Sunday, May 23, 2010

Warrior Dash 2010

Let me start this with "OMG THE WARRIOR DASH IS SO MUCH FUN!". Now that that's off my chest, let me go on about the details.

The drive up to Mountain City GA was actually quite nice. Because we were headed to the mountains near the Georgia-South Carolina border the views were just lovely. The mountains were covered in lush green trees and the weather really held up for us nicely. It was clear but not too sunny, and warm but not too hot.

Red and I finished at 38 minutes with another friend of ours, and the guys all came in about 5-10 minutes after us. Rex had a blast at his first race. The pictures I'll post later will be awesome.

One last thing - I have never been so dirty in all my life. At one point I was literally swimming in mud.

As far as the technicalities of the course, I swear it was not even close to the advertised 3.2 miles. It just didn't have that feel (I left the Garmin GPS at home since it was so muddy). Plus when the course is super flat and I'm pushing myself I can hit 38 minutes. Add some obstacles and it's going to take longer. Personally it felt a little closer to 2 miles. This makes it a tad bit hard to judge my performance, but I have to say that just completing it was enough for me. Obstacles included: walking on planks in the lake, trudging through waist-deep water in the same lake, stepping through tires, climbing over cars, climbing up and down cargo nets, sliding down a muddy hill and then swimming through the mud (supposed to be a mud crawl) under barbed wire, crawling through a tunnel, jumping over 3 walls, and last but not least - leaping over two fire strips.

Organization of the race was spot on. It was easy to pick up the race packets, catch shuttles to and from the parking lots, and I have a feeling getting the professional photos in a couple days will be easy (if expensive lol).

Afterwards we needed to clean up big time. I'm glad I brought so many towels and baby wipes, because clean up was a bitch. I think it took us an hour in a BP bathroom trying to get the dirt off, and we were still dirty - just not as bad as before.

For lunch we finally made it to the spectacular Dillard House. Let me just state that all the reviews are correct - it is a beautiful area with amazing food and service. I have a soft spot in my heart for good Southern food because 1. it's delicious and 2. my dad's family is from the foot hills of the Appalachian mountains near the Tennessee-Georgia border. When Rex calls me half redneck, he's not that far off LOL! He would be more accurate if he called me half hill billy. We had country ham, fried chicken, barbeque chicken, ribs, black eyed peas, collard greens, fried okra, and a whole mess of other dishes it would take too long to list. Needless to say we were stuffed by the time lunch was over. The best blackberry cobbler I have ever had topped the whole meal off. I think a good number of the crew slept on the way back to my house. Food coma? YES!

All in all it was worth the money we paid. It was so well organized I felt no frustrations at all prior to the race. I'm just glad I had some friends there who were not running. We were given our swag prior to running, so they were kind enough to hold everyone's stuff while we ran. Otherwise I'd have a ruined shirt and viking hat before I even got to wear it. I had to wash my clothes 3 times to get all the mud out!

Monday, May 17, 2010

I got a new book

I decided that it's about time to do some serious research about my condition, hypoglycemia. Right now I just know how to minimize the roller coaster of sugar highs and lows, but I'm not always successful. It's time I not only got a serious handle on this thing, but I can use running to help. I tend to have more success when I'm running regularly, so that's got to be a good thing (you'd think?). I'll keep everyone posted with what I'm trying and how it works.

On another note I'm seriously looking forward to the Warrior Dash this Saturday. I've been talking it up for so long I can't believe it's here! Hopefully we'll have some pictures to post too. Yay!!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Yeah it's been a while

I haven't posted anything in a while because 1. I'm super busy with school and work and 2. I haven't run in about a week. I'm not beating myself up over this though. My school schedule (classes on Wednesday and Thursday nights) leaves little room for working out, and quite frankly it's hard to squeeze the runs in. I'm not worried about being able to handle the Warrior Dash, which I am really looking forward to.

Remember that thing about food being my primary motivator for running? This is the place Red, Rex, and I have decided we're eating after the race. The Dillard House. I love good Southern cooking, and this place is said to have amazing food. Plus it's a chance to scope the place out because they have rooms for rent and horses to ride. Sounds like a great way to spend a weekend in the future!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

It's getting hot!

So I headed to the Greenway by my house, which was a good idea. I am finding that if I can run before getting home I am more likely to actually run. Once I'm home I find all kinds of excuses not to run, like cleaning, school work, reading, tv, movies, whatever. I decided to try for 2 miles, but while I was out I was feeling pretty good so I ended up running 3. My time was 38 minutes, which I think was pretty good! Not every run is meant to be fast, but I feel like being on the Greenway means I need to try for speed. It's so flat!

Anyhoo, it's beginning to get pretty warm and humid now. It's just a reminder to stay hydrated, wear technical clothing, and understand that the warmer it gets the harder it is to run.

To recap my run from Saturday, I saw a fox! And a million squirrels who are too used to humans and dogs, and a huge bunny! I guess that was my reward for being at Wills Park at 7:30 am. Plus I went to the farmer's market and managed to get one of the first cups of coffee and a ham and cheese croissant. I had a blast =)