Rattlesnakes, climbing steep hills, straight lady bossin’ – #feelamazingeveryday

I was searching for the perfect #tbt photo to share for today’s Amazing Grass & Fit Approach #feelamazingeveryday challenge; as I was looking through all of my sweaty throwback moments on my camera roll, I suddenly started to feel really proud of myself. In fact, I was feeling so proud of all my sweaty adventures, that I was having a hard time choosing just one moment to share.

So while drinking my Amazing Grass Protein Superfood smoothie with almond milk, banana, peanut butter and cold brew (of course), I decided I’d share my #feelamazingeveryday moments as a story.

And not just because I’m a total over-sharer or narcissist but because I’m proud of the person I am. I’m proud that I have had so many sweaty moments that have made me feel amazing, accomplished and like the total lady boss that I am.

With that, here are some of my favorite sweat filled throwbacks that had me feeling AMAZING (from most recent to least…):

I ain’t your rattlesnack: 

I’ve said many times before that if I were to ever encounter a dead or scary animal, I’d scream and run for the hills and wait for my husband to take care of it…to take care of me. Ugh.

And then just over a week ago, I was traveling through Salt Lake City, Utah solo (well, with Abbie, my dog) and went out for an afternoon trail run. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the trails were perfect. We were frolicking through wildflowers…

 

and enjoying epic views…

I was also enjoying a pretty epic podcast on my Aftershokz headphones.

At first most of the trail was fire road; we were traversing and sidewinding around the mountain giddily. And then we came upon a narrow trail going up to a peak on the mountain – I could see it was rocky, narrow and probably a little windy – and thought f*^& yeah, we’re going! 

I leashed Abbie up and we made our way up the side of the mountain. She was just a couple of feet ahead of me and we were happily huffing and puffing our way to the top. I was DEEP in my podcast when suddenly (thank goodness for Aftershokz) I heard chhh chhh chhh chhhh chhhh.  I realized it wasn’t coming from my headphones and glanced up ahead and saw a baby rattlesnake directly in front of Abbie, only a foot or so away from her. My heart all but stopped for a moment and then I went into full auto-pilot mode to get us down the mountain safely.

I said Abbie, WAIT and once I had her attention, I proceeded to calmly guide her down the rocks, away from the rattling snake as cautiously and quickly as I could. We had a long, strenuous descent and I was keeping her very close to me even on the narrow trail – knowing that when there is one rattlesnake, there are probably more rattling snakes. I was really afraid as we traversed back down the mountain. I could hear my heart in my chest. I was talking out loud to Abbie – probably more for my sake than for hers – and step by step, getting us off of those rocks and away from those snakes.

Once we were back in the car, I realized I was shaking. And I had to laugh. I wiped down my sweat, did a quick car change and got ready for our next 11+ hours of driving. I rolled down the windows, turned the music up and drove off like the lady boss that I am.

And realizing now, that as scary as that snake encounter was, I now know what I am capable of. Ain’t nobody gonna hold me down…or uh, turn me into a rattlesnack…

rattlesnack (raht-ul-sna-ck): 1. a word derived from wine drinking. This word typically comes from playing board games with family members after drinking far too many glasses of wine and often takes many rounds and many players to figure out there is a typo – and what the player really meant to write was, rattlesnake.

Why yes, yes, we are. Just last weekend, Casey, Abbie and I headed out to Washington to play on the trails and find a more remote trail running location (dodging the Memorial Day weekend crowds). We ended up at Grassy Knoll trailhead – and straight away, we were on a pretty killer climb – it was taking literally everything out of me – my lungs, butt, legs and all were on fire. But I just kept breathing and moving. We got to the top and took in the view..and knew the climb had been well worth the effort.

Incredible views.

 

Wildflowers.

And more views.

We could see Mt. Adams, lava beds and Mt. Huckleberry. Awesome. After taking it in, we decided to move on. We were on some nice, rolling single-track when suddenly the trail just seemed to disappear. Wait, where’s the trail? Er, uh, is it here? Hopping up on a fallen tree, we could make out the trail ahead and plowed up and over the tree trunk, the blown over branches and leaves and things.

We made our way even farther down the trail and more carnage, more logs to jump over or wiggle under. More trails to find. We finally came to our turn around point for the day – without any visible trail and more and more fallen trees – we called it at just over 3 miles in. On our way back, we met back up with some hikers we had seen at the start of our run – they also had a dog (Abbie has a thing for poodles of any kind – all the oodles – she’s in). And as we exchanged pleasantries and our dogs exchanged butt sniffs, they asked you guys ultra runners or something? Because that hill….. I said, you know what, yes…yes we are. And whether anyone cares or not, I felt empowered and amazing. Like a badass. That runs up mountains, dodges and jumps over tree trunks. And then lady bosses her way back down the mountain…

Orcas Island 100: I still can’t flipping believe I did it. All the elevation. No pacers. No sleep. All the running. Lady bossin’ like nobody’s business. Even just looking at the photos makes me feel amazing. I always think to myself, I f*ing did that. I didn’t think I could. But I did. And I did it all by myself. 

Sweaty throwback to be proud of fo’ sho!

What memories make you feel amazing?

Stay sweaty (and amazing!) friends!

XOXO

Jamie