HLS, Travel
My Philly adventure came to a close with a morning 5K with Together Counts.
It was my first chance to really “see” Philly and all the iconic spots. {Minus the Liberty Bell.}
A huge group of us gathered in the lobby, then hit the streets of Philadelphia. It ended up being a walking 5K, which was ok by me- except for the fact that I spent the whole time looking at my watch freaking out about making it back in time to get to the airport…
With Beth, one of my roomies, and Freya, who came all the way from the UK!
Nothing like a giant mob of people crossing the city streets.
The Rocky steps!! {Of course I’ve never seen Rocky…}
And that tour of the city by foot ended HLS and my trip to Philly… Followed by a mad dash to the train station to wait 30 minutes for the next train. Followed by a mad dash to security only to get harassed for 40 minutes. Followed by a mad dash down the longest terminal in existence to hop on my already boarding plane. Followed by an extended wait on the runway. Phew.
Race
A look at the Rugged Maniac mud run obstacle race in NC. Spoiler alert: I jumped over fire and survived.
When the forecast turns from 83 to 53 and the sunshine turns to dreary gray skies, suddenly jumping through mud puddles seems less appealing.
But still awesome.
Yesterday’s Rugged Maniac 5K was a race unlike any I’ve done before- and one I’d do again in a heartbeat.
More obstacle course than race, the 5K was ramped up a notch by swinging tires, fire pits, and mud slides.
Not to mention at least 4 inch deep mud- sticky, clay-like North Carolina mud.
The Rugged Maniac
The day didn’t start out completely fantastic when I made rookie mistake #1 by not re-checking the weather before getting dressed for the race. Oops. I figured it out when I got to the race site and there was a bit of a logistics nightmare. The off site parking lot was full and we got re-routed to another site, but no one told the bus driver. After waiting for 45 minutes for the 5 minute shuttle ride, I’d pretty much figured out it was cold. Really cold.
And I missed my start wave. As I walked up to registration to claim my race bib, I heard the next group of runners starting the course. Oops again.
Luckily, Anne and Tina missed their wave too.
{All mid & post race pictures courtesy of Tina, who’s both talented and brave enough to carry a camera mid-mud-run.}
Did I mention it was cold?
Note: Add “check weather report” to morning-of-race-duties.
Before long it was time for our wave to start.
4…3…2…1…GO!
If you like races where you bolt off the starting line, the Rugged Maniac is not for you. We were instantly greeted by thick, sticky mud that sucked at your shoes and nearly held you in place.
{This was after maybe 6 minutes of running?}
It wasn’t long before it was time to get dirty. The first obstacles? Crawling through a mudpit {that reeked of manure} under barbed wire. Yes, barbed wire.
The course Rugged Maniac course continued on for 3.1 miles of mud, curves, and trees. Oh, and some skinny drain pipes you had to crawl through; tall, wet, slippery wooden walls; and lots of truck tires.
Some cargo nets.
Up was easy…down was a little scary…
Then there were some walls to climb.
Hey that wall doesn’t look as big as it did online. I got this, no sweat.
Ok, that one’s big. Wanna give us a boost? {He gave us a boost and let us use his fists as a step. He also mentioned he wasn’t volunteering for this position next year. I wonder why? 
}
Teamwork!
There was a little bit of running too.
And your typical jumping-over-fire-pits. Oh, that wasn’t in your last 5K?
And then the grand finale, the giant water mud slide.
It looked pretty innocent until Anne and I watched Tina go down….and instantly submerge under muddy water.
Oh well, here goes nothing!
Followed by a little swim…
And a steep climb up a muddy slope to the finish.
We were a little wet after our mud bath…
And that was surprisingly the cleanest we were the whole race.
The race was followed up by some log rolling and alleged hammer tossing.
We missed our chance to log roll. 
Then it was time to clean up.
Change.
And refuel.
These pictures do nothing to imply how absolutely frigidly, freezing cold we were. Freeeeezing.
As for the knee, we’ll see. I’m cautiously whispering to the internet that it seems to feel ok right now. But I’m not making any grand statements until tomorrow…
The official Maniac pics are awesome, by the way.
All in all, I LOVED the Rugged Maniac. So when’s the next mud run? Sign me up!
Running, Training
Well, it’s D-day.
As in I’ll know if I’ll be able to do this upcoming triathlon or not.
If I can’t survive a 5K, I clearly can’t double that in a month. As much as I want to do the tri, I also want to keep my leg function. You know, working legs. Kind of a big deal.
Of course my knee has been killing me in mental anticipation…
But if I can do it….it’s ON.
So, here goes a race like no other. This week and last night’s rain have guaranteed the mud run will in fact be…muddy.
