Big Joe's Soap Box

I’m going back to structured updates.  Each time I think I can wing it I forget to write for at least a year.  Not ideal if you are trying to channel some time of creative energy and stay a little closer to sane.  So, at least once a week I am going to write something, but mostly keep updating the blog about some of the fun projects that I am working on.

My first project is my office.  My wife and I bought a used iMac.  This is going to be my creative tool and the base of a lot of my new projects.  My awesome family gifted me many iTunes gift cards so I could purchase Final Cut Pro.  I managed to find a really good deal on a GoPro and I am saving up for a 4K video camera (once again, my family has been donating gift cards).  Once upon a time I used to shoot and edit video.  I am trying to get back to that.  I just recently set up my office in the spare bedroom and I am updating the blog on the new iMac, so we are getting closer.

This leads into the next project that I am working on.  Fred, a good friend of mine, owns Callahan’s Performance Bowling.  We have been shooting bowling ball reviews and growing his YouTube channel named after the pro shop.  This has been a lot of fun and what has inspired me to go back to shooting and editing videos.  If you get a chance, go check out the channel.   Callahans Performance Bowling YouTube

Along with the video content we are also putting together a series of local tournaments.  IT should be a fun series that will run from February thru August and give bowlers in New England a chance to chase individual wins and work towards qualifying for a Tournament of Champions as well.

So watch this space, or any of my social media posts to see what we are working on.  I have a couple of other fun things in the works as well.  Hopefully I can carve out some time to keep everything I’m juggling in the air and keep the blog updated!

As soon as I posted that I was back I disappeared again.  So what the heck happened?  The last time I was here I was talking about how I was going to get back into the game and we were going to be talking a lot more.  Well, that didn’t go as planned.  I guess that happens sometimes, life’s plans get interrupted and we have to do the best we can to cope.

I had two health issues late last year.  The first was a questionable chest x-ray.  As part of what I do for a living I have to undergo medical surveillance.  I went for a routine physical and x-ray and the clinic thought they saw a shadow on one of my lungs.  They were very careful to tell me that it was probably nothing but I should get it checked by my primary care physician.  That caused a fair amount of sleepless nights but thankfully turned out to be operator error on the part of the clinic that performed the x-ray.  Two more x-rays later and there is nothing there.

The second health issue was much more real.  My gall bladder had to come out.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was very sick.  It had started back in the previous winter.  I was tired and my metabolism was very slow.  No matter how often I worked out I could never feel right.  I went for a checkup and the doctor did an ultrasound.  She told me that it would probably have to come out at some point, but not to be overly worried about it.  She could see stones, but they might not be an issue.  By November I was feeling worse and worse and went back for my final x-ray for my chest.  I had changed doctors and my new doctor sent me for another ultrasound.  She sent me to a surgeon who scheduled me for surgery a week later.  My gall bladder came out two days before Thanksgiving.

The surgery went slightly less than perfectly and I can’t thank my wife and family enough for taking time away from their holiday to help me recover.  I had to go back to the doctor over the long weekend because I was having trouble healing.  There were a few complications in surgery and after but I am happy to report that by Christmas I was almost feeling back to normal.

The largest change was in my energy levels.  I finally felt like I could function again.  I hadn’t realized how sick I was before the surgery because I had become used to how I was feeling.  I had been sick for so long that it became my new normal.  Once I started feeling better I realized just how bad it had been.  I started to count down to the day I could go back to training.  The surgeon had told me to wait six weeks and at first I couldn’t imagine getting back on the trainer or treadmill.  Once I started to feel better I couldn’t wait.

This ambition caused me to sign up for a new gym that was opening near my house.  I can’t wait to talk about that next week!

I also learned a few lessons through all of this.  The first and biggest is that if something doesn’t feel right, get it checked out.  You know your body better than anyone else; if a doctor tells you that nothing is wrong or to wait but you still feel that something is wrong, get a new doctor or second opinion.  If a doctor tells you to take care of something, do it.  You might not realize how bad you really feel.  Take care of yourself, you are the only one who can.

