Digging Deep!

"Overcoming obstacles in life & accomplishing goals are like reaching the peak of a mountain," Patty Boom Boom

As the Thanksgiving Holiday is among us, I start thinking about all the things I am grateful for in my life and this year, one particular thing came to mind and that was the power and strength to always dig deep...

There are times where you get the courage to move forward with a goal and plan every step and then out of nowhere, things don't go exactly as planned...This has been a constant occurence in my life that has taught me to dig deep!

Finding the strength and mental toughness to keep pushing, to keep plugging, to keep fighting is one of life's most daunting challenges. Sometimes we're up to the challenge, sometimes we're not. Or so we think.

Sports has been the greatest metaphor of life for me and I am forever grateful for each lesson learned. In 1996, I participated in my first Daily News NYC Golden Gloves. In my first match in the prelims, I fought a girl named Barbosa who had just got out of prison and her total focus was to eat me alive, but I gave her 3 standing eight counts and ended the bout in the 1st round. I moved to the semi-finals and faced the previous year's champion, Christine Bruno. I was the inexperienced younger fighter at the time & a huge underdog, but I ended up stopping her in the 2nd round and moving to the finals in Madison Square Garden. The championship match with Eileen Lacy was incredible and it seemed as if it was my night to shine, but the fight was too close and the decision did not go my way.

It was a devastating loss and I wasn't sure how to get back from that, but I was thankful to have faith and my trainer to help me believe that it was worth trying again. And so I did and came back to win 2 consecutive NYC Golden Gloves Titles, a National & International Title throughout the next few years! In addition to completing 16 Marathons throughout the past 15 years and competing in a variety of sports that totally take me out of my comfort zone. Sometimes, we just need to dig deep! We have more going for us than we sometimes believe; in fact, we have a whole lot more than we can possibly imagine. Deep down inside each of us dwells a limitless reservoir of untouched magic, a supernatural cache of power and strength capable of overcoming anything and everything thrown in our path.

This year, I faced all types of personal obstacles with my job, education and athletics. I am thankful that I am able to see these challenges as a way to teach me a lesson and make me stronger and more resilient. Whenever life starts smacking me around, I know I need to step back for a moment. And start digging deep. I listen to what my heart and soul tells me to do. The answers will come if you dig deep enough and long enough.

One of the events that taught me a valuable lesson and that I hold dear to my heart this year is the Men's Health Magazine NYC Urbanathlon. I dedicated 12-weeks of plyometrics, stair workouts and speed drills on the track during the crazy hot and humid NYC summer. The big day was on October 29th. Everything seemed to be going perfectly until a couple of days before the event where the temperature in NYC practically dropped 50 degrees and there was a threat of rain and snow for the day of the event. Just a few days before, NYC had been spoiled with great weather. The day had arrived and there was no turning back. One of my weakness and fear has always been the cold and rain, but this was another opportunity to face my fears and not give up no matter what.

The Urbanathlon truly tested me in every way and even though I did not win, I did finish among the top women and learned once again to get back up even when you get knocked down...
http://www.youtube.com/user/MHUrbanathlon?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/_zd3-b5T4lE

Life can come at you really hard, testing your will and taxing your tenacity; testing and taxing it right to the hilt. And life can push you right to the wall, right to the breaking point on occasion. But that's OK as long as you remember that it's not what's happening on the outside that matters the most, but what you've got going on inside. And deep down, where it counts, you've got way more than enough.

So this Thanksgiving Holiday, I am thankful for my never-ending faith, my loved ones, my supporters and the ability to tap into the magic within by digging a little deeper when things don't go exactly as planned.

"Real riches are the riches possessed inside."

Wishing you all a very Happy & Healthy Holiday Season!

Much Love & Blessings,

Patricia "Patty Boom Boom" Alcivar
Professional Boxer, Competitive Runner &
Fitness/Commercial Model
Website: www.patriciaalcivar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/PatriciaAlcivar
Blog: http://pattiboomboomsblog.blogspot.com
FB Fan Page: facebook.com/PatriciaPattyBoomBoomAlcivar

Facing My Fears at "Tough Mudder"

FEAR can either paralyze you or fuel you! I am so thankful that I understand that I always have a choice about how to respond to and deal with fear. I can cave into it, struggle with it, accept it, or work around it. I always have a choice, a choice I can make again and again or that I can change based on my assessment of what is best for me.

On Saturday, November 20th, I took the opportunity to "Face My Fear" of the water, cold & heights at the 12-mile Tough Mudder that had 19 obstacles. Half of those obstacles were in the water. For as long as I can remember, I have had an awful fear of the water, the cold, the dark & heights among other things, but those are the most significant ones. I do my very best not to let the fear of anything paralyze me and instead, take every opportunity I can to face my fear right in the face. As my Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist, Rick Baker would say,"If you do what you are afraid of, you WILL get better!"

