I became a Zombie, then a Survivor, set a Half Marathon PR & was a Dirty Girl.

Last post I mentioned that I had runs coming up 3 weekends in a row, well that's all done now. Like the subject of this blog, I was a Zombie (kind of) then a Survivor, set a Half Marathon PR & was a Dirty Girl.

To start at the beginning, my husband signed us up for Run for your lives. It was awesome. We drove the 2 hours to Temecula, grabbed a quick bite to eat then made our way to Vail Lake. We walked around and I bought a few zombie themed items (not a shock - I know!) then we got ready for our wave. While we were waiting in our corral as dessert (meaning we would be the last group from our wave let out) I started to get nervous. Really nervous. I had never done an obstacle course because and add in the zombie factor I was a little scared. Our corral went, and we went UP a hill. half a mile. Fun Times. I did good for awhile, everyone did a lot of walking. Eventually I lost all my flags, but a nice Zombie gave me another one (which was good because I actually wanted to KEEP the flag because it was cool) and then so did another Zombie, see zombies can be nice....a few of the obstacle were hard, I got stuck in the mud a few times and hurt my knee crawling in mud under the barbed wire and the electric house was scary, I only got shocked at the end while going under the fence because my hair kept touching the fence. Oh well. We made it to the end both as Survivors which was nice, and then we got our beer, got cleaned up and went home. I definitely had fun and I can't wait for next year.

Up next was the Rock and Roll LA Half Marathon. I had a goal. Under 3 hours. 2:59:59, I didn't care. I wanted under 3 so bad. Unfortunately  that didn't happen. I felt weird all weekend, not sure why. Around mile 8 I knew that I wouldn't hit under 3. I became ok with it. I wasn't happy, but I wasn't going to hurt myself to still try and get it. What gets me is I KNOW I can be faster, I've done it before. But I am scared, not sure of what. Being outside my comfort zone? I'm not sure. I DID set a new PR by 15 minutes though. So I was trying to be happy about that. I like the LA Half Marathon because it's so close to home (10-15 minute drive with traffic to the start). I don't like the hill going up the 6th street bride at mile 10. Torture. But the view from up there is amazing. After we all finished we went out to brunch, which was fun & well earned since some of set new PR's. I should celebrate that even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I went home and showered and put on my Pro Compression socks and my legs were very, very happy. I love these socks, I tried them out on a recommendation and love them, they need to have constant sales so that I can buy one in every color!

This past Saturday I did the Go Dirty Girl mud run in Ventura  Santa Paula. One of my friends from high school wanted to do it since it was the day before her 30th birthday, so there was a team of 6 of us that headed out to wait in line. I mean, run in the mud. Let me explain, 2 days before the race we got an email saying that we would park in one location and be shuttled to another. We figured we need to allow extra time for that. So we did. We got to the parking location almost 2 hours before our wave time. We waited. And waited. And waited. For 2 hours. In the sun. Watching our wave time pass us by. There were what seemed to be 4 shuttles on rotation, not nearly enough. They told us we could run in whatever wave we get there by, gee, that's great, but some of us had other plans because we didn't expect to be waiting for a shuttle for 2 hours. Eventually we get to the location, only to see TONS of people had parked near/at the KOA and walked up to the event. We could have done the same. To say we were annoyed was the understatement of the century. We got checked in, checked our gear and got in the next wave. The race was fun. It's a women's race so nothing was too hard. We climbed  we went through mud, went up and down hills, and I got stuck at the top of the cargo net. I have an intense fear of heights. The girls in my group told me it would be fine once I got going. I got to the top and was holding on to both sides terrified to come down. But my team and the spectators cheered me on and got me down. Our group finally crossed the finish line mud pit, we took a group picture and then tried to get changed. The changing area wasn't great, the floor was muddy and that's where we had to rinse off as well so it was crowded, but we made the best of what we had and women got changed. While waiting for the rest of our team to come out I saw my friend, Tracey,  who has been my friend for YEARS (we met through Job's Daughters and both got escorted for the 1st time together and she made me laugh when I wanted to cry during my majority degree). I didn't know she was running so it was a much welcomed surprise  After we got our free beer we had to wait in ANOTHER line for the shuttle to go back to the cars. Another hour. At this point we were all tired and wanted to go home. The staff was great with having water out for us though and trying to get us all in the shade as much as possible. Waiting around for a shuttle sucked, big time. They really needed more to be running and on a constant rotation. Aside from all the shuttle waiting it was a very fun event and one that I recommend for women if they want to try an obstacle course / mud run. My advice would be grab a group of girl friends and find your nearest Dirty Girl run. I realize I complained about the shuttle a lot, but it was a big hindrance in our day because people did have other plans, but that's life. We had to wait around, besides waiting around for the shuttle and the annoyances that caused it was a GREAT event. One that I will hopefully run again with another group of friends.

My next race is the Rock and Roll Las Vegas half marathon. My first time running Las Vegas. 3 hours. Under 3. That's all I want. I know I will have to step outside my comfort zone to do that. I hope I'm prepared.