Kristi- here’s the race story I promised and a few pictures. — Last year around August I was asked by my friend Stacy if I would come out and do an obstacle course race with her since none of her friends were willing to do it with her and she really wanted to try one. I said sure, but it needed to be a long one because I wasn’t driving to Minneapolis for a 5k. I’d never done a OCR but had been thinking about it for a while so it would be a good bucket list item for me. A few weeks later I got a message from her saying that there was a Battlefrog obstacle course race on May 21 and that registration was 75% off for one more day with and it was an 8K. I said sure, and signed up right away to take advantage of the deal. All the while I’m thinking that it would make a great excuse to visit friends over my 40th birthday weekend. Three hours after signing up for Battlefrog and posting it to Facebook I got a message from Amy who said “Why they heck did you do that? Green Bay’s Cellcom half marathon is May 22?! We have to race it to complete the special medal series!” Cellcom is doing a three race series and for 2015, 2016 and 2017 the finisher’s medal is 1/3rd of a pie piece and after you race all three races there is a special image on the back when you put the medals together. I had just raced it so I obviously had to do that race as well in order to complete the series medal. I cursed myself for not checking the Cellcom website before signing up for Battlefrog because I now had two races the same weekend, and they were a five hour drive apart and there wouldn’t be time to meet up with friends in Minneapolis and enjoy the accomplishment. I would need to stay focused on getting both races done without hurting myself too badly and hope fate didn’t toss a monkey wrench into my plans. Fast forward about 10 months worth of training: The Battlefrog race went well and I cleared all the obstacles on the first try, including the 20 foot rope climb I had been dreading, but practicing! It was a beautiful dry and dusty 90 degree day with a start time of 11am. I only injured myself a little bit, but by the time I saw the first medic he just wrapped it so I could continue and finish the race instead of putting in stitches. We had a good time and stood in line to get our picture taken after the race, then it was a goodbye for me. The five hour drive afterwards wasn’t pleasant because my legs tried cramping up on me. Thank goodness for electrolyte drinks, cruise control and a couple rest stops to stretch out. The next day started out early because I was racing Cellcom with my girlfriend Jami and friends Amy and Missy. We were all at the start line by 8am while family members slept in. We were assured they would all be at the finish line before we crossed it. I wound up beating my previous year’s time by 3 & 1/2 minutes and people were indeed there at the finish line looking much fresher for having had at least three more hours sleep than we did. I took a necessary vacation day on Monday and got a much needed massage to work the kinks out but was still sore for the next couple days anyway. I wonder what my 50th birthday will look like. Dominic
Last modified: June 30, 2016
