SuperHero Scramble

I'm getting I the point with these obstacle races were they just aren't fun anymore. I seem to spend more time in line waiting to do an obstacle then anything & since the event is being timed...it totally throws off my results. Frustration.

Last year, I did the night wave & it was awesome, no waiting in queues to do the obstacle, no waiting in queues to pick up the packet & I flew through the course...even meet a new friend on the way (still in contact & of course see him at other races all the time.)

So this year...they had a living social deal, let's be honest, I'm not gonna pay $85+ to wait in line. The special was for $45 so I decided why the hell not, but once you add in the $15 insurance & $10 parking (also had to sit in a long ass queue just to park!) it was still a $70 investment!

So here is basically how this day of waiting in queues went. 

Queue to get into the park & find a spot

Queue to pick up your bib & timer

Queue to start

Queue at EVERY obstacle

Queue to get water after

Queue to get your picture taken

Queue to get the free beer

Queue to LEAVE the park

Jesus! I spent more time waiting around then I did actually leaping, running & frolicking along the course and being happy.

Let's be honest NOBODY enjoys waiting in queues. 

So they were behind a half hour on the waves, but that didn't matter, we (like I'm sure everyobe else did) jumped into whatever wave was preparing to go once we got out stuff. Honestly, I don't know why they even bother with waves. 

We set off. The course is pretty nice, around a lake, into some bike trails. It's nicely marked & for a change multiple volunteers at every obstacle. 

But about 3 miles into the course we come to the first water station...which is out of water (surprise) and the next one isn't for a good 3 miles. I was fine, but there were people there that looked like they needed water, yet there is none and they are miles from the start/finish line. 

Now I went to the race with my girl & we usually run together, since I knew this was going to be a pretty shitty times race I pretty much stayed with her until I saw a (more than slightly overweight) girl drop like a sack of potatoes up ahead. I ran up to see if she was OK. She was dehydrated & and honestly in no condition to take on a 9+ mile obstacle course. Even between my friend & I, we would not have been strong enough to carry her out of the bike trails. I asked is she was able to walk & we would help her, she said no. Knowing I was closer to the next obstacle, I told her I would go let someone know & headed on leaving my friend as I picked up the pace to get to help sooner. 

Once I did get to the next obstacle, I explained the situation to one of the volunteers & he called it in. Knowing there was nothing more I could do for her, I went ahead. 

I have no idea if or how they got that girl out, but in all honesty she should not have been out there, especially without active water stations. It was extreamly dangerous & she could have hurt much worse. Some people don't realize how long & challenging a 9 mile race can be & although I LOVE seeing people getting active & healthy, they need to be aware of their personal fitness & health level to avoid situations like this. 

Although it was fun to go with my friends, I regretted not signing up for the 18 mile challenge. I don't plan on doing many more obstacle races (for the reasons above) unless it's in a elite or competitive wave - and those are outta my budget even though I'd love to experience the real challenge these races can offer. 

Next (and maybe last) OCR is the Spartan in April. 

OCRs are just becoming over priced, over saturated & just not challenging (having to wait in line at every stop) 

Davie Road Run 5K

For some reason I feel like they are doing more & more races on Sundays...which sucks because my girl works Sundays. 

So this race I signed up for alone. No big, I've learnt that if I wait around for others...I'll never do all the races I want. 

I had seen the Davie Road Run promoted last year, but for some reason I didn't sign up. Prob a conflicting date or I was set to do a race the day before. Whatever the reason I knew I wanted to do it this year. The race is literally 6 mikes from my house, how could I not. 

I was expecting a ton of people & honestly I was not expecting to do very well, considering Jake (my lovable mutt) & I had both been up the majority of the night w/ upset tummies...but I persevered. And dragged my butt up at the crack of dawn to run. 

I couldn't help but remember the awesome 9:30 stay in the UK...compared to the 7 am start here. But our Florida weather doesn't like that. 

I wasn't sure what to expect, so when I pulled into the local Rodeo grounds (yes, I live in the country) it was different.  Not a lot of people & everything was set up in the booth. They had already run out of small shirts (why have ppl request sizes if you are just gonna give them whatever) so I ended up with a medium, better than nothing. 

Well the race started: 2 of them. A 5K & a 10K. I had no idea there was a 10K & I had no idea the 10K offered prize $$! Or I woulda been right there! LOL. 

But I was doing the 5K. I started off strong, but my body was just tired. I had that sleep deprived headache set in before the 2nd mile was out. It's all good, I still managed to drag myself into a dirty 2nd place overall female. 

