I honestly didn't know what to expect from the Scarrier Games at Medved. I was involved solely at first to represent The Lost Borough Brewing Company. My obligation? To pour beer after the run to participants. Since I've grown a friendship with the guys over there, when I mentioned to them I was interested in participating and running the event, they encouraged me to go for it. I was happy they didn't mind or think it was unprofessional. This was a working event and in my former years of WBEE promotions, mixing "business with pleasure" would never be allowed. And heck, maybe deep down I wanted Medved to say "no"... so it could be my "out" because I was truly intimidated of what these Scarrier Games would be like. For me, "Scarrier" meant playing with the "big dogs" again and being put on a team where I was the slowest runner, holding others back.... NOT because it was a Halloween-themed scavenger hunt in the dark around town with friends in costumes.
The day before the event, Medved posted that people could either form their team in advance, or be in the "luck of the draw" and be placed on a random team. For this "end of the pack runner" I was THRILLED. I wrote a post on facebook saying "Calling all Slower Runners 11-15 minute miles" to try and see who I could recruit. This made me feel so much better about the event. Their last event did not have this option, and was half the reason I just spectated and poured beer afterwards. I had received a few responses, some from strangers (now, new friends) and others that I have run with in the past. GOOD, I thought! The nerves at that point were gone. And, it made walking into Medved on that brisk but beautiful Tuesday night so easy... not just because everyone likes the girl bringing 7 growlers of beer to share, but because I was excited and not scared about running.
So, here's how the Scarrier Games went down. It was a timed event where teams were handed a map with different checkpoint locations scattered around town that we needed to run to. Each checkpoint was worth certain points, some higher than others and the goal was to have our team earn the most points. In order to not be disqualified, we had FOUR mandatory checkpoints we needed to run to. The entire team had to be at each checkpoint and then post a picture for proof we had made it.
There were also activities we could do as a team to earn more points during our run. For example, we could video ourselves trick-or treating at houses or places of businesses... or invite a stranger to sing 'Ghostbusters' with us. It was all pure nonsense, but fun and festive. The last caveat to this challenge was that we needed to be back at the store within 75 minutes. If you were late, your team started to lose points. For every 10 minutes you were late, you lost your highest checkpoint/activity point value. CRAZY, huh? No pressure there, ha!!
I was the team captain for "Lost Soles" (however I somehow didn't make the correlation and posted us as "Lost Souls" during the run. This made for a laugh after the event. Whoops!) We were lucky we had a veteran on our team who has done these types of events before AND knew how to get to the locations on the map. That was key!
As team captain, I was to help direct the group to different checkpoints and take pictures/videos along the way. But, when it came time to look at the map, I swear my hands never touched it. Our team didn't put a strategy together, or really decide where we'd run, who could run "that far" nor what pace people were at. We just ran and started the event off with such energy and enthusiasm. It was great. In the back of my head I still assumed we were all at the same pace (based on my facebook post) but didn't really know for sure since we had others join our team when we got to the store.
Our team veteran guided us to checkpoints and really was in control. I had my job of taking the pictures and everything was going really good until....
There was the point of the night where we had to get to our last mandatory checkpoint. From our current location it was about a 2 mile run, up a steady incline,up Monroe Ave. The energy and fun feelings I had were put to the test. I felt defeated, but tried hard to just suppress those feelings. We had to run those 2 miles to the checkpoint, take the obligatory team picture and then run 1.5 miles back to the store... Oh, and then there was that clock we were racing against too.
This was the very thing I was intimidated about when first thinking about doing this event. I knew if I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have participated. But at that point, it was too late to dwell on that fact and I needed to just RUN with my team. We needed to get to that checkpoint and back to the store. We all were at different paces and I was at the back. One of my teammates stayed with me for a while, and was so encouraging. During the last quarter mile, downhill back to the store I was EXHAUSTED. I ended up running 5.53 miles. I had no intention nor where with all that this was going to happen. And I knew I would have said "no" if I did. Being thrown into the mix and having to overcome the challenge allowed me to learn so much. Don't be scared.
Okay, part two of this blog post: Pumpkins in the Park.
What a great race, on a pretty hilly course with some awesome friends. I was able to shave about 2 minutes off last year's time, and I crossed the finish line with such a great person!! Carrie and I pushed each other when we needed it the most. I felt way more prepared this year and embraced each hill, hearing Pina's voice echo in my brain. Ironically my bib number was 365... and it made me reminisce about how last year I gave myself the goal to conquer that course with conviction. It was so rewarding to see my watch stats. My average pace was 11:44 and fastest mile was 10:51. I'll take those numbers. My watch said I ran that 5K in 37:16, and Yellow Jacket timing clocked me at 37:55. Again, I'll take those numbers and aim to beat them next year!
Running this race with Carrie was awesome. We haven't ran together in a while, and feeding off her determination was so inspiring. Contagious even, when I grew tired. I don't think we've ever crossed a finish line together, either... so this will be something I'll take to the memory bank.
It's been a great week... and definitely some solid steps uphill on my personal climb. What moves me today? Aiming to being fearless. It's hard for me to do this. But, when you take a chance or put yourself out there, you get the...
"these are the moments that, I'm gonna remember most, yeah. Just gotta keep goin'"
...that you don't intend to get!
#theclimb
#theclimb