Drowning in a pool and at the beach when I was a child started my fear of the water. My Father at the time would throw me further into the ocean to see if I could survive making my fear even worse. However, one of my life goals is to complete an Ironman & about 5 years ago, learned how to swim as an adult & competed in my first sprint Triathlon. Putting my face in that dark, cold lake was CRAZY!! I hyperventilated, cried and held on to the raft and was about to get disqualified. To me, that meant failure and something GREAT was about to happen. I got on my back & even invented some new swimming strokes & finished the swim in 29:30 which was 30 seconds before the cut-off time!

Ever since then, I just keep attacking my fears! When the Winter Tough Mudder was announced, I definitely hesitated, but knew I just had to do it. It was an opportunity for me to deal with 3 of my fears. I am a big believer of training hard and being prepared, but there is really no way to prepare to jumping in ICE cold water. The morning of the Tough Mudder was here and morning temps were in the low 30's. Skipping the event never entered my mind, but the anxiety and fear were greater than ever.

When things get this way where I can't think clearly or calmly, there is one thing that brings me comfort & peace and that is prayer and faith! That combined with determination is a great recipe to ensure that I would atleast get through the race. Another key element is the support of my loved ones..Having my sister, nephews, niece & dogs there with me was wonderful! Inadvertently, I would be influencing them to never give up on their dreams or let fear get in the way ever!

The start horn sounded and off I went on my journey.. We started out just running on the raceway and grass and then we hit our first water challenge which was "The Plank"! Oh My Dear God! This was 3 of my fears staring me right in the face!! The plank was about 15ft high & the challenge was to jump off into ICE COLD DARK 15ft deep WATER! Just as I was walking up to jump, a spectator jumped out to pull out a participant that had "blacked out" from the impact and the cold!! I started hyperventilating and crying...All that anxiety came back and got worse when I heard the guy that was pulled out say "That water felt like ice glaciers stabbing me all over and I just passed out"!

I had to step away and take a few minutes to calm down & reassess why I was doing this..I realized what I always knew and that is I am doing this to overcome my fears, to achieve my goals, my dreams and smile back at another chance God has given me to inspire myself and others! I went back up, took a deep breath and jumped off! WOW! I also did black out for a second and starting to swim as if there was a shark in the water! My body was completely numb, wet & cold & would remain that way for 2 hrs! The 18 challenges after that were pretty awful as well. They included:

1.Underwater Tunnels: As if walking the plank and jumping into ice cold water wasn't bad enough, this next water challenge, we had to bob up and down under these tunnels. Holding my breath and trying to go under these tunnels tightened up my chest & I thought my heart was about to stop!! We were only at mile 3! It's gonna be a long day was my thought!!
2.Spider's Web:This challenge completely murdered my arms..There were TWO cargo nets to climb!
3.Mud Mile/s: There were miles and miles of just running in the WET and COLD Mud. They had sprinkles on at all times soaking up the mud. There were mud hills where you could not run up and instead go up on all fours and slide down on your butt!
4.Kiss of Mud: This "low crawl" in the wet, cold & super rocky mud for about 1/4 mile was extremely painful!
5.Berlin Walls: There were about ten 12ft high walls to get over!!
6.Firewalker: I wouldn't say that "Fire" was one of my fears until the "Tough Mudder Fire"! Holy SMOKES! The smoke/fumes from this challenge nearly closed my throat & I felt as if I was in the water again. Almost started to panic!
7.Funkey Monkey: After running 11 miles cold & wet, it was nearly impossible to have enough energy to get through the "Tough Mudder Money Bars" upside down accross a cold lake!!
8.Twinkle Toes: Right after Funkey Monkey trying to have any coordination & balance to walk across a crazy narrow piece of wood on a lake was insanely rough!!
9."Mystery Event": This I did not see coming a mile away! I was about half a mile from the finish line, so how bad could it be? It was a mud pit with PAINFUL electrical shocks underneath!! How CRUEL! I screamed so loud and felt my feet starting to cramp...

As I was hobbling out of the last challenge, I saw a group of 3 girls approaching..My competitive instinct kicked in, forgot about the cramps and how awful my body felt and I started to sprint to the finish...I had NO idea that I was the 3rd female coming in until I reached the finish line and was told "Congratulations! You are the 3rd female"! The emotions of just completed this event took over and I was incredibly grateful!

Thank you to my loved ones and special friends for their never ending support and following me on my crazy journey that also never ends! We all have incredible gifts and have the choice to do something with it! I leave you with an incredible and beautiful quote on Fear as well as some cool footage of my latest Adventure below:

Our Deepest Fear Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be?You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear,our presence automatically liberates others.


Much Love,

Patty Boom Boom
"Face Your Fears, Live Your Dreams"
www.patriciaalcivar.com