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When I wrote my last entry, I still had three more races to go this year, all of which took place in September. So now that I've had a bit of time to recover, let's take a look back on this insanity that I've taken up as a pastime, shall we?
First up was the Surftown 5K, our only 'regular' 5K. It took place in Misquamicut, Rhode Island, on the roads that run along the beautiful shoreline. The 'Main Event' was technically the half marathon, but I'm most definitely not at that level yet. I was pleased with my timing though… my first mile I ran in about 10 minutes, my second mile was about 11 minutes, and my third was about 12 minutes. And since I was expected to run a 12 minute mile back in high school, I think I did pretty well!
Surftown 5K:
We made this one a 'girl's weekend' type thing. Left to right: Me, my aunt, my older sister, our cousin, my younger sister, and a friend. The run started early, so we reserved a hotel room for the night before and went full-on carb dinner that night.
My older sister and our friend actually ran the half marathon, and didn't do too shabby.
Those of us that ran the 5K had to wait a little while for the two that did the half marathon, but it made for great people watching (how anyone can run 13+ miles and look like they're not even winded baffles me). And gave it a bit more time for the day to warm up… so we could get ready to hit up the beach!
When we were wandering down the beach, we noticed that the Mile 13 marker (the one everyone passed right before the finish line) was in the trash! So we took it.
They did have some in-course photographers, but unfortunately I'd need to pay for the pictures. I'm torn, since they're a bit on the expensive side ($50+ for the full 12, $15 for individual digital, or $9 for individual printed), and I honestly can't tell from the thumbnails which ones are any good.
Once we all crossed the finish line, we spent the rest of the day at the beach… and our hotel's bar, conveniently located on the beach. It made for a really great weekend.
The next weekend was the Warrior Dash, which meant obstacles and mud! A friend of ours has been running in the early competitive wave, then running again with us during our waves (and you thought I was hardcore), which means he has no problem hanging back with our older sister (while I give the girl credit for being able to run the half marathon, her pace is just too slow for the rest of us). There was a brief period of time where I was on my own for this one, but I quickly caught up with my younger sister and our friend.
Warrior Dash:
Plenty of mud in this one!
PLENTY OF MUD.
Wow, big picture is BIG. All in all, our group did pretty well with this one. (This is the only race I've gotten my boyfriend to go to… he's second from the left.)
So this race was on Saturday… and Sunday was an all-day trip to the Big E, a huge New England themed fair up in Sass' neck of the woods. Most running experts probably wouldn't recommend beer and fried EVERYTHING as recovery food, but what do those experts know anyways?
Finally, the next weekend was the Rugged Maniac. I have to say that this was probably the toughest race yet. It took place mostly on a motocross track, so it was a LOT of running on sand, up and down steep hills, and the obstacles actually proved to be challenging in various ways, including balance, upper body strength, and hand/eye coordination. Although challenging, it was a BLAST, and I'm already signed up for next year. It also produced my absolute FAVORITE picture from these runs, and you'll see why.
Rugged Maniac:
Not the PRETTIEST picture, but this obstacle looked a lot harder than in was. A bit of balance and timing was all you needed… and the bags really weren't that heavy.
OK, this one was less of an obstacle and more of a "I wanna climb the ladder just to ride down that 50 foot slide!" I felt a little bad for Steve (guy in green on the right)… he traveled right over into where I was headed on the slide, and as a result he got my feet into his ribs at the end.
I ALMOST lost it on this obstacle, as simple as it looks. A few 'lily pads' floating on the water that you had to jump across. The trick was to land as close to the middle as possible.
And here it is… this is the my favorite picture out of the bunch. Simply because after staring at it blankly for a few minutes, my first thought was, "…I LOOK MAJESTIC AS FUCK." Of course it looks a tad silly since the moment the photo was taken the fire looked like it was out, so I'm just jumping over some charred logs. But I died laughing when I saw this one.
But yes, as mentioned, this one was the hardest race I've ever completed. The day before I had to leave early to travel up to Lake George, New York, for my friend's bachelorette party. I stayed the night up there, then left early to get to Massachusetts for the race.
That might have been part of the difficulty, but honestly, this is the only race that I haven't been able to complete an obstacle on. There was a 'monkey bars' style obstacle, only instead of bars, there were rings, and you had to use momentum to swing across. I missed on the third ring and fell into the muddy water. And then the last obstacle was a BEAST they called 'The Warped Wall'… and it… well, its this:
It required a running start that brought you as far up the wall without going horizontal, a leap for the edge, then a lot of upper body strength to pull yourself over (or friends already at the top to help with that). My first try didn't work, and I slid down on my side (a decision I would later SERIOUSLY regret, because I left some skin on the slide). Second time I was able to (barely) get to the ledge and get pulled over. 50 yards beyond that was the hard-earned finish line.
That was the last of it in terms of running races for me this year. I'm already planning next year, and it includes at least four additional races, one of which will be a Spartan race. I'll be honest, I haven't been doing a great job of hitting up the gym in these last few weeks, so hopefully I don't get TOO out of shape. I've gotta collect more shiny things!
