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Yesterday, I completed my first 10km race. It wasn't just any old race. It was Met Con Blue's 10km mountain obstacle race (Full Metal Jacket), although, for the most part, the obstacles were not difficult. The course itself was very difficult, though. I've raced on Blue Mountain before. It was my very first race two years ago, and it was a 5km race (although I suspect it was closer to 7km with the rerouting done due to trail conditions). The inclines are very steep, and it was every bit as difficult a climb as the nastier parts of the Inca Trail, except without the issues of altitude sickness.
It started off around 10 degrees Centigrade, but by the time my start time of 12:45 rolled around, it had warmed up significantly. Although the 5km MetCon Blue is a popular race, there were only five people in my heat. I was the slowest runner in the group by far, so for most of the race, it felt like I had the course completely to myself. I took some pretty standard obstacles, like running through tires on a decline, belly crawling through mud under barbed wire, scaling walls, going over cargo nets, kitten crawling through a long, narrow culvert, and leaping across a fire. About half of the obstacles weren't staffed. I guess they got tired of waiting for me. I was a bit surprised no one was waiting at one obstacle called The Spider Web, because it was pretty dangerous. There weren't any staff anywhere close to that one. I'm glad I'm agile. As it was, the ropes on that one were apparently made of hedgehog skin, and I scraped up my hands, butt, and thighs pretty good crossing it. I gashed my knee on a belly crawl early on. Blood turned my muddies bits more colourful.
The course was not well-marked, and I lost a bit of time trying to find out exactly where I was supposed to be going. Dave Merriott, who ran in my heat, says he went the wrong way three separate times. There were no distance markers at all, so I was having a difficult time figuring out how best to pace myself.
I came to a section where I had to carry a small sandbag (maybe 20-25 lbs, I'm guessing) down a long slope, up and over a cargo container, and then into a pitch-black obstacle maze inside the container. Going back up the hill with the sandbag was much harder, and when I got to toss it down, running was much easier for a little while.
By approximately 8 km into the race, my pacing was all moot, anyhow. My knees and hips were screaming at me with every single downhill step, even on the few parts of the trail with a mild grade. By about 9 km in, I was toast. I was finishing only through sheer force of will because my knees felt like they were being stabbed on every step. My running wasn't much faster than a mosey, and my balance was questionable due to exhaustion. I was astonished that there weren't more water stations. I only saw two, although Dave saw three. Again, I guess they were tired of waiting for me and packed up and left. A guy manning one of the obstacles was nice and shared his personal water with me, though. Thank you, cute guy at the climbing wall. I really needed that.
I came to a balance beam obstacle. It was the only obstacle which defeated me. Although I have better-than-average balance, with the exhaustion and done-in knees, I just couldn't do it. It looked straight-forward, but once I'd gone two or three steps across, it began to shake and vibrate at high speed. I crouched down and held as still as possible, slowing the frequency of the shake, but every time I tried to move even a little bit, it set up the shake even harder. And so I came off the beam, landing in a scant three inches of muddy water.
The next obstacle was a hand-over-hand walk across a wide pool of water. A large crowd had gathered. I was the last person left running in the race at this point. They cheered me on. I looked at the rails for hand-over-hand and knew I wouldn't make it. I would fall in doing it the traditional way. And so I decided to strategize according to my strengths. I grabbed onto a bar, swung my feet up onto the bar ahead of me, and crawled upside down across the width of the pool, ass first. The crowd was cheering, and the photographer at the end, when presented with a big ol' ass shot, decided to run to the side and get something a little more classy.
I needed to rest a couple of times on the way across. Each time, I just let go with my hands and hung by my knees. I guess this was a real crowd pleaser. Maybe I was the only person crawling sloth-like and hanging upside down like a bat that whole day. The photographer got a bunch of shots of me hanging upside down, and he said, "That's the poster shot!" He was quite pleased.
I hopped down at the end and took off at a painful run for the final portion of the race. The last obstacle was a ramp leading to a sheer wall. There were people standing atop the wall, but no one saw me coming. I gathered my meagre energy stores and charged the wall at a pitiful speed, leaping at the last minute. SLAM. Not even close to reaching the top. The booth babes in skimpy hot pink spandex dresses looked down at me, trying not to look like they were shivering too much. I stared at the wall in exhaustion, then moved back to take another run at it. This time,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
knightky and another big guy were lying on the top, waiting for me with their arms extended over the edge. I took another run, and this time they caught my hands, hauling me up over the edge.
