The Challenge Mud Run

We signed up for this one a long time ago, back in December of last year, thinking “Well it’s only $25” why not, it will be awesome!

Pre-Race Disappointment

The Challenge Mud Run was advertised the race a 5 mile with 20+ obstacle and puzzle race. We have never gotten to do a puzzle race before, where they ask you questions and you have to figure things out, so this sounded awesome! We signed up as a Team, I have an addiction with TEAM VENTURE…obviously and if you have ever seen Venture Brothers, you would know why J Awesome Show! LOL.

Anywho, this race was a complete and utter failure. It was literally the worst and most unorganized race we have ever done!

Where to start…

There was no organization on parking. We have done a LOT of races at Amelia Park, and they have had more people and not as much traffic. I am not quiet sure what happened, but lines were backed up for miles. After sitting in traffic for about 45 min we realized we would miss our Start Time if we didn’t park soon. So instead, we pulled off onto the side roads and parked back by the school. At least we saved ourselves $10 in parking.

We headed over to the packet pick up line. The packet pick up had been available the day before, but it was ALL the way down South Miami towards Homestead and being from Davie, I was not about to drive over an hour after work, during rush hour traffic to pick up the packet. We haven’t really had a problem picking up packets on the day of the even before, so we figured…how bad could it be.

That was our bad completely, we should have taken the traffic just getting there as a sign of just how bad things were to become.

Next we stood in line for 2.5 hours, waiting to get our timing chips and bib numbers. It was complete and utter chaos. The organizers and volunteers were at a complete and utter lose, by the time we did manage to squeeze our way to the front of the line, we realized what the problems were. They didn’t have the bibs in any numerical stack. They were just tossed onto a table. That is right over 2000 bib numbers (each assigned to a chip and a person) tossed into a random pile. So when we did get to the front of the line and told them our bib number, they had to dig through this stack of disorder just to find it (They didn’t find mine by the way and had to give me a new one). Then to get your timing chip (you will see how pointless that was to give us later in the blog) they had chip of 200 each hanging from the top of the tent and they had to find the matching one for the bib number and cut it out.

**Side Note – we did meet like 3 awesome ass people from our neck of the woods in line! So it did make passing the time fun!**

After we FINALLY waited in line, got our bibs and made it to the start line, we were pretty much pissed! We were almost 2 hours after our wait time and had already been at this even for 4 hours. We were pretty much thinking we would be done by now and hanging out instead of just getting ready to start the race.

The gun goes and we start….and we go through some lame obstacles, like the tires and stuff and we get to the river, where they have set up this really cool looking like leap frog pads that people are jumping across, but there is a line…a BIG line and this race is times. After about 2 mins or so of watching people, I realize they have about 50 people in front of me and only 3 paths across…one person at a time. You do the math, so I look over for one of the volunteers and ask “can we just swim it” he said yes, So I dove in and about 10-15 other people followed suit. It was either that or wait in line for another 45 min to do the leap frog pads (which would have been awesome to do…but HELLO TIMED RACE HERE!)

My friends and I swam across the little lake and finally get to a puzzle. It is a triangle, with little triangles inside and you have to count how many triangles there are…ummm that was the only puzzle, and I have no idea if we got it right or wrong because they just told everyone to do 5 or 10 (I can’t remember) push-ups. Maybe everyone got it wrong.

Then all of a sudden we could see the finish line!! What? Really? No way was that anywhere near 5 miles! More like 3! And it was, people that took GPSs with them said it was less than 3 miles. 5K and 5 miles are a little different.

The last two obstacles also had extremely long lines. LIKE 45 min waits again at least!  First one was dive into ice water or eat a cricket…after 5 min of standing in line, my friends and I said Screw it and ate the cricket…only to get the privilege to walk over to the next obstacle with an even longer line. We stood there…for easily 10 minutes. I kept looking at my watch and after 10 minutes and we hadn’t moved, we decided to just go around it and finish.

Anyway…we finished…and it was timed, which was funny and as you can see completely pointless, because it was an irrelevant time!  We spent more time waiting in line to do the obstacles then we did actually doing the race. Our results were pathetic!

