Zombie Chase 5K

Me and Jana before the race. 

So Friday, I competed in my very first Zombie Chase.  Judging from the name of the contest alone, you can imagine the setup.  Some runners, namely the survivors, get chased by other runners known as the zombies.  I was a survivor.  I chose to be a survivor because the thought of being chased sounded like fun.  It brings back the childhood exhilarance of being chased by your dad who was bound to catch up with you and tickle you until your bladder gave way.  Thankfully, none of the zombies tried to tickle me, but you know what I mean.  I met up with a former co-worker and current friend of mine, Jana Fuller.  We haven't seen each other in a very long time as we've both been busy having and raising babies, so it was super to see her again and even more super to be running a race with her.  We got to the start line and were told that we would have a one-minute head start at which point the zombies would be unleashed. 

This is the survivor with the bat and cigar.

So we start off.  I think I started off at a pace a little faster than normal, but I was going to be chased, so the adrenaline was already there making my legs move faster than I perhaps wanted.  Jana and I were passed by other survivors who took their role very seriously.  One man was decked out in army gear with 6-inch hunting knives strapped to his belt.  Another survivor ran with a duffel bag, a cigar, and a baseball bat.  I don't entirely understand the cigar part of his get-up.  Jana and I were dressed as normal runners.  We didn't even think to dress like these guys.  Then other survivors just dressed up as whatever.  It was a Halloween event after all.  One dude passed us in, I kid you not, a sports bra and a mini-skirt.  He actually had the physique to pull it off, but I'm sure glad the wind left his little skirt alone. 

This is the gentleman in the sports bra and mini skirt

Then our one minute was up.  A bull horn sounded the uncaging of the zombies.  I didn't know what would happen should a zombie catch up with us, but then one did and he just kept going.  And then another one went by and then another.  So apparently they weren't going to "tag" us or slap a zombie sticker on our back, we were just trying to beat the zombies to the finish line.  One thing I did realize about the people dressed as zombies is that they signed up to be a zombie because they knew they were fast.  Even with the delayed start, zombies zoomed past us left and right.  And there were a vast array of costumes to behold.  At some point I passed the zombie Michael Jackson from Thriller all decked out in true Thriller fashion.  Some zombies looked as though they had turned into zombies right after prom.  Others looked just looked gross and thoroughly decayed. 

Michael Jackson look-alike

These ladies win the award for the best zombie make-up

As Jana and I ran on, I realized that she was definitely faster than I was.  I was working harder than I ever have in a 5k.  I kept up with her for the most part, but the last mile I fell behind.  But my goal was, and has ever been, to not stop running.  Slow down...sure.   But stop?  Never!  So I eased up a bit to catch my breath, but I did not stop running.  The tendon in my foot that bothered me in the Nite Lites race started acting up again.  It feels like something is ripping and it always makes me run a bit awkwardly and more slowly.  But when I had a half mile left, I had my breath back and my foot was fine again and so I picked up the pace.  About 200 meters out, I started to sprint.  The final turn into the finish line was on a dirt road with tire rivets and I prayed I wouldn't bite the dust as I was going as fast as I could.  I ran past the finish just as the clock said 26:49.  My last 5k was 3 minutes longer than that, so I definitely beat my best time!  Jana finished about a minute or more ahead of me.  I think she said her time was 25:30 making it a personal best for her too.  I told her that beating my best time was all due to her.  I wanted to keep up with her and so I ran harder and pushed myself.  So I thanked her for the motivation. 

Zombies waiting to come get us

From my first 5k to this one, I have shaved off 10 minutes from my time and I'm thrilled about that.  I did the math and during this race I had a 8:27 mile.  I'm mighty pleased with that and I hope to improve even more with each run.

It was a fantastic last race of the season.  While I'm going to keep running, I'm done with races until spring.  But any time you can run in a novelty race like this, do it!  It makes the run more enjoyable and the memories of it even cooler.   It would have been a bit cooler had we actually been running in the corn maze that was there or if the zombies would actually do something if they did catch up with a survivor, but it was still fun.


UPDATE:  After the final results were emailed to the runners, by actual time was 26:30! 

Jana bookin' it to the finish

I was running much faster than this picture makes me look, I promise.

After the race with the kids.  The boys had pretty much decided that they were done with this silliness.

Monday Motivation

With running, the more you do it, the better at it you are.  Not just in running faster or longer, but in your form as well.  Soon your body will take on the runner's stride and runner's physique.  And the more you run, the better the chances that you will NOT be one of these runners.....

Happy Running!!!!

Winter Cometh

First off, my profound apologies for not posting a great deal as of late.  My schedule has reached new heights of insanity, so I'm still scrambling to get everything to have it's place.  So onto the post...

