Thanks to the lively crew at Beyond Running here in Fargo I have some fun video from last weekend's Filthy 5k. This clip is at the last and most slick mud hill on the course just before the finish. I'm (in the orange jacket) at about minute 7 on the video if you'd like to watch me claw my way up, but it's just as entertaining to watch everyone else try too. :)
At the start of the race they instruct you to just enjoy yourself (which I did) and not expect a PR because of the terrain. Judging by the standing water in the grassy areas, I knew that the ground on the woodsy part of the course wasn't going to be pretty. I was right, but they were wrong about the PR...
2nd Annual Filthy 5k 30:01:74
One of these days (hopefully this fall/winter) I will drop under the 30 minute mark for a 5k, but for now I'm just excited that with each foot-race I've done so far this year my pacing has become faster and faster.
Anywho, The Filthy 5k lived up to it's name this year. So much so that they had to cancel the water truck they had scheduled to spray down the course (see I knew they had been scheming). As it turns out the continuous rain showers we had all week did the trick.
Jeremy and I arrived early giving us some time to scope out the new course route and visit with other racers as they arrived before the race began. For some reason a few of the ladies there missed the memo about it being a "filthy" 5k and you could see the apprehension on their faces as they contemplated getting their nice white shoes and pretty tech-gear all muddied up. As for me I was ready in my ever so sexy (HAHAHA!) running tights and old shoes that are 1/2 sz. too small.
After the Mustache contest had taken place we all lined up at the start for what would indeed be an interesting race. (What racing and mustaches have in common, I still haven't quite figured out, but it was a laugh anyway. I was tempted to compete.)
Most of the trail ended up being single file with a few wider sections for we faster runners to make our way around those running at a slower pace. Overall it wasn't as crowded as I worried it may be considering the race numbers went from 42 last year to 125 this.
What felt true to me last year held true this year. I absolutely love trail running! Even when it's so wet along the trail that your shoes make lovely farting noises from stride to stride. It was difficult to keep my pace and not walk any portion of it, but I managed to hang on until the final mud slicked hill that involved some crawling. My heart-rate maxed out at the top. After a few deep breaths I was able enough to slowly & feebly sprint the final 500ft. Whew!
At the finish I was awarded with the best medal I've gotten yet. Soap on a rope! :)
Like Jeremy said in his blog post, this is a race that we will mark in our calendar a year in advance so that we are sure to be around for it. It's a blast.
Thanks again to Beyond Running for putting together another fantastic race this year!
In other news:
I was able to fix what was broken successfully. My camera and memory cards are now functioning properly thanks to a new card-reader. Please note *If your compact flash cards come up as DCII instead of DCIM on your computer and all the files are corrupted/unreadable then the card no longer works in your camera, it's probably something wrong with the card-reader. Such as bent pins or something along those lines. Unfortunately getting back those images might not be possible ( Such was the crud in my wknd) but at least it doesn't mean buying a new camera body.
And: The pain that I woke up to at 4am Sunday morning from an ingrown toenail on my left foot has subsided enough to allow me to continue running. Finally! I was able to get a 6mile training run in yesterday and while there were twinges of pain here & there it was manageable. I probably wont get a pedicure when on vacation again. I can't help but think that it was because of that, that I got the ingrown toenail to begin with. Since I have started to feel the same pains starting in my right big toe it makes me suspicious. Epsom salts, rubbing alcohol, tweezers and a good nail trimmer are so very nice.
We'll see how the rest of this week turns out. Hopefully/Prayfully my toes will continue to heal so that I can still run the 15k on Saturday. If I ended up only running the 5k or shooting the event that's *okay*, but certainly not my preference.
I'll keep you posted!
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