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“What on earth did I sign up for?”: A Mud Run Race Report

31 Oct
6am Sunday morning. My sister and I are leaving for the 2.5 hour drive to Granite Bay, CA. We’re dressed in black tank tops, black capris, old running shoes and new black tutus. Hair is contained to braids and a black bandanna. We’re channeling our inner Commando Sniper but adding a dash of frivolity. Hopefully we’re conveying the message that we’re going to have fun and not take this endeavor too seriously, because we could certainly fail miserably.
 
6am – “Woo hoo. Coffee. Stat.” says Debbie. “Agreed!” I say- we’re both pumped up and excited to go- as much as we can be at 6am on a Sunday. 
 
7am – “Are we there yet??”
 
8am – “Omigod, what are we doing?!”  ”I don’t know. I’m beginning to get nervous. I can’t back out; Linda will never let me hear the end of it!” I replied.
 
9am – We are stalling in the bathroom at the Shell station five miles away from Folsom Lake in Granite Bay. 
 
9:20 – We’re parking. There are lots of people in costume, and many girls in tutus. Whew! Keith was wrong – tutus are fine. We have arrived at the
 
 
9:45 – We’ve checked in, affixed our bibs, taken our “before” shots and we’re watching the finish line mud pit. The 5k runners are coming in. They look EXHAUSTED. Our stomachs are in knots. We run into my friend Linda, whom I talked into this race and she then talked her husband and another couple into the race. We’re both looking at each other like “Oh Shit!”  She’s nervous. Her girlfriend is nervous. The men are “cool with it”. Whatever.
We’re in the last 10k wave- we all reaffirm this is just to “have fun” and there’s no pressure to break our 10k time or even do all the obstacles. We’ve already seen the “Slippery Wall” and that is causing a swarm of butterflies- well perhaps bumble bees, in my stomach.
 
10:30am-  We’re next to go- ”Ohmigod! We’re gonna die”“No! We’re Commando Snipers in Tutus – we’re Kick Ass!”
 
The race starts and we’re off.  The course starts out on sand and trails and winds around to the edge of the lake.
 

photos from www.downanddirtymudrun.com

 
1st Obstacle: Marine Hurdles. A quick jog into thigh-high water and back up onto the sandy path. Then we have the Marine Hurdles. Three 5’ tall beams we need to hurl ourselves over. Ya right. We climb over. More running and now we’re on a foot trail winding up a hill with several switchbacks. We have to walk. My sister hasn’t run since the Wine Country Half Marathon exactly one year ago.  The weather is warm and she’s not into running uphill.
 
We come up to another mini-obstacle. This is the “Spider web”; a series of bungee cords stretched across poles that we have to climb through. Simple. It would have been more challenging if they were real spider webs (ick). Then we start running downhill.
 
2nd Obstacle: Tunnels.  We felt like pipe cleaners going through. Our tutus were the same diameter. The capris came in handy here because there is gravel and we have tender knees.  
 
3rd Obstacle:  Haybales. Other than being advised we need to slide down on our rear-ends and having a bunch of straw stuck to our bums, this was easy. The torture of the Haybales is the constant plucking of straw from your rear for the rest of the course.
 
More running along footpaths in the park surrounding the lake until the next mini obstacle – the Balance Beam. Child’s play. We barely miss a beat. More running and we’re now on the 5k course – the volunteer at this location says we’re half way there.  Already?!
 
4th Obstacle: The 4’ Wall.  I’m running already and Debbie is behind me. I leap and swing my leg over and I’m clear. I finish with a “plie” as I come down then see that there are two cops sitting in the shade watching the runners. They clap! Um, Awkward! Deb copies my move and makes her way over the obstacle on the first try. It is funny to see the tutus sticking straight up when our ungraceful bodies move over and under things. They tease us about our tutus and then say we have 5 more miles… HAHA. Funny guys.
 
We wind our ways through the parking lot and see the finish line and expo- WOW! This course is short! We’re almost done! Then we take a right instead of a left and suddenly it’s clear, we’re not done. We’re going to another hill climb on trails that wind around and the finish line disappears. We can’t even hear the music anymore.  After a steep climb we come to the
 

Photo from www.downanddirtymudrun.com

 
5th Obstacle: The Ladder Wall. Other than feeling a little vertigo at the top as you’re climbing over, it’s not hard.
 
