Paying it Forward and Playing in the Sand

This weekend, I ran my first race of 2012. Kind of hard to believe that with all the running I’ve done this year it’s the only official race I’ve run. And it was on the beach.

 On Saturday, two coworkers and I took on the Beach Dash, a 5K obstacle course run put together by the creators of the Warrior Dash (the military-style mud runs with crazy obstacles). I figured this wouldn’t be as tough as the Warrior Dash seeing it was on the beach and the beach is always fun. And I had seen pictures of previous Beach Dash’s in other cities that included a beach ball pit and a water noodle forest.

Neither of those things was there. In their places were large wooden structures you had to run, jump and climb over. Not to mention flat wooden slabs you had to slide down once your got to the other side (I was mostly worried about getting a splinter in my ass!), rope blankets you had to army crawl under, sand mounds you had to climb, and water pools you had to wade through and then continue running with now water-logged sneakers that felt like cement shoes.

Oh yeah, and it torrential down poured for the first mile, so fierce and so sideways that it whipped and stung your skin like pieces of hail. After the down pour let up, the steady rain felt good on our sweaty bodies and washed away the sand and grass that had started to build up. 

Me and Elizabeth posing post race.



This felt like the longest 5K I’ve ever run (no wonder you got a medal and a beer at the end!). I can’t imagine how my coworker Elizabeth felt—it was her first race ever. At the time we registered, she had wanted to get more involved in fitness activities and she agreed to do it with me. My philosophy was that everyone has to start somewhere and this seemed like a fun place to begin. I never would have started running half marathons if it wasn’t for the encouragement of my former coworkers Kristin and Abby, so it was time to pay it forward and help someone else achieve something they never thought they could do.

All three of us in our fancy new hats.

I ran with her the entire time and she did great. She pushed herself to run after taking brief walking breaks and conquered all but two of the obstacles (I didn’t do one of them either). And when she came down funny on her ankle after one of the last obstacles, she walked it off and came running across the finish line like a champ. I was so proud of her!

And then we all drank beer and played in the sand for a few hours in our new pineapple hats … and lived happily ever after.

As an extras bonus, the race officially put me over the halfway mark of my New Year’s Resolution to run 500 miles—I currently have 247.54 miles to go! I think I’ll avoid the beach and any wooden structures in the next half.