yesterday morning, c and i participated in this year's bootcamp challenge. we had a blast doing it, but darn was it tough! the race is a 3 mile obstacle course held at the marine corps recruitment depot (mcrd) here in san diego. runners climbed over 6' and 8' walls, jumped over hay bales and logs, crawled through fox holes and trenches, and did pushups to the encouragement (yelling) of the drill sargeants. these guys liked to get in our faces and yell - some a bit too much. this guy looks tame compared to some of the guys that were along the course.
the first time i did this race, was 3 months after scout was born. i was very slow that year as expected. i did it the following year (last year), and ran as a team. my sister jen, her friend amy and i were the 'tres tamales' (hot tamales was taken). we did ok - under 40 minutes, but there was room to improve. this year, jen decided to pass so i asked c if he wanted to run and to my surprise he said YES. he isn't a runner but he said it sounded like fun and would try it. i teased him saying he must have really liked bootcamp if he was going to try to repeat the experience. for those that don't know this, he was in the navy as a youngster and didn't enjoy it at all.
unfortunately, we weren't able to run side by side as they split up the men and woman due to the number of participants and race time differences. we were bummed as this would have been our first race since running the half marathon together 5 years ago. *sniff*. we wished each other luck and agreed to meet each other at the finish line. the woman's start time was a whole 15 minutes after the men so i waited anxiously until the horn blew for the ladies to go. our final times were:
angela: 28:30 (19th out of 114 in female's age 35-39 division)
christopher: 24:14 (17th out of 108 in men's age 35-39 division)
i was actually surprised and pleased i finished under 30 minutes! i hadn't really trained beyond my two runs a week and felt like i was going to do alot worse. c too was pleasantly surprised as well, as he doesn't do anything beyond playing tennis and occasional surfing. i am now motivated to do this run next year and actually *train* to see what i am capable of. i'd love to try to do it in 25 minutes. mmm...
i'll be honest, i'm feeling a little old today as i'm walking around with aches and pain - especially in my shins! i think it's from jumping down from the 8' walls. there was lots of that yesterday. still, despite how i feel now, i'm so glad i did it and am already looking forward to next year's race.
i can't get this cadence out of my head. it was being played on loud speakers during the race...
where we gonna go when we get back, (echo) where we gonna go when we get back
i take a shower and hit the rack, (echo) i take a shower and hit the rack
i no wait, (echo) i no wait, i gotta run (echo) i gotta run,
dig deep (echo) dig deep, lots of fun (echo) lots of fun
i can't remember the rest but i found it here on youtube. it's kind of fun to listen to and it did help keep me motivated. check back in a few days for photos. i didn't take any but there were sports photographers out there and i'm hoping there's at least one of me?
oh and thanks a MILLION jen for watching the boys. next year, i want you to be beside me running*wink*