More running with steep climbs and fast downhills.  After a mile or so of this, we pop back out into the beach and arrive at
 
6th Obstacle: Mini-MudPit.  Finally- we could use some cooling off!  We get on our knees and climb the mud berm and slide into the muddy water. It’s nice and cool but not cold. My head goes in unexpectedly and I have a moment of panic breathing before I scoot on my elbows across the pit. A drill sergeant is scooping mud with a shovel and tossing it at us from the sidelines. A plop lands on my head. Deb is out fast and watches me as I climb out, tutu dripping. She told me I looked funny. “Blllpphhhh”.
 
We run across the dried out lake bed toward the last mile or so of the race. We are dripping mud and trying to clean off our sunglasses with muddy hands and muddy shirts. It’s futile. Finally we get to the event grounds where the last of the obstacles, including that Slippery Wall, are located.  We arrive at the
 

photo from www.downanddirtymudrun.com

 
7th Obstacle: The 12’ Climbing Wall.  This one worried me because there are no belayers. But it was actually quite easy and I was up and over before I even realized it. Debbie had a bit of vertigo, the heat and running was getting to her.  She was rewarded by the next
 
8th Obstacle: 2nd Water Jog into the lake.  She dunked herself. Most everyone around us dunked themselves. I didn’t want to ruin my muddied face and hair and stayed upright.
 
Squishing shoes and more running up a little incline to the fearsome Slippery Wall.
 

photo from www.downanddirtymudrun.com

 
9th Obstacle: The Blasted Slippery Mountain  This monster is an 8’ wall on an incline covered in shampoo and you use knotted ropes to climb up. You cannot use your feet or knees. ONLY your arms can pull you up. The military gals and volunteers pitted Debbie and me against each other, “She’s gaining on you, hurry up!” “Don’t let her win!” I got up two arm pulls before I begged for mercy. A volunteer pulled me up just barely in reach and told me to swing my leg over. UGH. This one was hard.
 
Finally, the last obstacle presents itself.
 
10th Obstacle: The Big Mud Pitt. We slide in and make our way with our elbows and toes while a fountain of muddy water rains down on us. As we climb out, Black Eyed Peas “The Time (Dirty Bit)” is playing and we grab hands and shake our tutus down the finish corral. I hope the photographer got us. Each racer gets a “Dog Tag” finishers medal on a ball chain. Super cool!
 

Fear conquered, feeling cocky!

 
For your listening pleasure: Black Eyed Peas “The Time (Dirty Bit)” 
 
4 Comments

Posted by on October 31, 2011 in Running

 

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Nike Women’s Marathon “Fun Run” Race Report

17 Oct

Natalie & me showing off our Tiffany boxes

We did it! We ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon last Sunday, along with 22,000 other women and men. Yes, men can run this race! There were quite a few of them too (I “chicked” two of them too, ha!). I ran with my usual partner, Natalie and her friend Claudia. I never met up with Nicki or any of the other Fleet Feet ladies and couldn’t find my coworker running the Full either. The race was so crowded any of them could have been feet away and we’d never know it.

I decided to call this a “Fun Run” because I went into this race without a time goal other than “it better be under 3 hours or else!“  I did the first six miles with Natalie as a 5/1 run-walk. Since my training was interrupted for my vacation and my ankle hurt from the start of the race, it made sense to start conservatively. The agreement was to pick it up the second half if we felt strong. 
 
 

Crazy Hills!

Natalie went into the race intending to walk the hills. There are a LOT of hills (elevation chart at the bottom of the course map). At the start, Claudia suggested she do a run/walk and that really helped her manage the hills better because if it was time to start running again, hill or not, she did! 
 
The first six miles went so fast! I felt really good and was amazed we were half way there. Around mile eight we decided to stop the intervals and just walk through the water stops every two miles. While the hills were tiresome, I have to credit the Fleet Feet coaches for all the hill training we did. I never felt like the hills would win!  But they did affect my overall time. My time ended up being 2:50:33, 20 min slower than my last half marathon. By mile 11 we were both tired. Natalie and I split off because she needed to walk more and I wanted to just push through the pain and finish. I was “done” and didn’t want to lengthen this run any more than I had to by walking. I even turned down the Ghiradelli Chocolates being passed out at mile 12!  Passing up free chocolate? So unlike me! 
 