Time: 45:29
Female Division: 18 out of 1,190

At least we got to
enjoy some beer

At least we got a free Sapporo beer at the end. I like that beer and I got some KIND bars, which I LOVE! But there was no food…instead there were food trucks and honestly, I wasn’t in the mood to pay for anything after that pathetic race! We were all disappointed and completely pissed off. Checking on Facebook later, we were not the only ones. The comments and posts from people were pretty vicious, but I can’t blame them. For what some people paid ($80 or more) I would be extremely pissed off as well! I was pissed and we only paid $25 + $10 for the insurance!

I don’t know if the organizer had ever run a race before…but you can pretty much find every clue how to NOT run a race in this one. I am pretty sure the organizer was just trying to jump on the bandwagon fad of obstacle races just to make a quick buck or something.  To give them credit, they did offer us a free entry to the fall Challenge Mud Run, so we will give them another try. AND OF COURSE do better :) But if they don’t BRING it BRING IT the next time around, I know I will never do another race with them…FREE or not!

Next I am doing another strange Groupon Special Race. The Beach Beast Run, I just hope and pray that it is not as bad as this one.

I also turn 30 next month, so I am going to be in a different age division. I hope I can continue to do well and place. Makes me nervous, I am getting old…and I am still single and basically at a stalemate in my life…but you don’t want to hear about that crap. I guess I am going through a slight mid-life female crisis.

Riverwalk 5K

 So after the Half Marathon in Sarasota, I was looking forward to a nice short race for my 10^th  race of 2013,  that I could just run and not feel like death an hour in. My friend and I had signed up for the Riverwalk 5K for the second year in a row. Last year we did this race and there was a LOT  of swag. Actually, I think this might have been the first race that we did that we actually got stuff…like lots of goodies and stuff…so of course, we decided to do it again.
I really wanted to push myself in this race; you know…get a good time, new PR and see how fast I could really go, especially after the iRun 5K time. So I ended up switching from the 5 mile run to the 5K. My friend still did the 5 mile run. 

However, the stupid shoes that I had bought when I was in Sarasota had given me stupid shin splints and I still had them on Race Day! Boy was I pissed off! I was hobbling around and was not expecting to get a good time at all. I probably shouldn’t have run at all, but anyone that knows me knows that wasn’t going to happen, shin splints or not.
I dragged my crippled ass around that damn course cursing god and all his angels with every step that I took and figuring I had come in LAST place when I crossed the finish line with a time of 23:47 (a pace of 7:40 min miles) I was pleasantly surprised that I still managed to pull come in 2^nd place in my age group! If I had been up to speed…I would have totally came in first place and had about a minute to spare! But I was happy with what I got, considering how much pain I was in.

Whoohoo for coming in 2^nd place, but instead of a medal or something I got this hideous print of a painting. And not just any painting, the painting that they had put on the shirt! You could see the look on people’s faces as they went up to collect their “prize”! I am pretty sure that it is not hanging up in many of the winners homes; I have no idea what I am going to do with mine. Maybe give it to someone or something! Who knows! 

 And my girl! Totally crushed the 5 mile run, she did amazingly well and came in 4^th place.  

What we were disappointed in the swag afterwards as well, we didn’t get many goodies at all. Nothing like last year, which kinda suxed. That is OK, we both had a blast and we will do it again next year I am sure. 

Our next race is next week. We are going to be doing an obstacle race. It should be a lot of fun and very challenging! Suppose to be like 20 obstacles and like 5 miles! The Challenge Mud run, we even have a team! TEAM VENTURE! There are about 5 or 6 of us doing it so I am looking forward to it. Maybe we should all do matching outfits or something. :)

Sarasota Half Marathon

My friends and I have been talking about doing an out of town race for a while, so when the Sarasota Special came up, my friend and I jumped on it. 

We signed up WAY in advance, but what we didn’t count on was how many other people would be signing up. We ended up waiting a little too long to get a hotel and because of that I had to leave my little man with a friend and we had to stay at her cousins house instead.

We headed Saturday afternoon, unfortunately too early for me to go to Kickboxing first, and drove out to the west coast of Florida. It was awesome. I had only been out to the west coast of Florida a handful of times, and all of them included men, and none of which I am proud of! LOL. I could tell you the stories, but I will save them for another day. I am pretty sure if you look back in my blogs, you can find something about them…anyway.  But this time was all about running and that made it the best trip out West yet! 

