On Running: Churchill's Half and Tough Mudder
I ran two big races recently, and had the time of my life doing it.
The first was the 45th annual Churchill's Half Marathon down in Monclova, OH. This was only my second half, and the turn out was much greater than my first. The course was pretty flat, but it was unseasonably hot that day. Given that it was so early in the season and I had just started training hard again, my only goal with this race was to run the whole thing and try to break two hours. However, I somehow managed to run it in 1:45:17, breaking my previous PR by over two minutes! I was very tired afterwards and felt like I really left it all on the course. I couldn't even raise my arms up afterwards. Came in 99/341, which is a pretty good place for me in a more serious race, so I was happy.
Last weekend, I finally ran Tough Mudder: 12 miles, mud running through barbed wire, fire, electric wires, must sign a death waiver, etc. I had been wanting to do this one for a year and wasn't actually sure I would ever do it, but I trained VERY hard, and made the plunge. The race was PACKED. We had to wait for almost an hour just to get shuttled over to the course by one of their 12+ school buses. It was also very cold and raining, which made it uncomfortable and kind of killed the onsite race party. The race itself, was challenging, but not nearly as difficult as I had envisioned. Surprisingly, the course was completely different than the map online, which made it more unpredictable, but slightly disappointing since it lacked some of the obstacles (but it did have a few that weren't on the map). Some of the best including climbing 20 feet up then jumping into a quarry then swim to shore, crawling under barbed wire in the mud, and running up a giant ramp while people pull you up. My whole team finished, and no one was seriously injured. As a whole it was pretty good. I may do it again someday. We'll see!