Tough Mudder pics and winding down...

Well today I'm feeling much less sore from Tough Mudder. Sunday and Monday I'm pretty sure my arms weighed 200 pounds each. I felt like a gorilla. I do have my official race pics!!


A guy snapped this of me as soon as I walked in

I also have the "Confused Running Face" photo.

I had some random ones of me running (above was the "best" one) and I had one of me standing at the top of Walk the Plank. None of which were very good

I got some decent Mud Mile pics, including me lending a hand to the guy with the foreign accent. And finish line pic!

And finally - Most Bad Ass Picture Ever

I love it! Didn't think for a minute that I would get good pics out of this obstacle because my legs were flying around like crazy the entire time and I just had this look of intense strain on my face. But this is probably my new favorite picture!

The past couple months have just been a whirlwind of racing. The southern season is almost over - we don't race much in the summer. So I have one more event and then I'm not signed up for anything for awhile. The weekends will be spent training and trying NEW methods of training which I'm very excited about. And trying not to die in the heat. 

My final race for the time being is the Marine Mud Challenge! It's right here on Fort Gordon and I'm running it with 3 of my friends/husband's platoon mates. It should be awesome! 

 

Tough Mudder Atlanta

I've finally completed Tough Mudder. It was awesome!

Awesome announcer guy!

I had signed up for the 10am heat but they stuck me in the 1:20 heat. Pro tip - Tough Mudder doesn't care what time you run. Because it was a 2 hour drive for me, I wanted to get there as early as possible so I wouldn't get home so late. Also because I'd rather race early than be anxiously waiting all day. I left my house early hoping to get there around 9, but got caught up in road construction in good ole' Conyers - the home of the Georgia Spartan Sprint. They really do need to fix the road there, but why on the day of my Tough Mudder! Between that and the line for parking at the event site, I got into the festival area at 10:36. I wasted no time using the bathroom and checking my bag because I wanted to hop into the 11am heat. I hopped over the wall and into the starting area, and everybody was on one knee. The announcer was awesome - he explained how TM works and what it takes to be a Mudder - help others, never leave them behind, etc. He was very engaging and motivating. We took a moment of silence for fallen veterans and the national anthem was played. After his speech we took off into the field, with 10.6 miles of madness ahead of us!

My goal for this race - to finish and do my best. I was not going for time or speed. Tough Mudder is not timed. You are encouraged to help others complete the obstacles and receive help if you need it. Many obstacles in TM can't be completed without help. So that's exactly what I vowed to do - give help, and receive it if needed.

Pole Dancer!

The first mile was alot of running through the woods and there were plenty of muddy spots. There was a big mud pit with a very slippery mud hill. I dug my nails into the hill as I climbed it and got up successfully. Then I turned back and helped a couple girls make it up. The second obstacle was something I wasn't really prepared for. Warrior Carry! You have to carry your teammate 50 yards, then you switch and they carry you. Problem was I didn't have a teammate. I stood there for a good while trying to find someone I thought I could possibly carry. They were ALL big tall guys. And a 90 lb woman. Perfect, I thought. But she couldn't carry me so she chose a smaller girl. Finally a guy offered to be my carrying partner. He carried me through the whole thing which was awesome and much appreciated. He was not the prettiest guy for this. Middle aged, kinda hillbillyish, bad teeth, and of course he wasn't wearing a shirt so I was hugging his sweaty chest hair the entire time. He was a good guy though, helped me out greatly! Next up was Pole Dancer. I can't really explain this obstacle using words so I snagged one of the official TM pictures (above) You shimmy across the railings using only your arms. I descended easily but had trouble halfway up the ascent. I tried like 3 times but kept falling off, so I decided to climb out of the water and just move on. It was kind of a bummer but I tried my best before giving up.

After Pole Dancer was Glory Blades, aka 2 inverted walls. I had help readily available on this one. Just a little boost so my hands could reach the top, then pushed up, got over, and slid down the other side. After the obstacle was a big ass hill. It must have been 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. Mostly walking was done here. And what goes up must come down - because we descended said big ass hill and met the first water station at the bottom. Energy chew time for me to stay a step ahead of my hypoglycemia. Now we were out in the open fields of the farm and heading back towards the festival.

