Euro Wanderings: Two Weeks Ago

Back in September, Jack and I signed up or the Spartan Race. For those of you who don't know, the Spartan Race is a three mile run with any number of obstacles; what the obstacles are, however, you don't find out until you run in the race.

Now before I talk about the race itself, there was another significant event that took place the night before the race. Saturday afternoon, Jack and I went out to get a haircut. It's normally pretty tough to mess up my hair but this guy found a way. Molly saw the back and sides on our way back and all she said was, "yikes...." Basically, I looked like a cone head. I saw an opportunity. Back when I was playing youth football in probably 7th or 8th grade, one of my favorite Notre Dame football players was Tom Zbikowski. That was also the year Tommy Z got a mohawk and, consequently, the year when I was told "NO" every time I asked for a mohawk at the barber. What better time to get a mohawk and fulfill a dream than when I already have a terrible haircut and am running in a Spartan Race the next day?? Now was the time. One of the RAs, Rachel, had the clippers, and Jack was willing to cut my hairs so he went to town. Apparently Jack missed the day in preschool when they taught about straight lines so a couple minutes in all I hear is laughter. After half an hour I ended up with an S-shaped mohawk that wasn't centered on my head. BUT, a mohawk nonetheless! I trimmed it up and was living the dream.

A couple weeks before the race, Jack and I were joined by Kurt so on race day, the three of us, and three awesome spectators (Riker, Helen, and Molly) got on the train and took it an hour away into the British countryside-town of Redhill. The stares and double takes people did when they saw my hair made the trip even more enjoyable! There were over two thousand people running in the Spartan race, spread throughout four or five different heats. Kurt set off in the 10:30 and Jack and I lined up at 11. After a pre-war speech from a Spartan, the race started and was pretty easy...for about 2 minutes. Basically our run consisted of army-crawling through mud underneath barbed wire, climbing over 9 foot walls, more mud and barbed wire, carrying thirty pound bags of sand up and down a hill, running through the woods, going over and under logs, the ice crawl (same as the mud and barbed wire, just with lots of ice cubes instead of mud), wading and swimming through water, and jumping over fire-all within a three mile period!

Aside from the bruises and cuts - battle scars as I called them - it was one of the most fun things I've done while I've been here. And, as I found out, Jack and I came in 145th and 146th out of over two-thousand so not too bad! The mohawk was a hit, too. Told you, Mom!!