The electronic race packet amused me. Select phrases:
And pictures of course construction have been going up on their Facebook page….
And of course, my favorite line of the race packet email:
Should be an interesting day…
Time to go get muddy!!!
Training
Yes, road bikes are all they’re cracked up to be. Unfortunately I had to return my loaned bike yesterday… but not before I had a chance to take it for a spin. Luckily the weather cooperated and it was the perfect day for bike riding.
The verdict? The road bike was significantly more uncomfortable than my hybrid; it was also significantly more fun to ride. Faster, smoother, more reactive- this is why people ride bikes for 100s of miles.
But for now it’s back to the hybrid. Time to focus on running!
When I found out I had a spot in an Olympic-distance tri this May, I wasn’t running at all. I knew jumping back into things too quickly, especially with the motivation of a race hanging in there, could spell disaster for my knee. I decided a 5K at the beginning of April would be my test-run.
If I survived that 5K, I could do the tri. If not, the tri was out.
Well the beginning of April popped up out of nowhere. One day it was dreary, rainy, and frosty; the next it was sunny and all kinds of April. The 5K is Saturday.
I won’t tell you that right now I can only run a mile…
Luckily there’ll be some distractions along the course; a chance to give my knee a quick break. And while my knee’s resting, the rest of my body will be doing the work:
You know, just your typical 5K on a motocross track: crawling through tunnels, climbing 7 ft walls, hopping barricades, forging through a jungle of giant swinging truck tires, crawling through the mud, scaling a cargo net, leaping across floating barrels. Yeah, you know.
I’m excited. I was really hoping to jump over a fire pit, but I guess a mudslide will do. 
Have you ever done an adventure race or mud run? Any hints on making it through unscathed?
Race
I decided to literally start the new year off on the right foot. This morning I rolled out of bed, bundled up, and laced up my running shoes. After a quick bowl of Cheerios and half a cup of coffee, I headed out the door to a nearby park for the 2010 Resolution Run 5K.
There was quite a turnout, and there were tons of people herding towards the start line as I arrived. The walk to the start was almost as long as the race itself—what a great warm up! (I knew the girl directing traffic, so I actually got a prized spot in a closer parking lot, but it was still a trek.) So many people showed up they ran out of t-shirts—I didn’t get one even though I was pre-registered :(.
Instead of a registration fee, the only requirement was that every racer bring 10 canned food items.
The weatherman had originally been calling for freezing temperatures and ice, so I brought lots of layers with me. I don’t know what he was talking about because it was about 40 degrees. I ended running with a light running jacket, headband, and gloves, and was quite comfortable.
The 5K followed an out and back path through the park. It was a pretty narrow trail, so it was quite crowded at the beginning. I have no idea how I ended up near the front of the pack at the start line, but I shouldn’t have been there! People were passing me right and left- I felt like I was in the way, but I just moved to the side and tried to stay out of the main path.
I resisted the urge to keep up with the pack because I knew if I started that fast I would never make it. I wrestled with a pretty bad cramp in my right side for about the first mile, but I kept taking deep breaths and did my best to work through it.
The turn around was just after an old wooden bridge. The bridge bounced with frightening flexibility as the pack of runners pounded across it. It was a strange feeling have the ground bounce beneath at a different pulse than my steps!
I almost laughed out loud at one point when I heard a man say behind me “I’ll be damned if I get beat by a girl in pink flowered shorts!” (They were actually palm trees, but you know. She was right in front of me. I wonder if she beat him)
I felt like I finally hit my groove just after the 2 mile point. I picked up the pace a little, and decided to finish strong. The course ended with not one, but two fairly steep hills that lead to the finish line. I usually sprint in the last leg of a race, but it was all I could do to keep my momentum up the hills!
I crossed the finish line at 29:23! Slow in comparison to my old 5K times, but in my new era of running I was pretty happy with this. I was expecting to finish around 30 minutes or just after, so I’m quite pleased. I averaged a 9:29 pace, which I feel pretty good about. I think I came in 215 or so out of 514. For some reason my age didn’t show up in the results, so I don’t know where I finished in my age group.
After some stretching, I grabbed a post-race bagel with peanut butter and a nice warm cup of coffee. I think this was the best bagel I’ve ever had. (And I don’t think it was just the post-run euphoria teasing my tastebuds.)
I had half walking back to my car, and had the other half while I was icing my butt when I got home.
My feet seemed to do semi-ok—better than my butt fared! (Which I think is good in some weird, twisted way.)
I got a late Christmas present that I tested out too (even though I didn’t really need to!)
Pink Recovery Socks!
Definitely a great way to start off a new year!!
