Chubby Bunny!! Adventure Run Fun

The third Thursday of the month Roadrunner Sports holds an Adventure Run. I went to my first one last month and talked about it. Yesterday, was my second time and this time I brought along my husband. I wanted him to take a glimpse into the sometimes questionable behavior of runners and we sure didn’t disappoint.

A quick recap of what the Adventure Run is all about. It’s basically an hour run where you try to go to as many places on that particular day’s map to get raffle tickets for awesome running related prizes–socks, fuel, clothing, and shoes! to name a few. Some places are close by, some places are 2 miles away. The goal is to get as many tickets as you can and make it back by the 7:30 cut off time. The Adventure Run requires a light since you’re basically running around town at night. Good times.

So, before the Adventure Run starts, there are several booths of different business, races, products advertising and wanting to show off their stuff. They entice you with raffle tickets. Nothing excites a runner than the opportunity for free running stuff. At these booths, like at the locations you visit during the run, requires you to perform a task. My husband watched as I did 5 one legged squats at one booth, and joined me for 10 pushups at another. (He did an extra 10 for extra tickets. Great guy!) He didn’t want to join me at the next booth.

Chubby Bunny!!

Two members of my running group were manning the Ragnar Trail Races booth. If you haven’t heard of Ragnar, you should definitely check it out. Ragnar Trail is a trail race like no other where you grab a few of your closest (or not) friends and run relay AT NIGHT for about 50 miles. Sounds fun right!? I’m hoping to do Ragnar Trail or the Ragnar Relay Series which will take me and my pals 200 miles across the state of Arizona. I can’t decide which one to do!

Anyway, at their booth they were giving away extra tickets to those who could stuff as many marshmallows in their mouth. This took me back to my childhood days where my brother and I stuffed insane amounts of gum in our mouths to see who could blow the biggest bubble. I could do this.

Me deciding if I should embarrass my husband or not

Me deciding if I should embarrass my husband or not

Alright, let's do this!

Alright, let’s do this!

Making room.

Making room.

5 jumbo marshmallows later...

5 jumbo marshmallows later…

I didn’t win unfortunately but I did hold my own and managed to score a few extra tickets lol!

After the marshmallow event, my husband and I took a pre-run pic:

LOVE when we can run together!

LOVE when we can run together!

And we were off!

5.25 miles later and without a minute to spare, we were done. These were no easy miles either as my average pace ended up being 8:55.

There was a good crowd waiting for the raffle to start and while my running group had several winners, my husband and I went home empty handed 😦 We had a great time though and laughed at ourselves quite a bit and that absolutely made everything worth it 🙂

 

–How many marshmallows can you squeeze in your mouth? Go ahead and try it, I’ll wait…

–What funny/interesting/out-of-the-ordinary game(s) have you won?

Don’t forgot, your chance to score a FREE pair of marathon PRO Compression socks is HERE!!

 

 

5k Turkey Trot Recap

Wahooooooooo!!!! Okay, I just needed to let that out : )

Yesterday’s 5k went way better than expected.

I woke up and got ready for what was going to be my coldest race to date.

Snapshot 2013-11-29 18-05-57

I was glad that I had run an easy two miles the day before to get acclimated to the weather because holy freezing temps!

The race actually started pretty late, 9:00 a.m., giving it a chance to warm up. At go time it must have been around 35 degrees which I know isn’t technically cold, but for this girl it certainly is.

I went out with the mentality that I wanted to hang out in the 8 minute range throughout the race. I knew there was an almost mile long incline starting around mile 2 so I also wanted to make sure I had stamina to get through that.

The gun shot and we were off! There was the usual speedster crowd at the start and around the half mile it began to dissipate. I was feeling pretty good when my watch beeped the first mile complete and showed me 8:09. Yes! That was great news knowing that in about a half mile the incline would start. I turned the corner and there it was. I picked it up a little to adjust and kept trucking along. Mile two, 8:49. Yay! I was on cloud nine seeing that despite the long incline I had maintained an 8 something pace. I rode that high into the end of the race finishing at 25:44 (official time). Yes, 25:44, a new PR for me!!! I was in total shock. I had majorly surpassed my goal of finishing under 27:00.

5kturk1 5k watch time

My husband, who had finished earlier, was at the finish line with a look of astonishment. Once I crossed, he met me saying, “You are amazing!! Do you know what your time is? Under 26:00!!” I was so exhausted but thrilled I couldn’t even talk, I just let him envelope his arms around me.

Once I was able to catch my breath, we went to the racing station to check out where I had placed overall and if I would have a chance to place in my age group. I saw the 14-19 group and then mine, 20-29. I was a little bummed they hadn’t split my group as it had been the largest show and I ended up placing 4th, 8th overall for women, and 28th overall for the race. I was sad for maybe 2 seconds and then I remembered 25:44!!!!

On the car ride home, I told my husband of a funny thing that happened around mile two. After the crowd dissipated at the beginning, I found myself running alongside an older gentleman. We were running at the same pace and stayed together for about a mile when I passed him to adjust for the incline. He was still at earshot behind me (I was running with no music!) when I heard him say to another runner, “Don’t let her beat you.”

Was that “you” he was referring to me?

A few seconds later a tall blonde teen began to surge past me. My instincts reacted and I could feel my legs start to quicken but I immediately said to myself, “Helly, this is your race, your pace. Don’t ruin what you’ve got going on to try and show up someone else.”

I went back to my pace and let the blonde go. It wasn’t worth it.

Overall, I am beyond thrilled with the results of yesterday’s race. Not only did I get a better time than I expected, I feel like I’ve grown as a runner these past few months. My training has taught me so much. I very easily could have attempted to pass that girl but I knew that I would be risking burning myself out at the end. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have cared. Now, I know that the race wasn’t against her.

5kturkeytrot

–What are some things you’ve learned as a runner?