Fat Ass 25K – spooky dolls in the woods

Before you get offended by the title of the post, I’d like to tell you that a Fat Ass is a trail running thing – it’s sort of a glorified group run.  You can read about them here, or Google it yourself, but basically it’s an organized group run with as little or as much support/swag as the organizer decides to provide.  My friend Jess labeled this as the 5th Annual, but it was the first time that Alan and I attended.  She mapped out a 25K route (or go twice for 50K), which happens to be the Scout trail at Oak Openings park.  That’s the trail that people run when they are training for trail races, like Mohican and other ultras.  Not a lot of hills, but a lot of single track trails, roots, mud and other fun stuff like that.  Alan and I ran on it this year before Mohican.

I had this event on my calendar but wasn’t sure I was really I was going to do this because it’s a week before the Churchill’s half marathon.  I was especially concerned about tripping or twisting my ankle!  But with the help of my friend Sarah, I decided it would be a fun thing to go do, and Alan was also doing it.  So why not!?!  One last long run before Churchills!

There was a pretty good turn out for the event.  You might notice that I’m not in the picture…. I was back at the car getting my gloves.  Doh!!  The temps were right around 40 so I figured I might need them.

Jess planned a fun event for us – retrieving doll heads on the trail!  (spooky Halloween kinda thing)  The heads were hanging on ribbons about every half mile or so.  The winner would get a prize.  It wasn’t even close – we found 2 of them, and the winner found 16!!  This event also had a fun prize for 1st place in both the 25K and 50K.

The trails were really covered in a lot of leaves, and I’m shocked I didn’t trip once.  For almost all of the run we were running with a small group.  There were tables set up with water and some food every 5 miles.  Jess really did a great job organizing this!  I’m glad I was with friends because about 8 miles into it, I was over it.  I probably would have just stopped if I hadn’t been so far away from my car!  I’m not sure why I thought running 15 miles in the woods would be “easy”, because even at the slower pace we were going, it was quite a workout.  My glutes and hammies were not enjoying it.  But the scenery was great!

Around mile 14 I pretty much had to go into walk/run mode to get to the end, and we fell behind the group.  I was spent!!  By the time I got to the finish I could barely move my legs.  Yikes!!  I was also quite suprised that my ankles were soooooo tired.  They were not used to all of the uneven terrain.  Here we are in the woods.  Yep, last two runners in!  🙂  It took us 2:59 to run that 25K.  This was Sarah’s first time on this trail and she did great, finishing before us.

Back at the finish area we had a lot of delicious food.  Hot soups, desserts, and even some apple cider with Fireball!  Alan has a different opinion, but I thought that was pretty good. 😉

Following along with the spooky theme, we also got these handmade “medals”.

After hanging out with everyone, eating a bunch of food (my stomach was growling terribly by the end of the run!), we headed back home.  Immediately I took a nice long soak in the tub to warm up and relax.  Ah, heaven!

Luckily my legs were functioning properly a day later and I didn’t need any more Aleve.  Phew, that took a lot out of me!  Despite how sore it made me, I’m very glad we went and joined in the fun.

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Q:  Have you ever run a Fat Ass race, or any other long run where someone put aid stations out for you?

Q:  Do you ever take ice baths to recover?

Q:  Did you race this weekend?