Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, NY

	Plc O	Plc G	Plc A	Athlete	Sex	Age	Bib	Pace	Final
Claim	1196	968	161	Levi Smith	M	37	11422	28:29	1:53:58

Race Statistics

	Pace/Speed	Final Time & Place (O/G/A)
Place (A/G/O)	28:29	1196 5631 21%	968 3391 29%	161 605 27%

Ahh, where to start...

Took about 4 hours down.

Then it was mainly just trouble figuring out where to go.  First problem was I found the location, but there was just a sign saying "lot full" and then I was off in the middle of nowhere again for some distance...  But thankfully I happened to pull into the next driveway and accidentally found out this was actually the place to park and there was another entrance to the area.

Tried to get mostly ready in the car, but had a little over an hour before my heat and wasn't entirely sure how long it would take to get my wristband, etc and back or if I should just take everything and use the bag check or what exactly.

Headed up mostly ready, found my entry line and got my packet.  Only took about 10 minutes each way.

Back to the car, got ready, took my spibelt with a couple loksaks, one for my disposable waterproof phone with runkeeper, and the other for my carkey, fitbit and some cash.  They all survived just fine!

Also attached the bib to the spibelt and just tucked my shirt in that spot under the bib, so it was mostly visible for most of the race.

Oh, and had my spartan headband on.

Figured out how to get across the road and then realized that was more of the festival area.

Still looking around trying to figure out what's where.  Found the finish line in front of me.  Not obvious where the start was...

Wandered around, finally found a spot where I looked down the hill and around a corner was a sign saying starting line.

Stood there for a bit then heard someone say the starting line was actually farther up this road.

Headed up there, and saw the start line and a "warmup" section, but didn't think I wanted to do warmups.

Time was running out, and I realized, no wait, you have to jump over the warmup wall to get to the starting area.

Think I got there with just a couple minutes to spare before my heat.

Never did find the other New England Spahtens I might theoretically be running with.  

We started out and it was up the ski slope.  Nicely this is only a 400' hill that we'd be constantly going up and down for about 4.5 miles.

I don't know that I remember it all.  It was a ski slope, lots of rocks to climb over and we went up and down the entire time.

Most of the people seemed to be walking it, so I was actually faster than a lot of people even uphill, and as usual, faster than almost everyone going down.  It was a bit slippery going down as it was steep and lots of fine loose dirt on top.  It was generally better to go to the side where there were still some weeds to step on.

There were some like 5 or 6' walls, they were easy enough, and under and through a couple walls...

Later on we had 8' walls and I could jump up and grab the top and pull myself up about a foot.  I had to get a lift from others to get to the top so I could get a leg over.

There was some sort of stone/boulder carry. They seemed to be something like basketball sized, Dunno, 80lbs maybe?(nope, later found out it's about 110lbs)  Hard to tell, they weren't too bad to carry the maybe 15', do 5 burpees, then carry them back again, but getting them off the ground was rough without worrying of killing your back!

There was a cement block sort of weight with a chain on it you had to drag through a path.  Again, waiting for others.  The only hard part of that was when I tried to take pass someone and caught my block around a tree so i had to stop for a second.

Got to the monkeybars, WAY bigger than I had imagined.  Wasn't real sure I was going to do those at all, but surprisingly, it was just swinging the legs like a monkey and made it across without a problem!

Later was the same thing, but with a cargo net, more or less horizontal.  I thought for sure I would fail that one.  Not sure if it was actually tent shaped or just with weight on it, but once I was on it, I realized I was climbing up and the worst was the middle because it was attached to a bar, so I either had to REALLY stretch open my hand to grab the bar as well, or wasn't sure I was going to make it.  Took a couple extra swings, but I did manage to get my hand around just the net and on through and rang the bell!  WOOT!

