Our younger son will be graduating from high school this month and heading off to college in August. That will mean both our boys will be off at school figuring out how to conquer the world while my wife and I will be left in a quiet home. At least it’ll be quiet until our 2 dogs hear us say the magic word “walk”, when they turn into crazed animals trying to be the first one out the front door.
As you know from some of our previous letters, I enjoy doing athletic events from ocean swims to trail runs to Ironman races. Growing up, my son has seen me do these events so he has done 4 triathlons along the way. Now that he is in his final high school semester he wanted the 2 of us to get out of town for a road trip and do a Spartan Race together. The race we chose was in Littlefield Arizona, about 90 minutes past Las Vegas on the Nevada/Arizona border.
Spartan races are obstacle course races combining running with a variety of barriers to get past and they come in different distances. This one was a 9 mile trail run with 30 obstacles to navigate our way through. Some of these obstacles had us crawling in the mud under 50 yards of barbed wire while being sprayed with a water hose, carrying a sandbag a couple hundred yards, carrying a 5-gallon bucket full of rocks, throwing a spear, climbing a rope, running through rivers, carrying a round cement atlas, monkey bars, as well as climbing up and over way too many wooden walls to count. It took us about 4 hours to get thru the course on a very hot day in the desert and even though we looked like we’d been through a battle when we finished, we had a great time and I enjoyed every minute of being with him. And I know he enjoyed it too!
As our boys get on with their lives, we don’t get to spend as much time with them as we used to so I really look forward to these times when we are together. Completing the Spartan races and painting buildings have surprising similarities. They can both present you with obstacles that you must overcome to move forward and when you do reach the finish line, you are very proud of your accomplishment and your building.
As you can tell, activities around our house will be getting quieter so if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your property with a fresh new paint job, give us a call at (818) 951-3207 or email me at greg@ferrispainting.com for your free estimate. I’ll be needing something to do!
Sincerely,
Greg Lewis