weekend athletics

[Guest guest]

I was already way behind on messages and email, and will be for another day or two, but have to report on my weekend. I went with my daughter's Girl Scout troop to camp Friday evening through Sunday morning. Almost all of the activities were crammed into Saturday with very little sleep Friday night. The counselors led the activities and the troop leaders' responsibilities were to enthusiastically join in. We were allowed to do all the same activities the girls did so first we did archery. LOVED it! I haven't done that since I was a camper 30+ years ago and loved it then too. Then, we went on a very long, mostly boring nature hike with a counselor that didn't tell us much about nature but it was still very beautiful in the woods. Later, it was on to the highlight of the day for many of us... the ROCK WALL!!

First a brag... my little 8 1/2 year old daughter (she's going into 4th grade but at 3 foot 11 3/4 inches, 48 pounds, she's smaller than some 2nd graders) was the first one to go and that kid SCRAMBLED up that wall, all 30 FEET of it, to ring the bell!! She was either smallest or 2nd smallest of 21 girls (two troops from the same school, we do a lot together) but she set the bar for everyone else. She couldn't always figure out where to put her foot but everyone called ideas to her and encouraged her and wow, she just zoomed! She looked like she wanted to give up a few times but just kept going. It was super inspiring. A few other girls also rang the bell but a lot of others gave up very early too.

Okay, now a brag on me and the other moms... 4 out of 5 of us took a try at climbing that wall! I was the first to say yes to the challenge. I really wasn't sure I wanted to do it but thte girls put a helmet and harness on me anyway! None of us rang the bell but I did get 2/3 of the way up when my arms and legs were just shaking so hard and the kids were all yelling so loud too that I couldn't focus on where to go next and didn't think I had the strength to go any higher. In retrospect I think maybe I could have been able to go up one more level of rock and considered it but I also knew that was it and chose to descend at that point. I was the first mom and got the highest of the moms(one was about one level below me). I have NEVER had the strength to even get past practically the bottom of a wall like that. Between arthritis (which is finally being medicated and doing well overall), poor conditioning and lack of confidence, it always seemed impossible and I've only tried once but gave up really fast. Yesterday, I didn't get as far as my little spider monkey but I put in a good showing anyway. Now we can't wait to go to another fair that has a rock wall with the games! We'll let Miriam try to ring the bell and win herself a huge stuffed animal! The counselors asked each of us, before we started, what our goal was. Mine was "To get past the 1st layer of rocks." Next time, it is to get at least one layer higher than I got this time.

We had a great weekend and, with very little sleep overall. Ate way too much. The food was good but not what I'm used to, much heavier and a lot less fruits & veggies plus I ate larger portions than normal just 'cause I felt like it. I remembered what eating past the point of satisfaction feels like a couple of times and I think I got that out of my system (not a good feeling anymore)! Our campsite was pretty far out from most of our activities and places we needed to go so we did a ton of walking besides the activities but I know the activity still didn't touch the amount of calories! My workout tomorrow is the beach after work with my BFF and our kids. Not sure how much swimming I'll be doing but I'll at least take it easy on the food! ;-)