The finish area was nicely organized to keep us moving, but so many people where there I couldn’t stand and wait for Natalie who was only a few minutes behind me. If I did, I may have seen Nicki finish too. 
 
The amazing NWM Tiffany Finisher necklace for 2011.  Handed out by tuxedo’d firemen wearing Nike running shoes!

 

The finisher’s shirt is a tech shirt in a bright yellow with blue lettering – it’s lovely! The bright shirt is good for being seen while running – very thoughtful.
 
This event is well-organized but one thing (not Nike’s fault) really messed us up. No cellphone service. The amount of people texting/calling/tweeting/FB statusing caused the cellular network to fail for at least an hour. And stupidly, we didn’t have a designated meeting place.
 
I was so bummed I couldn’t tweet! 
<wink!>
 
Claudia and I met at the bag check bus within 20 minutes of each other and waited there for Natalie, but she wandered for 45 min looking for us before heading to bag check!  My sister and her friend were also waiting for us at a nearby restaurant and were concerned they hadn’t heard from us. It was an hour for us runners to finally connect and 90 minutes before we met up with my sister. It was such a bummer to have this happen when all you want to do is celebrate with your buddies!
 
Lesson Learned: Designate a Meet Up location for runners and family/friends. Duh.
 

Minutes before the race started...

Final Summation:  Nike Women’s Marathon is one of those “should do it at least once for the experience” races.
 
The organizers put on a top-notch race. Everything from bag check to the finish line was well thought out. Shout out to the SFPD for their friendly traffic control officers. The Expo was hip and lively featuring the latest Nike gear, running demonstrations, food, health and beauty booths and lively energetic music. The course was beautiful and challenging. The route is lined with spectators for almost the entire race (half marathon at least). The volunteers were all on their game. The Finisher Loot clearly is the best of any race on the planet, CLEARLY!  
 
That said - I don’t think I’ll do the Nike again. The necklace is perfect. They can’t top it for me any other year. Also, the Nike is a logistical challenge – it ends at Ocean Beach, then runners and spectators have to rely on a shuttle service to get back to the start (Union Square).  The wait for the shuttle was too long for us with a fast approaching check out time. We had to walk a few miles to get to a spot where we didn’t have to fight for a cab. There are other races in SF that hit the highlights of the city and end where you began, so that alone is enough for me to say once is enough. Nike Women’s Marathon- check!  Calling it good.
 
 
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Posted by on October 17, 2011 in Running

 

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Presenting my 3-week Half Marathon Training Plan

11 Oct

This training program is not recommended for people with intelligence or a current training regimen that works for them. No, this training program is for the rest of us who can’t commit on a Half Marathon, or have other things interferring with the standard 12-week training plans. This is for those of us who hover their mouse over the “confirm registration” button and can’t quite seem to click it.

Here it is:

  1. Join a local running store’s half marathon training group but don’t sign up for any of the races they are training for.
  2. Run with them twice weekly until you leave for a 3-week vacation.
  3. Run 9 miles with them when you return from said vacation.
  4. Allow them to convince you that if you can run the next week’s 13 mile training run, you can certainly run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon.
  5. Let the coach sign you up. That way, the mouse hovering issue is resolved.
  6. Get caught up in the team’s excitement and begin to think you might actually survive this, despite only one long run and 3 weeks off. Which is probably true, especially if you keep time goals off the the agenda.
  7. Race Day- do your best and have fun! (Wish me luck! or should I ask for godspeed?)

Have you ever entered a half marathon on a whim with minimal training or just your base mileage to get you through? If so, how did it go?  

Are you running Nike this Sunday? 

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Posted by on October 11, 2011 in Running

 

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Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures

16 Jul

I’m not ready. I have not taken my training seriously and now two weeks from the SF Half Marathon, I’m faced with the harsh reality that I’m not going to do it. Or the reality that if I did do it, it would be a total disaster.

My long run training has been derailed by heat (ohgodihateheat), apathy and a couple of weekend trips away where drinking beer & sleeping in instead of getting up early to run 8-11 miles alone seemed like more fun.

I feel like a failure.

