yesterday dave and i did the ROC race. it was held at the LA Fairgrounds in pomona, which is just 10 miles down the road from us. friday night we were indifferent - it was raining, we could've gone or not and not cared at all. but saturday we woke up ready to go. then we looked at the weather. no rain, but it was 35 degrees at 0630. by the 0900 race start, the temp was supposed to be 43. they were wrong - as weather forecasts always are. it was 44 degrees. (sense the sarcasm)

we got there in plenty of time, so we stayed in the car and people watched. boy what a time we had. this vibe was much different from a normal triathlon. people just didn't care about anything. 90% were dressed in costume of some sort. 70% were smiling regardless of the cold. 50% were drunk at 0830. there might be some correlation between those last 2.

the race is a 5k with 10+ obstacles. we were the first group of racers (there were 3 different signup times), and we were probably the 3rd wave that went off. with so many people, we still had to wait in line for the big obstacles. no biggy. it was cold, so having the time to cool down from the runs was perfect. first true obstacle:

super short (as in height) tunnel. it looks like just loose dirt, but it's not. it was lined with snow. the rain from the night before just made everything a muddy mess, but here it made it super cold snirt (snow+dirt)(yep, just made that up). it took awhile for our hands to thaw. there were 2 of these, dave first on the first one, me first on the second. just so i could do this to him:

the running caught me off guard - evidently i'm not very in shape anymore. dave was patient, he stayed with me. we soon realized we really wanted to stay together regardless of speed. it was just so much fun that we wanted to share. there were maybe 4 different stations where you were intentionally sprayed with hoses or water guns, which made it quite a cold morning. there was one section with 4 massive ropes hanging over a waist-high trough of nasty water. dave's military training showed on that one - he was the only one who laid ON the rope and pulled himself across. that particular method hurt my girls, so i just jumped in the water and walked. it was nipply. the huge bouncy slides were my fav, probably. dave and i went up the ropes together, we'd planned to superman it on the slide down. we get to the top and dave was so wiggly trying to position himself for his jump that i totally lost my balance and landed on the girls and just slid all the way down head first. oh and hysterically laughing the entire way. such a good time. there were a few other rope/hill obstacles and i really liked those. i totally biffed it on the monkey bars. landed in the water/mud pit. my hands didn't stand a chance with me at this weight.

in all we had just a great time. we laughed, we were somewhat working out, and we just really enjoyed ourselves. plus dave got a free beer at the end. he was happy.

the diet is going well. friday night i was suicidal. maybe not suicidal, but i was definitely ready to completely binge on anything in sight. i had to phone a friend to talk me down from the ledge. i've recruited a sorority sister into the diet with me, and she has recruited her mother and mil. i totally underestimated how helpful dieting is with a friend. especially one like her - we were separated at birth, we both feel the same way about food. we love it. she got me down, and i realized i was in phase 1 too long. saturday i was thinking that after the race i would probably have to come off the diet for just a meal. once i got done though, i realized i'd be fine moving into phase 2. in all, i'm down 9 lbs in 2 weeks. very happy with that. busy month coming up, so i'm hoping i continue to do as well.