Warrior Dash 06.05.11 - Logan, OH

Seeing as how this was my second Warrior Dash, I was totally prepared this time. Totally.

Yeah, right.

This race came three weeks after the Rite Aid Cleveland Half-Marathon and I hadn't run at all during those three weeks. I could barely walk, let alone run!

I met TK & SM at TK's house and we carpooled from there. It was a little over three hours south of here, so ROADTRIP! Polar Pops in hand, we hit the road and made it in good time. Found a great place to park (right next to the bus pickup/dropoff location) and hopped on the bus. The Warrior Dash was held in a park... if you could say that. More like a nature preserve or something. The mud smelled so bad - it was sulfur mud and it was like standing around in a barrel of rotten eggs. Ugh. The weather cooperated - it was overcast and maybe 80F, so not too hot, not too sunny. We were scheduled to run in the 530pm Sunday wave - which means the course had been torn up sufficiently, and, due to the torrential downpour the night before, was muddier than all get out. Which, while fun, wasn't the easiest to find purchase when trying to climb the hills...

Before we got muddy:


When it was our turn to hit the track, we shot off at a good clip. This wasn't a race for time, it was a race for fun. Even though I had the advantage of having done the Dash before, I knew it was much more fun to do it WITH someone, so we kept together. The first mile or so of the course was pretty much all straight up hill - straight up mud, too. Slipping and sliding for everyone. But me... I was wearing my Vibram Five Fingers and was able to bend my foot sufficiently to grab roots and stuff with my toes! Woot! Mud, mud, slide down the hill, more mud, run as fast as you can down the hill to avoid falling, swim through the log lake, climb over the cars, run through the tires, more cars, climb another hill, go through the spider web, go down more mudslides, go thru the tunnel (which I didn't do - claustrophobia got the best of me), slide down the hill some more, traverse the creek, climb the cargo net, climb the 12-foot wall, cross the plank, cross a horizontal cargo net, more running and then the finale...


FIRE!!!!

After the fire was the mud bog. Gross.


Team KA:


Warriors!


It was a good time. Finished in 48:xx - definitely could've done it faster, but that's not the point of this, now is it?

A couple of past pieces.

As an introductory post to my sewing creations, here are some pictures:

My first sewing project, a FauxBBO Mei Tai carrier for my hubby:

A fancy silk ring sling that was a present for one of my agency's clients:

Miss P, modeling her "Genevieve (Choo Choo Soul)" Costume:

The very first pattern I ever followed. Boy was it a doozy. It was a vintage pattern that had NO markings on it. Just holes.

A shirt for my hubby:

And something more recent, a Belle dress for Miss P. (She's always asking for costumes. I indulge her.)

I don't have any projects currently on-deck. I have a bunch of patterns that I keep looking at in my stash that I really need to attack, including this one:

Vogue 8667.







On the running front: I ran 40 minutes this morning and if the weather holds, I will run home for lunch again today. It's only 1.5 miles, but it's mostly uphill, so it's a good, quick workout. If I were any kind of real runner, I'd probably run back, too. But then I'd be a sweaty mess all afternoon and we just can't have that, now can we. Question, though. The run up one street includes a sharp, but relatively short (maybe four blocks) incline. There's another way to go that includes a more gentle incline, but much longer (closer to 3/4 mile). Which would be better? Keep in mind at the end of the short incline, there's a long downhill stretch that leads to another hill. The long incline just leads to another incline. Hrmmm... What to do, what to do?

Welcome to my world.

A brief introduction:

Full-time worker bee, mom of one, part-time seamstress, and newbie to the world, nay, cult, of running.

I started running in August of this year doing the C25K app for the iPhone. Why did I start running? Because stupid me agreed, no, insisted on running the 3.5 mile leg of the Road Runner Akron Marathon. Yeah, that was stupid. Of course, I'm not a runner. Not even remotely. But gosh darnit, I was going to run and NOT embarrass myself. Yeah, not so much. I ran my 3.5 miler in 41 minutes. Boo! Hiss! Now I have something to prove to myself - that I'm not pathetic and can handle a stupid 3.5 mile run without having to walk. I haven't done it yet, but I will.

As for the Sew-N-Sew... I started sewing two years ago as a way to "save money" on baby carriers. See, I joined the cult of Babywearing when Miss P was six weeks old and within a couple of months I had spent way too much money buying new and different carriers. I didn't know how to sew, but I looked at what I bought and thought "hey, I can do this!" Untold gazillion dollars later, I'm no longer babywearing, but I am wearing clothes that I made. So is Miss P. So is the hubby, my friends, people I've never met, etc. So even though it's become an expensive* and time-consuming hobby, it's been good for me.

So on to the meat of why I want to do this blog: I need to be accountable to someone. Anyone other than myself. Here's where you come in. I need encouragement. In running, in sewing, in life in general.

Thanks for stopping by.

*by expensive, I mean I bought myself a stupid expensive ($2600) serger for my 40th birthday. Now that's an expensive hobby.