Training Log Archive: Funderstormin

Some of my Michigan friends enter a team every year into the Dances with Dirt Relay in Hell. I had seen this event a couple of years ago when I went down to run the ultra and thought that driving around all day in a van with my friends sounded way more fun than running by myself for hours. They have had the same team for years but I got lucky as one of the team members got afflicted with pregnancy and I got to take her place this year!

The race has 15 legs and everyone is supposed to run 3 of them. My team likes to keep it interesting by drawing names out of a hat, so you don't know until a leg or two before if you are running or not. Given the heat, I got SUPER lucky by drawing all three of my legs before 1:00, which meant I got to relax after that and drink beer.

Each leg has a name based on the features of that leg: http://dwdhell.com/index.php/relay/course-descript...

I ran the very first leg, appropriately called Stampede, which was fast and furious and a nice mixture of double and singletrack with a little off trail thrown in at the end.

C • afflicted with pregnancy 1

The second leg that I ran was called Dirty Blonde. Mostly singletrack with lots of off trail and climbing over stuff. Super fun!

The final leg I drew was called "Stripper Sucks," and I was glad that it was the last one for the day as it was blazing hot at this point and this was the hardest of the three that I had done, even though it wasn't all that long. "Stripper Pole" is a steep gnarly climb and the "Sucks" part was because there were a few hundred metres where you were going through sometimes knee high bog trying to hang on to your shoes.

Having run my three legs, I got to spend the rest of the day cleaning up, cooling off and cheering on my friends. I really enjoyed seeing the teams that went all out costume-wise for this event. My favourite was a team called "It's Britney, Bitch!" where all team members dressed up as Britney Spears from a different video. There was also a team dressed up as the Donner party, which I thought was quite clever.

Saw a Don't Get Lost team flying by a couple of times too!

Trit trot around Breithaupt to loosen up my achilles and try out some new shoes. If anyone is in the market for new Speed or Spikecross at a decent price, I got a pair of both through Sportchek (last year's models) for about $200!

"Weightlifting Wednesday" class at Depth training. Gonna hurt tomorrow!

Was all amped up after ARK for some reason so when I went home I went for a little jig jog. My achilles has not been good since my last race but I have another one this weekend so it's just gonna have to go ahead and suck it up for a few more days.

Yin yoga at Cambridge Good Life.

Took my brother and nephew for their first ride out at Puslinch. I promised I'd stick to easy trails, but sure enough, there we were, pushing our bikes up a big ass hill because I saw a trail that looked enticing. Hudson only had one spill and was super excited that I had a first aid kit on the trail to patch him up on the spot. Post-ride lunch at the Old Marina.