Jennifer posted the One Hot Momma 25k. It involves running and camping.
Despite my previous experiences with running and camping (Click here and here for my Ragnar Trail experiences), I believe that I am a camping goddess, so I signed on for the weekend, which was supposed to include running, drinking, napping, paddle-boarding, and lots of eating. It was our celebration before reporting back to school that week.
I packed as if I was going to the Amazon for a week of camping, even thought it was two nights. I brought lots of clothing, bathing suits, towels, food, beer, my cooler, my Taj Mahal (tent for 6 people with a front porch), chairs, racing clothing, other clothing, headlamps, knuckle lights, a paddle-board. . .Oh, you get the picture.
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| This wasn't Jen's car, but it may as well have been. |
We found that our campsite was located right on the race course!
We set up camp and unpacked and got our bibs:
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| Who's gonna set up camp? |
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| I'll just stand there while Jen does all the work. |
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| Then I'll take all the credit. Look at my beautiful tent on the left! |
And then we had some necessary carb-loading:
The race we chose was the 25k, which was four 4-mile loops around the lake. Each loop went by our campsite, so we had the luxury of dropping things off and picking them up again. We became very familiar with the sights along the course:
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| Marta, Jen, Me, Renee at the start |
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| The lake as the sun was rising. |
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| We called these the Super Mario stones. I crossed them four times and made Mario jumping noises each time. Photo Credit for almost all pics: Marta Pacur |
I had some stomach cramps that morning, and though Jen, Renee, Marta, and I started out together, my secret plan was to ditch them by hitting up the bathroom on the first loop and then having a leisurely run for the rest of the 12ish miles. Marta had other plans. When I got out of the bathroom, she was there waiting for me, and I knew then that I was going to have to run hard because she intended to catch up with Jen and Renee before the end of the loop. . . so we did.
I tease Marta a lot, but she really is a great friend and running partner. She didn't need to wait for me, and I specifically told her not to do so, but Croatians are stubborn, so. . .
I had a plan for each loop to keep it interesting. The last loop was the farewell loop because we had to say goodbye to every landmark on the course.
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| Farewell, Super Mario Stones! |
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| Farewell, Bullshit Hill of Nope! |
And, we finished by 10:00 AM, which gave us plenty of eating and drinking time!
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| Marta, Renee, Me. Jen had finished the 8-mile route. |
The route is really interesting and not too difficult. There were lots of people to talk to along the way, and the volunteers were awesome. I really liked this race, especially the medal, which was created by an art teacher.
There are a lot of good qualities to this race, as I have already written. The only drawback is that the campsite does not have showers or real bathrooms. I can survive a long time on a primitive site, but I need a shower and I need toilets with sinks. The campsite had one bathroom with two toilets, but they locked one of them up. It was very inconvenient before, during, and after the race. As for the shower, the race officials connected with the local YMCA, who graciously allowed runners to use their showers after the race. I was ok with that, but I still think it's weird that a campground has no showers and hardly any working bathrooms.
After the race we ate and ate and ate and ate some more. Then we took naps, woke up, and ate again. It was glorious. This was the perfect opportunity to get my head together before I started school again, and a race three hours away is the perfect distance to do that.
Will I run it again? Honestly, I don't know. Bathrooms are a dealbreaker for me in races and camping, so I would have to succumb to lots of peer pressure before I sign up again. Despite the campgrounds, I liked everything about the race, and I encourage you to try it for yourself. You, too, can be One Hot Momma!
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