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The Road to Rugged

September 1, 2017 By The Rhythm Of Reman Leave a comment


I remember during my second interview asking my would-be-boss if it was something of an unspoken expectation that I be athletic or at least possess the desire to participate in the Tough Mudders, 5ks, and Warrior Dashes of the world. See, the office had distinct signs of competitive athleticism. From sports gear to prints of team races to an overall wellness that my weekly deep-dish pizza eating was pretty intimidated by. Not only had I recently sprained my ankle in pathetic fashion, but I was on the off-again of my on-again-off-again relationship with fitness. I was assured that, no, I could eat all the donuts and binge watch geeky TV shows for competitive water cooler conversations instead.
Fast forward. It’s a bright summer Saturday. My alarm goes off earlier than on a weekday, and I set off for a Rugged Maniac: 5k, 25 obstacles, mud, sun, fire, and fun?
How did I end up here? Where had I gone wrong?
A few unexpected things happened:
• Sponsorship
• FOMO
• Camaraderie
Rewind. In early spring, we were pitched the idea of participating as an office in a nice an easy 5k in the fall. While I was no more athletic than I was the day I started, I thought, a 5k? You can do that, Andee. You have all summer to train – and even if you don’t, you can probably manage to jog/hobble/walk 3 miles.
Loved ones started asking me how my training was going. “Oh, you know… good.” Lies. Lies, I say!
Then I was presented an offer I couldn’t refuse: A company-sponsored Rugged Maniac including a group personal trainer 2 mornings a week, a shirt, and a promise of free beer to lull me into healing post-race.
I signed up. I agreed. And a not-yet-sunny summer morning in July, I showed up to the gym to see the somewhat smiling faces of my colleagues ready to sweat, bleed, and laugh together with me.
For weeks we ran in laps together around the small gym. We cleaned each other’s droplets of sweat from off shared mats. We collectively dreaded bear crawls. We limped around the office.

On the first week, beside The Remaniac with his inhaler, I questioned all my life choices, the present one most of all. I wheezed and rasped, and wondered if I might not throw up instead of drinking more water. I was sore all over. I hated life and exercise and health.
And then… somewhere along the way, my mood improved. I’d cheerfully bounce around the office, if a little gingerly. I’d wheeze less and run more. I’d choose maybe once or twice the slightly harder of the moves. I’d watch my peers and friends out of the corner of my eye and wonder if I might not beat them on that next suicide run.
It was about getting in shape, and it wasn’t.
It was about the looming race, and it wasn’t.
The day came and looking over the list of obstacles we were to be traversing, I was feeling meek. I wasn’t hydrated. I had eaten a lavish celebratory meal the day before, and come on, all that working out wouldn’t suddenly provide me the upper body strength to propel myself across a muddy pit on slippery rings. And, to be fair, it didn’t.
But as our team arrived in varying states of excitement and preparedness, I realized that I’d likely live and probably have a lot of fun doing it.
And I did (not die, the other thing – fun.)

  • Sponsorship got me to sign up for the race. It wasn’t something I had to pay for or plan or prep for on my own – the fact that my company decided to promote this and invite its people was a bargain too good to pass up. That 5k? It still hasn’t happened yet. I’m still signed up, but now? Now, I’m ready to run it.
  • FOMO (Fear of missing out): Now, I’m not a social butterfly, and for every work activity I do participate in, there are maybe 5 that I don’t. But given the buzz, the structured prep times, the cool shirts – I knew I’d want to be a part of it.
  • Camaraderie. I thought back to that younger, not-quite-hired-yet self who was hoping I wouldn’t be forced to be athletic just because the rest of the office seemed to be. I thought of the pictures around the office and the shared t-shirt wearing, the pride, and stories shared surrounding past events. And then I got it. It didn’t really have anything to do with the staff being more athletic than anywhere else (though we may be, now) – it had everything to do with caring about your teammates. That was illustrated at every obstacle. We were in it together. And it was actually fun.


Don’t get me wrong. It was hard and gross and I had to crawl through tubes of rocks and fall into water sometimes more expectedly than others, but so did the people in front of, behind, and beside me – my comrads in mania. They helped lift me, and I helped lift them.
And in the end, we were sore, beer-laden, and ready for the next race, together. You in?


 How do you get from weekly deep-dish pizza eating to conquering a 25 obstacle race – on a Saturday? If you ask the Rhythm of Reman, it takes a few unexpected things. What do you and your team tackle, together? Comment below or connect with Andee directly.

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