Finally, it’s really great to feel pretty good again.  While nothing is perfect, I sure feel better now than I have in a long time.  I am back to training and back to planning the next season of runs, rides, and OCRs!  It’s also great to finally feel like I have something positive to share with everyone and to get back to writing.  See you soon!

We made it!

So how do you battle not feeling like writing or working out?  I guess you “accidently” schedule two super fun events back to back to end the summer!  The first was Rugged Maniac New England and the second was Cycle Martha’s Vineyard.  More on the bike ride next time; this update is about all things Rugged!

The blog’s new team shirts! Designed by a wonderful friend, Katie.

First things first, new team shirts! Designed by a wonderful friend, Katie.irst, I need to thank my great friend Katie who designed the teams awesome shirts!  We always name the team after the blog but we never had a great shirt to go with it.  Thanks to Katie we were looking very stylish in our shirts.  I also want to thank everyone who came out to run this race.  My best friend Norm ran his second race with us and my sister in law Beth flew all the way from Florida to run.  Best of all, my wife made her Rugged Maniac debut after a huge assist from the race organizers.  Also in the list of “thank yous” is one for my father in law who took a ton of great race photos, all images here were taken by him.

Beth jumping onto the floating steps!

I cannot say enough about how helpful and friendly they were in helping Katie find a last minute spot due to cancellation as well as keeping the entire team on the same start waive.  Every year Rugged Maniac puts on a great race and the staff does whatever they can to make each person’s experience a positive one.  I emailed the staff a week prior to see if there was a way to get Katie in because of a cancellation on the team and they came through.  Then there was an issue with start times where we somehow were split up and they were able to help again.  Even the volunteers out on course were on another level from other races, cheering for the team and encouraging everyone.  Again, I can’t say enough good things about this race staff and volunteer group.

Norm has been my best friend since we were kids, and now I have him racing OCRs with me!

Along those same lines I need to say a few things about the venue.  Running an obstacle race on a motorcross track is a stroke of brilliance.  Most other local races seem to struggle with creating obstacles on a flat course; Rugged Maniac had the great idea to make the entire course an extra obstacle!  The jumps and landing zones made great hills and the low spots between gave the organizers a great starting place for many water obstacles.  On top of that the series has really benefitted from the infusion of funds from the Shark Tank investors.  The manufactured obstacles were better than ever.  The pacing was spot on as well.  I never felt like I was running to far between each obstacle and they were varied enough where I never felt like I was crawling through another barbed wire crawl just because the race needed one more obstacle and it was the easiest thing to do.

Did I mention the giant slide?

Lastly, before I get around to writing about my race I should mention the after party.  This is one of the rare races that actually spends time and effort on getting the party right.  There is a hosted competition of games, from pull ups to holding a beer at arm’s length there is a game for everyone.  There is a mechanical bull and live music.  There is food.  Sooooo much good food.  Oh, and a free beer if you are old enough and interested.

The giant slide was a lot of fun!

In addition to all of our guests the usual suspects ran the race as well.  Angie recovered nicely from her injury in the Gaylord Gauntlet and ran well.  Ronna, Steve, and Joe also ran well.  Clint ran away from us and then ran back.  He even did some of the obstacles twice while he waited for us.  The biggest surprise to me is that I ran well too.  Really well.  I was able to run well enough that I could almost see where I was before I kept hurting myself all summer.  I wasn’t as fast or as strong as I was, but I could almost feel it as I went through the obstacles.  I held onto the ring cross longer than I thought, and came thisclose from getting up the warped wall.  It was just enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I can get back, and this is the race I could almost see being there.  It is huge for me.

The warped wall was the hardest obstacle there this year, but a great way to close out the race!