Straight towards Funky Monkey.
Could I do this one? A year ago I unexpectedly completed the monkey bars at Spartan Race and was pretty astonished. I could never do the monkey bars as a kid. These monkey bars are twice as long as Spartan Race's, and there is an ascent/descent. I gutted up and went for it. Oh man was this hard. I was struggling, but I was moving forward. Crossed the halfway point and was still hanging on. I remember hearing people cheering me on. The last 4 bars were so hard. But I refused to let go. Only when I saw the ground below me did I release my grip and drop down. Holy shit. I just rocked Funky Monkey, one of the hardest obstacles for females. Definitely my bad ass moment of the day!

Funky Monkey took alot out of me so I walked through the field for a good while. Once I recovered a bit I ran until the next obstacle. I believe this was known as "K2". A giant cliff with a cargo net. You had to get a running start up a hill which was mostly dirt and rocks, then latch onto the rope and climb. 3 people went at a time. I started slowest of the 3 because it took me a little while to find my footing to get onto the net. But once I got on I sped up and made it up quickly. Made it to the top and we were back in the woods. Once again I was reduced to walking. Ran a bit to the next obstacle - trenches. Crawl through a tunnel - probably bad for people who hate small spaces, but I was cool with it. Was just a bit disorienting when I crawled back into the sunlight.

All that running through the fields, monkey barring and climbing made me hot as hell. Pro Tip - Bring a hydration pack with electrolytes. I'm so glad I did! It was sunny and about 80 degrees, aka way too damn hot for this cold weather runner. Perfect timing for Arctic Enema. The one where you jump into a giant container of ice water. This is one of those things you just do and don't think about it. There was hardly any ice in the water when I went through it, but it was still cold as shit. I had to go completely underwater because there was a wall. It was shocking but I kept moving and got out. Got a bit of brain freeze for like 10 seconds right after I got out. It was like drinking a slurpee, only without the slurpee part. I saw 3 guys hunched over with their hands on their thighs, I was like "What are you doing, you gotta keep moving!" One guy said "Well we lost our penises and balls in the ice bath!" Hahaha. Nice. I gotta say, it wasn't too bad. I felt refreshed actually. But I can take the cold better than most I think. We were back out in the sunny fields and reached mile 6. Next was a short mud crawl through that famous Georgia clay. After we were good and muddy we hit the Berlin Walls. These had to be 10-12 feet. I couldn't reach the top so I had to get a boost. I'm not a wall person and definitely need more practice with them. After the walls was a cargo net climb strung between 2 trees. It was backed up here because the ropes were not strung tight enough. They BROKE OUT THE DUCK TAPE. Lol. But it was only to reinforce the obstacle - nothing was broken. We had a good laugh about it though. I met "Foreign Accent Guy" and chatted with him for a bit before it was my turn to climb. Getting over the top was hard and I will have bruises underneath my arms. We hit mile 7 and I was running at this point. Approached the mud hills. Very slippery. I got up 3 out of 4 without assistance, and hung back to help Accent Guy get up since he was behind me. The 4th hill had absolutely no footing and everyone had to be pulled up out of the water. Helped AG and a few girls and had some laughs at the people slipping and splashing everywhere.

Another aid station was next, followed by more running. Walk the Plank was up next - climb a 15 foot platform and jump into a pool of water. Did it and yelled "Woohooo!" as I fell, not really thinking about closing my mouth or holding my nose. Ended up breathing in a little bit of water and coughing. Duh, should have thought about that one. More running through the woods and fields. I was pretty much alternating walking and running - my heart rate was up and I was breathing heavy ever since the big hill around mile 3. It was a sign of working hard. Next up was my failure of the day. Balls to the Wall. A straight wall with some footholds and a rope to climb up. Started climbing.. the footholds were really far apart. This was hard. I reached my right leg up to the next one and my calf cramped up on me. I knew this one wasn't happening for me so I climbed back down. Spent a minute stretching out my calf, thankfully the cramp went away and I could keep running (and walking). Not much longer now, it was around mile 10 and Everest was up next. It's a greased up quarter pipe that you have to run up. Of course the bastards put it at the top of a hill. Stopped at the top to catch my breath and watched people. Everybody was making it over with the help of people at the top. My confidence soared. I sprinted up the pipe, a guy's hand was reaching out for me, I grabbed it and pulled myself over the top. Yes! I was so nervous about that one but I did it! Hung around to help some ladies up, then continued on. They had a few of these random little road block obstacles and my calf cramped up again at one of them. A couple guys shouted out at me - "This girl's still runnin', keep on truckin' along!" I was like "Have you guys been watching me the whole time or something?" Turns out they had stuck near me through most of it. I guess the long strawberry blond ponytail and US Army Camelbak with my last name on it kind of makes me stand out? These guys seemed impressed with me. I had done my share of walking, but now I was running because the finish line was near. Ahead of me was the last obstacle.