I look back and kick myself...shoulda pushed harder, but it's always easier to say that after the fact. But then again, I didn't feel like throwing up afterwards....so...coulda pushed harder. Lol. 

The Fall of Facebook

I remember when Facebook came out, I was already on MySpace (oh yes MySpace), I was in college and social media was just amazing!! So new, awesome posts, awesome updates, a great place to express yourself,  people would post the funniest things and I would check it constantly....

As I got older my step mum joined...and my aunts and uncles...and then my grandparents and they all wanted to friend me. Dear GOD we are family, isn't that enough. But you can't ignore them forever, they would ask "why haven't you accepted my friend request yet" and I realized...ummm this may not be the place I want to go to post things about my personal life anymore.

I did eventually friend them and put them ALL into a restricted group, along with my co-workers and the random people that I would run into a few times at the bar and become acquaintances with. I block them from pretty much everything, and for a while Facebook went back to being a fun way to keep up with my friends.

And then companies wanted to know your social media profiles and they began to use it as a way to dig into your personal life and cross over that line between work and personal. Thankfully my privacy walls were already up full force thanks to the family invasion that had happened earlier

A few more year pass and Facebook, and probably myself and my friends become lame (they get married, have kids, no more wild parts and hilarious weekend extravaganza posts) and I slow began to lose interest.  

Now I get on Facebook about once a day, just in the hopes that someone posted something good. I scroll down the news feed for about 3 minutes while I take my morning crap and then I am done for the day....at least with my personal page. 

 Lucky me, I get to go to work and handle the social media for my job, which is kinda cool...considering how much Facebook (and so many other social media sites) have either given up, fallen victim or just sold out the the business world. 

 Sadly, No one posts anything relevant...just pictures of their pathetic kids (and lets get real people, no one cares about your kids...only you and your parents) or re-posts from other pages, and not other peoples pages, but other promotional pages, news pages, celebrity pages, fitness pages, TV show pages, etc. Lets be real, We ALL hate those re-posts of other sites. It seems that is all people do all the time. Every time I see one I just think to myself. If I wanted to see that shit, I would follow that page...come up with something original or don't post at all. And then I log out of Facebook and onto something else. 

Sadly, this isn't Facebooks fault. it is the people on Facebook. They actually think that you are going to like something and NOT already be following it and it suddenly becomes their obligation to shove it down your throat! WHAT JOY!

So that is how I have seen Facebook fall since I joined way, way, way back in College.

Jingle Bell 5K Jog 2013

I have the best running partner in the world who helps me train for all my races & encourages me to run every day no matter how I feel, even if it's just for a mile or two...my dog.

So for the last race of 2013, and since I missed the doggy 5K in April, I figured there was no better way to end the year then doing a run with my best friend & my mum to cheer us on. 

I must admit that my mum & I were a little hung over from our per-holiday lychee matinee night :-) but Jake was ready to go enough for all of us. 

I was so proud of my little man, he was focused & set off. We were doing really well, good pace (he was basically dragging my hungover ass)...until he got the call of the wild. Maybe he knew we were in a race or maybe it was a tactical move to hinder the eny behind us, but my man decided to take a dump...in the middle of the road. But instead of just doing one. He tried to keep running, leaving small, let's call them land mines, across the road.

Nice work partner, that will slow them down. 

After that he must have gotten his second wind, because he picked it up. 

I can't quite explain the look of anger & frustration on peoples face as my happy go lucky dog goes bounding past them without a second thought. 

My boy kicked ass and we managed to still pull into 5th place in my age group. And the sad thing, that boy was ready for round 2 in no time. 

This race brought me to a whooping total of 22, just shy of my goal of 24.

The Lane Change Game

So I have decided. Although the un-uses of a blinker irritates me. I have come to the conclusion that it is in fact a tactical movement to not use them.

In South Florida (and I am sure many other places) when signaling you are going to get over a lane does not actually make it easier for you to change lanes.

Instead it alerts the person in the lane that you are attempting to get into & in front of about your plan. Which just causes them to speed up to ensure you cannot get over leaving you trapped in your current lane.

So see, if you hadn't told them of your plan, you would be happily in your lane instead of passing your exit & getting pissed. Just saying...it's all about aggressive tactical driving abs not being just being a dick driver.

Morning Radio "News"??

On my morning commute, I normal listen to npr, but this morning I was feeling a little drowsy, so when they started talking about research on sleep patterns I though maybe I would change the station, listen to some music, wake myself up. Switching over to The Beat (a local hip hop station) I land on a segment about celebrity rumors. Not my thing, but I figured it wouldn't make me spend my ride to work thinking about my bed & sleeping.

