Mud and Chocolate Half Marathon

Leading up to the Mud and Chocolate Half Marathon I was a little concerned about my back.  After my massage it felt much better and it really felt better when I ran as opposed to walking or sitting around.  Ok, so I was also a little concerned about the weather – the forecast wasn’t all that great.  And I was a more than a little concerned that this was a trail run – our first ever trail experience.

We had a busy night on Saturday.  We went to Tulalip Bingo where we came within one or two daubs of winning the whole thing.  We sat in the non smoking area which was located on the other side of the smoking area.  Also, the bathrooms were in the smoking area too.  WTF Tulalip?  Anyway, after bingo we went to eat at a cajun restaurant called Alligator Soul.  We were meeting other people there at 7pm and we didn’t have reservations.  The place was packed when we arrived at 6:20 so we waited at the bar for the rest of our party.  They arrived about 7:20 and we were seated soon after that.  Dinner was lovely.  I had shrimp creole and Morrie had ribs.  Both were delicious.  Morrie ordered the brownie for dessert but was disappointed in the dryness. We finally arrived home at 11pm.  Thankfully we had prepared our running gear earlier in the day so we could fall right into bed.

Me and Morrie

We got up around 6:45 on Sunday morning and got the coffee going.   Morrie had cooked up some bacon the day before so we had some of that and finalized some of the preparations.  Susan had volunteered to be our pit crew and she came over around 8am.  We printed off the directions and headed out.  It was cold out and I was starting to dread taking my coat and pants off.  We arrived at the Redmond Watershed Preserve at around 8:45 and the parking lot was already full so we had to park on the side of the road.  We got out and got into the bib line to check in.  Race numbers in hand we headed back to the car to assemble ourselves.  We made one last pit stop at the bathrooms then mosied on down to the race start where the organizers were giving the logistics.

After a few minutes of learning about their signage, horse right-of-way, and confidence markers, we all filled into the trail.  They picked this section to begin because it was the widest part of the trail.  Seriously it was about 2 1/2 – 3 feet wide.  Before we knew it the race had begun.  The line thinned out a bit.  Actually it just elongated.  There was a line of single file runners heading down the trail.  We kept to our standard run 8 minutes, walk two for the first loop.  FYI, the loops were 4.25 miles each.  After about 30 minutes I developed a sharp pain from my low back down my right butt cheek.  This is the opposite side that had been bothering me.  I briefly entertained the idea of quitting at the aid station.  We finished the first loop in 1 hour and a few seconds.  Susan cheered us into the aid station then we were off again.

Me on the trail. Loop #1

We ran into a couple horses so we stopped and let them go by.  We had to make a pit stop to pee just before the first big hill.  We walked up the hill and tried to stick to the 8 minutes on, two minutes off but we decided to walk the up hills and save our energy.  We walked a lot more on this loop and had to stop to empty shoes and stretch more.  At one point Morrie developed a cramp in her leg and I wondered if we were going to finish the race. We made it to the aid station and to my surprise, three other women came in behind us.  They didn’t stay long and were off  on their third loop.  We never saw them again.

We headed out on the third and final loop and we managed to run about 5 minutes before we had to walk.  We made another pit stop to pee and this time I wasn’t the only one.  We talked about how Morrie learned, via Youtube, how to properly pee in the woods.  That was one advantage I had at growing up in the country I guess.  We walked up the hill then started running.  At this point our leg cramps and shooting pain were just about too much.  We decided to walk up all the hills regardless of the time.  That lasted until about the first downhill and that’s when we decided to walk the rest of the way.  We had no sense of direction and no sense of how far we had gone or how far we had to go.  It was a long walk.  And because we weren’t running we started to cool down.  My hands were getting cold and Morrie was wearing just a short sleeved shirt.  I had put one short sleeved tech shirt on underneath my long sleeved tech shirt so I was ok there.  Pretty soon we heard someone come up behind us.  The sweepers.  They were picking up the markers and signs.  We chit-chatted for a while then then held back a little.  We got to the turn by the aid station and we stopped to stretch.  We took off and rounded the corner.  Just the two aid station guys were there along with Morrie’s mom.  We painfully jogged along past them and up the little incline to the finish.

With our chocolate finishers medals.