Jason seen a flyer for Hell Run in one of my race packets, we decided to do it. Once again, my ego got the best of me. Jason was really nervous, he runs for cardio, but never outside and for any distance over 2 1/2 miles. He kept saying things like "I'll let you pace since you're used to running", "I've never run 3 miles in my life", " my face in my finishing photo will just look defeated". I felt confident, I mean, I was about to run my 2nd half marathon this year. Yes, there were hills and obstacles, but they couldn't be that hard. We weren't running for time, but didn't want anything over an hour. My plan was to take it easy, the worst thing at this point was to destroy a knee.
We took off, straight up hill.......Jason's idea of letting me pace didn't last long. I have no idea on pace since I didn't wear my Garmin, but we were passing people left and right. That being said, this is a fun race so most people entered didn't run on a regular basis. 1/2 mile in and I was stripping my base layer. Did I mention it was cold that day?
We got to the first obstacle and I said "What if I can't do it?", Jason nudged me toward the 4' wall. Since I had been running a lot and fail to stretch {ever}, I'm not flexible. So while most were jumping over this wall like you do when you get out of a pool, I did the fat girl roll over. Whatever, I did both of them without falling off or embarrassing myself.
The rest of the obstacles were ok. Jason attacked them like it was his fuckin' job. He waiting for me. A lot. The running was almost all hills.....down may be equally as bad and running up for me. And I'll take pavement over a rocky surface any day.
The only real challenging obstacle was the rope wall. It isn't mentioned on the obstacle course, I don't know if the race varies from location to location. This one scared me. It was 20'+/- high, plywood wall with a 2x4 every 2 feet or so. You had to use a rope with knots tied every 24" to climb over. I got to the top and Jason reached for my hand to help. My only reply was "fucking go, don't touch me". So, I don't like heights. He's an avid hunter that is 20' off the ground all.the.time. Here I am, 20' from the ground standing on a 2x4 (did you a 2x4 is smaller than 2" x 4") trying to get over. My legs are tight from running so I can't get my right leg over, I look to the guy next to me and told him "I'm scared". He didn't say anything. Dick. But, I switched legs and figured got down just fine. The back side resembled a ladder, I can handle that.
Jason was ahead of me at this point, we were almost done. Enjoy what photos were able to steal:
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| I take the WORST race photos |
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| So I was afraid of falling or losing a shoe, not afraid of mud. |
I ran into a twin mama that I know, she took this photo {before clean up}:
Speaking of, there was no water pressure, so clean up was a joke. I changed in the plain view in the parking lot and went home just like this.
The Details
The Course:
The Schwag:
My chip time: 47:52, I can't find the race results anymore online (again, why do I wait so long to blog?) but Jason was about 3 minutes faster than me.
They had a problem with the timing devices and mud, so a lot of finishers didn't get a time, so our rank was irrelevant {not that I can find it anyhow}.
Another Super cute {& comfy} tech shirt to add to my collection!
See ya on the run!
