Beach Palooza Recap - Part 1

You guys.  This was so much fun!  And scary!  Holy crap - I did not realize some of the obstacles would be as challenging as they were...when Kelly and I first signed up for this race, we saw pictures of pool noodles and giant beach balls - fun, right?  Oh my.  The fun stuff was there, but also some things that quite honestly, I can't believe I did.  There are days when I look at myself and wonder "who ARE you?" and Beach Palooza was definitely one of those days!  This was not something I ever would have considered doing back when I was overweight.  No way, no how.  Pretty cool how much my world has expanded as I've shrunk.

(I'm sure you all will be sick and tired of hearing about this by then end of the week, but because we ended up with so many fun pictures, and I can't stand to NOT show you everything, I'm going to break up the recap into several days.  You're welcome?)

Part 1
The strange thing about this race was that it started in waves...and our wave time was 11:30.  Which, normally?  You'd be finished and enjoying a nice post-race meal by then.  Also?  It was H-O-T in Galveston that morning.  Probably the upper 80s - and we hadn't even started running yet!  Welcome to Texas.  But hey, you can't really complain - being on the beach in late September under sunny skies?  This is when we get rewarded for living through those crazyhot Texas summers!

We picked up our race packets and posed with our pineapple hats - every racer got a pineapple hat and a t-shirt, and a finisher's medal at the end.  My kind of race!

I'm thinking our Christmas card picture?  LOL

I have no idea why my pineapple hat stem is going against the wind.  Always gotta be a rebel, that's me!

We waited in our corral to start, where we could see the previous waves of runners doing some of the obstacles.  We noticed that a lot of them were walking.  Huh.  We'd soon find out why they were walking!  Anyway, we started off, and I ran for the first time in nearly 6 months!  Being on sand, it felt strange, but still, it was so nice to actually run.  For a little bit, anyway - I had to take frequent walking breaks, but we all had decided to stick together, so we just enjoyed the race.  We ended up going a mile and a half down the beach - no obstacles, just running/walking.  Finally we hit the water station, got some much-needed ice-cold water, and turned around to head toward the obstacles.

We were really hot and parched - that water hit the spot!

First up was an easy one - we ran through hanging padded mats:

Here we go!

We giggled our way through this one!

I love this picture because it shows the relief on our faces at having completed the first obstacle!

Kelly and I being radical...

Then we hit the wall - literally.  A row of walls that we had to climb over.  I don't know about you, but the last time I climbed something like this, I was a kid, climbing over my neighbor's fence (hey, why go around and use the gate when you can climb over, right?).  The first wall was higher than my waist!  After a moment of hesitation, I just threw myself onto it and heaved over.  It was crazy - neither Kelly nor I could believe we were doing this...but we did!

I'm laughing as I heave myself over the wall!

Do you see the woman in the white tank top next to me?  See how the wall is above her waist?  These were tough for a short person like me!

I love this picture because it looks like I have my game face on and am RUNNING!  Mostly I was just happy to be done with climbing over those walls.

After the walls came the pool noodle forest - this is what sold us on signing up for the race in the first place!

This was colorful and fun!

While I have thrown my arms up in victory over conquering the pool noodles, Kelly was still having a moment with them and did not want to leave.

We all had sand in our shoes, but didn't think we'd be getting wet until the icy swim at the very end.  Imagine our surprise when we came across this - I'm proud to say that we went for it and splashed right in.

Next up...the REALLY scary obstacles!