There was the herculean hoist, not sure how much those bags weigh, but it was a matter of technique, thankfully the staff told me how, grab as high as you can and then let your weight pull it down.  It took some effort, but I got it all the way up and just as bad was getting it back down without dropping it, I took my time there cause I could tell it wouldn't take much for it to slip.

Right after that was the inverse wall where it angles back towards you like 45 degrees, so you have to like get your feet in front of you, then grab above you and then climb up a rung or two like that, and I got about my waist up to the top of the thing, but I was trying to get myself over it forwards and the lack of arm strength I currently had just wasn't cutting it.  I think I just switched to trying to get a leg over sideways and boom I had that too!

There was a big cargo net climb that was fun and easy, and something similar just made out of wood like a large ladder.  Also the slippery wall where you walk up a slippery incline with a rope and then down a ladder the other side.  No problem there either.

The traverse wall was about what I expected, difficult, but just keep your body tight against the wall, and be very careful placing your hands and feet one at a time.  The fivefingers may have helped with grip, dunno.  Biggest worry was my weak arms at that point and the guy behind me jumping right on and bouncing it a bit.

They had an option to pick your own way, which simply said this way is shorter, this way is longer single track.  I was daring and went the shorter way which the guy said was just tires.  Had no problems high stepping through the tires.

The spear throw which I had practiced for a couple days beforehand and was at a maybe 60% success rate... Well, this time it was with weak arms and UPHILL AND the bales I think start at about 6' off the ground which was about where mine ended, so I wasn't sure.  In the end I wasn't far off, but it was burpees for me.

The rope climb was the other big burpee failure.  I picked the one with the most/closest knots, but I didn't realize they were still too far apart to be able to just put your feet on each time.  And again with the arm strength at that point...  Well, I tried for a few minutes, managed to get my crotch up on top of one of the knots, but I didn't have the hang of the foot grip and definitely didn't have the arm strength to pull up, barely enough to hold my weight for a few seconds, and I just looked up and realized I wasn't even out of the water, let alone the next 15' or whatever and I had already used up what little arm reserves I had just trying to get to where I was that was maybe a few feet off the bottom of the pool.

And of course the burpees sucked.  I did all 30, but not with the pushups, there was no way I had the arms for that.

Oh, the 40lb sand bag carry.  Yeah, that didn't seem too bad at first.  Then about 15 seconds in after climbing about 10' up a ski slope, "yeah, this really kinda sucks."  About 30 seconds in, *I* almost came to a dead stop, and that's one thing I'm good at, is to just keep moving.  I may not run for all of my runs, but I never have a need to stop walking.  I switched to locking my hands in front of me and carrying it down there for part of the way instead of my right shoulder. eh.  Then tried the left shoulder, but that seemed to be worse.  Back to the front for a while, then the last bit of uphill I switched it to behind my neck with a hand on either side, which *might* have been the least bad...  But then it was downhill and while I hadn't had trouble running down the hills before, it was not a fun time while trying to hold 40lbs and realizing that if I DO fall, I don't have free hands to help catch myself!  But I made it!

Oh, there was a log carry as well.  I just picked the first one, which I think judging by the staff comment may have been the largest one there.  It was heavy, but not too bad.

Not sure what else I'm probably forgetting...

Of course there was the fire jump at the end, but that was even a bit scarier than I thought(cause I wasn't worried about it) because it was of course on a ski slope and the way it was angled I was running downhill at it, but couldn't see the other side!  But I figured, "hey, I've seen these in plenty of pictures, it's gotta just be a step to the other side, right?" And sure enough as I got close to it, I could see where I was jumping to, so no problem! (:

Then the AWESOME medals.  They did both the full and the trifecta piece on one strap.  You could tell the finishers cause they all were clanging around as they walked.

Have to say these are the best medals and most earned of any race I've done!

They also had a good amount of water on the course I was happy to see, and water at the end along with bananas, clif Builder bars and CorePower milk.  YUM!

