Reno Rock -- River 5K

After many long months of recuperating from lower back issues, I've finally started to gingerly run again. And when I say gingerly, I mean lots of walking and some jogging. I'm trying not to push too hard or too soon, and have been swimming 4 to 5 days a week to balance these easier workouts. I've noticed a big difference in muscle tone since I've been cross-training with treadmill, swimming and dry-land exercises. And to show for this new dedication to my back health, I was finally able to register for a race this weekend! The Reno Rock-N-River races has become a pretty huge event for Reno, drawing hundreds of runners for each of the 4 distances offered. I chose the shortest, and was lucky enough to talk two Carson City runners into running this event with me. Anne stuck by my side through the whole race, with Traci only about a minute behind. I could have run quite a bit faster, but I still don't want to pull all the stops out- I'm saving up for the Reno Tahoe Odyssey relay race which is just a month away! Although I did run (an easy 5) miles on the trail near my house today (and ha ha got sunburned- yay [early] summer!) and now my calves are sore from two days of running in my Vibrams and am wearing compression socks even now (which are awesome- thanks Scott and Sara!). Not only did I get to run with Anne and Traci, but all of Team Library Dork was in attendance! Turi set a new PR by 4 minutes in the half marathon (1:28.14!!! Dang dude!), with Chris pacing him for all but the first mile, and Dave also ran the 10k in under an hour. I don't mind not being competitive when I could have been weaving through people right and left, because I was just happy-thankful-grateful to be out there with the hoards of runners, sharing a cool morning with some blessed sunshine.

Tough Mudder!

Yes, I am wearing a mustache in this picture. Because I am one of a 5-piece quintuplet of Magnum P.I.'s! I'll admit I wasn't stoked about the 'stache, but once I got it on and started parading around in it, I got a total kick out of it! I got a ton of hilarious comments and support from other "Mudders." We got all dandied up in Hawaiian shirts and shorty shorts in honor of the '80s and the proclivity for men to show WAAAY too much leg hair.

There were months of preparation and training for this race, mainly lifting and muscle building for me. Mainly with P90X! Since this 7-ish mile course was held on a ski resort, Bear Valley California, with double black diamond slopes factored in, I knew there wasn't going to be as much running during this race as much as straight hand-over-hand climbing. Both up and down. This was an almost-epic trip for Team Library Dork + Ben- I'll get to the almost part soon. I'm going to tell this story in pictures- and I actually have some pretty good ones to share since Dave brought his indestructible camera which is waterproof and mud and rock proof too!

This is a view of the mountain below where the race took place, from the parking lot. It dawned quite the beautiful day! There were 5000 people signed up for the even (the majority of which were men, so for once in my life when I used the bathroom there was a huge line for the men's room but not for the ladies!), and waves of starters every 15 minutes of 350, on a very steep hill. Our wave didn't start until 11:30, so we got to sit down to a nice breakfast at a normal hour instead of the usual Clif bar.

Here I am before the race, milling around trying to find the packet pick-up area:

And Turi:

And Chris:

And me with Mario and Luigi:

A close up of the 5 of us, all 'stached up!

And finally, dah dah Daaaaah! The Walk To The Start (cue: Sunshine! Notice how they're all in step?):

This is one of the steepest, hilliest, most elevation gain and loss races I've ever done. Check out the hill they had us slide down to start~

Turi, and me edging down trying to get some of the worst out of the way before the shot went off, because for some reason the rest of the guys wanted to hang back (which I think they regretted for the rest of the race)...


And we're off! I lost my mustache in the first obstacle, crawling through mud and grit under the barbed wire fence (where I nearly lost my hat several times as well, and in which I drew first blood, I think, from the bottom of Chris's shoe), and hastily stuffed it in my front shirt pocket. Bruised knee #1. The photos for this one didn't come out clear, but immediately we started down our first steep downhill (yup, I sat down once after my feet slipped out from under me on the gravel covered rocks, but with shouts from behind of, "Mudder down!" I was up again like a rocket). Here's me:

And here is part of the track, wide still,

And Dave getting pissed off as we ran into our first wait, which was backed up because there were so many people filing onto a steep down-hill single track.

