TM Chicago 2014

It had been almost a year since I have done a Tough Mudder, and I was beyond excited.  I was stoked to do an obstacle course again, but even more excited to see all of my new friends. One of my close Mudder friends, gave me a free pass to do this event for the weekend. As I was waiting to get registered in, I ran into Jim Morrison who did GDR with me. You get this sense of amazing closeness when you experience Hell with someone, and I was overcome with happiness getting to see him again. I was introduced to a lot of the famous faces in the WTM community: Jeff, PJ, Kristin, Michael, Brent, and Greg. Hearing Sean's amazing speech made me teary eyed as he talked about our Vets, but instantly went into laughs as Devon and himself did a crowd surf.  I wish I could take Sean to all my events, as he makes me want to run 100s of miles after hearing him speak.

I had a goal to do three laps that day. I knew it could be done, especially after hearing Wesley, aka Jesus, complete the task in Texas the week before.  The terrain was difficult for me to run on at first. It was in a corn field, and the whole thing was very uneven. After crawling under barb wire, and getting over the walls by myself, and surviving Arctic Enema, I finally got my groove. Looking at my watch, I was doing about 7:30/mi and felt very strong. As I got to "Human Pyramid", I had caught up to Joe Perry, who did EXTREMELY well at WTM last year. We had many mutual friends who told us both to run together at the Chi Mudder. I stayed to help at the Human Pyramid for awhile as there were only 5 of us there, and it was also pretty entertaining to watch. Once I knew I was no longer a help, I went off running again. I ran into Kris (a fellow Madison mudder) as we were teamed up together for the warrior carry. Kris is an extremely well rounded athlete, I swear there is something in the Madison water. 

I was able to get up the Berlin Walls by myself, and by this time, Joe had caught up to me. We stayed together for the rest of the day, and he honestly made the day so enjoyable for me.  I was beginning to get many high fives and cheers from the spectators and volunteers for being the first female through, which was very motivating for me. I was more ecstatic on how well I was doing on the obstacles, (even completing funky monkey which has ALWAYS been a problem area).  Crossfit is staying in the training regime because it's obviously working. 

We had completed Walk the Plank and Mt. Everst, and I finally got to the Legionnaire Loop. We had to carry a tire for about 400-800 meters under barb wire and through a mud pit.  Once we dropped off the tires, we had to go through Family Feud.  This was a new obstacle, where spectators were able to try to hit you with balls as you tried to walk across a beam.  I completed the obstacle and get to the finish line. A lot of female spectators and volunteers came up and gave me a huge hug for being the first to cross the finish line. I felt very good and accomplished for being able to successfully complete all the obstacles. 

Round 2

I finally found Justin Willett (my first mudder friend) at the starting line with Sean and Justin's girlfriend Jen. I gave Sean a huge hug, after he told me he knew who I was when I tried to introduce myself. (I later told my friends that night "Sean actually knows me"...haha.. my dorkiness) I hadn't seen Justin in over two years, so I was very very happy to see him again in his "Hello Kittyness".  Our visit was short as Joe was already getting ahead of me, and Justin and Jen were rucking the course. I caught up to Joe, and I still felt very strong and fast. However, after Mt. Everest, I found myself getting a little worn out. Keeping up with Joe is no easy feat, and it was quickly draining me out. I slipped on Funky Monkey, but was still able to complete "Balls to the Wall" and get over the walls and Everest just fine. 

Joe had missed Family Feud on the first round, and I had missed Funky Money on the second round, so we were both 1:1 on fails. As we got to Family Feud, I wasn't going to make it easy for him to beat me on obstacles. I had almost made it to the end, where one of the swinging balls hit my side, and almost threw me off the beam. I decided to make a jump for the ledge, which was the worse decision of the month for me. I landed on my chest and back into the water. To make matters worse, I saw Joe happily completing the obstacle as I was pulling myself out of the water.  My chest was on fire and it instantly hurt to breathe. I quickly crossed the finish line and decided to take a breather. 

I was lying on the ground feeling like a semi truck was slowly parking on my chest. I changed socks and got the rocks out of my shoes and quickly ate something. I was walking back to the starting line and found Joe and Greg to do a third lap. I played off my fall, but I felt my chest getting worse and worse by the second. The third round was much slower. We were now at 10/min miles, but besides my tendinitis flaring up, I still felt pretty strong. It wasn't until the first set of walls, where I found it impossible to lift my arms up without flinching in pain. I still completed the obstacles, but opted out of Funky Monkey. The Mud Mile was extremely hard for me this round, as I was beyond exhausted and it was almost impossible pulling myself up every mini hill. I was extremely happy being able to complete Family Feud the third round and felt very accomplished as I crossed the finish line for the third and final time of the day. 