Electroshock Therapy. I had to skip this one.

I have heart palpitations sometimes, and they say that if you have any heart issues you should skip this one. I have gone through tests and they said my heart was normal and in really great shape (and this was BEFORE I got fit). The doctor feels it is due to anxiety The more active I am, the less I get them (less anxiety?). But, I still didn't feel the risk was possibly worth my life. I felt REALLY bad skipping it. I need to talk to my doctor about this one. Hopefully once I get my answer I'll be able to try it at next year's Tough Mudder.

Finally, the finish line! Orange headband and beer received! The long coveted Tough Mudder complete. I was tired, but I had endured and it was FUN! I loved it! Met some awesome people out there. I will have so many great stories and memories from this day.

My thoughts on Tough Mudder

• Not timed, so there was less pressure on me to finish fast. I took my time and enjoyed every moment.
• Camaraderie is awesome. It exists in other races such as Spartan Race and Warrior Dash, but in TM it is a central focus of the race. You are encouraged to help and some obstacles such as Berlin Walls can rarely be done without help.
• No penalties. If you fail something or physically can't do something they are ok with you skipping it. I personally try my best before giving up and I'd take the penalty, but it was kind of nice not having to worry about it.
• My race was well organized and very few lines. The only weird things were - they used rotating sprinklers to hose us off (I seriously feel like this was someone's idea of a joke) and the bag check was self service. Even though they had a guy confirming you got the right bags, anyone could go rummage and I don't like that.

I went a little crazy in the gear tent. They have Under Armor gear which is *all* I wear, so I kind of had to get stuff! 

I'll be back next year!

Trying to stay Tough

It's Tough Mudder eve, and I am nervous as hell.

I got most of my stuff packed and ready

Backpack with supplies, Camelbak, gels, chews, Nuun, protein, etc. Bringing my race day bag just in case, probably will leave it in the car though.

And they released a map of the course. This course is over 10 miles and supposedly very muddy and watery.

I'm excited because I know it's gonna be awesome. It'll be fun. And hard. I'm nervous about Everest and some of the really big walls because I am not good at climbing walls. Funky Monkey could be hard too. I have actually completed monkey bars at previous obstacle races, but these are longer and angled. I am not too freaked out about the distance. I can run 10 miles no problem. The other thing I have to keep in mind is, Tough Mudder is not a RACE. It's not timed. Tough Mudder is a challenge and the goal is to complete it. So I'm gonna take my time out there and just have a good time.

Excited and hella nervous. Ready for tomorrow to get here!!!

Mom Visit

I can't believe it's already Wednesday. I'm still reminiscing about this past weekend. My mom came down here to Georgia from Virginia!

I had a good time! I pretty much put everything aside and devoted the weekend to her. I only see her once or twice a year. A friend of hers was passing through here on her way to Atlanta, and it was the ONE weekend I didn't have a race, so it was a really good opportunity for her to visit.

We went all over the place! I took her onto Fort Gordon and showed her all the military stuff. She hadn't really been on a military base before, so she got to get a good look at what military life is like. And I even learned something new. I never knew there was a piece of the Berlin wall on the base! My mom is German so I think that was a pretty cool piece of history for her to see. We also went to the commissary and got her a bunch of German stuff. And way too much candy.

I also found these awesome pots at the store on base and I just could not resist. I got a blue and an orange one!