Then I  found the shower section which was nice because I had heard the showers were usually a trickle of water, but these were nice powerful garden hoses(with a high pressure option).  So I just hosed myself off, then picked up my finisher shirt which I also quite like.

Then back out to the car, I just changed clothes there and then headed on home as I was already a good hour later than I was hoping to be!

Oh, and it was nice to see by the results that I'm around the top 25%!

Hopefully some good pictures soon, we'll see!

And yes, I feel a bit crazy about the Super and Beast, but we shall see!

Oh, yes post race...
Didn't feel too bad that night.
Next day, the bruises and scrapes on my knees and elbows were hurting.  I think a bit of muscle soreness.
2 days later, the scrapes and bruises aren't hurting but the muscle soreness kicked in!  Yep, definitely used the pecs, back and arms!  It hurts to flex my arms!

The Color Run

Ahh, the Color Run in Rochester.

We started out 20 minutes late as usual, and then got stuck in completely stopped traffic at the exit ramp, so I think we spent about half an hour before we finally got to the parking lot.

And during that time, it was becoming apparent that I should have stopped on the way up to pee.  I was really in pain.  Like more than I could recall.

But sister Sarah took my license and got my packet while we were parking, we got the girls ready and headed over to the start area/portapotties.

UNFORTUNATELY...  The lines were about 10-15 people long...  And wife Sara was not nearby and Kenzie did not want to go to sister or get down, she was in her usual "there's a lot of new people around and I want to stay clung to Daddy for a while" mode.  Which wasn't helping.  So after about 5 minutes in line I was literally contemplating if I was going to pee my shorts and what other possible options there were...(If only I had known there was another set of portapotties not far away at the finish line...).  I was thinking of asking if I could go ahead of others in line, but really didn't want to...  So sister asks "are you gonna make it?"  and I say "I'm really not sure" and she says "just ask if you can go ahead?"  And I give in.  Thankfully everyone in line seemed to be ok with that.  And I just took Kenzie with me which I probably would not have otherwise tried.  Thankfully these portapotties were a bit larger and cleaner than usual, so i just set her in there in the corner and said "Don't touch ANYTHING!"   She seemed to abide, though also seemed to start hopping after a short bit.

Anyway, this was the only big downside to the day as I don't EVER remember having this much pain/trouble!


So, after more wandering around, trying to figure out just what we were doing, etc. We finally got in just about the last wave heading out.

I really wasn't sure how this run was going to go with Kenzie.  Miss 2 year old has a lot of different emotions/actions right now.  We've never tried anything like this.  I was envisioning everything between some decent running beside me to some decent jogging while carrying her, to being stopped with a screaming girl, to carrying and trying to run as fast as I can to get to the end while she's screaming at me...

Well...
It went WAY beyond ANY of my expectations...  Sister, BIL and I mostly walked, but Kenzie mostly ran and while she did want to run up and down the curbs along the streets and hit the puddles, she mostly kept going where she should.  And she was happy.  And I saw no one else get more attention and compliments than she did!  And she enjoyed the water stop, acting all adult drinking while walking.

And I wasn't sure if she'd think the color stations were "dirty"(we've been getting a lot of "yucky, wash off" sort of comments lately with her shared milk straw, etc).  But nope, she seemed to love it and was even thinking they didn't put enough color on her, as it was like a half inch deep with powder on the ground and she'd get through and scoop up more and pat it on her shirt herself!

Just SO awesome.  Nothing better than sharing it with her!  In the end, I think she did about 2.5 miles herself and I think it was actually shoe pain that stopped her then.  She just kinda slowed/stopped and I thought must be she was finally tired, but then after I carried her just a bit, she'd want to get down, but after a couple steps she'd lift one foot like it was hurting or something.  So I carried her like the last half mile, but once we got to the finish line, she was barefoot and she was running all over the place for like 20 minutes after we met up with wife and my cousin and her son.

So, I think that was my happiest race and my slowest!  (:

Humitic Acclimation?

