We embraced the SUC

I am embraced the SUC, the first annual Springfield Urban Warrior Challenge. It was definitely the most intense and fun race I have ever been a part of. After 11 weeks of training, I was definitely prepared but it was still super tough. It was a 12.4 K (7.7 miles) with 15 obstacles throughout Missouri State Campus, Fasnight Park, Jordan Valley, Downtown Springfield and Phelps Grove. I joined a team of a few coworkers (Dave, Hugo and Lauren) and our new friend from the SUC training class Julie. Besides a little soreness in my legs I feel pretty great today, I have a lot of bruises on my arms and wrists but overall I survived pretty unharmed! I feel very blessed that my family came out to support me and I could see them cheering me on at most of the obstacles. I honestly couldn't have done this with out their help over these past few weeks with training. Thanks guys! I hope to do it again next year and hopefully on a team with my husband who hope to compete as well!
My Favorite Obstacle: the 1 mile pitch dark run through the underground tunnel. We used headlamps but it was very dark and wet.

My Least Favorite/Most challenging Obstacle: it was a tie between the 40 pound sandbag carry up & down the parking garage and the monkey bars.

The Individual Results:
Finishing Time: 1 hour 59 minutes 57 second 
Overall Place: 110th out of 338 total competitors (87 women, 251 men)
Female Place: 12th out of 87
Female Age Place (30-29): 8th out of 39

all results here: https://www.ozarkraces.com/results/default.aspx?event=20372&r=4967

Here are a ton of pics our wonderful supporters took while cheering us on.

Let's do this!

after our first obstacle in the parking garage

 

 

Dave crossing the finish line

Julie crossing the finish line

 

At the finish line

Hugo crossing the finish line

 

Lauren, me and Julie

 

Sawyer & Evan playing at the finish line

 

 

Instead of medals they gave personalized dog tags, awesome!

my dirty number after the race

messy mom

Embrace the SUC

This is one intimidating moto

I have always loved a challenge; usually the ones that scare me are the ones that give me the most motivation. A coworker had asked me to join his team for the Springfield Urban Warrior Challenge (a.k.a. SUC) a few weeks back and at first I thought “no way can I be ready for that after taking so much time off “ but after a good week of thinking about it I changed my mind to “What’s the worst that can happen?” Plus, I have this new belief that if I can go through 12 hours of labor I can do just about anything I put my mind to. I still have fears of failing and letting my team down but decided this was a challenge I can take on. For those of you that don’t know, the SUC is a 12.4 K adventure race that involved challenges/obstacles throughout the course. MSU’s Army ROTC designed it and it is no joke going to be intense. We have a team of 4 (2 girls 2 guys). Thanks Team for asking me to be a part of this, I am excited to see how we do. Here is the site for more details: http://www.embracethesuc.com/

an obstacle from the website

I have run lots of 5Ks and even trained for a full marathon through Team In Training in 2005. Although, I ended up only being able to run the half marathon at the advice of my doctor due to my knee/plica issues, I finished the St. Louis Half Marathon at 2 hours and had no issues at all But that was 7 years ago, so I have a lot of training I need to do but at least I know I can set a goal, train and finish.

another obstacle option

I have 10 weeks until the race on April 6 and I decided blogging about my training would hold me accountable and help me stick to my plan. I stated yesterday and it honestly wasn’t as bad as I thought. My plan is to blog each Monday about my training the week before and how it went and with my goals for the current week. If anyone has suggestions or recommendation I would love to hear them. Plus I could always use the support. Luckily my husband has been amazing, agreeing to keep Sawyer when I go to train and even said they would be at the race cheering me on.

MY GOALS FOR WEEK 1:

I will do 3 days of running (between 2.5-3.5 miles) and 2 days of cross training (yoga, body pump, cycling, etc) for week 1.

Yesterday for my first day, I ran 2.5 miles at a steady 6.0 pace. Then did stretching, sit-ups and pushups. John, Sawyer and I also got outside and went for a 45 minutes trail walk since the weather was so nice. I am just a little sore today but not too bad. My knee gave me a little trouble when we were walking hills on the trail but it feels fine today.

I am planning on my week going a little something like this:

Tonight:  Run

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Run

Thursday: Cross train

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Cross train

I’ll give a full update next week!