Spartan 2012 v/s Spartan 2013

All I can say...is you never realize how much the change is until you put the pictures side by side!

Top half: 2012
Bottom half: 2013

















Lets see what Spartan 2014 brings

Spartan Race 2013

Last year I signed up for the Spartan Race, and let’s just say that yes I finished, but I was pretty sure I died about half way through the race and really my body was back on the course somewhere. IDK what possessed me to sign up last year…oh wait, yes I do, my crazy ass friends and a GROUPON for $45. But seriously last year, I am pretty sure that I walked more of it than I ran and the 4 miles back in the trails…HORRIBLE! I knew I was doing bad last year when the wave (or two) that started after me passed my fat ass in the woods!

Well this year was going to be different! Last year, waddling around the Spartan Race, when I “thought” I was in shape made me realize just how outta shape I was! Thanks Bad Knee for making me fat! LOL. So for my birthday last year, I signed up for Kickboxing and going 2 a week turned into 3 times a week, turned into 5 times a week, turned into 7 times a week (2 of them boot camp!) Let’s just say that JWKFA has kicked my ass into shape and this year I was going to rock the race! 

And let me say right now that I DID!

I went with my girl Kristin and my friend Cameron, I had a few other people that were going to be around, a few co-workers that we got hyped up and this one boy that I totally have been crushing on for about a year now (boy has no idea I exist beyond the social talking and “hey any races come up”)

The race started…and we were in the front of our wave…I was making GREAT time and keeping up with the big boys, you know the ones I am talking about…the ones that take of their shirts and your jaw HITS the floor as you wondering if they would mind if you just licked their chest…just once…real quick?! I was actually passing them in the running and they were helping to toss me over the walls. I smoked EVERY SINGLE obstacle (except the stupid one at the end – put I did my 30 burpees, no problem!). 

BUT the path was not clearly marked, and I know it wasn’t just me because after the fact I followed up with all my friends that had been in the front of their groups and we ALL got lost at the same point, pushing all of our rankings down and our times up. 

Those of us (about 8) that were out front and ahead of the pack ended up totally missing the turn and taking this rugged bike trail in this back area for about 10-13 min. We started to wonder if this was right, but we had already gone so far, we couldn’t turn back now…and we ended up meeting back up with the middle of our wave…and having to pass them all over again, which we did! 

But this caused the competitive me to be completely and utterly depressed and disappointed in my time. I came in a pathetic 1:48:07!! I truly believe that without the loss in the trails...would have been around 1:35:00, but that is not what shows up right! What matters is the time you get. I guess it was a lot better than last year, considering I came in at 2:47:15. So really…I cut an HOUR off that bitch! NICE

Sadly a lot of girls didn't do it 100% and cheated, which also frustrated me. Nothing like doing the monkey bars or walls or ropes or tires and watching the girls walk by and just walk past the obstacles. I mean, come on at least try it! But whatever, I guess when it comes down to it, the only person they cheat is themselves, I know what I am capable of!

Next year, I am going to train my ass off to drop that time down closer to 1:20:00 (and NOT GET OFF COURSE)

One crazy thing, as we were taking the bus back to our car, we saw a few girls walking off into the woods with a 5^th of Vodka…I was watching the news to see if anyone got lost on that race, because damn…them girls were crazy! You drink after…not during! LOL

Next race is the iRun 5K. Something nice and easy … Right :)

Publix A1A Half Marathon

Yup That is how cold I was!!!

I kinda waited till last minute to sign up for this race and when I finally did, surprise, none of my friends wanted to do it with me….so this was yet another lone race in 2013. It seems to be becoming a trend!

I was there nice and early so I didn’t have to worry about parking and called my mum at 5 am to bother her to keep me company since no one else was awake and anyone besides her would have just hung up on me and ignored me when I called back. LOL

But seriously, it must have been the coldest it has EVER been in Florida in February! OMG I was already frozen before the race even started. Everyone was huddled around and dressed in “Floridian winter running apparel”. All I had was a pair of long SKIN pants and a little sleeveless jacket on and I didn’t take the jacket off the entire race. People were walking around with plastic trash bags on trying to keep out the blistering cold, maybe for you folks up north high 30’s is nothing…laughable, but for us poor tropical people, that is just rude weather! 

Once the race started, I though, foolishly that it would warm up…haha, I was stupid wrong. As soon as we got to A1A the wind and sand whipping off the ocean made it even colder! I wanted to die, I couldn’t feel my noes by the time I hit the 3^rd mile marker, but I think the cold made me run faster. 

The race went up and down A1A and also around Huge Taylor Park, which was really nice. But when we hit mile 4…I had to pee. I have never had to pee in a race before and I am SO not a big fan of porter potty’s. They are filthy and disgusting, so I figured I would just go ahead and hold it….and I did…until I got to mile 8. That is right, I held it for 4 MILES, but I couldn’t hold it any more and I started looking for a potty that I could just run into really quickly and then run out, but for the next mile, EVERY single porter potty I passed had a line outside of it. I think the cold made everyone have to pee! It was horrible, so I am running along, making GREAT timing BTW and finally just after mile 9 I see a free porter potty and I DIVE into it. I must have taken the longest pee on record. I am squatting over the disease infested hole, praying to god that nothing gross is living in there and hoping nothing splashes back up onto my precious behind. As I squat I stare at my watch…and watch the seconds…and then MINUTES tick by as I continue to pee. WTH right, who pees that long? Apparently this girl! I peed for just over 2 minutes and all I am thinking during that time, besides oh god I hope nothing gets on my ass, is damn it dame it, I was making such good time! CRAP! How I am going to pick it up and finish strong! 

