What if I told you that having a FIT LIFE could be FUN and ADVENTUROUS?
Do I have your attention now because girlfriend (or boyfriend), I am about to share with you a killer awesome story!
This past weekend, I did something I swore I would never do. This past weekend, I did something that scared the crapola out of me. What is it for crying out loud? Let me tell you......
I went White Water Rafting!!!
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| Photo compliments of Google Images |
Several months ago, The Boyfriend and I were talking about various outdoor adventures that we thought would be fun. We also wanted to try some new things. Whelp, it came out that he has always wanted to try white water rafting. Me? Not so much. I've had family members do it in the past and I always said "never" and "not me. no way, Jose." However, The Boyfriend has this thing he does to me that pretty much calms my mind and allows me to open up to try new things. (This is a side of me that I lost over the years due that abusive marriage I told you about) Father's Day was coming up and I was on the hunt for the perfect gift to give. When I saw his eyes light up during this conversation I "just knew" I had to get it. As luck would have it, the Universe knew and aligned the stars. I not only found a company that coordinates these adventures but I also found them on a Groupon. Score!!!! Next thing you know, I'm contacting The Boyfriend's sister, his Baby Momma and checking our work schedule to see if I could make it work. A few days later, I purchased the Groupon, made the reservations and put in the PTO at work so he had off. A few months later, we are white water rafting!
The Groupon I purchased was through a company in New York called Soured Adventures. They were test driving an adventure with a pick up location in Philadelphia. (Which, in my opinion, had a great turn out of 25 people) The Groupon included round trip transportation via tour bus from Philadelpia to Weatherly, Pennsylvania. It included a packed lunch and of course our white water rafting adventure. The day trip totaled 11 hours and it was the best time of our lives!!!
Our day started bright and early as we had to make our trip to the meet the bus by 7am. From there, we had about a two hour drive to our location where we would get changed, suit up and meet the shuttle (old school school bus - a first for me in over 19 years) for a short drive to the Lehigh River. From there, it was a four hour rafting trip with a break for lunch followed by another hour of rafting. Oh and the weather that day....did I tell you it was raining? at times down pouring? and sometimes with crazy winds? Not exactly the typical weather day I had in mind for this trip but rumor has it that it's the best weather to white water raft in. They were kinda right. I mean, aside of about four hours in being totally OVER the rain and wind, it wasn't bad. I can totally see why it would be the better bet, for sure.
Our raft included five participants, myself included. All of us were newbies. Our adventure involved a majority of Class 2 and Class 3 rapids. Let me just say, I thought I was going to be super terrified but instead I found it extremely exhilarating!!!
Of course my biggest fear occurred. During one of the Class 3 rapids, I fell over board! You would think I would be scared but I wasn't. I was rather calm. I tried to get back on the raft but there was no luck. I tried a second time and the currant was starting to take me away. Now mind you, when I initially fell in my feet did feel some rocks and ground. By the time I tried again and the currant came, I couldn't feel it anymore. Oh and did I mention that somewhere during all of this I got banged up? My right hamstring took a serious hit to a boulder and let's just say it isn't pretty looking.
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| Thank you mister boulder under the water for this beautiful, ripe, swollen, ugly bruise. Gotta love "warrior wounds" though. :) |
In the end, The Boyfriend had my back....literally. I mean, you know your man has your back when after falling out of a raft on a Class 3 rapid, barely holding onto the raft himself, I'm hit by a boulder under the water that he doesn't even know about my getting banged up with....grabs me by the back of my life preserver, pulls me over and into the raft and says all in one motion "where are you going....10 fingers, 10 toes, and your breathing. Yup, you're alive." If that's not love and having your back, I don't know what is. What really still has me stumped is how unbelievably calm I was. Ladies and Gents, he is the only man (or person for that matter) that calms my mind the way he does. Typically, I would have been in uber panic mode. I would have had so much fear but I had none with him -- from start to finish ---- through my biggest fear coming true --- Nadda, Zilch, Zip! Yup, he's the ying to my yang. And you'd think after that mishap, I'd be ready for the adventure to be over. Nope. I was ready for more.
At the end of our trip we were wet. We were tired. We were cold. We were ready to turn in our rented wet suits. (Yup, you were able to rent them. $6 for a half suit. $12 for a full suit. I think it was $4 for wet suit booties? I didn't rent them as I had water shoes but The Boyfriend did and I paid no mind to the cost when we ordered it so...) We got changed into clean, dry clothes. We went to the gift shop to check out the souvenir photos. (Sorry. The one shot of our group, The Boyfriend's head was MIA so we didn't think it was worth the purchase) We grabbed some hoodies since the clothes we came with didn't prepare us for cold. We grabbed some coffee and headed back to the bus where we reflected about our adventure as we headed home.
I believe that our adventure was a 12.8 miles distance. I paddled my heart out. My new friends and I traded places throughout the adventure to relieve our "working side". To say I got an upper body workout would be an understatement. Heck, I got a lower body workout too because the way I paddled/rowed, I could feel the glute muscle and the hamstring muscles engaging. This is one of the many reasons why I love outdoor activities.
They are plentiful. They are fun. They are engaging. You are getting FIT and not even knowing it. You are having FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you've never tried white water rafting, I highly recommend it. It's a ton of fun! You meet new people. You get FIT without even realizing it. and it's FUN! Did I say that already???? And although this post is NOT a referral post, I would like to highly recommend Sourced Adventures or some sort of similar company around your area that might offer these types of trips. It's a lot of BANG for your buck and SUPER FUN!!!!! Well worth the price (even if I had to pay full price I would). Give it a try and remember, being FIT doesn't have to be boring. Find an activity that you love...that has you move and you can get FIT while having FUN!
Until next time friends.....
XO