I did it. I was done. I don't know my official time, but I'm guessing it was approximately 2.5 hours. I ate my green victory banana and we went home.
I figure I may feel back to normal by Tuesday. Ow.
It started off around 10 degrees Centigrade, but by the time my start time of 12:45 rolled around, it had warmed up significantly. Although the 5km MetCon Blue is a popular race, there were only five people in my heat. I was the slowest runner in the group by far, so for most of the race, it felt like I had the course completely to myself. I took some pretty standard obstacles, like running through tires on a decline, belly crawling through mud under barbed wire, scaling walls, going over cargo nets, kitten crawling through a long, narrow culvert, and leaping across a fire. About half of the obstacles weren't staffed. I guess they got tired of waiting for me. I was a bit surprised no one was waiting at one obstacle called The Spider Web, because it was pretty dangerous. There weren't any staff anywhere close to that one. I'm glad I'm agile. As it was, the ropes on that one were apparently made of hedgehog skin, and I scraped up my hands, butt, and thighs pretty good crossing it. I gashed my knee on a belly crawl early on. Blood turned my muddies bits more colourful.
The course was not well-marked, and I lost a bit of time trying to find out exactly where I was supposed to be going. Dave Merriott, who ran in my heat, says he went the wrong way three separate times. There were no distance markers at all, so I was having a difficult time figuring out how best to pace myself.
I came to a section where I had to carry a small sandbag (maybe 20-25 lbs, I'm guessing) down a long slope, up and over a cargo container, and then into a pitch-black obstacle maze inside the container. Going back up the hill with the sandbag was much harder, and when I got to toss it down, running was much easier for a little while.
By approximately 8 km into the race, my pacing was all moot, anyhow. My knees and hips were screaming at me with every single downhill step, even on the few parts of the trail with a mild grade. By about 9 km in, I was toast. I was finishing only through sheer force of will because my knees felt like they were being stabbed on every step. My running wasn't much faster than a mosey, and my balance was questionable due to exhaustion. I was astonished that there weren't more water stations. I only saw two, although Dave saw three. Again, I guess they were tired of waiting for me and packed up and left. A guy manning one of the obstacles was nice and shared his personal water with me, though. Thank you, cute guy at the climbing wall. I really needed that.
I came to a balance beam obstacle. It was the only obstacle which defeated me. Although I have better-than-average balance, with the exhaustion and done-in knees, I just couldn't do it. It looked straight-forward, but once I'd gone two or three steps across, it began to shake and vibrate at high speed. I crouched down and held as still as possible, slowing the frequency of the shake, but every time I tried to move even a little bit, it set up the shake even harder. And so I came off the beam, landing in a scant three inches of muddy water.
The next obstacle was a hand-over-hand walk across a wide pool of water. A large crowd had gathered. I was the last person left running in the race at this point. They cheered me on. I looked at the rails for hand-over-hand and knew I wouldn't make it. I would fall in doing it the traditional way. And so I decided to strategize according to my strengths. I grabbed onto a bar, swung my feet up onto the bar ahead of me, and crawled upside down across the width of the pool, ass first. The crowd was cheering, and the photographer at the end, when presented with a big ol' ass shot, decided to run to the side and get something a little more classy.
I needed to rest a couple of times on the way across. Each time, I just let go with my hands and hung by my knees. I guess this was a real crowd pleaser. Maybe I was the only person crawling sloth-like and hanging upside down like a bat that whole day. The photographer got a bunch of shots of me hanging upside down, and he said, "That's the poster shot!" He was quite pleased.
I hopped down at the end and took off at a painful run for the final portion of the race. The last obstacle was a ramp leading to a sheer wall. There were people standing atop the wall, but no one saw me coming. I gathered my meagre energy stores and charged the wall at a pitiful speed, leaping at the last minute. SLAM. Not even close to reaching the top. The booth babes in skimpy hot pink spandex dresses looked down at me, trying not to look like they were shivering too much. I stared at the wall in exhaustion, then moved back to take another run at it. This time,
knightky and another big guy were lying on the top, waiting for me with their arms extended over the edge. I took another run, and this time they caught my hands, hauling me up over the edge.I did it. I was done. I don't know my official time, but I'm guessing it was approximately 2.5 hours. I ate my green victory banana and we went home.
I figure I may feel back to normal by Tuesday. Ow.