We got there Saturday afternoon and headed over to Fit2Run to get our packets and to meet up with this lady, I talked about her in my Miami ING blog, to pick up some hand painted running themed wine glasses (which rocked btw!). The Place was packed and we ended up walking around, checking out all the discounted products, had lunch and stopped by Total Wines (I needed something to fill up my new running wine glasses with!) and I even got a new pair of running shoes. 

**The Running Shoes SUCKED by the way, I found out a few days later, when those POS shoes gave me shin splits, Gawd I hope it goes away soon! – waste of $$ if you ask me!**

We headed over to her cousins house and he and his wife ended up being two of the coolest people I have ever meet! Both were so friendly and outgoing and made me feel at home. It was so nice of them to open up their home to me, even though they had never met me. Her cousin even cooked up an amazing spaghetti and shrimp dinner! I ate so much, but all good right…I was running 13.1 miles the next day :)

After dinner we hung out, I had some wine and we watched that movie….Life of Pi. Um…that was a horrible movie btw, do not waste your time with it. Yes it was pretty to look at but really the story line kinda sucked and I hate when they try to put a surprise twist into a movie that you get 10 minutes into it and then expect me to be surprised when it is reviled at the end. I am not a 5 year old child! Come on now!

The day of the race was an early and kinda chilly start, especially for March, but everyone kept telling me it’s colder on the west coast. Whatever, I hate being cold! We go there nice and early and we were ready to do it! I was pumped, people were walking around, photographers were taking pictures and you could just feel the air of excitement.
The course was beautiful, we got to go over a few bridges and at one of them, some guy was out filming the runners on a camera attached to an RC Helicopter. I was very proud of myself overall, but between mile 10 and 12, I was pretty sure I was going to die! I could feel my feet starting to ache and I was ready to sit down and have some water, but once I hit mile 12 and knew I only had a mile left, I got a second wave of energy and managed to finish off strong. 

Crossing that finish line felt amazing! It always does, but when I saw I had set a new PR for my half marathon times, I was ecstatic! 

We found out after we had all finished that my friends cousins wife (that’s a mouth full) actually showed up and decided last minute to run it…never run a half marathon in her life…and finished it! Talk about an accomplishment to be proud of! WHOOHOO! 

Not only did I get a bad ass medal for the Sarasota Half Marathon, but I also got a medal for completing 3 of the 5 Marathon/Half marathons in the US Road Runners Storm Series!

We headed back home shortly after the race, but it really was a good one, I am looking forward to doing it again next year! :)

My 9th Race of 2013 is going to be the Riverwalk 5K. We did it last year, so we figure we should do it again! :)

iRun Miami 5K

So this was just a very random run, I got the email and didn’t have anything for this weekend so I figured I would just go ahead and sign up! I asked a few people if they wanted to do it with me, but even my friends that live in Miami didn’t want to. But that is ok, I seem to be doing well at doing races by myself this year…if I wait on everyone else, I am not going to get to my 24 that is for sure!

This race was very small, only something like 500 people were allowed to even sign up, but there were cash prizes for the people that placed first. I knew I wasn’t going to come in fast enough to place, but trust me, one day I will!

I ended up getting up early and one of my friends last minute decided to jump in, even though he didn’t get to sign up (they were already full) and even though he could and would usually SMOKE my ass, thanks to an injury (how evil am I) he had to pace with me. Sadly, he still pushed me…and the damn kid running the 10K one next to us! Kid was good btw ;)

The course was different, I had never run it before, and outside of that race, I will probably never run it again. The course actually started behind the iRun Store.  I kinda wish I would have gone into the store and checked it out, but I know I am never going to drive all the way down to Miami just to go to that store when Runners Depo and Running Wild are just around the corner!

And thanks to my friend, I managed to drag my ass into 2^nd place in my age group with a time of 23:07! What frustrates me (because I seem to be so uber competitive) is that 26 seconds faster and I would have come in 1st in my age group and just 29 seconds less and I would have been able to place even with the 3rd OVERALL female! 

I really need to start picking it up, I know I can push myself harder. I didn’t even have the urge to stand over the trashcan and attempt to hold down my vomit after this race…so I obviously didn’t push hard enough!  

My next race will be the Sarasota Half Marathon. First out of town race so I am excited and nervous, I hope everything goes well. Being away from my little man and letting him go to the sitter’s drives me crazy! I wish I could have taken him with me, but we waited too long to find a dog friendly hotel!