We explored downtown and ate at this little Irish pub. The food was really good and it had a warm and cozy kind of vibe

And then... this happened. Famous cheesecake from Boll Weevil. Sooo delicious. I couldn't finish it, guess that's a good thing?

We walked ALOT! We walked around my neighborhood (2 miles), around downtown and on the Riverwalk (probably another 3 miles), I showed her the Canal running trail and we walked all the way to the I20 overpass and back, plus our parking spot was far away (5 miles), then we walked at Euchee Creek (2 miles) So that's a good 12 miles of walking. My mom is 70, and I am very impressed with the fact that she's still able to do this. Most 70 year olds probably couldn't! My mom loves nature like me, and throughout my life we've always gone on lots of walks together. It was nice to have a chance to do that again.

I enjoyed the visit and showing her around the area. She got to experience a piece of my life here in Georgia, we ate some good food and went to some of my running spots. I'd call that a good weekend!

We even went to the running store! She did something to her ankle awhile back. When she came to my house on Friday night it was really bothering her, so I gave her one of my pearl ice packs and it really seemed to help her alot. Whenever we were at my house she had the ice pack on her ankle. So I took her to Fleet Feet so she could buy one. I got myself some Nuun for this weekend .......

Yes. This weekend is the long awaited Tough Mudder. My emotions are ranging from totally pumped up to scared shitless. People keep saying Spartan is harder, but TM is apparently a much more "mental" challenge. So yes, I did get the Nuun for TM since I'm bringing my husband's Camelbak. I have never had Nuun before, this purchase was because of a sudden realization that I will probably need electrolytes while I'm out on that course.

Scared shitless... pumped up and excited... Tough Mudder comes soon!

Family weekend

It's Friday, and I am OFF! So guess what I did this morning. Went running :)

I returned to my old running grounds at the Euchee Creek trail. Haven't been out here in awhile between all the half marathon training and various races I've been doing lately. So for the first time this year I got a chance to enjoy the pretty spring colors out here. It was a 53 degree, cloudy, windy morning - in other words, perfect - for running, that is!

This is a pretty short trail, but my run ended up being over 5 miles! I ran the whole thing twice, plus today I also ran the road you drive in on. It's a long hill - not very steep, but more of a gradual incline. I was expecting it to be harder than it was, and my pace didn't really suffer a whole lot. Looks like I need to find bigger hills.

The hill, and my car! (on the left)

I did really well out there today. As I said it's been awhile since I ran there, but I've improved substantially since then. Today my pace was a little all over the place - the slowest it got to was about 10:00, the fastest was 8:30 and I averaged out between 9:00 and 9:30. But I got SO many compliments from the other people out there, which I never get! I don't consider myself to be a fast or "great" runner. So I was kind of caught off guard by this. A walking old man I passed a few times kept saying things along the lines of "you get around pretty quick!" Then a walking lady looked at me and said "Wow!" as I passed her. And finally there was another woman runner. She was slower than me. Every time I passed her she said stuff like "You gotta slow down, you're making me look bad!" But she ran the same distance I did (5 miles), including the uphill road which is not part of the trail, and was STILL running after I was done! I told her she was doing an *awesome* job and cheered her on every time I passed her. I felt bad for passing her so much but I was really happy to see her driving on like that. I hope she keeps it up!


And that's pretty much going to cover it for this weekend's activity. My mom is coming down from Virginia for the weekend. She is like me - loves nature and taking long walks. You can bet we'll be walking all over the place as the weather allows. So I'll be getting a little bit of exercise at least. My mom hasn't been here before so I will be taking her all over the place - including my running spots :)

Lastly, I have my Warrior Dash pictures! Wasn't too impressed with them, I didn't know where the cameras were so I looked really stupid in most of them. See?

 

The slide one is just silly. I look terrified but I was really just screaming and having fun. It was a fast slide!

Oh, and here's me waiting in the ridiculous line at Goliath. Lol

When I was in the mud pit they were taking pictures as I passed, so I tried to look decent and smile at the camera. Somehow I have no mud pit pictures. Oh well. Got some pretty good fire jump pics

Warrior Dash Georgia 2014

Here I am, finally posting my Warrior Dash recap :)

Saturday I drove up to Mountain City, Georgia - about 3 hours of driving through the country for me. The little mountain town has kind of an outdoorsy vibe. It's a cool little place! Great venue.

