Bitten

It’s official, I’ve been bitten by the obstacle race bug. (Also any race involving the undead!) I have two more races this year to sign up for (though neither are obstacle courses), the Zombie Buffet 5K and the Never Quit 5K.

The Zombie Buffet 5K is a road based 5K in downtown Jacksonville where you start at one location, the zombie horde starts at another, and then you meet in a contamination zone. You then try to escape the zombies from taking your life (another flag based event) and get this! If you are ‘killed’ early enough, you are able to go through a transformation and start chasing down survivors yourself! Ellie said it sounded like a big game of tag, lol. I think it sounds fantastic, so I’m definitely signing up for that.

The Never Quit Beach Fest 5K is a beach 5K on Jacksonville Beach that I did last year and had a blast. It’s an out and back course on the sand, and I’m going to try to PR with this race. My current PR is 28:59 (from Africa!), and I think I can beat that with training, especially since I live in the perfect location for beach run training! :)

Last year’s Never Quit Beach Fest

I am also going to try to incorporate some barefoot running training in, since running on the sand is perfect for my Vibram 5 Fingers! (Speaking of shoes, I need to go purchase some new running shoes, mine are done for!)

I want to do more obstacle races this year, but Shane and I decided that would be ‘our’ thing to do together, and he is deploying, so I don’t really want to do them without him. Not to be all sappy, but he’s also my best friend, so things are just not as fun without him anyway. Road races are totally ok, though. ;)

For next year, we’re looking into another Run For Your Lives (or two, hopefully they pull out more SE stops than just Atlanta, Florida would be ideal!), the Animal Kingdom obstacle race at WDW (missed being able to do this one by 2 weeks, boo.), a Warrior Dash, Swamp Romp, etc. All of these are obviously dependent on times/locations/$$$/where the USMC decides to move us next.

Well, I’m off to do some laundry and immerse myself in my new book. (I’ve so been slacking on reading lately! Too much reality tv/XBOX, not enough reading. This morning I started Delerium by Lauren Oliver… I foresee this being finished by tonight!