I hope this week has just been the "acclimate to humidity" week or something.  I have felt hot, humid, thirsty and just generally sluggish for almost all of it.  The runs have been around the 65F range, but humidity feels like we've jumped to summer levels.

I'll say the week started last Saturday as such:
Saturday: Local 5K.  First time not PR, but close to my peak. First time at a race where it wasn't cold at the starting line and the sweat started pouring off in the first mile.  Also got a new, bigger blister than ever before.  Really, this run wasn't too bad, just felt hotter, sweatier and was contemplating taking a drink at mile 1.

Monday: Supposed to be a 14 mile long run from Sunday. Focused on form instead(since I think my slack in it is what caused my blister) and trying not to kill the blister, did 5 miles barefoot on pavement before I started to feel it rubbing on the bottom of my right big toe.  Did another couple miles in my fivefingers after that, but as I suspected, the blister didn't make it.  Never hurt though.   Positive that previously 3 miles was the longest I had gone.

Tuesday: Ugh, made it for the 7 miles, but with a bit more walking.  Tried the New Balance Minimus Zero trail shoes.  Definitely different feeling than the Fivefingers with my toes just kinda hanging out in front instead of feeling things.  But they seem fine.  Mainly just humid, sluggish.  Though the first couple miles I could feel the foot muscles from using them more and keeping them flexed as they should be the day before.

Wednesday: UGGH...  Worse than Tuesday with sluggish/humid feeling.  Made it the 6 miles, but with a bit more walking.  Definitely a couple times stopping as I had forgotten nipple protection and ended up on the nice wet dirt road, taking off my fivefingers and socks and pulling the bandaids off I had put on for possible blister protection and moving them up to the nips and then trying to get the socks and fivefingers back on without pulling too much dirt back in.

Thursday/today: Lowest yet.  Supposed to be 10 miles with some speed work, but blah.  I barely made it 4 and a LOT of it was walking, it was at over an hour out there.  Remembered the nipple band aids today, but something was still rubbing too much on one side.  Tried some huaraches from Xero shoes.  Definitely a lot better than flip-flops, but I still had the same flip-flop problems with picking up rocks and rubbing the skin off between my first two toes where the strap goes.  Did it one better by even getting some dirt in one of the blisters there.  Cleaned out once home.

So yeah, part of the issues are new things, but a lot of this is also due to heat/humidity I believe.  I never had as much rubbing in my Fivefingers or this soon on the nips before.  The barefoot running is the best cause it only rubs if I screw up my form, but I need to work up to my double digit numbers.  I like the huaraches, but I don't think I'll be wearing them for running.

So.  I think my plan of attack is:
Friday: rest/walk day.

Saturday: hopefully get the OK to get out early in the morning, glide/bandaid the nips, back to the best known dirt road/rock config of Fivefingers and socks and adding glide and likely some tape/band aids as well.  Hopefully that will cover the aches and pains and then I just have to get this body acclimated to this humidity(or it will just drop on it's own anyway)!  Cause this week has felt like the weeks after I gave blood, just like there's not enough energy in the body to keep things moving!

Bath Revitalization 5K

Well, for this one, I had to take a double look at my bib...  I was #1...  Woah... No pressure there, right?

It wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but it was still good really.
I just get hopes for a PR every time, and really until this race, I had done it.

But I had hoped for maybe an 8:00 even pace.  Nope, previous PR was 8:23 and this race turned out an 8:30.

It wasn't a bad race.  It wasn't like "HILLY" in the sense around here, but compared to the 5K's in Hornell I've done that are basically entirely flat with one teeny uphill, this had a few slight inclines.

It was also the first one where it wasn't chilly.  Like maybe 60F and some humidity.  I was in a T-shirt and shorts and plenty warm at the starting line.  Was new to have the sweat dripping off my head within the first mile and be thinking about taking that water stop for a 5K...