One thing, if you ever do a Warrior Dash, sign up for an EARLY heat!! I did 10am which was the best I could do with the 3 hour drive I had to make. But it made a HUGE difference in terms of check in time and waiting in lines. I got there around 8:30 and it was not crowded (see picture above) but by the time I was getting ready to run the place was packed and there were long lines everywhere.



I jumped into the 9:45am heat. WD no longer times races in their open heats so I figured it wouldn't matter. The race started, the flames went up at the start line, and we were off! Straight up a hill. I regretted not getting closer to the start line (I always get in the middle at races, I don't overestimate myself) because everyone was walking up this hill. I am no great hill runner but I at least wanted to try and jog it. But I had to walk because of the people in front of me. This slowed me down a bit, but after a series of 3 hills it started to flatten out a bit. I started to pass people. And the crowds got thinner.

The bar is vacant at 9am..

The first obstacle was probably one of the more difficult ones. It's a wall that is inverted at the very top. But I was able to swing my left leg up to the top and clear the wall without difficulty. There was a man to my right who was really unsure of what to do when he got to the top, so I talked him through it until he made it down safely. Back into the woods briefly, hit the mile 1 aid station for some water, then it was out to the cars obstacle. Knee highs through a field of tires and then I had to climb across a bunch of junk cars. After the cars there were some over/under walls. Then we came to the lake... a very cold lake! The goal was to swim out to the middle of the lake and pull your body over some floating rolling logs. The water was so cold that I couldn't swim right away. At first I kind of hopped along the bottom, too much in shock to really do much else. As I got closer to the logs I started to swim. Got over the logs, you pretty much just roll over them on your stomach. Kept swimming to the other side, got out, and immediately faced a barb wire crawl. My first thought was - Calf Cramp City. My right calf has issues sometimes, and it cramped up on me in the barb wire pit at Spartan Race. But I made it through cramp free!

Mud pit!

At this point I was starting to get faster while everyone else seemed to be slowing down. Speed was my goal for this race! The next obstacle in my path was the mud pit. It had some barb wire to crawl under, with some very thick soupy mud which sucked you down with every movement. The second part of the mud pit was more watery and you had to kind of trudge through it. But I knew a secret - you see, I had watched people pass through it before my race started, so I knew - there was a giant drop off in the middle of the pool. I was stepping slowly and feeling around for it. And there it was - a giant step down and the ground suddenly disappeared. It caught me by surprise and I knew it was there! People all around me were splashing face deep into the water as they were caught off guard too.

Grape Nuts Mountain

Past the mud pit was a climbing obstacle. It was easy for me, but for those with a fear of heights it can be a game changer. Alot of people around me just froze and had no idea what to do. A girl was saying "I can't do this, I gotta come down!" I told her to put her butt down on the board she was standing on, then slide her foot to the next board and scoot across. Use every body part as a point of contact. Her friend eventually took her hand and helped her cross. After the wall was another lake! I was kind of happy about this, I had never really done any water obstacles until now. This water seemed warmer - because I was more warmed up, or because I was already shocked from the first lake? Who knows. I had to cross this giant floating cargo net. Very splashy obstacle. After exiting the lake it was a bunch of running. I was running fast still. Not much farther until the finish line now. I approached Grape Nuts Mountain - angled wall with a rope. My foot almost slipped at the top but I saved it and got over with no problems. Once I was over Grape Nuts Mountain the fire jump greeted me next. I tried to strike a pose - we'll see how well that turned out. Must have been nice cause the volunteer appreciated it. Fire jump conquered. Rounded a corner, and came up to this.

This is an obstacle they call Goliath. And it's kind of a mess.

You climb up a cargo net, on top of a shipping container, then cross a balance beam 10 feet in the air over a pit of water, streams of water shoot up at you, then you climb another cargo net and go down a giant slide.

