Race #7: July - FroYo 10k

My goal this year has been, as you know, to run a race every month.  But July came and I had not registered for any race.  Signing up for a race this late in the game is pretty expensive.  And just not what I am able to do right now.  So, I had to accept that there would be no race for me this month.  But then, on Friday, my Hubby called home from work.  He had a co-worker who had an extra entry to the FroYo 10k race in Salt Lake City, and he wanted to know if I wanted to run it.  For Free!!  I jumped at the chance.

The FroYo Run was held at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  This is a beautiful park.  The run is 4 loops around the park.  I parked in the regular parking area.  I got there later than I had planned and usually like because I forgot to set my alarm, but it looked as though this race also had Zumba as their pre-race warm-up.

I met up with my Hubby's co-worker and her friends.  We all lined up in our respective areas.  I have never seen a timed race go out in waves, but I liked it.  This gave all the faster/want-to-win people the opportunity to run their race without having to dodge all the slower runners.  Especially at the beginning.  I am not one of those faster runners, so I was comfortably back near the 10 min/mile people.

The Start:

We headed out and I was feeling pretty good.  The first 5k was awesome, but I haven't actually run a 10k distance in 4 months.  This means, I started out way too fast and spent the second 5k dying.  We walked a couple of times.  I didn't think that running a loop would be so hard, but looking at the same thing over and over again didn't help with my dying lungs.

I finished this race in 1 hr, 6 min, and 35 sec.  This placed me 81st overall.  I'm feeling good about that.  Especially since I didn't train for this one.

After the race we were given water and our very own FroYo from Yogurtland.  The tartness from this dessert was PERFECT after a race. 

Our packet was also filled with great goodies:

AND we got a medal:

I'm thinking this race is one I will have to run again.  It was a low key race, no pressure, organized, and lots of swag.  Totally worth it. 

Race #6: June - Dirty Dash & Piglet Plunge

The Dirty Dash.  My first obstacle race. This race is a team challenge.  We registered early.   We were the Mud Pies.  This really became a family affair with a couple of adoptive additions.  I'm so glad I registered for this race.  We had a later start time because a handful of us were running the Piglet Plunge with our kids afterwards.  This meant we didn't have to get us at the crack of dawn to be up at Soldier Hollow.  Thank God.

We gathered in the parking lot where we took pictures and then headed out to the start.

The Start:

Our team had tentatively decided on doing the 5k.  However, when we finished the 5k, we decided we had enough time to do the whole 10k and be back for the piglet plunge.  This was a good idea, because all the best obstacles were on the second half of the course.

There was so much mud.  Mud to wade through, climb over, and slip across.  I was running this race with a tiny sprain.  Probably not the smartest idea, but I made it without breaking my ankle.  I did have to go a bit slower, but saving my body is always worth sacrificing time.

In the course, close to the end, there is a HUGE slide.  It looked awesome.  Some people were sliding down fine, others were having a bit more trouble.  I didn't want to slide completely out of control, so I decided against the running start.   I stood and jumped down the slide.  I wouldn't have needed the running start.  I shot down that slide.  So fast.  I thought there was going to be a whole ton of mud at the end.  You know, to help me slow down.  NOPE.  There was a tarp at the end, which meant that my extreme speed sent me flying off the end of the massive slide onto a watery mud covered tarp that would continue to hurl me down the mountain.  At the end of the tarp was a 1-2 foot drop.  I catapulted off it and landed on my bum so hard it rocked my back a good one.  My hubby even ran out to me to see if I was okay.  We couldn't take any recovery time though because there was a very large man coming at me at very high speeds.  We jumped out of the way just in time.  He would have broken us.  This slide was fun, but hurt.  So, it was the best and worst part of the race.

I really enjoyed the finish.  It was a huge pit of mud with cross sections of mud we had to climb over.  Very fun.  And great for picture opportunities.

We hurried to finish, skipped the pictures, and went right into the piglet plunge.

The Piglet Plunge was more than I expected.  I thought there was going to be a mud section that our kids could run through maybe 1/4 mile long.  I was so wrong.  The Piglet Plunge was at least a mile long with a crazy uphill mud climb, at least 3 obstacles (the HUGE slide was one of them; we skipped that), and the awesome mud pit at the end.  Completely worth the $20 for the kids.  My Sweet Pea LOVED it.  She wanted to keep going down the slide.  My little Green Bean wanted nothing to do with the mud.  Oh well, he'll get in on the fun next year.

There was not medal for this race.  Always sad when there's not, but it's okay.  We posed for pictures at the end, received food and water, and took a FREEZING shower.  We threw away our kids shoes, but my Hubby and I kept ours.  Stripping down is a must at the showers.  There is just too much mud.  EVERYWHERE.  You will discover crevasses that you never knew you had.

There were hot showers that you could pay for, but we did not pay the extra.  We headed back to a relatives home to clean up.  It was great to have them close and they were wonderful to let us destroy their bathroom with dirt.

This race is worth every penny.  I loved it and would definitely do it again.

Race #5: May - Color Me Rad 5K

I was so excited to run Color Me Rad.  I thought it would be fun to get all colorful for a nice easy run.  This day was a bit different than I expected. . .

The week had been a cold dreary week with lots of rain.  And race day was looking to be more of the same.  A couple of friends and I carpooled up the the Utah Fair Grounds for our race.  It was a cooler day, but not freezing.  Parking is an extra fee for this race because it's at the fair grounds.  We happened to arrive before the person that was supposed to be collecting money, so we didn't have to pay for parking.  YAY!!  We had plenty of time to pick up our packets, go drop our stuff off at the car, and head back for pre-race warm up. 

Pre-race:

The warm up was ZUMBA!  I was so excited.  If you haven't heard yet (even though I'm sure you have)  I LOVE Zumba.  They even had a decent teacher there with simple to follow dance moves.  Very fun. 

It was getting close to start time and we were ready, but there was a HUGE line of people still trying to pick up their packets.  I'm never a fan of packet pick up on the same day as the race.  However, Color Me Rad was sure that their new check-in would be fast and painless.  Well, it didn't work that way for everyone who showed up within an hour from the start time. 

This was an un-timed race.  We all lined up and they sent us out in waves.  The course was super muddy from the past week of rain, and the color was really far apart.  I pictured a ton of color stations, but there were only a few.  I had seen a new color dump station on their website and in some of their ads, but it seemed to have been forgotten. 

I know they say to wear white for the color races, but I wore black.  (It's all I had) I figured that the powdered color would show up on black more vibrant than on white.  And it did, for a while.  It seemed to blend in quickly.  And if I got hit by someone shooting colored goo, then all color was lost.  The goo showed NOTHING on my black tank top and washed all the powder off.  I spent most of the race avoiding the goo shooters.  Moral of the story... wear white.  Just like they tell you to.

There was more color at the end of the race than at the beginning.  This made the end fun and me colorful enough for pictures.  

 We were handed water and granola bars at the end of the race.  No finisher medals for this one, but there was a pair of Color Me Rad socks in our packet.  I figure that was a decent trade for a medal.

There was a mass color throw during the "after party."  It looked cool from the outside.

Overall, I had fun.  I was there with great friends and we got to get colorful.  I felt this race was more hype than anything else though.  I would have to get an awesome deal or be going with another great group of friends to be convinced to do it again.  I would rather spend on a different race.