Playing Blog Catch-up for 2012 Races

2012 was a rough year for me, ups and lots of downs, and I have to admit, I never looked forward to a new year as I had for 2013.  In the midst of everything, I found solace in doing some small races to keep myself occupied from all the less than happy stuff happening.  So.. hurray for the new year! :)  And now... let's backtrack to the events of 2012...

City Chase 2012

I was invited to join "Team Bunz" for City Chase (June 29, 2012), since Jeff thought it might be something different from my usual running gig.  Turned out he was right!  Much like the Amazing Race, City Chase Toronto was the local version of it.  My partner in crime was Grumpy, to whom I coaxed into joining with me.    The race started out with a sheet of paper filled with clues to where we needed to go to reach our "checkpoints".  When we reach the checkpoints, we would have to do the task at hand and then once completed, we would get a hole punched on on our bibs. 

Sad to say, but we had a tough time with figuring out the checkpoints.  Thankfully we merged up with another group and traded off some of our answers for ones we couldn't figure out.   After that, it was just a matter of getting to the locations in the most optimal route.  My friend, "Grumpy", was amazing for that.  Despite complaining about the reasons why we were doing this and that.., she was an amazing navigator.  A walking GPS so to speak.  Yay for me, since I'm terrible with directions :)

The most memorable checkpoint that I encountered during the race, was the firehouse checkpoint.  The task there started out with each of us having to strap on a fire extinguisher (empty one!), and one of us had to carry the fire hose (mind you, it wasn't even attached to anything, just the head of the hose), run up 3 flights of stairs and rescue a baby. Grumpy offered to carry it. That was a good call since she was the stronger one of the two of us. 

At the top of the stairs a person directed us to put on this mask, that pretty much simulated what it would be like for someone running inside a burning building: zero visibility.

Our mission, we were told, was to go inside this room, and find the baby. Both us had to enter, but one of us always had to be touching the wall, and we had to be a finger's length reach of each other. Makes sense because you wouldn't want to lose your partner inside a burning building. I stuck to the wall, and felt around the room for the baby. The person giving us the instructions suddenly couldn't hold back a laugh, because it seemed like I was more focused on searching for the baby on the wall, vs. on the ground, where most people would be looking  quite embarrassing  Guess not a fireman career for me! After that hint that baby would be on the ground (duh!), we found it right in the corner of the room.

Yay baby rescued! Now we had to head back down to the main floor, unstrap the extinguishers, and had to lift a dummy from one end of the room to the other. This dummy weighed about 200 pounds. Mind you also, we live in a country where people weigh far more than just 200, we're looking at 250-290! It was heavy. As dead weight, the dummy felt so much heavier; but the two of us managed it in the end. 1+ respect for these men and woman who are in this profession. 

We ended the final round of tasks with having to hammer something, I really don't remember what the purpose of it was, but I'm guessing it was to simulate breaking down a door or the like.

Although we didn't win (since we didn't complete the required amount of checkpoints), it was still a wonderful experience.  The best part of it was of course, being able to hang out with my friend, and just sort of touring the city with her.  However, if you ask her, she will give a completely different story (Grumpy:  Wendy, we could have just walked around the city instead!!).  haha.  Thankfully, this is my blog and not hers :)

After finishing off the City Chase event, Team Bunz and us (Team Happy and Grumpy) went for some Greek food on the danforth and had a delicious souvlaki dinner.

Next event...Spartan Race (June 30, 2012)...the day after City Chase.  To say I wasn't a little tired from yesterday's event would be fibbing a bit.  I met up again with Team Bunz and we drove down to Barrie, to Horseshoe Valley Resort where the event was taking place.  I was both excited and nervous since this was my first actual physically tiring event after surgery.  But I was "prepared", as I had on me some snowboarding goggles.  Yes, yes, its a strange thing to bring for a race, but I was determined to protect my eyes above all else.  

The past week I had been checking the Spart Race website, hoping to see or get an idea of what obstacles I would be undertaking.  I knew for a fact that there definitely would be a muddy area with barbed wire, and some walls, but how many of these I didn't know.  

When we arrived at the location, we gave them our bib numbers and our signed waivers (yep, another one of those that save event organizers from liabilities!).  Our bib number was written on our foreheads, and ironically, when I mentioned to to person writing on my forehead that I had a meeting the next day and it would be best not to have it smaller in print, she actually wrote it bigger!  haha, joke was on me for that one.

[Anyway, after checking in our baggage, we had some time to chill, so we just checked out what we could see of the course; haystacks?  rowing machines?  Hmmm.. strange to see rowing machines.. ]

After the 9:00am Heat started, we lined up and the first thing we encountered as we were running was an artificially induced smokey fog.  Down came those goggles (boy did I look ridiculous in them!).  Mind you, this was the only time in the ENTIRE race did I use them.  For the rest of the way, they sat nestled comfortably on my head, and with occasional comments from runners and organizers on how "cool" (er, not cool?) ;) those goggles were.  