And then my Fivefinger See-ya's that I have had some rubbing on my left "where an arch should be", so I've been wearing socks and had no problems(including my half marathon).  Well...  I think maybe I got sloppy with my form because about half way I could feel it really rubbing there if I wasn't keeping my foot in proper flexed form.  Came out with a great blister, somewhere in the vicinity of half a golf ball in size.


But really, not bad in the big picture.


That did lead to Monday's long run turning into a slower paced/focus on form run which I did at the park on pavement barefoot.  So, I didn't get 14 miles of speed in, but I did 5 miles of barefoot, at which point I was starting to feel my right big toe as though it was rubbing a bit much still.  I put on what I hoped were the least intrusive Fivefingers loose for another couple miles, but at some point, as I suspected, the blister still opened.  But other than the initial rubbing during the race, it never really hurt.

Then for the next run, I finally tried out the New Balance Minimus Zero Trail shoes.  Not bad, just kind of a different feeling more like a tube around my lack of arch and then the toes just kinda hangin' out up front.  And some getting used to that point up front instead of toes for the shape.  Though the feet did feel a little tired, like they got some exercise from the barefoot the day before...


Pretty sure I won't aim for a race every weekend next year.
Well, I didn't aim for it this year either, it just kinda happened.  It's difficult as it seems everyone wants to schedule theirs in May and June. I kinda want to hit the locals...  And probably the trail races...(maybe...), and then there's probably a couple other random big names I'd like to do...  Ahh, we'll see.  I've really no idea what I'm doing next year just yet...

But a week off this weekend, then Color Run, so that's easy.  Then Spartan Sprint shouldn't be TOO bad... Working on the arms a bit, we'll hope it's enough!
Then an easy Foamfest 5K, and a probably a bit tiring 10 mile trail race with elevation changes...  Then about a month off before Tough Mudder in July!
Phew!

Allegany Adventure Run

This was a hilly 22K trail race in Salamanca.

So I was VERY nervous again for this one.  Not exactly new, but I was definitely feeling it.  But thinking that just meant I'd have my usual adrenaline to start with.

Got my bib/shirt, hung out, went to the start line.

I was just in a t-shirt and shorts and had my Camelbak with me.  It was about 50F which was cool standing around, but plenty warm when running.

And we were off, pretty much immediately uphill.  I could tell as soon as the race started it was gonna be rough.  I've had plenty of "bad runs" in training.  Unfortunately this was my first race like that.

Not sure what exactly I did, not enough water or fuel or something or what, but my legs were just NOT into the running.  I dunno, maybe around 1/3 of the way through they were kinda getting used to the running, but the entire race was QUITE tiring.

Probably not helped by the fact that I REALLY wanted to hit that 2 hour mark which would mean going a bit faster than my half marathon pace, down into the 8's and this time off road with hills...  Yeah, that didn't happen and probably was not a good idea when the legs weren't feeling great to start with.

And what is up with downhills?  Are people scared of them?  Do I have more weight and go faster?  Am I just stupid and wasting energy I don't realize there?  I mean it was my plan to try to make my speed down the hills cause I knew I wouldn't going up.  And just like in the snow at the Humdinger, I pass just about everyone going downhill.  I was utterly amazed as a couple actually passed me near the end on a downhill segment as it was the ONLY time it happened.

But I struggled through.  Definitely walked a good bit on the uphill sections, but I tried to keep moving at a decent pace and not walking for more than about 30 seconds at a clip and then running for at least a minute on the worst sections.

I got used to it a bit for a few sections and managed to get my pace up a bit, and near the end there was a quite long downhill section where I definitely picked up some speed.

Then that last 2 miles of uphill that really scared me because of how long that DOWNhill section was!  I didn't want to climb all that way back up!  But I think we must have gained some elevation on the rolling hills earlier on, because while it was uphill, it wasn't as bad as I was afraid of.  I still walked in there and my "running" was pretty slow, but I kept up more than I expected.

