Fun & Fit: May

IT band is all healed so May was a fun month fitness-wise. The best part about May was getting Alex to do a mud run with me. We signed up to do the Merrell Down & Dirty along with his brother and his brother's girlfriend at the beginning of the month. Convincing Alex to do an event like this wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but I knew he had his reservations about the amount of running (he hates cardio) and mud (he hates getting dirty). Running is a lot easier when you have a great running partner so we breezed through the running and there wasn't a ton of mud so he wasn't as dirty as he thought he was going to be. What this race taught me is that, when it comes to obstacle races, I prefer there to be a lot of obstacles. We did the 5K and there were about 15 obstacles but the first mile or so was tough because the obstacles were spread out. Maybe it's just me, and I know that running itself is an obstacle, but I don't like having to run half a mile to get to the first obstacle and then having that first obstacle be something really easy to do. I had heard so much about this series and I had high hopes for it so I was sad that I didn't love it. Alex liked it but he didn't see why I think obstacles races are so much fun. Add to that is the fact that we stopped to take a picture at the finish line and that picture was nowhere to be found in the gallery, so I was a little disappointed overall with this event.

The next event that made up for Merrell Down & Dirty was Armageddon Ambush. This obstacle race was a week after Merrell, cheaper, and the race I wish Alex would have done. You had to run a bit to get to the first obstacle, but that first obstacle was a doozy (rope climb through the water) and it just got more and more challenging after that. The near-last obstacle was an inclined wall climb, rope climb, and giant slide all in one. There was more upper body strength obstacles in Armageddon Ambush, which had me spent near the end, but I still had the strength to almost make it up the wall all by myself! I was so proud of myself. I needed to be pulled up the inclined wall at my first obstacle course race and, at this one, I was six inches away from making it all the way to the top. A huge thank you to the guy who helped me cover those last few inches! After this race I was sore for days and high on the satisfaction of having completed what I felt was a difficult race.

The last event I participated in May was Baptist Tour of the Gables 5K. A friend was doing it and she suggested I do it too since the race was in my neighborhood. I woke the girls up early (Cati sprints out of bed when she knows we have a race) and we walked to the race site. Both girls behaved really well during the run, except for the last .6 miles when Elina started crying because she wanted out. Throughout the whole run Cati kept asking where the finish line was because she wanted to come out of the stroller and run too. Once we made it to the three-mile mark, Cati was beyond thrilled when I told her it was her turn to run. The best part (and part of why I love these events) was having all these strangers yelling out encouraging words to Cati as we neared the finish line. The second best part was seeing Cati act like a veteran and walk over to the snack and drink table and get herself some water. My time was 37:53 and I'm so proud of that time. That time is close to my first 5K time and this time I did it with little running conditioning and pushing 25 lbs more of kids and snacks.

PS Please don't forget I'm raising money for Give Kids The World and participating in Disney's Glass Slipper Challenge on GKTW's team. All donations are greatly appreciated! For more information visit My Fundraising Page.