It spent time telling me how Khloe & Lamar had split up and how Khloe had moved on to a baseball played.

OK, not sure how this information is relevant to me in anyway...heck all I wanted was some upbeat music to wake me up during my morning commute...

Then suddenly I hear them saying how Khloe is a smart hoe & it's a new trend for hoe's to get smart & hook up w/ baseball players because they have guaranteed contracts (aka lots of money), and some woman (I don't know who) was smart for getting knocked up by a baseball player & getting him on lock down or whatever. I learnt that women are now all gold diggers, they just date these men for their money & apparently women should be proud of that fact....oh wait, sorry, us hoes should be proud & those hoes not in that position should aspire to be. 

What the hell am I listening to?!!!? Really...so in the less then five min I was on this station, women were referred to as hoe's. Any woman dating an athlete is a hoe. Basically I'm getting all women are hoes. Getting knocked up by a baseball player is smarter then any other athlete...and I just can't say how many things were wrong w/ that short segment I just listened to. 

I switched back to NPR. Listening to research on a sleep study beats the hell outta listening to a generalization about women = hoes & gold diggers. 

And I'm glad I did, the sleep segment was very interesting. 

Weston Half Marathon - AKA The Run of Death

I should have known better that after coming back from the blinding cold of England to the warm perfection on South Florida I would get sick...but with my normal voracity, I though I was invincible, until I fell victim to the full, just in time for my Half Marathon...AKA...The Run of Death!

Now doing a 5K feeling a little stuffy, but doing a Half Marathon (13.1 grueling miles) with a full blown flu with nauseous, fever, dizziness the works is beyond a lot worse.

From the time I got home Friday night until the time I woke up for the race Sunday morning, I left my bed for food and bathroom...nothing more. Saturday night I felt so horrible that I spent have the night curled up on the bathroom flood debating if I was going to even live to see the morning.

When my alarm finally went off Sunday I wanted to die, but I dragged my sorry ass outta bed and to the race. I down a few more then the suggested daily intake of some Tylenol cold and flu (the good stuff from behind the counter, not that cheap imitation stuff they try to pawn off on you from shelf), told myself it was only 2 hours....then I could go back to bed and die. Plus, I didn't die last night so I was good right...WRONG!

I meet up with my friend at the race & I know I will go faster then her (if only by a little), so if all else fails she will see me dead on the road and be able to alert my loved ones.

The race starts and the meds have kicked in by this time so I am actually off to a good start. 8:39 min miles...not to shabby I tell myself, I am not dying after all...I can do this right...but 8:39 min miles turns into 9:36 min miles and by mile 8 I have convinced myself that gods themselves are going to come down off Olympus and mock me as I fall dehydrated and dry-heaving to the ground to be trampled under the feet of real runners and walkers who are now passing me as I jog pathetically along at 10:36 min miles.

How much worse can it get I tell myself. The sun is beating down on my deprecated body and I struggle with each breath as the dry heat sucks the air from me. Sure death is standing just up ahead ready to cut my down with his scythe, I struggle on.

**After the race, I find out that the conditions were some of the worse for a race and the humidity etc had taken many races down**

Convinced I have passed the point of no return into delirium I begin to notice others around me. We pass a Firehouse and a very fit couple turn off the course and run up to the station flagging down one of the firefighters. I see more than normal police on bikes riding by and many times with people on the back of them. Convinced I am hallucinating I lean again a pole trying to get the world to stop spinning. I know my body just wants to rest, but having just passed mile 11, how can I give up now.

A police officer scares me half to death and awakes me from what I believe may have been me falling into death asks me if I am OK. Sucking it up, I tell him I was just catching my breath and I push myself back up right...as I seemed to have slid down the pole slightly and set off again...at what I have decided we will call a fast walk....2 more miles until I can collapse.

Just 2 more miles...and dear god where they the longest 2 miles of my running life!

Mile 12 - 11:43 min and Mile 13 - 12:13 min

If it hadn't been for this guy running along next to me, I may have just crawled to the finish line. But he ran up next to me and ran with me for the last 1.5 miles...well more like speed walked, but at this point in time, I am not going to pick and choose what I call it. In my mind at that moment I was just pleased to be moving.

Crossing that finish line was the biggest accomplishment ever. I think I had sweat out every last bit of flu. I drank 4 bottles of water and pretty sure I pushed a little kid out of the way to get more.

That was truly The Run of Death! But I overcome it and defeated it! :) Take that B!Tche$!!!