Even though I ended up with one broken and one bruised rib, I had an amazing day. Running with Joe the whole day was the highlight.  Joe is such an inspiring and motivating guy, and I felt very strong being able to keep up with him the whole time. He made me do every obstacle and to not pay attention to any fatigue that I may have felt. I got to know so many more Mudders, especially Greg. Kristy (his wife), Greg, and I were all on the course the year before constantly passing each other.  It was nice to finally just be able to run with them this time :) (Kristy is a frickin beast, and definitely is a fierce competitor).  

I am very happy I got the first OCR of the year out of the way and it gave me confidence I needed for the next one.  Tough Mudder.. you never disappoint and I had an epic and exciting day with all the fellow mudders :)

Pike Lake Half Marathon Trail Run

One of the biggest goals I have this year is to be able to run 100 miles. After GDR, I had a whole new sense of confidence. I thought, "wow, I really can keep stepping it up". A couple of race friends who I met on the GDR course told me about Kettle Moraine when they found out that I was from Wisconsin.  As I was recovering from GDR, I did some investigating of my next ultra, and just randomly clicked "submit" on my new race registration for Kettle100.

It hit me the next day of what I just did. I just signed up for a 100 miler. I had very mixed (still do) about the goal I put in front of myself. I'm constantly battling thoughts of; "Am I REALLY ready for this?" "Am I doing too much"? "What if I fail"? A friend of mine has attempted Kettle100 last year, and this is a friend who easily out runs me every day of the week. However, he was forced to DNF because of the difficulty of the course.  Not a huge confidence boost for me.  I reached out to my Trail and Ultra Running group and same deal... people have attempted but I still have not had a response from someone who has completed it.  I then went to the race blogs. I read many success stories of runners who were able to cross the finish line, and they all had very big similarities: unbreakable mental grit.  

It was really hard for me to believe that trails in southern Wisconsin can really be so difficult that they are causing ultrarunners to DNF. I found a half marathon that was on the same course as 1/7th of Kettle.  I immediately signed up to investigate what I had gotten myself into.  

Right before the race started, I received a panicked phone call from my grandmother that my grandfather was having severe setbacks with his dementia. I immediately turned around, then back around when my mother told me she was coming up to help. My grandfather raised me when I was little while my mom was deployed and when my father left.  I had just completely lost focus on this race, but figured that it was only 13 miles...My plan was just to get it over with and quickly drive up to be there for my grandfather.

I arrived and immediately knew I was going to have issues with the weather.  It was the type of weather that was absolutely freezing to start running in, but I couldn't tell by the wind if it was going to be easy to warm up or not.  I decided to go with my thermal gear and windbreaker as I was wearing shorts.  I also bought my camelback... for reasons that are still unknown to me.  

The race consisted of a 5K, 10K, and a 1/2 marathon.  I had absolutely no idea who was actually running the half, so that completely threw me off when the race started. People were passing me, doing 6 minute sprints right off the bat, and I just prayed those weren't the half marathoners. I decided to quit worrying about other people and just go at my own pace. I ran a 8/min mile to start off with as I was in hill paradise right away. The hills were small and constantly ascending... after about mile SIX, I had enough of that crap.  I decided to quit sprinting up them and either do a fast walking pace up the hill or a slow jog. I also was dripping with sweat. I immediately took off my camelback and thermal which gave me some speed back.   This decision really helped me keep a surge in me, just in case I was about to run into some serious competition... which is exactly what happened. 

When I was on mile 8, I began to be running by myself. I was convinced I was completely lost as I stopped seeing trail markings and not recognizing anything around me (the course was two laps).  I ran into some hikers who confirmed my fears. They said I was only about 2 miles off course (WHAT?!?). I immediately started sprinting back to the course and found myself with the second place woman.  I upped my speed to a high 6/min mile and bolted. As I kept looking behind me, as I knew we were reaching close to the end, I completely biffed head first into the ground (are we seeing a common habit in these posts... im the queen of falling on my ass or face).  As I got back up, I knew she was going to win.  I was about a mile away from the course, and I ran as fast as I could until I hit the finish line.  

This race really gave me an idea of what I have in store with Kettle. It was one of the worst races I've ever ran, but I had to give myself credit as it was the first half I had ever done! Beautiful area, and I definitely plan on doing it again next year :)

2nd place overall Women

2:02 

11th overall

1st age group