk about Zombies. To give you a little background for people who do not know, I am an identical twin. She is truly the other half of me. Where I am a little more down to earth, she is flamboyant in a good way,but we really do make one person. One crazy, emotional person....well that is another subject. Anyway, she and I actually have a quite of bit in common. And even though it could be all the horror movies our mother made us watch when we were younger, we both have this insane fascination with Zombies. Zombies creep me out. When I watch The Walking Dead I really cannot go to bed afterwards because my brain will not shut off from watch I just watched. They freak me out so much that are start playing twenty questions in my head like, what will I do in a Zombie Apocalypse? Will I be the fattie that is caught first? (Oh come on, we have all watched Zombieland. We have all asked this question.) Yes, it is true I do have these thoughts that go through my head. Which leads me back to getting a link from her on Gmail chat saying, "check this out." Run for your lives
OK, her links are always interesting so I could not resist. I click on the link and what pops up is a Zombie head reading, "Run for your Lives 5K obstacle course run". Digging a little further and my eyes widen. Oh my Gosh! In a really weird sort of dream come true moment for me, it reads, the runner has to complete a 5k obstacle course running from Zombies! I made the decision right then, I am going to do it, and I am going to convince my twin to do it too! And I did. The thing is, I do not run. Period. Bad things happen when I run. First, I fall. Second, odd places in my body start hurting. And I am talking about the mysterious tendons that you had no idea a tendon was there in the first place, and that makes life even harder explaining to the Dr. about the pain that is so intense that you are sure you have torn something, but come to find out that it is  tendinitis, again. Folks, I have had tendinitis in so much of body that if you could donate your tendons when you die mine would go in the trash. I digress, the point is that I knew I could do this. Granted, I have never done an obstacle run, but I was convinced, and determined to participate. I am healthly and I just had my hip fixed for the second time and as long as I don't do anything to aggravate the arthritis then I will be fine. I have great logic. (Side note, yes, I am 36 years old and have stage 4 arthritis in my right hip because of the C.P.) But what the hell. Really how much damage could I do. Next blog: Day of the Race.