But then I tell my self that I’m not an idiot for just doing it anyway. By DNS-ing, I’m preventing turning a nagging hip twinge into a full on injury. Smart, right?

Which brings me back to feeling like a wuss and I should be able to knock out 13.1 miles- I mean, it’s not a full marathon, right?  What’s a measly little half marathon anyway? Ugh.

I’ve found many an excuse to skip my base runs as well.  It actually feels more like I’m rebelling against them. WTF? Yes, I hate running after work, but why is it any worse now than a few months ago. Oh yeah. The blasted heat.

This reality has been hard for me to accept. When it became clear to me that this race was going to be a disaster, I started looking for another half marathon. Just as I decided to sign up for another one two weeks after the SF Half, thinking that extra time would be enough to be ready, I realized I didn’t WANT to train.

My heart seized with panic. Was this the beginning of the end for me?  Was running going to be one of those obsessions that fizzled out like so many other interests of mine? It was time for some soul searching.

Truth:  The idea of running on vacation makes me happy. It’s the one time I can be alone in a strange, beautiful city without any pressure to engage with anyone (I travel with talkers!) and just enjoy the solitude. Score one point for my love of running. Plus the GPS map geeks me out to all kinds of geek ecstasy so let’s give that another point!

Truth:  Running makes me feel strong and competent. It also allows me to eat the way I want  - like a pig! Another point scored. Five if there’s a grande super burrito in there somewhere…

Truth:  True confession #3 and that brings us to 9 points scored – I’m excited about the Merrell Down & Dirty 10k in October. It’s terrifying, yet the thought of bear crawling through the mud fills my heart with glee. The scary part of the race is the strength needed to climb walls and leap tall buildings. I’m not so much worried about the running part – a 10k is a good distance for me.

Wait, wha?

When I realized that last sentence- “A 10k is a good distance for me” – suddenly things felt okay. While I am still upset about “quitting” the SF Half, it gave me permission to not sign up for another half this year. It gave me the permission to concentrate on improving my running base and focus some energy on other training. We just bought a used P90X kit from a friend. Sometimes things work out they way they should without me trying to force it!

So there we have it. I’m a DNS for the SF Marathon unless the magic running fairy grants me bionic muscles & magic lungs before 7/30. The change of focus also presented another opportunity. Fleet Feet had a Half Marathon Training group start this weekend and so I joined up. I’m not a “joiner” – I’m very much an introvert, but these are Desperate Times, right? Today was our first run – a five-mile rolling hill course. There were about 25 women, 1 (brave) man and two coaches. It is exactly what I needed. The pressure is off. I had the first good run in weeks. Having a coach present has already proven helpful. The group is friendly and the long runs with them will not be boring. I don’t have to sign up for a half marathon in order to train for one. But you never know. I’m back, baby!

 
3 Comments

Posted by on July 16, 2011 in Running

 

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Running and the art of graceful fall recoveries

13 Jun

If you have an example of a graceful fall recovery, please share.

I don’t. 

I wish I had a video though, when I fell running a quick 1 miler for my streak last Saturday.  On flat sidewalk. It seems like it would have been a very funny thing to see.

I’m doing another running streak for June and have no idea how or why my left leg gave out causing me to fall ever so ungracefully on the sidewalk just a block from my house.  I did feel like a bad-ass after I continued on my run with bloody knees when other runners or cyclists passed by.  “Yah, that’s right… I’m running bloody. I’m a huge clutz that falls on flat sidewalks on 1 mile runs!”

In other running news, are you looking for some bad ass running skirts that will not break the bank?  Then look no further. Target sells C9 Champion Running Skorts for $17.99 and a matching C9 Champion Short Sleeve Cardio T $12.99.  The Ts come in black, white, torquoise and neon pink and yellow. The skorts in black or gray with a neon yellow trim piece. They do not have an iPhone pocket however, just a small key pocket on the inside waist, but they’re too cute to not mention.

I wore these items yesterday at the Fitch Mountain Footrace 10k yesterday and felt great- they were comfortable and didn’t ride up. It’s a nice change from shorts and it’s fun to be girly!

So what do you think?  Scraped knees on a 42 year old woman- Sexy? Disturbing? What Graceful Sports Fails do you have to share?  Any video?  Do tell!!  

 

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2011 in Running

 

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