Warrior Dash 2

Last weekend I ran the Warrior Dash for the second time.  J and I always do outfits.  This year's plan...80's WWF wrestlers.

I woke up, got costumed up, and made some Rowdy Roddy Pancakes

Renfield always wants our food

My wife and I headed out to the county park where it was, and paid the outrageous $20 to park.  Then we spent about an hour trying to find my friend, which really shouldn't have been so hard, considering his outfit.

I finally found him scoping out the people, including some of his friends in earlier waves, at the finish line.  

Can you tell who he is supposed to be?

We headed on into the corral.

If you didn't know before, you should know now that he's Randy "Macho Man" Savage
(circa Wrestlemania III vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat)

We waited in the corral, while looking tough

We started off pretty close to each other, and stayed close through the first obstacle over barricades and under barbed wire, but that changed at the second one.  Capsized Catamaran required you to swim to some blocks that had nothing to grip to, climb over them into another pool with ropes leading to another set of blocks, and then over to more water and to shore.  My friend is not good with water or swimming, and after wading in and thinking about it, turned to a race official in his best Macho voice saying, "The Macho Man don't do swimming."  I had a hell of a time pulling myself out of the water onto the blocks.  With the herd of people, having shoes on, and sucking at swimming myself, it made me a little nervous too.  Eventually, I got to the front blocks and was able to pull my fat ass up out of the water, over the two blocks, and back into the second pool, where the rest was a piece of cake.  That part wiped me out pretty good though.  It felt like I had been treading water for an eternity (likely 45 seconds).

Everything after was pretty much standard to last year:  crawl across ropes and nets, crawl under stuff, mud hills, and climb walls.  The only thing this year, was the 12 foot wall climb was in the middle this time, and being tired and hating heights made it a lot tougher this year.  I actually had to climb it and didn't basically run up it.

I kept checking behind me for my friend, but never did see him after that second obstacle.  I was hoping he didn't quit.

With a little under a mile to go, I got stuck in a mud pit.  I couldn't get my shoes free, and they were getting sucked in pretty deep.  Not thinking about the fact my timing chip was strapped into my shoes, and knowing they were going into the donate pile at the end anyway, I said "f*** it" and yanked my feet out.  I ran in my socks for a bit, and after figuring they were screwed too, wadded them up and whipped them at one of the Warrior signs.  For the rest of the race, I was a barefoot runner (does this mean I'm in the club?...i mean it was almost a mile with obstacles).

Climbed the cargo net

Jumped the fire
(love this photo, and it only exists thanks to my wife)

Crawled through the mud

...and finished, then taking a smug looking picture with an expression I'd imagine Piper would have

Nailed It

Shortly after, I was happy to see J finishing the race

I still liked the Warrior this year while I was doing it, but the excitement and anticipation of it was kind of missing this year.  The price and the rip-off parking kind of soured it a little bit for me.  I love having an extra excuse to wear a costume other than Halloween, but I'm not sure I'll be doing it again, especially not next year.  I don't know, I'm just not feeling it anymore, despite the fact if gives us plenty of wonderful photo ops.

Twenty Eleven YIR and Twenty Twelve Tunnel Vision

I said I'd do a year in review of last year revisiting the goals I had.  Here are the over/under results for 2011:

1) Continue to do a race a month. - I could shoot to go for more, but all I would accomplish is paying more money and having more shirts I need to get rid of.  Over  I still overdid it.  I think the final tally for 2011 was around 35 races.
2) Can I Get a Half-Marathon? - I can do this. After the Crim we felt like running the 5K, and would have if Pat showed. Now it's just a matter of where to do it.  Over  how about 4 (Martian, DxA2, Panda, Brooksie) and 1 trail half (The Legend)? Also the 20K Volksläufe was pretty close to that distance. You could say I nailed it down with authority.
3) Try to Run a Race out-of-State - I'd really like to do this if the opportunity arises. We'll see what this year and the finances hold.  Under  Somebody else's scheduling conflicts in September on my honeymoon got in the way of the one I was planning on.  I could have planned better to get this in, but I thought I had it locked up (Note to self:  Have a backup plan).  After the wedding and the honeymoon, I couldn't justify a trip just to accomplish this goal in 2011.  However, I ran a 5K in Chicago on 1/1/12, so I only missed it by a day.
4) Register earlier - I could deal with saving some money on these races. I need to make a game plan and pick what races I'm doing this year, and sign up early.  Even  Registered early a lot, and also opted out of shirts when possible a few times.
5) Make lifestyle changes that actually affect my weight - I've done everything else. For my size, I am a powerhouse of energy and endurance. Imagine what I could do if I slim down. I could be unstoppable.  Even  For 3/4 of the year, I did awesome. I was down below a weight I hadn't been down to in 5 years in September. I let things get away a bit at the end of the year, though. Still, I will tentatively call it a success as long as I jump back on track this year.
6) Do "The Legend," the "Warrior Dash," or "The Martian" (or all three) - I haven't decided yet, but two are races I missed last year, and the other looks like a blast (though I am actually somewhat in fear of it).  Over  Done, Done, and Done. The Legend was the hardest running-related thing I've ever done. The Warrior was a blast, and the Martian was where I did my first half.

