Not Really a Race Recap

Since we are all besties now, let me let you in on a little secret.

I DNF’d.

Yep. Did. Not (freakin’). Finish.

Ok, whew. That’s out of the way. So let’s get into the fun stuff!

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Pine Mountain is a cute, little town somewhere around the left side of Georgia. How’s that for descriptive?! I stumbled upon the most adorable B&B online and snagged the last room up!

Make sure if you come up for the North Face Endurance Challenge, that you call the Chipley Murrah House in Pine Mountain. You are 1.5 miles from event parking and the Innkeepers are super sweet. The only bad thing, we only stayed one night so we didn’t get to try their amazing breakfast because of our race start time!

After checking-in and a quick nap, we decided to check out the near by town of LaGrange to see “Perfect Pitch”. Hil-arious. Loved it. Made me wish I could carry a tune and be as sassy glee kid! Anyone else seen it? Thoughts?

After finding a random pizza joint, which had the best customer service and $1 beers (for hubs since he has no issues carb loading that way!), we retired for our early race start.

I was primed and ready to go.  I had a little voice inside my head that was hoping the time off my legs and ice spent on my left knee, would be enough to keep any issues at bay for the course of the half. I mean how hard can a little trail run be?!

FREAKIN’ HARD!

Our first 1/2 mile went through a creek and up a huge hill. Within that portion, I had tears forming in my eyes from the pain in my knee. I was having to pull over to the right to let runners pass me since the trail was a single track. My breathing got about as crazy as Lady Gaga’s outfits trying to breath through the pain. Hubs was a real gem trying everything he could think of to talk me through the pain and encourage me. Around the 5k mark, I called it.

My knee pain was the same pain I had at the Disney Marathon a few years ago. I didn’t want to be out for a few months from running, so I think I made the right decision. So I made hubs run on and finish the race (which he did amazing coming from last with me!). That took quite a bit of convincing on my behalf, since we were in the middle of the woods. But I promised him I would just walk to the first water/aid station and be fine. I actually came up quickly to another lady that was having a rough day and we got picked up by a van once out of the woods with a few others that got injured (hope everyone is ok! And HI Avanna!!).

Although my ego was bruised and left somewhere between a creek and a boulder,  I believe I made the right decision after I went to the Orthopedist last night. I have a follow-up appointment in a week, so more details to come…. but at least I am going to try to match my brace!

But back to North Face, the race was well put on and everyone was so nice from packet pick-up to the bus drivers. The only two downfalls were that the Half Marathoners did not get medals (which standard half marys do).  And on the 2nd day, the  post-race BBQ was $6/plate for everyone while on the first day for  runners they were free.  I know that the first day, the races were the longer distances but there was not much of a price discrepancy in the reg fees for me to comprehend no medals and no BBQ. Just my two cents.

Overall, I loved the course (the 5.6 miles or so, I saw of it) and that you got a custom shirt for the distance you ran! If you want a technical trail run, check out this race! Be prepared to work your legs and get dirty!

And afterwards, treat yourself to a little safari…..

Wild Animal Safari was a fun, quirky experience. I wish we took one of their cars, because a bunch of their animals had horns and I was scared they would scratch my car up. But it was a fun way to burn two hours…. just felt kind of bad for the animals.

So there you have it, a DNF but a fun weekend!

Have you DNF’d? What is your injury mentality?