Impact boxing!

Leaving the Talisman Center was an experience in itself. It was lightly raining, slightly windy and we were in soaked street clothes (who knew we should have brought a towel.....I mean it's not like we got one at the pool lol). Steve and I decided that it's only about 14 blocks to the next clue location, so we may as well walk it. Waiting for the last train took way too long!

It was all great for the first few blocks. We were wet and it was raining. No big deal! That was.....until the chaffing started. By the time we got to the boxing clue, my inner thighs were brutally raw. It was like I had taken fine grit sandpaper to them for the duration of the walk. (I think Steve was bad as well. I didn't really want to ask how is inner thighs were though). So now my thighs were burning and my shins were like hot needles were being shoved through them. Then we arrived at Impact Boxing........

Welcome to boot camp!!!!

From the moment we took the stairs down to where the ring was, someone was enthusiastically yelling at us.

"DROP YOUR GEAR!!!!"

"GET YOUR HEAD GEAR ON!!!!"

"GROIN PROTECTOR ON!!!!"

"BOXING GLOVES ON!!!!"

"MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!!!!"

Now, if you have never seen any of the equipment mentioned, here's what they look like:

So nice and sweaty as we weren't the first to use them

Ever try to put the second one on by yourself......you want to use your teeth but there is a definate eeww factor there

Keep in mind that these are not as one size fits all as they say they are.......voice octave changes are very likely!

So once we had our gear on, we were sent to see the lady in charge of the skipping section. It's only for a minute, grab one of the skipping ropes.......what they dont tell you is that the ropes are color coded for length. Steve and I both felt like we were using my daughters skipping rope they were so short.  To top that off, the lady running this tells us that the minute is based on her judgement how well we were doing at that moment. She kept threatening to start us over if we didn't pick up the pace!

So once we managed to do 4 minutes of our one minute of skipping, we got sent over to the heavy bag.

He we are supposed to follow the instructions of the girl running this section. She tells us that we are to hit light or hard for a minute, depending on her instructions. So she starts off with hard. 10 seconds later she tells us to hit soft. Another 10 seconds and we are back to hard..........and this is where she forgot about us.

Another group of chasers had made it to this station and she proceeded to give them instructions, leaving us to hit the bag with all our strength for close to what seemed like 20 minutes (it was only really closer to 2 minutes, but felt waaaay longer).

From here we were sent on to the speed bag.

There was no Rocky moment with these things. The movies make it look so easy hitting a speed bag with rhythm. I think in the minute we were supposed to hit the bag, Steve and I connected 10 times combined.

Then we were at the last station. Keep in mind that the volunteers at the challenge were yelling at us boot camp style the whole time. The last thing we had to do was hit a tethered bag......how hard could it be.

Looks easy when you are a pro.......we weren't even amateurs. I think I threw my back out trying to hit this thing once it started moving. I was able to build up a rhythm on this once I figured out how it was going to move. Steve......not so much. This challenge nearly put him down for the 10 count.

Once we got out of the sweaty boxing gear (again...eeewww), we were off to Dog City Day Care....

Talisman Center

So when the train finally arrived, we decided to take it only a few stops and get off at Erlton. From there it would only be a couple of blocks to the Talisman Center.

Once we arrived, Steve and I ended up in a line of about 14 chasers. We were all instructed to take off shoes, bags, shirts and and cotton underwear if you had it. We met a nice couple of ladies who were a few challenges ahead of us who gave us some tips on the places they had been.

Then it was our turn to go down to the diving area.

Steve and I were first hosed down, both sides, with a garden hose and nozzle spraying a hard jet of icy hell at us. Then it was time to roll the dice........literally!

5 and a 3 is what we rolled. As it turns out, this meant we had to go off the 3 meter and 5 meter diving boards. I opted to take the higher one as I found out Steve has a bit of a heights thing. He still almost drowned! Apparently, breathing in as you hit the water is a bad thing lol. Then he got disoriented and did not know which way was up.......but he was still able to get up and out on his own. Dying would have really put a damper on the day!

I, on the other hand, had no problems. Up the stairs, onto the diving platform, walk off the edge, hold breath, swim to edge. Easy right?

Well, there is some perspective that needs to be shown. The pictures should help say it.

What it looks like from even 5 meters

How we must have looked to everybody when we got up on the platform

How we imagined we would look going off the diving boards

Reality!

After we got out of the water, it was time to get our stuff and head to the next challenge point. As far as we had it figured, Impact Boxing was our next destination!