St. Petersburg Garden

St. Petersburg Garden

Monday, July 27, 2015

Just Monkeying Around

The Blue Course
There's nothing I love more than a good obstacle course. Well, actually, that might not be true but that would be another post. However, I DO love obstacle courses. And heights. And zip-lining. Okay, so there are a lot of things I love. My point here is that I love adventure. I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting things for us to do.

I'm so addicted to these courses that I even submit myself to torture of some sort so that I can play on them. What torture might you ask? The torture of Running. I'm sure many of you have seen the various 5k's and 5 mile runs, complete with obstacle courses, promising a day of fun.

Somehow, I always block out the running part and zoom in on the course part. They get me every time. I sign up, so excited for climbing, jumping, balancing - then the reality sinks in. I must run. A lot.

I still do it. I can't help it.

I was finally able to find a place where I can kiss that running goodbye. Until the next race that is. The Adventure Park at Long Island. Release your inner Monkey! I first discovered this place last year thanks to a friend. I was hooked. Obstacle courses in the trees? I mean, really, it couldn't get much better. Twelve different courses, ranging from easy to very hard, beckoned to me. I was in my happy place.

When you arrive at the Park, you have to go through a brief training each time, great for first timers, a nice refresher for those of us that haven't been in a while. I was raring to go. Just seeing the zip-line in action had me hopping up and down. We completed our mini training course and ran to the starting line.

Blue Course
There are 3 Yellow courses (beginner), 3 Green courses (almost beginner), 3 Blue (getting better), 1 Black (hard) and 1 Double Black (very hard). Each trail has an "escape route" halfway through the course, a.k.a, the quitters route. It's a zip-line where you can exit from the course if you don't think you can continue or if you don't feel like being on that course anymore.

Our goal from the first moment we had arrived was to conquer the Double Black course. Baby steps. We had to work our way up.

We breezed through the easy Green. Same for Blue. Sure, there were a few hang ups (no pun intended), but we flew through that course and before we knew it were standing before the Black. Without a second thought, we were up that ladder. No going back.

We were alone. No worries about rushing or waiting. Perfection. We made our way through the fun, high zip-lines and tricky obstacles. For the first time we encountered a hard spot....THE TRIANGLES. It was touch and go for a bit. I knew we'd make it but not without some bruises. All a part of the game.
Double Black

Black was great but it was challenging and we needed a break before we got to the ultimate goal: Double Black. We were ready. I was ready. Maybe. Yes, yes, we were ready. We headed up. And up. We were tired and made a deal that if we couldn't do it we would take the escape route. I knew I would never quit once I got up there. I was in for good.

Those triangles I mentioned earlier? Yup, we found worse. I called them The Discs. I knew I could do it. Had to do it. I would find a way, my way, anyway. I won't lie - it was hard, very hard, but we got through it. Tired and hot, we came to the escape route. We looked ahead and saw the most amazing zip-line. Escape route, zip-line. There was no question of what to do. We forged on.

Double Black Course
As we kept going, we actually saw people on the course with us. We weren't alone! Surprised that there were others who braved Double Black, we paused to watch how they would conquer The Discs. Some did, some cheated. They zip-lined across and avoided the challenge. Disappointed, we turned and climbed on.

Double Black is a shorter course than the others because of its difficulty. We only had a few more obstacles to get through and we made it. We felt so accomplished when we jumped off of that final element and slowly made our way to the ground. Would we do it again? Probably not. Our goal, my goal, was to do it and I did. We did. Now I can come back and do all of the fun courses and relax when I climb. And I will be back.




We came, we saw, we conquered. 

If you'd like to visit the park, check out their website:

http://longislandadventurepark.org/