Surviving The Survival Race

Last Saturday Zach and I ran in The Survival Race 5K that was held on a paintball course about 5 miles from our home. It was fun...and muddy.

I don't have pictures of ourselves because we knew we'd be running through mud and water, and so we left our picture taking devices at home. But there are plenty of pictures on Facebook of random people doing the race, so here is the link and you'll get the gist. You might even spot one of us!

https://www.facebook.com/TheSurvivalRace

First, here are two tips. If you're going to be doing a race like this, don't eat scrambled eggs, toast, and a hot-n-spicy Morningstar vegetarian "sausage" patty before the race. I don't know why I did this; it's not like I've never done a 5K before. Let's just say my stomach had an unpleasant burn throughout the race that I would have liked to avoid.

Second, don't wear soccer socks to a race like this. I thought I'd be all cool and protect my legs from the grass, twigs, etc., but as my husband (the obnoxious valedictorian of being right) noted before the race, "Why are you wearing those? That's just extra stuff that is going to get wet and weigh you down." But I ignored the advice, and by the third obstacle those suckers were like 15-pound doughnuts on my ankles. I'm sure they looked adorable, too.

The Survival Race is like being in "The Fugitive."  You're running through the woods, balancing on a log to walk over a river, skidding down a hill with water pouring down, wading through waist-deep water, and climbing over rope ladders. I kept imagining Tommy Lee Jones was hot on my trail.

I haven't been running much lately, but 3.2 miles generally isn't a problem for me. However, wading through water really takes it out of you, as does having some water-weighed shoes (and 15-pound socks). By the end of the race I was really sucking wind. Zach had left me in the dust about mid-way through the race, so it was up to me to keep myself motoring on.

By the time I reached the 13th of 14 obstacles -- the fire leap -- I was barely hanging on to a 10-yard lead ahead of two dudes who were about 40 years old. They surged ahead of me and leaped head-first into the last obstacle, a mud pit equipped with wires about two feet above the surface, forcing you to swim through the mud.

Luck was on my side! One of the two guys who passed me neglected to take off his glasses, and he lost them in the muck. They paused for a minute in a vain attempt to find the glasses, and I passed by them, emerging from the mud pit to make the 20-yard dash to the finish line. It was a small  personal victory.

I ended up with a pace of 10:21/mile, and placed 25th out of 369 women who ran the race. Overall, I was 113th out out of 741. Zach's pace was 9:36/mile and placed 60th out of 372 men, and 69th out of 741 overall.

It was a good time, but would I do it again? Maybe. I'd like to see if I could shave off a few seconds with normal socks.

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