First Adventure Race! 09-25-10

Bruce and I teamed up to be the "Houston Heat" again. We completed our first ever adventure race this past weekend at Rocky Hill Ranch.  We learned a valuable lesson, "Adventure racing is tough!"  The course started with a 3.10 mile trail run, which was pretty tough to begin with......then you got to mountain bike for 9 miles!  If you have ever run or biked at RHR- you know that it is a pretty technical course with a LOT of hills.  Add it a little brutal heat and humidity and you got yourself one tough race. Oh yeah- they also throw in some "mystery events" to make it more interesting.

We have done a few Muddy Buddys and we anticipated that this race would be a little harder.  It was unbelieveably harder!  We were exhausted and had to stop on the side of the trail a few times to catch our breath before resuming our race. Luckily we were not the only ones doing that.  We had a few goals for this race:

1. Not to die
2. Not to finish dead last
3. To finish

We managed to accomplish all of those goals. We were 3rd place out of 5 teams in the Masters Co-Ed division.  Not a bad showing for our first effort.  We had a good time and I think that we will be looking to do a few of these races in the future. 

Weekend Fun in Austin 9-18-10

We started the weekend with a quick little 11 miler from the condo to Town Lake and back.  Nothing like a solid two miles of uphill at the end of a run to let you know that you need to do more hill work.  We started at about 5:30, and it was pretty warm by the time that we finished.  We cleaned up and headed out for breakfast.

We also wanted to mountain bike at Rocky Hill Ranch on Saturday (so we could have margaritas on Saturday night--priorities you know).  We decided that we would have some breakfast, relax, shop a little, then head out to RHR for some mountain biking.  We are signed up for an adventure race (our first) next weekend.  The race is at RHR and we wanted to pre-ride the course to have an idea about the difficulty of the terrain.  We have both run a race at RHR but we did not really remember that much about the course.

When we arrived, it looked very dark and ominous to the south.  We geared up and headed out anyway.  OH MY GOD- that is all that was going through my head for the first 1/2 mile.  Then I switched to, "I am going to die out here."  We encountered another couple (while panting on the side of the trail), who were out pre-riding the course before they do the 24 hours at RHR next weekend.  They are competing as a relay team, they will switch out every lap- for 24 hours.  Almost as crazy as runners! 

When the rain started, all of the rocks in the trail (believe me- there are plenty, hence the name ROCKY Hill Ranch), started getting slippery.  Oh boy, I was worried that I would not fall all day.  It was a LOT harder than I anticipated.  WHAT was I thinking?  My thought process changed to, "I just want to survive." We managed 7 miles (Bruce was "managing" considerably better than I was)- I was exhausted at the end.  It was raining off and on, the trail was wet and slippery and my mountain biking skills have atrophied immensely.   When we finished, we showered off and headed home.  Just enough time for a shower before heading across the street to Matt's for a couple of Z-Margaritas.  Ahhhh, now that made it all worthwhile.

***** Change of Plans ******

 In the words of John Lennon, "Life is what happens to you while you were busy making other plans." I HAD a great race schedule all lined up for this season.  I had planned a good training base with a hard effort at the end to try for a PR 100 miler at Rocky Raccoon in February. 

I have been offered the opportunity to do a fellowship with a national organization in Washington D.C. for the next (7) months.  This is a tremendous opportunity that only comes along once in a lifetime.  Thank goodness I have the most understanding husband when it comes to career opportunities!  Bruce is behind me 100% and I have accepted the position.  Needless to say, my racing plans are going to be different.  I will not be running the races that I planned, but will have to shift to some races that are closer to DC rather than in Texas.

23 miles- a "short" run weekend

I intended to do a few less miles than 20 this weekend, but with the Galloway group doing 23 miles, well....I just could not resist.  We started at 4:00 AM (Holy Cow that is early!) and we finished before it became too hot.  The Houston humidity did not disappoint.  It was a scorcher.  As usual, the group was pushing me to run and not pay attention to how far we had already gone.

We started at a good pace (thanks Donna) and we stayed pretty steady throughout the run. Michelle- you are amazing this year.  It was uneventful for me, although a few people had heat related issues.  This summer has been just brutal- you just never know when it is going to zap you.  Bruce did 10 and looked very strong at the end.  I think that his comeback is going great.  This coming weekend I have a 35 - 40 mile run scheduled.  I am not looking forward to that many hours alone.  Thankfully, once I run Cactus Rose, I will be using each race as a long run for the next race-- so no more loooong runs alone.  Looking forward to that!

Could You Run 100 Miles In One Day?

30 Mile Training Run- Huntsville State Park

What could be better than 30 miles in the beautiful forest of Huntsville State Park?  Along the way I saw 5 deer, 2 armadillos, numerous butterflies, and "smelled" a nearby skunk (who would have been given right-of-way if I actually saw him).  The weather was nice at the start and Bruce ran the first 8 miles with me (Primarily in the dark-which is great considering I am a big chicken when it comes to running in the woods in the dark.) We started around 5:30 am and it was cooler, but still a bit humid.

The humidity lightened once the sun came up- but the cooler temps stayed around.  We ran the first loop (8 miles) together, then I headed out for a 10.5 mile loop alone (without music- stupid ipod stopped working).   I spent a lot of time on that loop focusing on my new Garmin GPS watch.  I was driving myself crazy focusing on time/distance/speed- as I was a little bored.  As the morning wore on, there were more people on the trails- runners, bikers, and hikers. I would amuse myself by making small talk with people who passed me or people that I passed on the trails. 

I determined that there was no way that I was ever going to be able to run 100 miles, because I was sooooo tired and my right hip was killing me- this was about 14 miles into the run. I was thinking "I am not even at 20 miles- which is only 1/5 of 100 miles! I may actually die attempting this."  I noticed that I was "favoring" the sore hip and adding more weight on my left side.  I made a conscious effort to run with an even gait and stop favoring the right side. It hurt more initially to do this, but then the pain seemed to subside.  Amazingly- my hip stopped hurting at some point (or went numb) and I was able to finish that lap.  It was close to 10 o'clock when I headed out for the last 10.5 mile loop.

The temps were still pretty nice and I was no longer in pain.  I was also MUCH happier since Bruce loaned me his ipod.  HEAVENLY. Instead of focusing on how far I had already run- I just focused on how much was left.  I even found myself with an unexplainable burst of energy about 3 miles from the finish.  I may have been happy that I was near the end.  As I completed the run, I decided that I MIGHT be able to do 100 miles, but it was going to be a challenge.