Some might think I’m crazy, some might not be surprised. But I’ve signed myself up for an adventure race. It’s 64 miles. No biggie, right? I’ve hiked more than 64 miles before… the catch is that is has to be completed within 24 hours! My friend, Sarah (for you 4imprinters, that’s Sarah in photography) is doing it with me. We are excited to try it. We both think it will be fun just seeing if we can pull it off.
The event is going to be on Saturday, January 20th – next weekend! It’s called the Frozen Otter, and it’s on Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail through the Kettle Moraine State Forest. It sounds beautiful, although it will be very cold. Our weather forecast for that week is calling for highs around 30, and lows around 20. But we’ll be moving, hopefully almost the entire time, so that’ll keep us warm.
I know I haven’t posted in a while, and you must be able to feel the excitement I am feeling about this adventure race. Well, first of all, the main reason I haven’t posted lately, is because I have been sorting through a multitude of emotions – trying to figure out exactly what’s going on with me.
About 2 weeks after I started back at work, I started feeling overly hyper. I was shaky, and when I’d talk to someone, I felt like I was talking a million miles an hour and couldn’t seem to slow myself down. Then I kind of crashed and started feeling depressed – it felt just like that seasonal depression that is so common this type of year. So after a couple of weeks of just observing myself, I decided it was certainly, 100% related to not being outside 24/7. Duh, right? J
Right around that time, my mom called me with concern in her voice. She wasn’t feeling well. She was feeling kind of low – she basically explained exactly how I was feeling. So that just topped it – it was finally hitting us! We both thought that if the transition was going to hit, it would’ve already. But for some reason, it was a bit more delayed than we’d expected, so we were a little blind-sided. But just by knowing that we were both feeling the same way, we felt much better. Mom started taking short walks outside in the morning, and I got back into my classes at the local YMCA. I even roll the car window down on the way to work in the morning just for a morning shot of fresh air. It might be cold, and sound loopy, but I really noticed a difference! I even convinced my husband, Adam, to go for some cold, nightly 30-minute walks with me.
Since I’ve figured it out, and started doing something about it, I am almost feeling back to normal. I still have a little bit of the hyperness going on, but I am working really hard at relaxing. When the idea came up of Sarah and I taking on this adventure race together, I was all on board. I just can’t wait to get out there and see if we can do it! I will certainly let you all know how it goes. This weekend we are heading down there for a trial run -- we're shooting to do half of it -- 32 miles! That'll be a new daily-mileage record for, well, both of us!