I ran up to it and joined a crowd of about 30 people waiting in line. Obstacle was backed up to hell. It was because people at the balance beams were taking a long time to cross. At this point my watch said 38 minutes. WD is not timed, and after my experience I'm glad it's not!!!

I waited in line for 40 minutes.

Yep. This thing was a mess. Not sure what the hell they were thinking here. And this was in the morning, I'd hate to see it at 2pm! Spent the time chatting with 2 guys about OCR's which was pretty cool. Then after awhile the volunteer says "If anyone wants to WALK across the balance beam you can come up!" I thought ok, I'll walk it, why the hell not. I get up there and instantly rethink that decision. Those beams were wobbly as hell!!! And I saw why it was so backed up - almost everybody was straddling the beams and scooting across on their butts. I am NOT a good balancer. Unfortunately my fear got the better of me that day. I was a scooter. After a long wait, it was finally my turn to scoot, climb, then slide down the slide and cross the finish line.

I have some regrets about the balance beam. I really should have attempted it at the very least. But I guess my fear of failure got the best of me. Later on I was rinsing off in the lake right next to it and noticed the obstacle was no longer backed up. They had freaking carpenters up there reinforcing the balance beams!!! Lol! I guess it must have really been unstable if they had to break out the emergency carpenters! And as I was leaving I saw they had added ropes to the sides! Wow. But hey, hats off to Warrior Dash for fixing their obstacle on the spot to avoid further delays!

I hung out for awhile, relaxed at the little mobile bar and drank my beer. They had some good live music and it was a beautiful day to chill.

Sasquatch needs his beer

My thoughts on the Georgia Warrior Dash 2014 - I had fun! Loved the venue, the festival and the energy there. Everyone was just having a good time. Much better than North Carolina 2013 - the course was interesting and had more mud. The obstacles - pretty easy, but fun! I am an intermediate level racer, and I am gonna say I finished this 5k obstacle race in about 40 minutes - I'm not counting the ridiculousness that was Goliath! About Goliath - it was kind of crazy to wait through that, but once again I give my props to WD for fixing it on the fly. I'm not sure if that obstacle was intended to be the way it was, but they must have thought something was wrong if they had to break out the carpenters to reinforce it. 

Warrior Dash is great for a first time obstacle race, but still fun for those who have been around the OCR block a few times like myself. I even saw some "elite" men and women out there - super fit, wearing Spartan, Tough Mudder, etc gear. Speaking of which, I ran across the Obstacle Racing Media booth and was challenged to do 30 burpees for a prize. Challenge accepted! I now have a GPS watch guard for my wrist :)

Finally, I shall leave you with this

This guy was great. Big purple dude who pretty much grinded up on everybody.

He's my hero!

Warrior Dash 2014, ladies and gentlemen!!!

Fightin' Warrior

Well, this hasn't been the most eventful of weeks in terms of fitness, but it's all good.

Everything from the waist down was really sore until Wednesday. But I suppose 10 miles of running on the trails will do that to you. My right ankle was just a touch painful but it's completely fine now. Yesterday I strength trained which was awesome. Not sure what the hell I did to my legs, but they are super sore today. Like it kind of hurts to walk sore. Even though I am using strength training days to build my upper body and core, lately I am doing mostly compound exercises. They give you a MUCH better workout because all the various parts of your body were meant to move together. I think compound exercises will be the best for muscle building and obstacle race training. Also, it's good that I am giving my legs such a great workout. You'd think that running would strengthen your legs - which it does - but over time it also creates muscle imbalances in your quads, hips, butt, etc. Strength training helps fix that. I have noticed less aches and pains since I started paying more attention to my strength training. Yay for less ouch!

When you exercise alot, you aim for results. Firstly for yourself, but there's also a part of you that secretly hopes others will notice your efforts. And they do somewhat, but I still have pudgy areas i.e. my arms! For a long time I've felt like you couldn't look at me and tell I work out. Until the other day at work when Guy #1 commented on how big my triceps are. Then Guy #2 said "You could probably kick my ass!" Guy #1 "Yeah, it's probably that German in you!" Hehe. That made me feel kinda awesome. Even though I'm not much of a fighter. A warrior, yes.

