Swampstomper 2008!!

What a great day for a race and what an awesome race it was!!

To get ready for this race I tapered for two days and rode the bike quite a bit, plus I ate a lot of carbs on those two days. Saturday night I laid all of my gear out on the couch and tried to get some sleep. I've been fighting a cold so I was up most of the night, but when my alarm clock went off I was up quickly. I got dressed - tights, pants, two shirts, pullover, hat, thick socks, and gloves - and Michael picked me up at 6am. The temp outside was 28 and don't think it got much above that the whole day! It was freezing!!

The race was at Shelby Forest and it started at 7:30. We got there around 6:45 and met up with Laura, Patrick, and Vince and we tried to stay warm in our cars for as long as possible. We waited until 7:25 to finally get out of the car and then run over to the start. There were about 150 runners there and we were all jumping around waiting for the RD to say go! Finally we were off!

The first 1/2 mile took forever because the race starts on asphalt and then turns into the woods and there is about a 150 foot drop with stairs, so all the runners get backed up. Laura and I ran the entire race together, so once we got through that we settled in to a nice pace that hovered between a 9:45 mile and 10:15. The first section of the race is about 3.7 miles and it is fairly flat with a few small climbs and Laura and I were just trucking along. We got passed by quite a few people, but I knew we would be seeing some of them again later on!

The first aid station came up quick at the end of the first section and we grabbed water and some food. Since we were just running the 25K we decided not to bring water - plus aid stations were about every 3 miles - and I was glad we did this. The next section was beast. It was only a 2.9 mile loop but it was constant climbs and drops. Up 200 feet, then down, then repeat. Just when I thought we were done, there was another. It was freaking hard, but we power hiked up them then got down as fast as possible. Finally we were done and back at the aid station where we grabbed some more water and some pretzels.

At this point Laura and I were still feeling pretty good - we were talking and very upbeat and having a lot of fun! So we took off on the next section which was another 3 miles and it was similar to the first section - a few ups and downs plus some running through some bamboo and some creek crossings and we had a blast running through this part. This section leads to the turn around in the race so we were seeing the front runners come back and we enjoyed cheering them on - either by their place or their race number. I think a few of them thought we were crazy but I think we entertained many. This actually helped the time go by because we were at the turn around in no time. I ate a clif gel here and some MnM's and we were back running very quickly.

Basically the last part of the race is the exact same minus the beastly loop of hills. We made good time back to the last aid station where we had some frozen water that was hard to drink - it was freezing out there! Then we were off for the last 3.7 mile section and it was here that we started to catch people. I think maybe we caught about 8 people or so because there were some volunteers cheering people on and when I heard a lady say 2.5 left I took off and Laura was right behind me. We were flying through the last section and were pumped when we made it back to the stairs that held us up in the beginning of the race!

We crossed the finish line unofficially in 3:11:54 (the course was 16.4 miles) - which I believe is a great time for us. We enjoyed the post race chili and fire, picked up our medals (which are really cool by the way - I'll have to post a picture), and then cheered on the guys going back out. Drew didn't get in the race, but he showed up and ran with Michael on his 2nd 25K loop, so we sent them off. Michael had all kinds of icicles in his beard and Laura had ice in her hair! It was ridiculously cold! But it could have been much worse - the Swampstomper lived up to it's name last year when it rained and the course was very swampy. Luckily the course was dry this year.

All in all, it was a great day. I felt awesome running, had fun with Laura, great course conditions, awesome volunteers and RD - I'm glad I did it and I'll be back next year!!

**I don't have a lot of pics because my camera battery froze up in the cold. I do have a couple that I'll post tomorrow once my camera battery gets back to normal!

Happy running!