As many of you have noticed, October is bringing winter our way much faster this year.  Fall looks like it'll be shortchanged this year and the snow will reign supreme in a few short months.  So where does that leave the runners?  Do you run in freezing temperatures and over ice and snow?  Do you shell out the big bucks for a gym membership?  Do you obtain every workout DVD made in the last year and set up shop at home?  Do you stop running altogether, afterall, isn't running a summer thing?  It's a challenge I have faced at the end of every summer.  A few times, I was largely pregnant during the winter and so running was kind of pushed aside for those reasons alone.  But here I am, winter beating on my door, I'm not pregnant, and I'm thinking, "What should I do?"

Well, against my natural instinct to stay warm and cozy in my cute, little house, I'm going to try running in the winter.  Given the fact that some winter weather is just not runnable (if that is a word), I intend on backing up my running with a pilates video I have and possibly Zumba 2-3 nights a week.  That's my plan.  I do not want to lose everything I did over the summer to some jerk named winter.  By golly, I'm going to stay in shape, in running shape to be exact, and when the warm weather comes back, I won't be starting over because I never stopped.  I know it will be hard to run in the winter, I know that finding time is going to be even more difficult, but I'm going to try and do my best.  If nothing else, I want to accomplish the feat of just staying in shape throughout the winter.  It seems like every year I go through this roller coaster of being in shape and weighing less in the spring and summer, and then winter comes and I pack on a few and get out of shape.  NOT THIS TIME! 

So I highly recommend that if you live in an area where winter really is winter and not just slightly colder than summer, you need a winter running plan.  Whether it's finally getting a treadmill or a gym membership.  Or whether it's workout videos and quick jaunts down the street and back whilst you're covered head to toe in Gortex (warm coat material).  Make a plan, because add the holidays into winter, and you're about a hop, skip and jump away from temptation city. 

If you do have a winter plan, share it with me.  Comment here or email me at annadurfee@yahoo.com. 

I plan on getting a whole bunch of winter running clothes and I promise that on my first cold run, I will take pics of the getup. 

Happy Running!

Monday Motivation

This says it all.....

Monday Motivation

Have you ever told someone you just went for a run and, being funny, they ask, "Why?  What was chasing you?"  Oh, so clever.  Anyway, now you can say, "Zombies were chasing me."
Confused?  What better motivation to run than to have Zombies chasing you?  And you can have that experience if you come race with me on October 22nd in Rigby, Idaho's Zombie Chase 5k.

Not only would you have to train for a 5k, but you'd have to train in order to outrun the Zombies.  I love it!!  But whether you join me in the Zombie Chase or do another race, you'll experience more motivation to get out there if you sign up for a race.  I challenged anyone who read this all summer long to run a race.  But it's not too late if you haven't done one yet.  I bet there is time for 1 or 2 more races before the weather turns south.  And even if you have done a few races already, do another!!  This will be either my fifth or sixth race this year.  Why not just keep racing? 
A race is a way to keep yourself accountable.  It's a way to have a goal in sight.  It's what will get you up in the morning to run or to sneak in that run after dinner.  It's what will prompt you to run that hill versus sticking to your flat route.  So, I want to challenge everyone, again, to sign up for a race.  I would ABSOLUTELY love it if anyone wanted to join me in the Zombie Chase.  If you do sign up for a race, let me know, especially if you sign up for Zombie Chase because I want to run with you!  Get online, look at your community calendar, find a race you think you can do, sign up, and start training.  And pay attention to everything while you race because I'm gonna want a race story.
If you're a local, click on the link to the Teton Running Events Calendar on my sidebar.  They have all the races going on month by month. 

Now, for all the locals that read this and aren't sure if they want to do a Zombie Chase, please watch the following video.  Scroll to the bottom and turn off my playlist before you do though.

Don't you SO want to run from Zombies now?  And if you want, you can sign up to be a Zombie and do the chasing.  Dress accordingly!!


Happy Running!

Table Rock

What better activity to do with those awesome runner legs of yours then to go hiking for 6 hours?  I say, put 'em to good use! 
So last Friday, me, my sister-in-law, and my friend went on a trek to the top of Table Rock in the Tetons.  No doubt most of you have done this same hike or at least heard of it.  The last time I went, I was 16.  I went with a friend and her whacked-out marathon-running stepdad.  The guy was a maniac and basically ran up the whole mountain with two teenage girls in tow.  To put in bluntly...I hated that man by the end of it.  I loathed him with every inch of my tired body.  And could I have moved my legs after we got back to the car, I would have kicked him.   I normally love being outdoors and hiking, but it was miserable to go up the way he did.  We barely stopped to drink water or eat snacks and me and my friend were in so much pain at the end that the entire experienced was ruined.  So that ended up being my lasting impression of Table Rock.  Looking back, my friend and I joke about it, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.  Then my new friend, Meieli and my sister-in-law, Keersten, suggested that we three climb Table Rock.  It was time to face the mountain again and I was determined to have fun doing it this time. 
We had to be back to Idaho Falls by about 1 or 2 so Meieli could travel with her family to Utah for the Women's Conference.  Needless to say, we had to start early.  We left our homes at 4 in the morning.  We got to the base at about 6am and it was pitch dark.  We knew it would be, so we all packed our headlamps and carried bear spray, just in case.  I was a bit nervous about hiking in the dark and we would be for at least an hour.  But it was the COOLEST way to hike!  First off, it was literally cool, as in the temperature.  Perfect temperature for hiking in my mind.  Second, the woods just seem so mystical at night.  Lastly, the stars!  Oh my, those stars!  I thought I could see them clearly out here in Iona, but you haven't seen them clearly unless you're out in nature, hiking up a mountain. 