I'm running Warrior Dash on Saturday! First, I gotta say I wasn't terribly impressed with it last year. I think it's a good beginner/fun run, but I kind of hoped for something more. It was not well organized, the obstacles were all kind of the same, and there was zero mud until the very end. But this year the Georgia race will be in Mountain City, and rumor has it that venue is pretty good. The other reason I signed up was because it was only $30. So Warrior Dash, I'm giving you one more chance. My goal is to dominate that course!

Xterra Hickory Knob 2014

I had myself an adventure this morning. At the Xterra Hickory Knob trail runs

This is a race I discovered last year (recap HERE) I am trying to get into trail running more, and since this one is 45 minutes from my house it's perfect for me.

My "through the pollen covered car window" picture, complete with reflection of running shorts!

I wish I had more pictures, but I just don't. There isn't alot to take pictures of other than the trail, and I'm sorry, if I am racing I am not about to stop and take pictures. There's this big red barn at the parking lot where we congregate and start/finish the races. But this really is a beautiful park. It's quiet (aside from the 40 bikers that passed through at 10am).. The forest was so peaceful and beautiful at sunrise, everything is in bloom and the birds were chirping. Just amazing. I need to get the husband up here for a camping trip!

Anyhoo. Last year I ran the 7.2 mile Lakeview trail. This year I upped the ante and added the 3.4 mile Turkey Ridge trail to my day. They also had a half, full, and 50k, plus triathlons and stuff. 

This race is TINY. Like.. 30 people tiny. Even less people than last year, but they think that was due to some big marathon down in Charleston. 

So our day started at 7:30 with the 5k. 4 people. Lololol. A guy, myself, and 2 other girls. I tried to go pretty fast on this one since it was just a 5k. The guy was ahead of me and I eventually lost sight of him because he was pretty damn fast. The 2 girls were behind me, but they eventually faded from sight and sound and I was clear in second. I did NOT want to be last place, even if it was only 4 people! So the trail was very leaf covered, mostly flat with a few minor hills here and there. It wasn't terribly exciting. And not a single turkey in sight. About 1.4 miles in, I see the guy running back TOWARDS me. This makes no sense, the trail is a loop. He then informed me that I was going the wrong way.

What.

I was confused, but I turned around and followed him anyway. At first I thought he was full of shit. There's no way I could have gone the wrong way. Is this guy screwing with me and trying to sabotage my race? Why would he do that to me? He was ahead of me anyway! All these thoughts went through my mind. Until I slowly began to realize I was passing things I had passed before. Shit. Then I realized where I went wrong.

There was a part where the trail went down to a small creek. The trail was covered in leaves and really hard to see. There was a crossing there. I looked around for a second to try and figure out if it was the right way to go. I saw a yellow blaze just on the other side of the crossing, so there I went. Turns out the trail doubled back at that exact point, and I should have made a right turn and followed the yellow blazes to my right. So basically I hopped back onto an earlier portion of the trail, and proceeded to run in the wrong direction. I met up with the guy because he was on his second lap. 

Yep, I got lost. So typically ME!

When I reached the halfway point aid station, I ran back to the trailhead and explained what happened. My watch said 2.8 miles so I asked the race director if I should just go knock out the last .6 miles, or what? He said not to worry about it, and marked me down for 33 minutes. Um, ok I guess! Lol. I don't really feel right about that, but I would have come in second place anyway. I was way ahead of the other 2 girls. And I guess I'm not TOO stupid, because one of the other girls experienced the same thing. She just happened to look right and choose the correct path. 

SO, after getting LOST, we had a small break before continuing on to the 7.2 Lakeview trail.

Lakeview trail is BEAUTIFUL. It borders a lake - duh - and it's high up on a cliff/hill but it's mostly flat. The sun was shining on the water and there was a cool morning breeze. I started this run with 3 people in front of me and a bunch behind me. Unlike last year, no one really passed me in the beginning. I felt pretty good about that. One couple eventually passed me, then 2 other guys passed me over the course of the race. I rolled my ankle a few times but always managed to save it. Somewhere between miles 4 and 5 I tripped over something and started to fall, so I whipped out my hands and landed on my palms. Scuffed up my knee minorly. My legs and feet were so tired. My stupid tight hip was making it really difficult to pick my legs up high enough, so I kind of scuffled along at times. I was hurting, but not dying. It felt much shorter than last year's, a possible sign of my growing endurance? Before I knew it I was back at the red barn, and taking the second place spot. The couple that passed me - the girl took first. The guy must have been running the half because he was not counted. My time was 1:20, slower than last year but I am not trained for speed like I was last year. And last year I think I was running faster to try and get out of the freezing icy rain! 

