Bad Weather Badasses

The temperature this morning was 21 degrees. With wind chill, it felt like 11. And I was out running 11.4 miles in it. Why? Because I'm a total badass, that's why.  And my friend K. who ran with me--he's a badass too.

We passed one guy out there running in shorts. That's not badass, that's insanity. But the sun was shining, the ice had melted (for the most part) and once we got going it really didn't feel anywhere near as cold as we feared it would be when we reluctantly agreed that morning over the phone to "give it a try."

So we were badasses. Badasses who were huffing, heaving (and maybe even walking a little by mile 10) but still, badasses.

Dena (who likes to say, "badass.")

Dena's Team

I am going to kill  my neighbor. He went to sign our "Supergeezer" team (see prior entry here) up for the Valentine's Day Massacre Marathon Relay and had to list a team name.

"I called it 'Dena's Team,'" he informed me during our run the next day.

"You what?" I squeaked.

He shrugged. "I didn't want to use my name."

Nice. So now I'm the leader, at least in name, of a Supergeezer team. And my competitive streak has kicked in. We can't win this marathon relay by any stretch. There are some people running the marathon solo who will come in under 3 hours. But I wonder how many Supergeezer teams there are and if we have a chance of beating them? It would be nice to be the TOP Supergeezer team. If my name's on the team, we're going to aim for an award.

Bring it, folks.

Huff... Puff... Gasp...

Yesterday I journeyed to Uwharrie National Forest to do a trial run of the 8-mile course I'll be racing on in a few weeks for the Uwharrie Mountain Race.  There is a 8-mile, 20-mile, and 40-mile race. I, thank God, only signed up for the 8-miler, along with my friend Keith. My hard core  running buddies Dave and Michael are running the 40 miler--for the 10th time. 

Below is a chart with the course elevation. Notice how mile one goes UP.

As the four of us set out on the first mile yesterday, the phrase I'm screwed kept coming to mind. Not only does the course start up, but it's on this rocky uneven surface. I couldn't find my footing and felt like I was falling/leaping more than running. The downhills were worse. I couldn't shake my fear of falling and held my body tight and tried to ease down them, which only made it worse. Michael whooshed by me at about 90 mph, making the downhill look easy.

It got better though. The trail turned into less dry river bed running and more trail after mile one. Still challenging, as leaves cover the forest floor and you can't see rocks or roots just waiting to trip you. (The course instructions note that all runners should expect to fall at least once during the day.) But it was a beautiful run and I got better at finding my footing as the morning progressed. I think it will be a lot of fun on race day with runners darting everywhere through the trees and scrambling up and down the mountainside.

Thank God Dave and Michael took us out yesterday for this practice run.  I think I mentally would have freaked out on race day during that first mile. Now that I "know" the course and know I can do it, I'm looking forward to having some fun on race day.

Oh--and just to show you what a difference trail running makes, note my time. An everyday 8-mile run on pavement might take me about an hour and ten or fifteen minutes.  This run took an hour and forty-five minutes.  And I was whuped at the end. Very happy to see the car.

Still, I can see why trail runners swear never to go back to pavement running. Yesterday it was us, barren trees, a carpeted forest, crisp air, mountain views, and nothing to do but run.

Not too shabby.

Valentine's Day Massacre Marathon

Hearts and flowers are for wimps.  I'm participating in the Valentine's Day Massacre Marathon Relay. Teams up to four members will participate in a 26.2 mile relay. Each team member will run a 1.6 mile loop around a local park, then wait for other team members to run their loops. I'm not sure how I'll do with all the stops and starts; seems I'd prefer to just run my 6+ miles and be done with it. But I've never tried it this way and it might be fun.

I am on a SuperGeezer team! This means the combined age of my team is over 200 years. We've got a 61 and 62 year old, a 44 year-old, and practically fresh-from-the-womb little 37 year-old me. I'm also the only female on the team.

The 44-year old is by far the fastest of all of us. By coincidence, he's also the doctor who'll be giving me my physical. I called yesterday and scheduled the complete physical, including blood work, for late February. So I'll actually be meeting this man for the first time at the race. I can see the introduction now: "Hi, I'm Dena. I'll be sitting semi-naked in your office about 9 days from now. Pleasure." I mean, really, what is the etiquette???

Meanwhile, I've got a 15-mile road race the last weekend in January that I am sooooo not ready for. I haven't run over 8 miles in one setting since my marathon. And this is a hilly course. Then the weekend after that I'm participating in the Uwharrie 8-mile trail race. It's short, but brutal. The first mile and a half is straight up and I've heard it only gets worse from there. Back in October when I signed up for it, it sounded fun. Now I just think I'm stupid. But I'm going out there this Sunday with some friends for a practice run so I can see what I've gotten myself into.