Well with an empty bladder I came barreling out of the craproom and picked up the pace. Thanks to the frozen ocean wind whipping my face and the inability to feel the pain in my feet because they officially went numb around mile 7, I managed to pound it out and finished much better than I expected! I broke my half marathon record and came in with a NEW PR of 1:53:12 and actually was 25th in my age group! That may not sound awesome to you hard core runners, but I was THRILLED with myself, and I got to enjoy it all alone. Well, to be fair, one of my friends did show up at the finish line to cheer me on and join me for HOT TEA and a mimosa afterwards. 

 

I had a great time doing this race, but the one thing I must say is the medals…they were all broken. I got one at the finish line and by the time I walked to get water it had broken so I went back and asked for another one, which they gave me and it was also broke. Later on Facebook, I saw I wasn’t the only one that got a jackedup medal and they did promise to replace them. We shall see!  

So my next race is the Spartan Race, it will be #7 of the year. Last year I had only done about 3 races by the time I did the Spartan Race and I died, but this year I plan on crushing it! I have been training hard…got myself nice and fit; I am ready to do this! I may not be as ripped as those crossfit girls, but baby, I got me cardio! J

MIami Zoo 5K

The Miami Zoo 5K….my 5^th Race of 2013 and I think going into this one I had something to prove. I ran this race last year with my girl and we did well (for where we were in our times then) but this year I was running this race with a few of my guy friends who have always given me (playful) hard time about Not Quite Being as Fast as Them.

Well I have been training….I have been running…I have been eating right and in my mind I wanted to smoke them and leave them in the dust!

So we get to the Zoo and it is literally a mad house, they had offered a packet pick up the day before all the way south in like Homestead or something and NO ONE picked up the packets beforehand, so everyone was trying to get it there and then. Usually you can go to a few locations in either Miami or Fort Lauderdale, but this one was just out there.  We ended up waiting in line for 2 hours to get our packets! It was insane; they ended up have to even push the start time of the race back because of the chaos.

But I do love that course. I love running thought the zoo in the morning when all the animals are coming out and getting breakfast! I love the zoo….if I don’t think too deeply about innocent creatures being caged up for our amusement instead of being allowed to run free. But where else am I going to get to see zebras and giraffes!

Anywho…I started the race and I had one thing on my mind…beat them! And I did! Not only did I beat them, but I smoked them by minutes! Managed to come in 2^nd place in my age group and I got a new PR! 23:08!! That is the best time I have had, EVER! I may not be too shabby at this running thing after all :) I just really need to work on sprinting…I just can’t seem to make my legs do that!

So I got to go up on stage and some dolphin cheerleaders (who had on way to much make-up) gave me a medal, but it was fun, rubbing their faces in it!

 

I wish this one wasn’t so far south, I really enjoy doing it, but getting up that early to drive all the way down to Miami Zoo, OMG it is like an HOUR! Ugh, but I have fun doing it. Next year….we shall see. I may or may not pill up in the car and drive that far again.

Maybe a race around the botanical gardens would be nice….I haven’t done that yet. That is about an hour drive as well…I will have to keep my eyes open.

My next race is the Publix A1A half marathon that I kind signed up for last minute and I am doing it all alone…..Wish Me Luck! :)

5K Foam Fest 2013

I have definitely kicked the year off right, going into my 2^nd month of 2013 and I just knocked out my 4^th race.

This one however left a little bit to be desired, when I first saw it, I thought it looked like a lot of fun! Foam…like mud right, just a bit different! I am totally down…until I saw that it wasn’t timed. Ummm. Does that even qualify as one of my 24 for 2013 if it isn’t even timed??

 

But my girl talked me into it. Something about an easy relaxing fun run. “And we can still run it anyway” she claimed. Well we made it competitive and pushed ourselves to do well!

We get to the event and it seems to be pretty organized….we start off in our 9 am wave and run yet more trails at Amelia Park. To be honest, those bike trails can be kind hard!

But the obstacles, Foam Obstacles, were not very good. They had big blow up bounce housed filled with foam and some of the bounce houses had holes dropping to the ground and others had things sticking up to block your way. Which was fine, but with the foam you couldn’t see the holes and my friend almost sprained her ankle falling into one.

And being the only people running a fun run…well that just leads to lines and waiting around as much as running.

We get to the Foam Drop of Death…and that was fun! You got to climb up this big ass slide and at the end, slide down into a big pill of foam.

Besides that I think the only other obstacle that we enjoyed was the one at the end, where you dove into this tunnel and came out into a bath of foam.

There was one part of the race, where you had to crawl under electric wire.  I didn’t realize until half way through that it was electrified. I kept wondering what the heck that was.

Sadly, the mud pit was not very muddy and unless you seriously got down and groveled in it you came out pretty much clean.

Overall this race wasn’t challenging and didn’t really bring anything new to the table. You did get a medal at the end, so I guess you can say this race you would do for the bling.

Either way, we did have fun. My next race is a timed one. The Miami Zoo 5K! It will be my second year doing it so I am hoping to beat last year’s time!