So - 2nd place 5k, 2nd place 12k, and 1st place age group (medal!)

As the other racers finished, things got interesting. Nearly everyone was injured!!!

A girl finished 10-15 minutes after me with a twisted ankle. And she said her friend also twisted her ankle, and was walking the rest of the way! Then a guy comes up and says his wife pulled a muscle in her thigh, so he was pulling out of the 50k. Kind of wondered why he didn't stay with her and help her to the finish, but there you go. 3 injured people, damn!! I guess I got pretty lucky, because as I mentioned before I saved myself from about 4 different close calls! 

I had fun hanging out and chatting with everybody after the race. Last year I felt SO out of place at this event, I felt like all the runners there were "elite" and I was just this inexperienced wanna be. But today, I was kicking ass and girls were saying I "probably do this kind of stuff all the time" I felt credible as a runner and could contribute to the conversations we had about running. 

I had a good day - a tiring yet relaxing and fun adventure. Relaxing in the sense that being out on the trails kind of ... soothes my soul?

And finally for your viewing pleasure...

Race swag - Billions of gels and chews, my medal, and my ladies t shirt! Love the colors :)

What's in my race day bag?

Howdy.

I just thought I'd share the things I keep in my race day bag. Well, it's really my "long run" bag. It has everything I might need for before, during, and after long runs.

This is Old Faithful - a BOSS bag I got from Fort Gordon. This thing has gone with me everywhere.

Here's what's inside -

• Gel and chews
• Sunglasses
• Mustard packets for cramping (this is a new edition)
• Pepto, just in case
• Lip balm
• Sunscreen
• Not sure what the Subaru thing is, I got it in a race goody bag. Face wipe perhaps?
• A bag of face wipes, to clean off the sweat in case I have to go anywhere after running. Also just for feeling "fresh"
• 8 billion Clif bars
• The brown thing is TP in a grocery bag. You never know what stanky bathrooms are at some of these race venues. I have had to use this before.
• Ibuprofen
• This bag may also include my Spi belt and my pepper spray.

I have found that having this bag of stuff has been insanely helpful. I have to do very little packing and planning. I can just grab this and go. This also ensures I have food/sugar at all times for my hypoglycemia.


And there you have it. I shall never be unprepared!!!!

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Mc Cormick, South Carolina to run at Hickory Knob! It's an Xterra race.

I ran Hickory Knob last year - Here is the recap

The weather looks like it's gonna be great. Totally opposite of last year's 40 degree, pouring rain disaster that was Hickory Knob. Also this year I am running the 3.4 and the 7.2. I will most likely die of exhaustion by the time this is all over, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. It should be a beautiful day on the trails.

Sprummer!

It's the first day of April! And here in the south it seems we have gone from winter to summer and just completely skipped spring. It's hot. 

And when it comes to running - I don't DO heat.

It was like 85 here today. I guess I wasn't expecting it to be so hot, because I was fully intent on running after work. Since I was only doing like 2.5 miles I decided I could handle it. It was sunny and 80 when I went out, but there was a slight breeze and it's not humid yet - thank GOD. It wasn't too bad, but any longer of a distance and I would have been seriously struggling. My mouth was so freaking dry at the end of it and I was just drenched in sweat (and water from the sprinkler I ran through at the end!) I ran fast and felt awesome after I was done. Definitely worth the suckage.

It was a really pretty day - full of woodsy and fresh spring smells. Love it.

Today taught me that I am going to have to keep a close watch on the weekly weather forecasts this month. Eventually I will have to switch back to only morning running, but I am thinking this month might be a mixture of morning and afternoon. It's Sprummer in Georgia!