Wisdom, Courage, Power: Mudnewton 2012

Today was race day. This was the first race I signed up for this year, way back in January. Last year I ran it with Jodi and Laurie from karate but this year it was just me. The weather was nice, but hot. Why could this race have not been last weekend when the high was 22C?

I suited up in the morning and left the house at about 7:30. It took just about an hour to get to the site, google maps always overestimates time for travel! It turned out not to be a bad thing since by the time I got my free stuff and went to the potty I only really had to kill about five minutes. This was my exact plan really. Waiting around just makes me jumpy and I would rather just show up and race if that was an option.

It was a much bigger event than last year and I would say there was at least double the number to 10K runners. Almost exactly on time the race began and we all took off.

The first while of this newly routed 10K course was fairly flat, we twisted and turned between some trees that were in the more openish area of the field and then we were funnelled into the woods. It was a bit cooler in the forest and I very much welcomed that. I usually do my running earlier in the morning and so even at 9:30 I found it pretty hot.

The first hill came and I was able to pass a person or two during that bit of a climb I think I was at about 16th place or so in the early stages of the race. The first obstacles were fairly simple, bungee cord stretched between tress to block the path. I rolled under the first group, and then stepped over the next set. It was the obstacles that allowed me to keep up with that lead pack for the first 4K or so.

There was a few more hills and then some hanging PVC pipes. I ducked under some and launched over others, it was very similar to the obstacles from last year, just with different placements. Coming up to the 5K mark, which this time was back near the starting area so that the spectators could get a glimpse of us, I had lagged behind the main leaders and was hitting the half way point at about 28 minutes. Not as good as I had hoped but not bad either.

For the second half of the race I was just trying to keep in reach of this one girl. She was a strong runner, but much like the main pack during the first half it was the obstacles that allowed me to close the gap on her. Many of the obstacles were very similar, hanging pipes, or ropes to crawl under, nothing as big and boisterous as the things during the Warrior Dash, to this point at least. There came some tires on a hill, much like last year, and I bounded up them on the rims overtaking the girl. Once that section was over though, when I told my legs to move faster, they protested and she once again passed me, with her in sight though I seemed to be able to keep the pace with her.

We went through a bus, Jodi’s favourite thing from last year. This time we didn’t have to loop around and crawl under it, just run through it and while the girl ahead of me took a hand of a helper to get out of the back end I leaped nearly at my full run. The end was nearing and I was not going to let her finish ahead of me.

looping back through the main start finish area again the best obstacle of the day was present. Stacked round hay bails. I’d say each was easily 5 feet in diameter, or at least very close. So there was two as a base and one sitting on top of those two. Like this:

They had a rope hanging down cascading down the round part for you to use. If you were a sissy. I leaped up onto the first bail and then vaulted the upper one bouncing my feet off the second lower one on the way down. I really hope there is pictures of that!!

Then it was up the hill of death that was present near the end of the race last year, but we came to it from a slightly different angle. Under a fence, then over a fence down back through the woods to the pond. It was here on the pond crossing that I passed the girl for the final time. She was trying to run through the water, wasting energy lifting herself up, I plodded through the pond and then passed her as we exited the water.

There was two mounds of dirt that I hopped up and jumped from and then it was a quick dash to the muddy finish. Up some stairs and over a rope (that I think I was supposed to go under) onto a slide and into a pool of very brown and yucky water! This happened three times, out of one pool down a slide into the next. I crossed the finish line with water and my wet hair in my eyes at 1:02:32.

I’m not sure how I placed, I’ll have to wait for the race results, but If I counted right at the first and kept track accurately, I should be in the top 20.

I managed my main goal of beating last years time, and so I am glad for that. It was a fun and exciting day!