Oh my gosh. Seriously. BEST RACE EVER!

I couldn’t believe how much fun I had running through knee-deep mud in the woods, climbing walls, and jumping over fire!

Before the race started, I was kind of intimidated by the fire. But after I’d been dominating obstacle after obstacle, the fire didn’t scare me and I tore over it like it was nothing!

My absolute favorite obstacles involved climbing walls. The best came at the end!

A lot of people were actually choosing to walk around this wall. It was a completely vertical climb using only a rope, but I did it! And according to Helen who was behind me, I did it fast!

Jillian Michaels must really be whipping me into shape.

The mud crawl was my other (obvious) favorite. The woods kid inside me could not stop smiling!

After the race, we got rinsed off by a fire hose (best day of that fireman’s life hosing down girls all day!), then we enjoyed our free beers, some granola giveaways, and a turkey leg, just to be festive!

I definitely want to sign up for more obstacle races, it was so much more fun than a normal road race!

As an aside, I just have to say that I was so proud and happy about how well I did in this race. In the past during trail runs and races, I’m usually the one getting passed by other runners. But during this race, I was the one passing people!! Andrea pushed me pretty hard because she’s a fast runner.

Even though we started at the back of the line (which meant a lot of stopping and waiting in the woods for the crowd of people to get past an obstacle), we made up for lost time by keeping about an 8:30 min/mile pace. Helen was a bit farther behind us at a 9 min/mile pace, and we wanted to cross the finish line together, so we walked and rested at water stops to wait for her. Still, with all of that, we finished in the top 20% of our age group. I was very excited!

Me and Andrea want to do another obstacle race soon, and knowing that we actually stand a chance to do well, we might be a bit more serious this time around.

Since my friend Helen was in town this weekend for the race, I didn’t have time to post, sorry! Check out my workout log for an update if you’re interested. I had a great weekend overall. We went bar hopping on Friday, grabbed sushi for lunch on Saturday, spent some time relaxing in the park and walking around the East Side, and grabbed dinner at Amanda’s bar.

Oh and obviously, froyo was a must.

I used healthy toppings this time around, and I have to say I liked it even better than my usual doused in chocolate and peanut butter.  I used a bunch of fresh fruit (strawberries, bananas, blueberries, mango, kiwi) and added a little bit of granola and coconut. It was delicious!

Now that I’m back to my normal schedule, you can count on more regular posts!