Rebel Race

Yesterday Brendon and I ran the rebel race! And we whooped it's butt! It was definitely not easy, we climbed over walls, through tunnels, and of course through lots and lots of mud. And we ran up and down hills. Again and again and again, through the woods. We had a blast! And Brendon was a great coach, he had to slow down I'm sure to match my pace, but he kept it positive the whole time.

Pre-race shot, sporting matching bandanas.

Post race, quite soggy:

After the race we were extra nasty. It doesn't look like it so much up there, but were coated in pond scum and mud. The water we went through was gross. It smelled terrible and I swear one of the bodies of water we had to basically swim across was a cow pond. Yum, huh?

I only sustained one little injury. At the beginning of the race there were monkey bars you had to swing across, and I was so excited that I actually was able to do it successfully (after watching a quite a few girls fall on their butts), I didn't pay attention to how crazy my legs were while swinging around, or Brendon saying, "watch out babe!"; there was a lovely slat of wood that I smacked my shins against at the end. I have a feeling they're going to turn all kinds of lovely colors soon.

The weather was great and the location was awesome (minus the cow ponds), I think it was on a giant farm/ranch. At one point we were on the top of a big ass hill (or small mountain), and we had a spectacular view of the surrounding area. We were in Smithville about an hour outside of Austin. Very pretty out there! We were running through some really beautiful stuff. Tons of wild flowers and everything was so green!

If you ever do one of these obstacle races, I highly suggest running in one of the first waves. We were a part of the second wave (I think) at 10am and it was still fairly cool out when we started. Plus you're running with a typically older crowd (versus younger folks), so they're easier to pass! And the lines for the showers/food/beer were waaaay shorter when we finished rather than later in the afternoon.

The lunch of champions.

Brendon doing a pullup challenge thing, he's pretty strong!

Pullup prize! A new water bottle.

This race was sponsored by the US Marines. It was pretty cool, but compared to the Warrior Dash that Brendon did last spring, it was highly unorganized. It was a little bit of mess actually, registration was insane. But I think this is only the second time they've held it here so I'm sure it will run more smoothly the more they do it.

I am really proud of how we did. How I did. I was really nervous, but I made it! And did decent! I'd say we did way better than most in our wave, we passed tons of people. I'm interested to see our times once they post them online. But I honestly don't know how anyone could run the entire thing, it was more of a hike than a run. We were basically just hiking up and down seriously steep ditches and creeks for a good portion of it. The obstacles were a lot of fun though, except for the grossness of the mud and water. And then running with shoes full of mud afterwards. But I enjoyed climbing over and around stuff, felt like a monkey!

The bad news is, this was the last hurrah for my shoes. The bottom of one literally fell off after the race, so I said farewell and we parted ways after over half a decade. I should have taken a picture of them, they served me well. Now I am without any thing to run in! An odd feeling for sure, how do you work out without tennis shoes? I plan on getting some new ones asap!

The moral of this story is, I am no longer a wimp. Or less of one anyway. Signing up for this race sparked my desire to get active. These last two months have been life changing and I'm so glad I made an effort to get healthier. And here's to more of this! There are all kinds of obstacle races similar to this one and we plan on signing up for more. They are so much fun! And I would also love to start working towards running a half marathon. That's a big goal for me, but with work I think I can do it. Eventually. 

Keep on keepin' on. Work hard, play hard.