In the end, I got about a 10:30 pace.  So I'm happy I completed it, and since it's my first, it's a PR!  Ha!

Trail races are also nicer in that they feed you lunch afterwards!

Well, not sure where the discrepancy lies, but according to the race guys, I got a 10 minute pace! Ha!  like 58 out of 77, 10 out of 14 in my age group.  Not bad really!

 58. Levi Smith           2:16:40  0:10:00    10/M30-39       43/M    

The Tough Turtle

Oh let's see...

(note, a lot of these are going to pictures that I'm not in, but were at the event.  Sara took great pics, but she was generally only in one area and had two little girls to take care of at the same time!)

We got everyone packed up and made it to the Ithaca Children's Garden at about 9:15.  The walk across the fields while I still had my sweat pants and light jacket on was COLD.  It was about 40, but the sun was NOT out and the worst of it was that the wind WAS.

About 9:20 I get my Shirt and bib. I elect to put the shirt on as a third layer over my short sleeve compression and long sleeve technical because it felt like it was going to be cold.

So about 2 minutes to go for my 9:30am heat, I was at the line, no jacket, tough turtle shirt on, shorts and rubber mad grip gloves.  There are 3 guys from a renewable energy company ahead of me with shirts I can remember.  I end up next to a lady who is also there on her own.  Maybe she'll end up helping?

Nope, apparently I run faster.
First up?  Walls.  There were three maybe 4 or 5 foot walls to go over.  Having never done this, I just kinda throw myself at them.  This works, but is definitely not the best method.  I have bruises on my shins from it.  But I went over them without problem, and in between the walls were ropes to go under.  The last wall was maybe six to eight foot tall, but  there was a 2x4 a couple feet up for a step so it was actually easier.  But I did waste some time here as I thought people had stopped and I saw a girl sitting to the side so I didn't want to jump over and kill anyone.  Apparently it was fine though and I was over and sped up to catch back up to the guys ahead of me.

Next up was some elevated ropes on the ground to high step through. No problem.

Then some snow fence on the ground to crawl under. No problem, I was waiting for the guy ahead of me.(hey, I'm actually in this picture about to go in!)

Then a big pile of tires in a line to go over/through.  No problem. Slight holdup for people ahead of me.

Then a favorite, the polar plunge. I had wondered about this one before going and heard a comment from one of the New England Spahtens that they would be surprised that a local 5K race would get people wet at 40 degrees.  Yep.  It was waist deep.  And not only that but there were tires hooked together under the muddy water, so unless you went VERY slowly, you were almost guaranteed to end up pretty much soaked.  I made it about half way before falling forward and going in up to my shoulders.  FUN!  I remember going into freezing water before, but I guess it is a bit different between just going to be IN the water and attempting to cross it. That shock to your system does hit you a bit while you're trying to get something done! (:

The Rescue run.  I guess with a team you carry a human weighted mannequin on a stretcher out to a cone and back.  Being alone they told me to grab the guy on the chair.  I was expecting something towards human weight, but no he turned out to be like 10lbs of stuffing.  Pfft.

The tire flip. This was the one where I started to feel the lack of upper body endurance.  Still no problem, but it was maybe 6 flips of the tire I picked, maybe 5' tall out to the cone and then back again and I could feel some muscles tiring there!

Physical push.  Thankfully this was just 10 pushups, then 10 box jumps and then a bear crawl on hands and feet to the next cone.  Not bad at all.

Then the balance beams...  Yeah this was probably my biggest fail depending on how you want to look at it.  They were 2x4's on edge and while I didn't think the balance beam would be that bad, that little 1 and 3/4" board is pretty narrow to walk on!  Oh, did I mention they had a low power fire hose out there and that I took the beam closest to the board?  Yeah that meant the creek crossing had nothing on this.  I was completely soaked to the point where I couldn't even SEE the beams at one point!  I did my best to make my way down them, but I was off and back on like every couple feet.(I don't know why these guys just seem to be running straight through the middle of them!)

