Today's Friday 5 theme is Fitness (per the rules of the Friday 5 Link Up), so I thought I'd share with you 5 of the strangest races I have run.
Meg's Strange Races...
1. Hydroworx Underwater Marathon. Hydroworx is a company that makes underwater treadmills. This race raised money for the Eagle Fund, which helps wounded warriors. I ran a relay leg of this race in a huge tank of water in the parking lot of Troeg's Brewery in Hershey. Talk about a strange experience!
2. Dark & Dirty 6.66 mile nighttime trail run. I never ran a race at night before I did this one. It was strange but SO FREEING to run in the dark and up and down a mountain. Actually I can't believe I came out of this unscathed!
3. Last Man Standing. This trail race was a 1.6 mile loop. The first loop had to be completed in 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the second loop started and you had 19 minutes to complete it. And so on, and so on. I was able to complete 8 laps. I ran this race with my dad, which made it super fun! Recap here.
4. Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. The reason this marathon was so strange was because it was actually longer than a marathon! 26.45 miles, to be exact. (My first ultra!?) There was a fire on the course very early in the morning so they had to divert the runners. This was in the days before everyone had a Garmin, and I certainly didn't have one. I remember Mile 22 seemed to go on foreeeever. We learned after the race what had happened and everyone ended up getting their times adjusted.
5. HARRC in the Park. This trail race was around 9 miles. The reason this race was so strange was because it was the only time another runner was outright nasty to me. Let me tell you the story...
At the time, I was a pretty decent trail runner, so I was flying through the course. I wasn't sure what place I was in and didn't really care, I was just there for a challenging run. With about 2 miles left, I passed a woman who had stopped and walked for a minute. She had blood on her knees so it looked like at some point she had taken a topple. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes. I could tell she was annoyed.
I ended up being the 2nd woman and the lady I passed was the 3rd woman. After she finished, she walked over to me and in a very irritated voice said, "If this was a road race I would've beat you."
WTF????????
I did not even know how to respond to this woman. I had never (nor have I since) experienced another runner being so nasty! I can't remember what I said back... something like, "You did a good job." I just didn't have something sassy to retort because I couldn't believe she was so rude!
Tell me about the strangest race you ever ran!
Today, I'm linking up with the DC girls for Friday 5!
