The Brave Throwdown- As the STRONGMUTHAZ

So I just blew up my facebook page and IG with pictures from the Brave Throwdown.  What was it?  When I signed up I thought it would be like gym class.  A fun little fitness competition where you count who can do the most burpees in a minute.  I thought it would be hard but I had no idea it would suck the life force out of me.  It was not a gym class workout.  It was a CRAZY FITNESS FREAK workout and it kicked my ass.  It kicked my ass in the first five minutes and I had about 50 to go. 

My friend Tara is the one who got me to sign up.  She texted me a picture of the flyer and said, "you should do this."  I don't know how I actually ended up doing it but she was the inspiration.  I was on a team with two women from the gym who I absolutely love.  Heather is the Personal Training Director at Penn and Lissa is an Instructor.  At first Lissa said, mmmmmmmmm no.  Somewhere along the way she realized she wanted to do it and the Strongmuthaz were born.  We are all moms and I love having that bond with them.  It is mom power.  And it's awesome.

So, okay, we show up and all I see are fit dudes.  Everywhere.  Then sprinkle in the fit females and I realized this was going to be brutal.  Everyone else seems like they are READY.  They are fierce.  They might of actually trained.  shit.

The competition was like this, 45 seconds of something crazy hard, followed by 15 seconds of active rest, like a plank.  (pssshsdasfsdfr, that is not rest. but mmm, hello, Casey.  Stop being a whiny baby and man up.)  Do that for 8 rounds, which is 8 mins of work.  Then- a 5 min AMRAP but each person on the team goes in turns.  There were six total "events."  Three of the 8 minute MUTHA F&CK$RS and three of the AMRAPs. 

The event was so well put together, I must say.  Everyone there was so warm and friendly and I really got a beautiful sense of community.  That is one of the things I love about Hilo.  People are just really connected in certain situations. It was most of the gyms in Hilo working out together but The Brave Fitness put the event on.  Their athletes were tough, by the way.  holy moly.  Same with the cross fitters.  Man, they know how to take a beating and make it look easy.

So we got started.  Boom.  Here we go.  I was smoked and body rocked after about 5 minutes.  Not exaggerating.  I was freaking out.  How was this happening?  But it was what it was and my team was so amazing and loving and strong and we just kept going.  I was fighting my way through it.  Talking to my body, thinking, "MOVE."  "GO."  But my body was like........if you do one more clapping push up, you might not make it.  You might land on your face.  You really might have to run outa here and puke.
What I really was proud of is that I was apart of this crazy thing.  I was in that room, on the scoreboard with amazing and incredible athletes.  My teammates included.  I was proud of myself for pushing as much as I could and for surviving.  We didn't win but we did it.  That in itself is awesome.  There were only three all female teams and we were one of them.  That is so cool! 

I was able to feel the room.  Not so much when I was about to die because I was getting my ass kicked so hard but.....during moments........when I could hear Chad telling me to BRING IT.  When my friend, Tara, got down on her knees and right in my face and told me to WORK.  She told me I WAS STRONG.  When I looked up and saw Dutch saying, GO MOM!  (then he said, can I go back to play with my friends now?!)  I got them.  I was getting them in that moment.   I loved them.  I looked over at Heather just working like the energizer bunny and Lissa pushing herself in a way I had never seen before.  The way I felt about the strangers after we did that sort of work together........it was connection at its finest. They might not even know the love I felt for them, the one's who kicked my ass.  I was in awe of them.

I am so glad I signed up for that good ole THROWDOWN.  You never know when you will get your ass handed to you and have a spiritual experience all in one moment.