Next was a hill.  Not a bad hill at all.  I was able to keep some speed up it, but it mattered not as when I neared the end, I could see the next obstacle was the slide and there were several girls standing there waiting.
Oh, Hi there, I'm about to go up a hill! (:

Look, I'm going up a hill!

The slide: Yep, that was pretty fun.  It was I dunno 50 foot or more maybe?  Pretty long and pretty steep, think they had soapy water they were putting on it, either way you went down FAST.  At the bottom?  A huge pile of very fresh black compost!  YUM!  Thankfully I twisted my butt into it so I didn't end up eating any of it.  It was vaguely reminiscent of manure, but I don't think near that bad.  (:
Look, I'm squatting at the top, waiting for the girls to get out of the compost at the bottom so I don't kill them! (:

This is someone else, but probably about how I looked. (:

The gorge crossing...  Uhh yeah, this was like take two steps down and jump across the creek.  Kinda weak.

Next was kinda fun for a different reason.  You had to pick up a log and carry it out a bit of a distance to a cone and back.  I just grabbed the first one, it was maybe 5' long, 6" around.  Not wet though, so really didn't seem that heavy.  I threw it up on my shoulder and started jogging with it.  I got a couple of nice comments from a couple groups of girls that were all holding one and walking going "woah, muscles!"  Ha, not really, but I guess maybe I'm not that bad!  (:  It was nice to hear. (:

I may have looked something like this:

Then zombies in the forest.  I just ran around them, though one of them threw some straw or something on me.  (:

Cargo net wall.  Uhh, maybe 15 feet tall?  Easy.  Just had to make sure I didn't kick the girl behind me in the face as I went over the top.  (:

Not specifically an obstacle, but before and after the cargo net was some pretty soppy ground that we were plodding through!
Actually, I think that was about where this picture was taken:

Straw bale tower.  This one took a try.  They had a couple round bales piled up vertically, a square one wedged in there to help, but it still took a couple tries.  I was more wondering if I was for sure heading off in the right direction as I came down which was a bit confusing as there was some crazy guy yelling "you got this!" the entire time right in my face, even after I was down the other side, but he wouldn't tell me if I was going the right way!

Then it was just the last obstacle which was nigh impossible without a team mate.  Get a car tire on or off a pole like 10-12' high.  I could throw the tire up that high, but NOT get it to go sideways at the top...  So then they said "oh, go help these two people over here!"  Sure, that should be easy.  Umm no, the girl was on the guy's shoulders but couldn't quite get it over.  The volunteer was like "help them!"  Umm yeah, would if I could lady, but I can only push about 3 inches more on this tire from the other side, I can NOT reach 10 feet from the ground!  It got worse after that as something happened and the guy was yelling at her to get off and then she was down but he was still yelling and swearing about his neck for a few minutes.  But then finally managed to let me give him a hand to stand on to get up and someone else helped and we somehow managed to get the tire off.
Here's an awesome pic Sara caught of me mid throw just for kicks.  It worked about as well as I expected.  I got the tire up high enough to clear the pole, but just how exactly do you get it to go sideways mid-air!  Yes, that is the tire mid-air, NOT hanging on the pole.

Were it not for that last obstacle, I think I would have been the fastest in my heat, as I had passed the guys that started out ahead of me, but at the end they were already done.

Here I am on my way to the finish line.  This sums a lot of it up.  (:

Time was about an hour.

Got a cool mason-jar-like glass with the tough turtle logo on it for water.

I guess I was a bit muddy/composty/wet!


Then I figured we better head over to the JR version for MaKenzie pretty quickly before I started freezing to death!  (:

I absolutely LOVE this picture.  (:

Kenzie did roughly as well as I was expecting.  She went through it, but needed some coaxing to keep moving.  She was more interesting in getting out of the course and going on a swing, etc.  OR at the end you were supposed to go on the balance beam to stay out of the water and she was upset that she couldn't just go play IN the water!  In all, she didn't NOT enjoy it, but I don't know that she was terribly excited about it.  It was fun though.