There was also some nonsense goal I added late in the game about running a double loop of the Crim course, but that never happened either.  Still, I said it, and it didn't happen.  All in all 2011 was a major success for me though.  It was such a success, in fact, that I'm worried about being able to top it.  That will be what I want to do this year, though.

So here we go.

2012 Running Goals


1)  A Marathon.

...and that's it.  Done.  Anything else I do this year will be gravy, or be done in the name and vein of getting the 26.2.  Every pound taken off, every mile I log, every race I run, and many many other things will be what I do will be to get there.  Don't believe it?  I haven't eaten poorly since New Year's Day.  Don't believe that because I took a picture with the Big Boy on the 2nd?  I did salad bar!

I've already had to reel myself back in a bit because I was overdoing it and my weight was dropping like a stone the past week.  It's probably not healthy going that fast.  It's not that I was starving myself or anything, but probably the worst thing I ate was a vegetarian stuffed pepper.

I got all crazy yesterday and a had a bagel and a root beer, and today I actually had some mashed potatoes.  Still though, even with that, I'm maintaining a very controlled calorie altitude.  Needless to say the fat Friday call-out blogs may be fragged.  Besides, I'm guessing there was some sort of subconscious motivation for me to screw up big and have something to write about.  I'll still call myself out, but there won't be anymore laughing at myself about failures.  There are plenty of other things about me to laugh at.  Besides, this is a running blog, not Brent vs. Food.

I also have a few goals outside of running that I don't mind sharing.

The Twelves of Twelve (Resolutions)


1)  Pick 12 things of social importance that I've had limited exposure to, but decided I didn't like and immerse myself in each of them for 1 month.  The idea is to reopen my mind to a few things I've dismissed too quickly.  I'm not planning on doing my version of Fear Factor and tackling major fears or eating foods I think are disgusting, but all else is fair game.  I've turned to my wife and friends for help, and I'm hoping I come up with twelve things large enough in scope, especially things that are potentially life-enriching.  Upon telling my wife this, she shrieked "Harry Potter" immediately.  It is a phenomenon, and there are enough books and movies to keep me tied up for at least a month.  It fits the bill.  I don't have 12 yet, and I haven't received as many suggestions as I anticipated.  Apparently I'm not as rigid as I judge myself to be.

2)  Learn 12 new recipes (1/month).  We both can cook.  There's plenty of meal variety in this house, but every time I add another meal, it gives us another option that we might just be in the mood for.

3)  Do 12 home improvements (1/month).  Whether I do it, pay for it, or just add something to the place to make it better I want to do one thing a month on average.  It doesn't need to be anything major, just something.

4)  Try 12 new restaurants (1/month).  There are not a lot of really good restaurants around here I have not eaten at.  This may be a slight challenge, especially if I'm trying to eat halfway decent.

I have a few other resolutions, but they're mostly the boring things you see everywhere like:  do better at work, get more sleep, finally beat Metroid Prime 2.  You know, stuff everyone has on their list, and will forget about.  As far as the other ones.  There they are.  They're public knowledge now (ok, maybe just a small sliver of the public).  The marathon is scary to me.  The furthest I think I've run is about 15-16 miles, and setting it up as the singular goal is setting up an entire year to be a pass/fail venture.  I need to do it now, though; not because Maya Angelou's poetry calendar is supposed to kill us all in December, but because it's time and life's only going to get more complicated.

I know there are those of you out there running in the morning before you wake up your kids, running through health issues, and overcoming all kinds of odds to find time to get out there and do it.  Knowing you are out there and reading your blogs is massively inspirational to me, but I'm not you (at least not yet) and I'm pretty sure I can't hack that.  I'm just not that awesome.