A friend on facebook posted about her planned trip up to Nashville, Indiana to run the Dances With Dirt 50k and once I realized they had a half, I was in. And, I managed to convince fellow trail runner and coworker Lauren along for the ride! Plus, the promotional video made it seem so enticing...
A few months back, my running Thunder Buddy, Amy, had convinced me to do what's called "The Triple Crown Challenge." Essentially, you run two half marathons in Kentucky and a third half marathon of your choice and BOOM! Bonus medal. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but as the deadline to pick that third half got closer and closer, I was struggling to decide what my mysterious third half would be. A friend on facebook posted about her planned trip up to Nashville, Indiana to run the Dances With Dirt 50k and once I realized they had a half, I was in. And, I managed to convince fellow trail runner and coworker Lauren along for the ride! Plus, the promotional video made it seem so enticing...
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This past Sunday I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend a screening of a new documentary movie that featured the infamous Barkley Marathons . It was a packed house, a sold-out crowd of runners and adventure enthusiasts, in addition to your normal film festival goers. I had heard about The Barkley Marathons before, as it's a pretty well known race here in Tennessee, and apparently world-wide, but this movie made it in to so much more. So in what has become the most hip of hip things to do, I spent a large part of my time in this past week wearing my most ugly of sweaters.
It warranted such comments as "I don't want to offend you, but is that your ugly sweater?" and "I just LOVE your sweater!" In the last case, the woman was serious and thought it was actually a cute sweater and I have serious questions about her fashion sense and also her sanity. But the most fun time I wore my ugly sweater was when I wore it without pants. Isn't that always the way it goes? After a rather uneventful Thursday evening of coordinating with Van 1, getting the Michigan folk from Van 2 down safe and sound in to Nashville and one of the worst waiters in the history of Olive Garden, dawn finally started to break on Friday morning, and the incandescent glow of the orange Ragnar Start Line greeted us.
It was 7:00am on Friday morning, and I was headed out to begin my second attempt at #RagnarTN, after having injured myself during last year's attempt. Along with five Ragnar newbies, we were about to undertake an event that I have said before can be "life changing." So, #RagnarTN officially ended Saturday and overall, I was pretty pleased with it. After last year's hamstring debacle, I was thrilled to make it through this year's race without sustaining an injury. Considering I was still feeling the side effects of that hamstring injuries during Ragnar Trail Atlanta and Ragnar Trail West Virginia earlier in the year, I was super excited to come out of this Ragnar with no major aches and pains.
In fact, I don't think I've EVER felt so good post Ragnar! Which is why I am super excited that after this week of "recovery" I'm going to be starting my 25k training! The 25k is my stepping stone to the ultimate goal of running a 50k by the end of 2015. I'll hopefully be documenting my progress on this website as I progress towards my goal of becoming an "ultra runner." We'll see how 25k and 50k go, and then maybe consider longer distances. But for now, we're skipping marathons and going for the big time! Can't wait! Anyone who's read my blog, or followed me on instagram or twitter would have noticed that I'm a pretty big fan of Ragnar Relay. I did two last year (Adirondacks and Tennessee) and have run two already this year (Atlanta Trail and West Virginia Trail) with a third (Tennessee) coming up in just over a week. But one of the most challenging things is trying to convince other people to also love Ragnar... And if they've never done it before, well... Then trying to explain Ragnar can be kind of confusing... Also known as "That time Rory dragged me through my fastest 6k yet and managed to win her very first race medal."
I'm a pretty proud momma. Like so many people, I can't help but think back to where I was 13 years ago today.
While my friends were all at school, having started their day just like every other, I was at home, on the couch. The night before, I'd been taking some extra gymnastics lessons at school for cheerleading. I'd thrown my first backhandspring and when prompted by my coach throw a second one, it had all gone wrong. I psyched myself out and managed to break both my radius and my ulna. My mom had picked me up from school and driven me to the emergency room, where a doctor painfully set the bones and casted my arm. I was sent home sometime in the early hours of September 11, 2001, in a lot of pain and with a lot of good drugs to take off the edge. Much like The Wizard of Oz, there's a lot going on behind the curtain or the racing world to bring about all the fantastic (and sometimes NOT so fantastic) events we all love to participate it.
And I've been fortunate enough to lend a helping hand at a wide variety of events and each has taught me something different and something that sometimes I think people who "just" run races don't always understand or appreciate. |