Up Down Over

pre race
april, me, daniel, annabelle, kortny, bobby
jason, and sarah

pre race
me, sarah, and jason

pre race
april, bobby, and i holding sarah

pre race
april, kortny, annabelle, and i

crossing the finish line!
bobby and i

post race glow
bobby and i

post race: i did IT!

post race
sarah, emily, bobby, kortny, and i

post race
me, bobby, annabelle, jason, and sarah

last night i completed my first competitive race. the U-DO, which stands for Up, Down, Over. i signed up for this race kicking and screaming. i didn't want to do it. i seriously thought i wouldn't be able to do it. i signed up for this race thinking it was a 4 mile race Under cardo net crawls, Down hills, and Over creeks. the 4 miles on regular terrain i'm totally for. 4 miles and obstacle's not so much. this race was at bear creek lake park in lakewood, co, and sponsored by lifetime fitness. so the gym was doing all the advertising.
last week sarah asked if i was doing it, and i said "i don't know." then all last week april was asking me about it, and i was telling people at work about it, and all of this time i was pretty much talking myself out of doing this race.
then i signed up for it.
i had 2 big fears going into this race. because the race started at 6pm i was afraid that i would be alone, lost, running in the dark. i was confident i could do 4 miles in 60 minutes, and then as we get up to the race yesterday i found out the race was 4.4 miles. my other fear was either completing the race last, or not completing it at all.
i went into this race preparing myself to do it alone. which i was completely fine with. i've done majority of my races alone, why not this one? i expected all of my friends to go on ahead of me, because they are all a lot more athletic than me. in fact i'm not too sure if i'm athletic at all, but whatever.
then to my surprise bobby stayed with me. the.whole.race. i couldn't believe it. at first i didn't like it. i kept telling him to go ahead without me, because i didn't want to keep him behind and i knew he could keep up a faster pace than me. but he stayed, even though i told him to leave. for the first half of the race i was very uncomfortable with this. because i didn't want to depend on him, and because i knew bobby was just staying behind for me, so that i wouldn't be alone. it is very hard for me to accept someone being there for me. i'm not used to it. i don't know how to react to it or accept it. during the first half of this race i kept thinking "why is he doing this? why is he being so nice to me?" by the time we completed the first half, i let myself enjoy bobby. enjoy having someone to run with. accepting his help, and his motivation to keep me going. accept his friendship, accept his support. this is something i'm not good at. when i had this realization, that i had this friend truly being there for me, it took everything in me not to cry. the race itself was an emotional one for me because i doubted myself so much, but then to have a friend truly be there for me on top of it, it was almost too much.
bobby was a great motivator. i knew that once we passed the half way point, i would really slow down. and i did. and bobby created a 60 step rule to keep me going.
60 steps of walking, then 60 steps of running.
60 steps of walking, then 70 steps of running.
60 steps of walking, then 80 steps of running.
we did this until we got to 110 steps of running. which took us to the last horrible up-hill trek to the finish line. once we got up the hill, he told me to run the rest of the way, right to the finish line. and that is exactly what i did. my goal going in to this race was to finish the 4 miles in one hour. it was to my uber surprise that i finished this 4.4 mile race in 56 minutes! once bobby and i crossed the finish line, i had to be by myself. i walked away from my group of friends to collect my thoughts. i gave myself time to soak in the experience of the race, and receiving bobby's help. i was questioning why he was helping me, and wondering what i did to deserve his patience while he stayed with me during the last 4.4 miles. i suppose maybe the simple answer is because i'm nice, and because bobby thinks i am a good person. and i shouldn't think that hard into it, but i know that this is one of my downfalls. while i was walking by myself, i thought "so that is what it is like to truly depend on someone." because truly it has been so long since i have done that. now that this race is over, i'm so happy that i did it. at the beginning of the race i wasn't positive that i would be able to say that. but i'm so glad that i did! i definitely ran more than i have ever have, and that accomplishment alone is great, and one that i thank bobby for. i know that if i did this race by myself i would have walked a lot more than i did, and probably come in last, which we didn't!

core 30min
STRIKE! 60min
592