Well, hockey season is officially over. My boycott of this blog is over, but now there's nothing to talk about. So what would I do to have something to blog about????
OK. So I've learned about this "Mud Run" that takes place at the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. Apparently, it's a 10K run, but with obstacles such as: tires, river crossings, 460' hill, climbing walls, tunnel crawls & mud pits. The highlight is the finishing mud pit, where contestants crawl in the mud under ropes for 30-feet.
Here's the link.
Course Map
So, I've known all year that this guy, Chad, from work was planning on doing this thing. It has been sold out since the start of the year. I guess it's pretty popular. So, eight days before the competition, he tells me that he has an open spot on his 5-man team. Damn, that would be cool to do; too bad I'm not in shape for something like that. Then I had images of Makoto Nagano telling me, "It's a hardkore Ninja Warrior course, I would do it." So, I alluded to being up for it and needed to consult the wife. I'd officially confirm or bail on Monday.
Hmmm. I've been "working-out" for about 8 months straight now. But that consists of 10-15 minutes of cardio and mostly just lifting weights and eating a lot. And my supposed cardio involves reading magazines while pretending to ride a stationary bike. I've put on a solid 4 pounds of muscle and 8 pounds of fat. My training was mostly tailored for competitive eating and least for distance training. I was probably in much better shape when surfing 3-4 days a week; 15 pounds lighter if nothing else. The last time I weighed this much, it put a lot of strain on my knees. So, was running a 10K a very good idea? I use the term "run" pretty liberally. Could I finish jogging a 10K? I needed a reality check.
So, Alisia was relatively supportive. I expected an initial reaction of something like, "Are you crazy, fatass?" But, she was concerned that I would obviously push myself too hard and finish the race, whether I was in shape to do it or not. Yeah, that's about my assessment of the situation. I can count on Alisia to be honest and accurate for the most part, but usually over-react at first. She let me down by not over-reacting. I was concerned about letting Chad's team, the Mud Monsters, down since you have to finish the race as a 5-man group. So, obviously the slow guy determines your overall time. I just made it clear with him that they had better not expect to be competitive, but it sounded like a casual competition. I was 50% committed in my mind.
Then I took a closer look at that course map. The obstacles by themselves looked pretty fun. Who doesn't like being sprayed with a fire hose? Or crawling in the mud? Or crossing rivers? But then there's the whole running part. And the biggest obstacle was the 460' hill climb. What am I saying, 460' is a small mountain. 50' is a hill. Oh, there is a 50' hill, but its slippery and a guy at the top has a fire hose to push you back down. This might just kill me....
So I did a few 'practice' jogs to check exactly how bad my fitness level was. I jogged to Jamba Juice and that was pretty rough. Then I played golf for 9-holes the next day. I was talking-up the race to my golf buddies, so I pretty much had to do the race or face much shame. I told Chad I was officially "in" the next day. I tried running hills to prepare. Hills are tough. Which is obvious, but running downhill is not easy either; not so obvious. There's some technique involved to relax and get very close to out of control.
Anyway I was pretty nervous. We started pretty slow, because there was a mass of humanity in front of us. Things got a little more spaced out in the monster hill climb. The river crossing was probably my favorite part; kind of a half swim/wading action. The final mud pit was a blast; drank a little brown water. But it turns out that I didn't hold the group back (entirely) and we finished in the top half of the Mens Team group. Pretty cool. The bruised heel I got from the race, not so cool. But I actually feel pretty good otherwise. I am considering doing it again....
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