And then we started back UP that monster we just worked our way down. Turi and I are rock skipping here, just like I've done at Tahoe countless times:

After hiking back up the mountain (which I think was considered an obstacle in itself) we came to another obstacle: the Snowblowers. They weren't blowing snow, but more like stinging ice water. It was blinding in that man-made storm, and I had to walk through knee-deep water to get to them. Oh well. I knew I'd be doing a lot of running/hiking with wet shoes. Beauty in the Beast- the rainbow from the top was spectacular, and this picture doesn't do it justice.

Another obstacle climb. Can you say steep?

It just kept on going up and up and up...

My heart was pounding by the time I got to the top of this one! But I never stopped. And there were lots of "stoppers." Then a fun obstacle appeared: the construction Spools! With a good 10 minute wait to get to them. Between the two spools (your team got to pick one to hop over) were tires that no one but Dave ran through:

Turi and Chris made it over the top on their own because of their towering height, but I only managed to land on my stomach and needed to be pulled the rest of the way over. Bruised knee #2. Then, finally a flatish and downhill stretch to run!

And then another huge wait. I'm sure we waited a good 20 minutes at this one, and most of us had no idea what was going on at the front of the crowd. Then one of the volunteers waved through a huge part of the crowd, and TLD was left at the front, cut off from the rest and made to wait because of another huge back-up at the next obstacle. But at least we had a clear view of what was to come. The Mud Pit. It was 20 yards of that thick sloshy mud that tries to take your shoes off followed by a pool of liquid concoction that reminded me of the consistency of what's at the bottom of a port-o-potty. Someone piped up from the crowd, "While we're waiting, would it be okay if I ran and jumped in the mud and got back in line?" He ran, jumped, and landed flat on his belly with the most satisfying belly-slap! So of course this put ideas into Chris's head that he needed to follow suit. He ran and flew threw the air, and with a SLURP dissappeared into the mud. He climbed out dripping, and made a bee-line for guess who? Yes, there was no out-running this mad man, and the entire crowd cheered as he slammed into me and slathered me with slimy mud! He even went back for seconds and got me good in the face. And now I smelled like the out-house I was just previously imagining. By the time this picture was taken, I'd managed to wipe off most of the mud from my face onto Turi and Dave's shirts:

Another down hill and we came to the "high poles." These poles were vertical, and taller than my head. This one also required team work to get over the top. Chris and Turi were helped up by other Mudders, and then I was given a boost up, and then almost fell on my rear coming down the other side. Should've gone over forward instead of gripping the pole and easing off my stomach.

After this we had another climb that went up and up and up forever into the heavens- and deceived us by hiding the next hill with the previous one (and again, I'm proud of myself for not stopping until I got to the top. Dave on the other hand had to wander into the woods for a while to find a private bush to ease his angry stomach of the biscuits and gravy he powered up with for breakfast, and found his way to the top, gloveless), and a half hour wait to do the "Berlin Wall Climb." This obstacle consisted of a pile of logs with a hard plastic sheet you had to run and scramble up to get to the wood. I wouldn't have managed this nearly as gracefully as I had without the help of two guys from another team reaching out helping hands. Thankfully, that was the last long wait we had to do for the obstacles.

The next obstacle was one that I had been waiting for, actually. I still had stinky mud flaking and dusting off my body and was eager to wash some of it off. Here is Chris right behind me easing his way down into the water:

The pond however I swear was melted snow, and froze my girl parts as I dunked under the two barrels. I was so cold I hurt and couldn't get out of the water on the other side fast enough!

As you can see from this picture, you cross the pond once and then go down the slip-and-slide on the other side and climb out again. Chris, Turi and Ben somehow got ahead of Dave and I, and I watched with a crazed expression on my face as Chris went down head first! Not many were brave enough to pull that stunt. Dave slid down seated, and I took a few quick steps thinking I'd make the best of a fast slide, and I TRIPPED! Crap! I went down head-first, and straight for several people in the water, Dave included! So I balled up my fists and punched my way into the crowd, "YAAAAAAAHHHH!" I popped up out of the water (not nearly so bad the second time in!) and apologized for running into someone, who just brushed it off. I missed Dave. Whew!

Immediately after this obstacle was the wood pile. Yes, we all sported our wood in a variety of positions, carrying our pieces down a trail and back about a half mile. I think this was Dave's favorite obstacle by far! He looks surprised in this photo, but most of the time he was grinning with the implications of this part of the race.