Sunrise

And obviously if you're hiking in the early morning, in the pitch dark, you get to look forward to the sunrise.  Not being a morning person, I don't experience sunrises all that often.  This one was neat.  Since our hike takes us east, it looked like we were hiking into the sunrise.  It was beautiful. 
The other really fantastic part about this hike was the company.  Keersten, my sister-in-law, and I aren't just relatives, we're good friends nowadays after spending quite a bit of the summer doing things together; mostly running-related things.  And Meieli, my new friend, is so funny and energetic that it's addicting to be with her.  She reminds me a lot of my best friend throughout high school, Becca.  And that's a good thing, because Becca now lives in Missouri, so guess how often I get to see her. 
So we three girls talked and gabbed and laughed and had a ball.  We got to see some birds that Meieli called "Satans."  I'm sure that's not how you spell it, but it certainly sounded like that's what she was calling them.  They look like minature turkeys.  We also got to see some deer off in the distance.  Luckily, we got to skip out on seeing any bears. 
The whole hike up, we saw no one.  It was stupendous!  When you hike that early, you have the entire trail all to yourself.  Since Table Rock is a popular hike, traffic can get pretty heavy up there later in the day. 
Then, as a reward for all your hard work, Table Rock offers a fantastic summit.  Obviously it's not as high as the Grand Tetons, but it's high enough.  It was actually quite breath-taking to be up there.  We got silly and took some silly pictures at the summit and enjoyed our feat until it was time to head back.  This is when we started see other hikers.  They were all surprised that we'd already summited and they had just begun.  We heard things like "go-getters" and "hard-core" as phrases to describe our awesomeness. 
The way down, for me at least, was much harder than the way up.  There are a lot of loose rocks and so going doing means being careful.  We all slipped a few times, but no major injuries.  As much as my legs burned going up, I think all the soreness I felt the day after was just from coming down. 
So the day ended and we raced back to Idaho Falls so Meieli could join her family on their way to Utah.  Poor Meieli got a speeding ticket.  So, that was lame. 
But the horrible experience from my adolescent ascent up Table Rock has been completely erased and replaced by this awesome experience with two fabulous girls.  I would do it again in a heartbeat!  We even started to make hiking plans for next summer.  I'm so stoked!!

So I say to all you runners (I'm sure at least a handful of people read this) go take your running legs out somewhere and put those muscles to good use.  Go on a hike!

And now enjoy all of our pics from the summit...

Me and Keersten

Keersten and Meieli

Me and Meieli

Yoga Poses!  The is me.  What else do you do at the top of a mountain?

Keersten.  It was kind of scary to do yoga poses where you had to balance like this.  Vertigo big time!

Meieli.  I think she is the only one with any actual yoga experience.

Me again.

Keers

Meieli....so graceful.

I can't remember what we were looking at. 

The camera was perched a top two of our backpacks.  Pretty good huh?  This is one with the Grand Tetons in the background....

...and this is one with Driggs (I think) in the background.

Monday Motivation

Goooood Morning!!  I hope your Monday is going swimmingly.  Mine, not so much.  I've had 3 of my 4 kids puking all over since yesterday afternoon.  But despite all of the vomit fun I've been having, I decided to sit down and get out this week's installment of Monday Motivation for everyone else who slept peacefully last night, not covered in bile.  So, onto the motivation!!!!

I know you've all set a goal for yourself.  We all run because of some goal we have.  But at times, we lose sight of the goal or we start to think that it's just not worth it.  I am here to remind you why you are doing this.  Enjoy!




I want you to keep running or to start running.  You wanna know why?

Because these could be your calves!  You could show off those sexy yams from here to Tuesday if you wanted to. 



I want you to keep running or to start running.  You wanna know why?

Because this guy could stop being your enemy.  This little twerp has been winning the battle for too long!



I want you to keep running or to start running.  You wanna know why?

Because the exhilaration and sense of accomplishment that comes from running in a race, win or not, is too sweet not to experience.



I want you to keep running or to start running.  You wanna know why?

Because we all deserve to be this happy.  Period.



Have a great week running!  Don't forget why you're doing this and soon it'll be hard to remember why you haven't been doing this all along! 
Happy Running!!