Spooky running - It's October!

[jessmarimba]

Woke up this morning and felt kinda blah. Met my group, decided to play it by ear (theoretically, my taper schedule should be 12-10-8 or 6). Started running and felt ok enough, so I went for 12. Rationale being, if I didn't do it today, I probably wouldn't feel like it later.

Got it done a little slower than I'd hoped for, but I feel like crap. I've been in bed all day. I think it's just a cold but the soreness from the run isn't helping my mood! If I could do my run today fast enough to finish a half in 2:10, surely dropping 5,000 feet in altitude and not feeling sick can wipe a few minutes off my time, right?

[Blueberry]

Beautiful weather! Love it!!

Did Week 2, Workout 3: except ran more than I was supposed to - 6 minutes of running. Not getting easier - 1 minute of running has me completely out of breath and with a rocketing heart rate. I'm sure it will get easier.

I hold at this level for a while it looks like (2 weeks) - I am loving running with the crunching leaves!!

[OakLeaf]

I just did five today. I was planning on running longer, but I'm pretty bummed out today, plus my ride yesterday showed me that I'm not 100% recovered from the half marathon yet. So just a jog to the top of the fifth hill and back - it was a beautiful day (my laundry actually dried completely!) and it felt good to get out.

[indysteel]

Did three miles today. This was only my second run since getting my thyroid back to some semblance of normal. I felt pretty good. I took a few breathers but I didn't feel as out of breath as I felt last spring when my thyroid was hyperactive. With cooler weather, I'm hoping to get back onto the swing of it.

[VeganBikeChick]

Did my first 4 miler today. 2 walk breaks, but pretty awesome for only having done this a little over a month.

Now I'm looking into heart rate monitors (should probably be in another thread) but does anyone have suggestions? Don't need GPS, just for recreational use. Have been looking at the Suunto M4.

[Blueberry]

I would look at the Garmin FR60 - it has a lot of features (and no GPS). Works well for bikes too.

[limewave]

DH and I did a Haunted Trail Adv. Saturday night that was a cross between a trail run 5k and an Adventure Race. The race took place at nightfall in the woods on the lighted ski trails. Although, "lighted" trails is a little deceptiive, without snow on the ground to reflect the light, it was much darker than I anticipated--flashlights were not allowed.

There were over 300 participants for this first time event, just about everyone had on costumes. Mostly everyone was in teams of 2 people. And about half of the participants were under 17! Yay!

Everyone got a map of the ski trails. There were 6 checkpoints on the map that you had to find and then have your "pass card" punched (to prove you were actually there). You chose your own route and you could get the checkpoints in any order.

The trails were haunted along the way with werewolves, a guy with a chainsaw, people hiding in the dark that would crawl out and your legs. They did a good job. The checkpoints were "haunted destinations." One was a graveyard with dead people crawling out of open graves, a witches lair, a butcher house . . . it sounds creepy and it was in a way just b/c you're in the woods in the dark, but the even twas a fundraiser for a junior high program--so it wasn't over-the-top.

DH and I did really awesome, we took an uncoventional route and, DH knowing some shortcuts, was able to save us a chunk of time. Although, the shortcut was not part of the lighted trails so it was slow going. We were by ourselves for the first 5 minutes or so and it was really quiet running through the woods. Then suddenly a guy, dressed all in black with red glowing eyes jumped out of a tree and grabbed DH. That was the scariest part. We knew SOMETHING was coming, but we did not expect that at all!

We got to the last checkpoint and I double-checked our pass card and realized that one of the punches did not go all the way through our pass card!!!! And it was the station that was on top of the highest ski hill!!!! We took off in a sprint . . . but DH got turned around and didn't check the map. We ended up going in the opposite direction.

After all of that, we ran the course twice. If we hadn't of made that silly mistake, we would have won the race. I don't think either one of us was "out-to-win," we were just there to have fun. And it was a blast!

The after party was great too. For $25 we got a long sleeve t-shirt, water bottle, glow sticks/necklaces, Pizza, brownies, and Oktoberfest beer from a local brewery. There were bonfires and scary movies playing outside.

It was a lot of fun. I think Zoom-Zoom should do this race next year with her DH You could wear a zombie costume!

Here's little video from the race on youtube.

[jessmarimba]

Ooh that sounds awesome!! I might have to suggest the idea to a friend who's a race organizer.