I keep saying "race" in this blog, but it really wasn't. It was a team effort and we all stuck together waiting for those at the back of the lines. It was about camaraderie and support and not about time- we only ran about one mile total anyway. But I'll continue to call this a race, okay? That was the last race photo I have because Dave's camera ran out of space, but we still had 3 obstacles after that. And not really worth photographing. One was a 12-foot fence that we had to climb back and forth over 16 times (that was kind of fun, and made it worth carrying thin gloves in my back pocket for the entire race), and one was drinking a tiny shot of hot sauce just meters from the finish (that was lame). The final obstacle couldn't have been more disappointing. The "wall of flame" was a mere grill to jump over, that I thought was only slightly warm. Even so, someone still managed to fall on it and burn him or herself. Geez people! TLD's last member finished at 3 hours and 3 minutes. I wonder how we would have done if we didn't have all that waiting around to do? The rest of the team was not happy about that part, to put it lightly. I, however, was SUPER sore for the next several days- I completely destroyed my quads on the downhills trying to watch my form and not mess up my knee (or back), and didn't feel like I had the right to complain about the race, even though it was the mountain that difficult and not the actual obstacles (I left out mention of a few of the super easy ones, like the spider-web crawl over a school bus, and a claustrophobic dark crawl through a tunnel that made my knees hurt). But I am still proud of myself for all the training I did, and if nothing else, I got to spend the entire day outside in the beautiful sunshine with my teammates, and share some good food and beer after (although not the Dos Equis at the post-race party). This is one of those races that I looked forward to and can say I completed, but don't feel the need to ever do again. So my thanks is to TLD for a great weekend!

Two last pictures. Not only were my quads destroyed, but so were my Magnum PI shorts. These went straight into the dumpster after this photo was taken:

And the skin on my knees:

But worth it. :)

Bay to Bliss Tahoe Trail Run

It was an early morning for me as Abbey and I headed up to Tahoe for a race- one that we'd been drooling over since we read Gretchen's blog post of this event last year. Seriously, check out her pictures (I decided not to run with my camera, and she's a WAY better photographer than I am anyway). I ran just over 7 miles in my new Vibrams at the Bay to Bliss Emerald Bay Trail Run- I am determined to keep running and be healthy, and so far these shoes have proven their worth! Yes I developed some gnarly blisters, but my knee and back were in great shape after the race- and that's exactly what I was hoping for with this new "barefoot" technique. I'll take blisters any day over a pain-filled knee! It was a beautiful cool morning for a run (temp. in the 50s), with a steep downhill jog to the start line. Which we soon discovered was the first hill of the race. As the race director was giving us the countdown, the wind whipped up in a flurry of pine needles exactly one minute until go time. It settled back down again with 15 seconds to start, and then the rain picked up instead. A light, but cold drizzle that kept us cool on that climb. Looking out to our right a dazzling sight met our eyes- we could see a double rainbow through the trees, with its end touching the lake. Only 2 minutes in and already I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera! But ultimately I think it was best to leave it behind as I had to watch the trail extra carefully for rocks and roots since there wasn't much between my feet and the dirt. Even though I held back on the speed, I felt super agile with my extra grippy and flexible soles and found myself leaping up onto rocks and bouncing over fallen tree trunks. The first half hour passed in a blink of greenery and sparkling water below me, and then the trail became hilly again with steep stone steps to navigate. But by the hour mark, the pads of my forefoot (feet) were feeling very sensitive and every every pebble was making itself known to me. This might not have been the best idea to double the distance I've run in these shoes all in one go, especially only 2 weeks after I got them, but I knew how much my knee would be hurting if I wore my regular running shoes. I took a deep breath and ignored my feet and enjoyed the twists and turns of the trail, the rocky outcroppings and the ever present turquoise bay to my right. I finished in 1:23, (8th in my age group) and didn't stop at the finish line on the beach but stripped off my shoes (saw the blisters! no wonder I was feeling every pebble!) and headed into the blissfully cool lake. Abbey finished in 1:09 and placed 3rd in her age group and scored a sweet medal- her first for an age group win! We lazed in the sand waiting for awards and the shuttle back to her Jeep, and I felt for the life of me that I was on a tropical island beach soaking up the sun. This is definitely a race I want to add to my list of yearly runs. And hopefully by next year I'll have gotten used to running "barefoot"!

Thank you Abbey for driving, and for the miles and miles of comforting, funny and stress-relieving conversation- I needed that as much as I needed this gorgeous run after an extra long work week!

