Things are CRAZY with the heavy rains meaning no time to work out or blog! But here is my race recap of the Mud & Sweat Race that I ran in last month in Raymond.
Let me start off with saying I am not happy with my performance. Namely because I challenged a co-worker (we’ll call him M) who is much older than me and not as athletic and he beat me.
I ran the Spartan in Calgary last year without training. It was the hardest thing I have ever done! I ran a triathlon without training and the Spartan without training was much harder. I was determined to go into Mud & Sweat in better physical condition. To prepare I continued with my distance running from my 10k training and I added cross training to my regime. This included Nike Training Club strength workouts and burpee runs.
Right off the start I was a little annoyed with the cost of this race. I paid an $80 registration fee but then it was $10 to park and $10 for spectators to come watch. Because of the added cost, friends and family that had planned on coming to cheer for me opted to save their money and I don’t blame them.
When we lined up for our heat (1:00 p.m.) I insisted we start in the front. This was because the race started off with quite a few bottle neck obstacles including a barrel climb and a barrel carry.
I passed M on the barrel carry and ran for all I was worth.
After the wall and the spider web I realized he was ahead of me. I had no idea how on earth he could have passed me until I saw the photos. He passed me on the wall climb as I waited for someone to get down.
I was able to pass him on the balance beam because of all my years in gymnastics but after that he stayed right behind me.
Then came the hills. Those damn hills. These hills were WAY worse than the hills in the Spartan; there were more, they lasted longer and they were steeper. Through all my running I hadn’t incorporated hills into my training. I started to walk and M passed me and I never caught him again. I was so angry at myself that I stopped enjoying the obstacle race. All I could think was of how embarrassed I was that I was losing.
The obstacles themselves were easy, or I thought so. There wasn’t one I really struggled with. I had to wait at the inverted wall for a good while. I was annoyed because there were a group of ladies running and they would cut in line to be with their group and they were slow to get over the wall.
Then came the rope climb. I have never been able to climb a rope, even as a kid. By the time I reached the rope climb (which was at the very end) I knew I would not be able to climb it. I looked behind me for help and luckily another coworker and her husband were right behind me so he basically lifted me to the top to ring the bell. Ha ha!
I finished the race in about 1 hour and 10 minutes-ish. I don’t know for sure because they did not time the event-weird right?
Overall, it’s a fun race. Next time I won’t go to compete with someone, that way I can take my time and enjoy the race and play in the mud.