The best thing about running obstacle course races is the messy fun that breaks up the monotony of a normal race.  I run to train for cycling and to train for OCRs.  I run 5Ks and other races for charity or for the experience but I never really enjoy running.  It is very different running an OCR!  You run until your team hits an obstacle and then you all work together to clear it.  Sometimes it’s fairly easy, you jump a small wall and then cheer on your team.  Other times you hit a 15 foot high wall and you have to help your teammates over that are scared of heights.  Or talk the claustrophobic ones through the sewer pipe crawl.  Or untangle a teammate’s hair from the barbed wire.  No matter what the race is always challenging your limits in every way which keeps things extremely fun.  Races like this quickly turn from intimidating to addicting.  My wife started the summer deathly afraid of OCRs and now she is looking for the next challenge.

Over the flames and into the ice cold water! Great obstacle!

I said a lot of positive things about Rugged Maniac New England in the beginning of the story, but in any review or recap the real result is would you run the race again?  Would you recommend the race to friends and even put your hard earned money down?  The answer is this, my entire team has already signed up again.  There was a booth in the finish fest for pre-registration for 2016 and no one even hesitated.  Once again I will put out the call to anyone wanting to join us.  Team Big Joe’s Soap Box will run again next fall in Southwick Massachusetts, who wants to join in?

The team climbing out of the ice water.

There was a lot of barbed wire. I mean a lot.

The frog jump was difficult but fun.

I received the auto renew on the site and realized how long it had been since I had posted here.  Why?  I’ve been struggling to answer that for a while now.  I wish there was an easy answer, but like most things in life it’s just not that easy.  There are a lot of reasons.  My job got a little hectic.  My family takes up more of my free time, and happily so.  I have been trying to solve a few computer issues.  Life gets in the way.

All of that is true, except none of that is really true.  What is really true?  I got hurt.  Not severely, but almost constantly.  I have a bad back.  It seems like I was in constant pain for almost the last year.  I have also had issues with my foot causing me to not be able to run.  Again, nothing huge but always there for the last year.  It would cost me a week here or there.  Not enough to be a real problem, but enough to stop forward progress.

So why did life interrupting plus injuries cause me to stop writing?  It was because I stopped riding.  And running.  And training.  Again, not always.  Most people would look at my event calendar and say that I was out of my mind, I hadn’t missed anything.  You would be completely correct.  I did manage to hit every event, but sometimes that was all I was able to accomplish that month.  Just as important, I did as poorly as you would imagine someone would do without training for an event.

All of this weighs in on why I haven’t written.  You see, I started this blog to be a positive voice.  I’m a big guy trying to get fit.  There are a lot of us in the world and we don’t often hear positive voices.  We hear people (including ourselves) tell us we are fat.  We get intimidated at the gym.  We know we don’t fit in, and worse, we know we stand out.  I wrote to be a small voice saying yes, that is true, but it doesn’t diminish our effort.  It doesn’t make us worth less, it just makes us different.

The issue is I had very little positive to say.  It is hard to be positive when you feel like you are failing.  Every time I got hurt or missed a workout for some other reason I felt less like writing and more like hiding.  I would have less to say because I couldn’t get over the idea that I sounded like I was complaining.  I don’t like to hear myself complain so I didn’t want to put it here either.

What I missed is that I think everyone ends up where I am sometimes.  People get hurt.  People get busy with life.  People lose track of what they are working on and lose ground on goals.  Not everyone is blessed with a great body and no one is perfect.  So we stumble and struggle and try.  No one can be positive all of the time, but we can support each other.  We can share stories and laugh at some shortcomings as well.  We can pick each other up.

So here I am, back again.  Resetting the blog and trying again.  Getting back up and writing, telling stories about what is happening, the good, the bad, and the sweaty.

This week starts a new commitment by me to write every week.  To blow off the cobwebs and get back to work.  First up, I am heading back to Rugged Maniac this weekend.  Look for a full report next week!