Polio Purple Pinkie 5k Run

Today I met a few friends for the Polio Purple Pinkie 5k at Bartley Ranch, which was put on by the Rotaract Club. Fellow UNR Wind Symphony alumni trumpeters Andy (well, sometimes trumpet sometimes euphonium) and Ben plus my Team Library Dork member Turi gathered and shivered (well, I shivered) before the race- I was bouncing around ready to get going a good half hour before the horn blew at 9:00. (I ate a piece of toast with almond butter for breakfast, and apparently that is good pre-race food.) There was a pretty good turn out, and everyone was super enthusiastic, especially those putting on the show- this was their first event, and were even painting some of the runners' pinkies with purple nail polish before the race (I didn't though- I didn't notice until just before we started, and figured I'd make a mess of it anyway). Ben, Turi and I kicked off at an easy pace while Andy (with his sub 20 goal, which he changed to sub 25 after we pointed out the hill at the end) was out of sight almost from the start line. We chatted amiably running slightly downhill (weird for me because I've always run this course in the opposite direction, counter-clockwise), knowing that big hill was coming eventually. And when it did come 3/4 of the way through, I put on my low gear and took small steps, but never stopped- passed a lot of other girls though! I felt good, and caught up with Ben and Turi who had gotten ahead of me (their low gear is much faster than mine :) on the downhill. I love me some downhill! The rest of the race was a breeze! I finished with a time of 29:29 in 41st place I think, with Turi just a step behind (and they messed up his time because they had him down for 29:37, with someone in between us!). I felt so good I didn't want to stop running, and so talked Ben and Andy into jogging another 5 minutes (Turi had lots of errands and so jetted home right after the finish), but then they left too and I ended up running the loop and the hill (still backwards) two more times. I didn't do the full 5k, but did the shorter loop instead. Total, I'd say I ran about 6 miles and one full hour. Not a bad workout! We forgot to take a group picture, so I took a mediocre self-photo when I finished my run(s). Feeling good! :)

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

I had a bit of a mad dash to the start of the race, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure- I didn't count on the stopped traffic on the freeway trying to get off at Virginia St. to head up to UNR that way, so I went all the way around and parked at Rancho San Rafael instead. And ran to the registration booth, making it to the start line with only about 5 minutes to spare. Whew! Got a good warm up this morning! I was packed in like a sardine in a can behind the start line, and when the announcer said "All fast runners up at the front!" I hesitated- first of all because even though I wanted to run fast this morning, I am still not a fast runner. And second, I couldn't have gotten up there even if I wanted to. Then came the shout to start! And we were off! Trotting. Or on my part, walking. I didn't start my watch until I went under the pink balloon arch (about 15-20 sec. later), but even then I was still walking. Maybe another 15-20 seconds after that was I finally able to start jogging. It was a chilly morning, so I left the house with sweats and a sweatshirt, but after about 10 min. in, I was a little warm. The course started at the bottom of the quad, and we ran down to 9th St., and then right again up Virginia. It was a bit of a hill, but I pushed through it, weaving in and out of people. As we wound our way through campus, I noticed SO many people wearing pink signs pinned to their backs with loved ones names on them who have cancer. One man in particular had "My Wife T" and we played leap frog all the way to the end. (I think I passed him though finally.) Another man had sweat just pouring off him and all down his sign- so much dedication by so many people, and it really started to choke me up as I let loose on the down hill. And not only were there a TON of people running, there were even MORE people on the sidelines cheering everyone on, and it gave me chills, despite being warm in my sweatshirt. I signed up for this run with a minute time in mind, and didn't even think about the cause. My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor- she gave us all a big scare. As I was running, my time stopped mattering, and I decided to run for her instead. I love you Grandma!

I stopped my watch at the finish line (after being passed by a sprinting 10-year-old in the last 10 steps- that made me smile!) at 26.48. Not quite my 25 minute goal, but it was a good day, and I had a great run. And with this many people (especially at the start!), maybe it wasn't the best race to try to set a minute goal for. The finshers were just flying down the chute, so I have no idea how they were able to keep track of times (or maybe they weren't?), but I'd be curious to see what they got for me. Whatever it is, I'm sticking with the time off my watch and writing that on my bib to staple up in my garage/workout room. But there is another 5k on November 1st- the Spark-a-Delic run that I can try to drop some time on (does anyone have any info on this one? I can't find my flier.)...

