Goal Updates: Warrior Dash & Running

Over a month and an half ago now--wow, summer's flying and I have had this typed for 3 weeks now!--about twenty family members from the Clum side headed to Logan, Onio to participate in the Warrior Dash. (Basically a 3.5 mile obstacle course.) 


Now a year ago, I didn't really know anything about such run, but a friend of mine mentioned it in spin class and then Mister and I got to talking about it and before we knew it,the whole clan was signed up for it! And we decided since we were all going down, we should make a weekend of it--and so that's what we did. :-) Lodge was reserved, meals were planned, and costumes (White Trash Class, of course) was decided upon. 

White Trash Class Before Pic

As family trickled in Friday night, we settled in with much laughter and fun 'making' our costumes which culminated with my lovely brothers giving each other costume appropriate hair cuts.

My favorite part of this pic isn't my brothers,
although they are looking studly,
but rather it's everyone's facial expressions in the background!

Saturday morning we had a breakfast of pancakes and eggs before heading to the fair grounds close to where the Warrior Dash was being held. The excitement and comic relief of others' costumes left our group splitting up--half heading to the starting line and the other half settled in with the kids to wait to watch the finish. 

Mr. & Mrs. Classy with matching fu-man-chus

Mister and I decided that we'd run together figuring it'd be more fun to share the experience and so we stuck together the whole time--which was also good since he wore my time chip since I didn't have shoestrings to attach it too. At various times we crossed paths with other family members and enjoyed the challenges and humor of the course. My brother intentionally slid down his share of muddy slopes whereas my slides weren't as planned. :-) We weren't there to win--as my case in all runs--and wanted to just enjoy the experience. I'd say we successfully accomplished that goal. 

My younger brother celebrating his finish!

Mister and I caught up with my mom in one of the last obstacles as we climbed up and back down the cargo net. The next obstacle was jumping over a couple rows of fire, over which I squawked like a 10 year old and my momma was a bit afraid her workout pants would go up in flames. The final obstacle was a 2 foot deep muddy water that you had to crawl through under barbed wire. At this point, Chris was ahead of me and momma was just behind me. Well I thought it'd be a good idea to swim in the muddy water, which was until I heard my momma yell, "Rachel! You're splashing me right in the face!!" I turned to see how close she was and then decided to finish the course with a backstroke through the water and then slipped several times trying to get out of the pit. 

White Trash Class After

After cleaning up a bit aka rubbing dried mud off and throwing away old clothes, we headed back to the lodge for the remainder of the weekend. 

All the Clum Clan in attendance

Overall, the weekend was so much fun and my favorite part--even beyond my muddy backstroke--was spending time with extended family! We decided then and there that this needed to occur more often so a lodge is booked for another Clum gathering in September! And I may just have a list of possibilities for a beach/lake vacation next summer! *Clum Clan if you're reading this: We want YOU there even if you weren't able to attend the Warrior Dash weekend!!*


In other, similar news, another goal is confidently crossed of my list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days: 


13. Run 101 miles. 


After yesterday's Run to the Moon 10km, I've chalked 122 miles since I started this task about a year ago. If you'd look at my running tracker, you'd quickly notice that I'm awful at consistency. For example, I did great end of February/March, then fell off the wagon thanks to picking up an extra afterschool teaching assignment, and then this summer have done a bit better again. Which is good since Mister, Momma-cita and I are registered for a HALF MARATHON come October! I'm anxiously looking forward to it already, especially after yesterday's run. 


Now I've said it before and I'll likely continue to repeat myself for a while, but I am not a runner. Yes, I run, but I'm not what I consider a runner. [What to 'meet' a real, awesome runner?! Meet my friend, Sara, who is both a great runner and a great baker!! Order a dozen cupcakes if you don't want to take my word for it! ;)] Anyways, even with the half marathon we're registered for, I have/had no intentions of actually running for 13.1 miles straight. 


We've been following Jeff Galloway's training and suggestions and for our Sunday morning "long runs" have been following a 4 minute run/1 minute walk interval. It's comfortable and we've been keeping about a mid-11 minute/mile pace which isn't too far off from my typical mid-10/min to just under 11 min/mile pace for a 5k. Well yesterday as we embarked on our first race of a longer distances [previously I've only done 5ks (3.1 miles) and 1-4 mile race], I shared with Mister that my goal was to run the first half as if it were a typical 5k aka run as much as possible with a walk break if I felt like I really needed it, and then for the second half of the race, do a 4/1 interval.


Well we got started and it was a bit depressing since there weren't many people behind us, but we were   with the tail-end of the pack. When we crossed the 1/2 mile marker and our watches read 6:45, I turned to Chris and commented, "We suck!" Sure I felt slow, but I didn't think I was that slow! [Sidenote: I'll saw I a lot when it comes to pace or goals because Mister is a champ and goes along with what I feel comfortable with!] 


Thankfully we quickly came upon the 1 mile marker at 10:something and our suspension was confirmed: the 1/2 mile marker was misplaced! We ran the first half taking just one walk break of a few strides through the water station in order to rehydrate, and then we just kept going. Instead of intentionally taking walk breaks, we ended up running the entire race minus 3 water stations which in my book, doesn't really count as walking!


We finished overall with an 11:34/mile pace clocking in at 1:11:33 which was 3.5 minutes under our goal of an hour and 15 minutes. It was nice that the 10k course finished with the 5k course because it felt like more people were behind us than really were, but overall as I promised myself at the beginning of the run, I felt good because I did it. It doesn't matter how other's finish, it matters how I run the race. We met our time goal and even more accomplishing to my weak runner's self-esteem was that I ran for 6.2 miles which is over 2 miles longer than I have ever ran straight before. Even if we did place last in our divisions, I was proud!

Mister still ended up with a trophy,
signed by a real astronaut.
I ended up with a Moon Pie.

The only major downer of this run is that about 4 miles in when I took my sunglasses off to wipe them clean, the bottom of my rim caught my nose ring and pulled it out. It didn't hurt, but it was the second one I lost in 24 hours. Maybe it's a sign. Even though I have more nose studs, I don't really like them, so I'm thinking it'll grow shut.


-Rachel


Note: I stole borrowed all Warrior Dash pictures from my great sister-in-law who was the official photographer for the weekend!