Marathonmares

As yet another marathon is approaching, I cannot help but wonder if my fellow running buddies have as bizarre marathon-mares as I do in the days before a race.   After the typical dream, I wake up in a sweat with an accelerated heartbeat (as if I have, indeed, been racing).  A few of my memorable marathon-mares (which seem to have some common themes...):

1) I am looking for the restroom during a race and end up running through a shopping mall to find a restroom, then I get lost.  Then I wake up.
2) The marathon course goes through a shopping mall the size of the Mall of America, but all of a sudden the course markers disappear, and then I get lost.  Then I wake up.
3) The marathon course goes through a hilly rural course and then enters an amusement park and runs into a haunted house/fun house.  Remniscent of the video for "She's a Beauty" by The Tubes, I am trapped in said haunted house/fun house until I can answer some trivia questions.  Things are chasing me.  I run into an old lady that has been trapped in the haunted house/fun house for years.  Basically I am lost.  Then I wake up.
4) After getting lost on the marathon course (that wound through an outlet mall, kind of reminding me of the old Lawrence Outlets on the Kansas River) I finish the marathon.  Biggest Loser contestants are standing at the finish asking what took me so long, since they finished in 2 hours.   Then I wake up.  (Note:  This unfortunately, is the only marathonmare in which I actually recall finishing the marathon.)

Ice and Mud and Hills - Oh My!

Yesterday, I finished my second and longest trail race:  the Psycho Wyco Run Toto Run.  I did the 10 mile race, which was the shortest of the three options (10 mile, 20 mile,
50K).   Runners doing the 20 mile or 50K did extra laps of the course:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/24691023

Of all of the local races I have done this one rated up there at the top, with many thanks to the organization of the event by the Trail Nerds.  The event was well organized, well staffed, and had high quality SWAG.  (This is where I will admit I signed up for the race because I thought the dog on the logo was cute.)

About 1.5 years ago (when I started this blog) I journeyed into the world of trail running and was chased away by tiny six-legged critters that liked to suck my blood.  What better time to try a trail run again than in February when the ground is frozen and the critters are all hibernating?  Okay, so the critters were all hibernating, but the ground was NOT frozen.  The majority of the course was covered in 3 to 4 inches of ooey, gooey, slippery, slidey mud.   To add to the challenge, the race course was very hilly and was run on bridle trails (horse dropping free in February!) at Wyandotte County Lake Park.  The mixture of mud and hills made the course delightfully challenging and a great calorie-burning workout!

A few of the race highlights:

1) By the time I neared mile 8, I started getting lapped by a few of the trail running experts doing the 20 mile  or 50K races.  I was thoroughly fascinated watching these gazelle-like creatures manuever the course.  It was almost as if they had choregraphed their race, and hardly had any mud on their shoes. 

2) No ticks! No snakes! No Sasquatches!

3) The Trail Nerds like dogs, so runners could run with their dogs.  Fun!  I was passed by a corgi-like dog.  Not so fun!  Thankfully the corgi needed water at the last aid station so I was able to gain some distance and finish before the corgi.

4) I didn't fall down.

5) I passed three people in the last 1.5 miles.

I am a road race runner through and through, but Run Toto Run gave me a good challenge to start the 2010 season.  While I nearly kissed the ground each time I ran on asphalt (which was easily less than 0.5 mile of the race), I had so much fun, and the race was so well done, that I am looking forward to taking on Psycho Wyco Psycho Summer 15 miler in July.   I'll be the one that smells like DEET, wearing two clip-on Off! mosquito repellant fans, and using two citronella tiki torches as walking sticks.