Barefoot March Madness with Merrell’s and Mud!

Run for your Lives GA March 3 2012

So far i have had a great March and i wanted to update you on a couple of races i just ran. Both in my Merrell Trail Gloves and i must say they performed admirably in some horrendous conditions.

Run For Your Lives – GA – March 3rd 2012 – This was a total blast. The premise is a 5k obstacle race mixed with flag football. Each runner is given a belt with 3 velcro strips (flags) on it. one on each hip and one on the back. Through out the course there are Zombies (in full movie make-up and effects) who’s job it is to chase you down and kill you by taking your 3 flags. The night before the race we had a huge storm come through with tornadoes and it dropped a lot of rain. as you can   see the place was a mud bath. This made sudden direction changes to dodge around groping zombies very difficult. I will say though that considering the conditions the Merrell’s did very well. It was also interesting to note from a running standpoint. The mud was thick enough so that you sunk into it with every step. I found this easier to to run on rather than walk. Keeping on my mid foot and my strides light and quick so to limit the amount i sunk into the mud. Compared to walking when my heel would sink in every time. I had a great race though and finished in 55:09. That was 174th out of 2500 and 37th in my 30-39 age group.

Spartan Race – GA – March 10th 2012 – Wow this was a tough one. I thought i would step it up a little and move into the more hardcore category of mud runs that is populated by the Spartan Race and Tough Mudder. 4 miles and 18 obstacles. This was different from the other races i have done. If your a good runner with some agility and coordination  you will do well with those. This however was a very different animal. Much more upper body strength needed and a punishment if you failed and obstacle. (30 burpees). I failed 5 of the 18 obstacles so that meant 150 burpees for me. Still it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun. I’ll be back next year and will be in better shape and ready to crush it that time. Still for and old fart’s first effort i did a 1:46:40, 1640 out of 3364 and 212th in my 35-39 age group. The Merrell Trail gloves, (cleaned up and dried off from last week) did a fantastic job, sure footed and light on my feet. I found only one flaw with them and that is that they are awful for climbing muddy ropes with. The sole design around the foot arch, provides no traction what so ever. I’ll take them off for that obstacle next year 😉