I am back from the Living History Farms 10k race. You know the one described as,
| ake the decision to be a part of the “Largest & best Cross Country Race in North America”. You must be ready to climb fences, wade through creeks, avoid cows and claw your way to the top of gullies with over 4,000 other runners of questionable senses. Don’t wear anything to race in that you might want to keep. This race is a place to have a ‘good, dirty ol’ time’. |
Well they weren’t kidding. I will post some photos later of my outfit before and after. It was too cold for me to dress up (about 37 degrees F), but it was perfect weather for running. First however, the short answer to how did you do? I finished the 10k in 1 hour and 7 or 8 minutes unofficially (the actual start time is fuzzy as 5000 people trying to get out the starting gate led to lots of choke points throughout the course and forced walking). I could have done it faster, but this was not a course for speed. On the positive, I did finish ahead of everyone else in my National Guard team.
It was a true trail course with huge hills and 8 stream crossings. The stream crossing weren’t for the mild either. At one point I waded down above knee high on me (thigh or waist high for others) stream for 75 feet before I had to wait to get out. I discovered that waiting in near freezing water is worse than wading in it. The only thing worse than waiting in the water is falling face first, which I can claim I did not do, but I did see many occurances of it. The worst stream cross was one with 7 or 8 foot walls on either side, and you found out you stunk of cattle yard (re: manure) afterwards.
There were a number of cliffs that you had to climb as well. For some there were rope ladders to pull yourself up. Some you simply had to keep your legs moving and churn your way to the top of mud on top of ice hill. We were blest with lots of sun yesterday, which led to of course all the ground thawing and making the course generally covered with 2 inches of sloppy mud. You could pick your way through it unless of course you were running with 5000 other runners in a pack and had your route pretty well picked by the presence those around you.
I will definitely be doing this again next year. I would like to see how I would do on a road or less trail-like 10k. My kids are all about “did you win, Dad?”, but for me, I would just like to see what my current time is for a 6.3 miles. Then there is also the mini-joy of passing all the teenagers, who admittedly don’t know they are in a mini-race with a 33 year old ex-fat guy. 
Finally, there was a bit of joy know I didn’t have to carbload to complete the race. My pre-race meal consisted of my routine Fajita turkey (chicken is more often the case) salad a few hours before race. I had plenty of energy all the way to the end, and skipped the post-race congratulatory carbload in the form of donuts and hot apple cider.
Some before and aftermath photos can be found in my Photo Gallery here. Feel free to browse around the gallery, and check out the other photos as well.
You ran 10k?? Wow. That’s amazing. I can’t even make it up to the corner. haha!
[...] This year was the first year both Laura and I ran the Living History Farms Race together. Last year, I ran the 6-mile race by myself but as regaled my wife of the run she became intrigued to do the run for herself. The race for those unfamiliar bills itself as [...]