Do you want to go through there?

No, and I'm not sure I want to go over either, but ok.

I don't understand why we're climbing on this bale, we could just go around(this from miss I want to climb everything!)

Yep, she's still in there!

Balance beam!

Dad, I don't know what you're talking about, you're missing the entire point, I want to go IN the water, not over it!  It's not fair that you got to play in the water and I didn't!

This was back from while I was out running.

O.M.G....  Just going through the pics Sara took...  She was only in a couple areas, but she takes to many and they are...  1)Revealing to me as I see just what I look like...  Surprising.  Still getting reacquainted with this new version...  and 2) just emotional/beautiful to see with MaKenzie, etc...

The trouble is what to pick to show others!

I don't know that I get a runners high.  But I'm pretty sure I get a racer's high.  And it is ALL the better with family there to share it with!

Run for the Wild Half Marathon

Ahh, my first Half Marathon!

How was it... In a couple words? Very Good!

In more words? Let me recount: 

As usual, left the house a bit frazzled, but thought I had everything and would make it shortly before packet pickup ended. Thankfully that was true.  

Got my bib and headed into the office for a few minutes, before this mandatory meeting at 8:35.  

That meeting turned out to be 8:45 and didn't have any new info.  

Back in the office at 8:50, took off the sweatpants, went with shorts. put on my spibelt with bib and honey in the pocket, Had compression short sleeve, and 2 long sleeve technicals on and the gloves, put my phone in the armband. Headphones around my neck, not in my ears. Tomtom on one arm for pace (set to a graph with a 10 minute mile baseline), Pebble on my other arm for starting Runkeeper and to control music.  

Out the door and to the startline, literally about 1 minute before we took off. Amazing what a NICE 32 degrees is compared to a windy 40 I had the week before. Or maybe it's just cause it's race day... Didn't need the gloves. Left them on for a mile, then they just got stuffed in my short pockets.  

Of course at the start I still have no clue how fast I'm going. I started out and was like "I feel fine", look at my watch and I'm running like 8's... "Uhh, is this gonna feel fine in another 10 miles?" So I slowed myself back a bit, but was still under 10 minutes. (Remember that it was just about 11 minute miles for my last training, so logically, this sounds really questionably fast to me...)  

Interesting to see down one of our city's main Streets as the race started out. I'd later find out there was only about 60 people for the Half. But, there was a large group in front of me, and I just kinda held as the last one in that pack. But after a few miles, I wasn't sure how many people were behind me(probably about 10), but they disappeared. "Did I miss something, am I last? No, they said there would be a Trooper driving behind the last one and he's not back there either."  

Basically just looked at my watch and the water stops, if it was about 20 minutes, I took a hit of honey right before the water stop and then grabbed a water. That is one heck of a pro-tip about squeezing the top of the cup so that you can drink on the run!  

I had also been walking for like 30 seconds on each of my 20 minute breaks for training. The most I slowed down was to pick up water which did seem difficult to grab the cup, but I kept moving! Didn't need a bathroom break either!  

Thankfully the return trip was downhill(minimal hills either direction), but I was feeling it more after around the 10 mile mark. But kept going.  

Around 10 miles was also where I was going to put my headphones on and get some music to push me faster, but something happened at about that point as well because the headphones just shut off and my phone started yelling out the runkeeper announcement of miles, pace, etc. So I turned down the volume on the phone, gave up on the headphones and for periods where I was alone, I played some music from the phone speaker.  

Also took off my top shirt around mile 11. Not bad if I do say so myself to not stop running, but get it untucked from two watches, take off my armband, get the shirt off, armband back on and tie the shirt around me!  

Passed another person in the last couple miles, and pulled out a speedier more like 9 minute mile at the end!

Ohh, I made it to the front page of the paper! (barely!)