Update: I made it into the RGJ! Here is the article, and you can see me in the picture- bottom center with the blue sweats with the white stripe, white sweatshirt, white hat...

44th Annual DeCelle Memorial Tahoe Relay Race

It was a beautiful day for a run around Lake Tahoe on Saturday for the 44th Annual DeCelle Memorial Relay Race (6/14/08), minus the haze from the smoke blowing in from the California fires, that is. This was my first experience running in this type of race, relay style- the slap and go kind, and I had a fantastic time playing leap-frog with the runner, shouting and cheering and snapping pictures. (The only relays I have have ever competed in were swimming, of course.) There were 7 people on my team, Turi and Chris who work for the library with me, Peter Lubbers and his two sons Sean and Rocky, and their friend Hayes. Everyone met at my house at 5 a.m., and then we drove 2 vehicles up to the starting point where we picked up our t-shirts and waited for the start. Here is a picture of the seven of us before the race- in the back from left to right is Chris, Hayes, Peter and Turi. The front row is Rocky, Sean and me.

Hayes ran the first leg of 9.6 miles- here he is the second one back, running through town:


Peter ran the second leg, the shortest (at 8.2 miles) but steepest leg up Spooner Summit. Here's the view of the road he ran up:

(What mountain is that Scott? I'm sure you've climbed it since you'll climb anything that'll hold still for a few minutes at a time!) And a close up of the Gu/water hand off:

I really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with Peter- he is so positive about running, and stinkin' fast too, I've noticed. :)

He handed off to his younger son Rocky who ran 10.3 miles. I got a geat take-off picture of him, as he tagged his dad. I must say that I am in complete awe of him and Hayes and Sean- when I was in the sixth grade I ran 600 meters in P.E. and thought my lungs would pop, not to mention all lack of feeling in my legs plus my vision went dim. The fact they participated and ran most (or all, in Hayes' case) of their leg would have been daunting to me at their age (I think they were all between 11 and 13? Sorry, I don't remember exact ages.) Way to go guys!


I think Chris needed some agua, and I caught him trying to drink the lake during Rocky's leg- Silly man! You can't drink the entire lake!



Next up was Turi, and he lucked out with the longest leg- it said 12.3 miles, but his Garmin GPS tracker said 12.6 miles, and the total miles on the race packet was off by .3 miles. Thanks for picking up the extras Turi! Caught him smiling, which means he wasn't working nearly hard enough! :)



While we were waiting for Turi/after Sean took off on the 5th leg, Chris got a hold of my camera and nearly broke the screen with his mug shot:



Then he took some other random pictures when we were least expecting it- Peter:


And Sean:

And Rocky:

And Hayes:

At which point Peter managed to snag the camera from him and get a really nice one of he and Turi and I:

Off subject a bit there, but fun pics! I like this next one- Sean is sprinting into his tag-off with Chris at the end of his 10.6 miles, and Rocky didn't even notice his brother coming up behind him... Watch out!


Here comes Chris on the 6th leg (10.5 miles), sprinting up the hill so fast that Turi missed the shot!


And saving the best for last, here I am floating (see? not touching the ground!) down the steep windy road (see that car above my head to the right?) with the final 10.5 miles down and around the bottom tip of the lake. Emerald Bay was turquoise and sparkling as it always is, and the views of the lake were magnificent! (Although running on a shoulder with barely 2 inches on the outside of the white line with a sudden 200 foot drop-off and no railing, toward oncoming traffic made my heart beat a little faster than from just the running!)



I did not run as well as I'd liked because I couldn't quite get enough oxygen from within all the haze, and so was forced to walk an almost embarrassing amount. I won't post my split, 'cause next year I'm going to nail my leg of the race, whichever one it may be. But that aside, I had a wonderful day playing leap frog with all the runners on our team, shouting (like a girl in Chris's case) and cheering each other on, and taking wacky pictures too. Thanks to everyone on this team for the high spirits, and all-around memorable day!

A few extra photos here- Our official posted time: 11:25.08, and yes, that's us. Sgt. Lubbers and the Melodious Colon Band. Chris's idea. No really! It was his not mine!


And a finishing picture of all of us in our race shirts and medals (looking a little dazed, I might add...)


Finally, two bonus pictures of my bestest library running buds- Me and Chris and his peanut butter bagel,


And Turi too~