A Few Firsts

Does a Spartan Chick poop in the woods? Luckily, no. Not this time. This weekend was full of personal firsts. Fortunately, going number two in the woods was not one of them.

Saturday afternoon was spent at our family's lake house with family friends. Between the boating, floating, and Chillakin, I managed to get a short swim in. My crowning achievement was getting up on the wake board! Woot Woot! It was very exciting and I cannot wait to go again. On my third try, I was up and apparently my facial expression was of sheer intensity. No fancy tricks for this girl. All of my focus was on staying up and keeping the board from wiggling back and forth. Everyone on the boat was giving me the signal to go outside the wake, but I had no idea how to steer the damn thing. Was it not enough that I got my butt out of the water? Sheesh. Tough crowd.

Following dinner, I headed home. I was meeting up with friends downtown to celebrate my friend Jenny's Dirty Thirty. I met them at the Holy Grail, then we cabbed it over to Righteous Room. Before I knew it, it was after 1am. The plan was to get home earlier since I was racing Sunday morning, but we were having too much fun dancing our pants off under the stars.

Sunday morning was rough. The alarm went off at 6:30, and I tried my darnest to think of a reason to skip the race. Between the day at the lake and 5 hours of sleep, I was whooped. I dragged my butt out of bed and put on some coffee. I got my stuff together and headed out the door. Made a couple of pit stops at the gas station, Brueggers bagels, and Biggs for water. I totally forgot to grab water at the house, that's how out of it I was. On the way to East Fork, I had my plain bagel with cream cheese, chocolate milk, coconut water, coffee, and water. Looking back, I realize this was a little much and a bad combo.

When I pulled up to the beach and saw my fellow racers, every ounce of courage I had mustered immediately disappeared. As I said in a previous post, its a small circuit. Only about 200 people registered, and probably 90% of them looked to be in ultra-marathon shape. So not only did I feel like crap, I was intimidated.  I went up to the tent to collect my bib, and it turned out I registered for the 10.6 mile race. Crap. Luckily, it was a 2 loop course and the 5.8 mile was just once around the loop. The day was not going well. I saw everyone warming up, so I tried warming up with a jog along the shore. I felt like I was going to puke, and I had some serious indigestion. No bueno. Eventually, it was time to line up. One woman complimented my shirt. That made me feel better. And she also signed up too late, and was doing only 1 loop of the 10.6 course. I was not alone.

The race started and up the hill we went. That was probably the best part of the race for me. I can climb hills. Once to the top, we hooked a left and into the woods we went. One by one, inching along. Eventually, we thinned out. However, the running jumbled and loosened everything in my tummy, and I had to go the bathroom. Crap. Literally. I was miserable. There was no more running for me. I would run some, then walk. At one point, I pulled over to let other racers pass, and another racer stopped with me. She was struggling due to food poisoning the week prior and was having hydration issues. I explained to her my situation, and she said, "Trail racers go in the woods." Say, what? I thanked her for the tip, and told her I was going to walk a little to build up some bravado and formulate a strategy. Thank God, I did. Low and behold, not even 5 minutes later I crossed a street to a parking lot with a Port-a-Potty. I have never been so happy to see a nasty Port-a-Potty in my life. My trail buddy was standing next to the water station pointing to it, and I gave her two thumbs up and the biggest smile in the entire world. After my pit stop, it was back on the trail. I still wasn't feeling 100%, but I was certainly a lot better. I finished the race, not at the pace I wanted, but I did finish. It took me 1 hour, 8 minutes.

It was my first trail race and my first race with stomach issues. I've heard horror stories about digestion problems, but man, not fun to experience first hand. I will say I am happy it happened during a 5.6 mile race than during one of my upcoming Spartans. Overall, it was hardly my best performance, but I don't believe in bad races. I try to learn at least something new about myself each time. Take aways from this race: Always wear my bandanna. I was having problems with sweat dripping in my face. Better diet the day before and day of the race. Cheese ball and chip dip are not good ways to carbo load the day before a race. My friend suggested before my longer races, to have a test run with my meals. Brilliant! Also, no more Sunday races. I put my body through the gauntlet on Friday and Saturday, which does not make for a good race on Sunday. Finally, don't lose your courage. Run your own race. No one will judge you.
  

Three bibs for the year. Two for Jon.

This morning, I didn't have much time to work out. I warmed up with a jump rope to 2 songs. Then I did 2 rounds of 8 count interval training concentrating on my arms. I did 60 seconds on, with a 15 second rest. I bought a hot pink Gym Boss interval timer. It was $20 and the arm band was $3. I use it at least once a week and I highly recommend them. I know there are also phone app's that are interval timers. I don't have a fancy phone so I bought an actual timer. Plus I use my iPod Touch for my music, and I needed a separate device. My list is below.

Kettle Bell Swing (20 lbs)

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Kettle Bell Snatch Right (20 lbs)

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Kettle Bell Snatch Left (20 lbs)

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Pull Ups on my Bands

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Farmers Walk (2 Lowes buckets with 20 lbs. of gravel in each)

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Tri Rows (20 lbs. kettle bell, 30 seconds each arm)

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Plank

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Shoulder Raises (8 lb, alternating with one arm front and one arm side)