Obstacle 1:  Smoke 

Obstacle 2:  crawl through a dark pipe

Obstacle 3:  Climb up cargo net

Obstacle 4:  Climb up rope ladder (girls), climb up rope (boys)

Obstacle 5:  pull up weights to top 

Obstacle 6:  crawl under barbed wire in mud x 2

Obstacle 7:  walk through mud pit

Obstacle 8:  carry heavy bean bag and run a short course

Obstacle 9:  Thrown wooden javelin at a post (if missed, 30 burpees, 1 try only)

Obstacle 10: Climb over wall

Obstacle 11:  Crawl under large wooden cover

Obstacle 12:  Climb over tall wall

Obstacle 13:  roll weights attached to string up and down twice

Obstacle 14:  Push wheel barrow with heavy bags of weight on both sides

Obstacle 15:  Balance on zigzag beam

Obstacle 16:  Run through tires

Obstacle 17:  Leap over fire

Obstacle 18:  Do 20 reps of rowing machine

Obstacle 19:  Crawl under ice with barbed wire

Obstacle 20:  Climb over hay stacks

Obstacle 21:  Run through and avoid gladiators!

Obstacle 22:  Climb up tall ramp - wall

Spartan Race 2012

I had some memorable portions of the race, namely the mudpit (gravity as my worse enemy!) and the final obstacle course where you would think going up a ramp would be easy,  but it was hard to get through this one.  If I hadn't been tired out from the rest of the race already, the final one took me out :) Thankfully I had met two friends (shout out to the care bears team :D) who tried to act as my stepping stones to get through it... though in the end, I did end up doing the burpies :P  This of course, was a last resort - there is only x number of times you can slip and slide back down a ramp before bruises starts to form on your elbows and knees.  

[Overall, it was an amazing experience, and lots of lessons learned:  TRAIN!! At least a minimum amount.  The next one would be... not to do it so soon after surgery. lol  With my vision still adjusting, it felt like my depth perception was still a bit off.  Bringing kneepads would be helpful.  Do not wear cotton shirts, they will weigh you down.  Just some things off the top of my head that I can remember thinking after the race.  Oh the memories :)]

Would I do it again?  Maybe ... wayyyy down the line.  At least until I build up some upperstrength.  Until then, probably will stick to my running.

Starting off the year of races was the Toronto Zoo Run (September 22, 2012).  It had been one of the runs that I had been looking into trying out for a while.  The morning of the run, I had a little debacle in terms of being dropped off at the wrong startline (at the 5k start) - epic fail on my part.  Fortunately, I had enough time and in the dark I ventured over to the 10k startline.  Sitting there and waiting for the start of the race was fairly uneventful...although I did see a mommy runner tell her kids not to pick up animal waste...  Once the race started it was pretty quiet - more quiet than I expected since I wanted to see the animals.  When I neared the end of my race, I finally did see some zebras milling about behind a fence.  Once I crossed the finish line, I spent sometime observing a hippo drinking water.  It was quite an amazing feat.  Never knew a hippo could open its mouth THAT wide.  As a nice bonus after the race, I was given a bag of free candy, wrethers!  So yummy.  What a delightful surprise.

CIBC Run for the Cure 2012

Next on the list of races was the CIBC Run for the Cure (September 30, 2012).  It was a nice follow-up race since I really warmed up with the Toronto Zoo one the week before.  This one I ran with my friends and it was really enjoyable.  The weather was remarkably nice too.  Not as muddy and icky as the previous year.  I had my face painted up as a proud supporter for the cause.  The crowd that day was quite large, and as usual, there was a funnelling that occurred at the beginning of the race and then again at the end of the race.  After the race, the four of us headed for dimsum at Spadina - what a treat :)   Overall experience was very inspiring, and having run with friends to support such a meaningful cause, made it more worth while.  I must humbly acknowledge my wonderful supporters for the run, raising a total of $150:  (Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy), Grumpy, Kaibar the Lost, Sarah, and Madeline!  Thanks again you guys!

My annual race of the year, this year I went for the 5k distance - and my first "official" 5k race.  The race was pleasant.  Rainy as usual in the morning, but it wasn't too cold.  But as a precaution, I wore my wool (alpaca?) running gear and my t-shirt overhead.  They re-organized this year to having waves go out, so I was quite happy with this since it really reduced the funnelling effect.  The race seemed over very quickly, but it was probably one of the more relaxing runs I've done for scotiabank.  Also my last one for the year!  The race was very enjoyable, and before I knew it, I was at the finish line.  Hurray!

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2012