2012 Mud Chug--Iowa City, IA

As a favor to the race Director, I am removing this post.


If you would like more information on my personal experience in this race, please contact me at


lewisclarkiowa@hotmail.com

2012 Austin 10/20 Race--Austin, Texas 10 miles, 20 bands

My friend Tracy invited me to go with her to Texas so I could attend her Nephew's wedding with her. I told her it would be really great to find an awesome race to do in Texas while we were there, and that way we could have a finishing medal from a new state!  We found this race www.austin1020.com
I was impressed by the finishing medal and after talking about the race together we both signed up at the same time while talking on the phone.

We arrived in Texas on Thursday, April 12th and the first place we drove to was http://www.lukeslocker.com/ to pick up our race packet and to also buy matching tanks to run in.

The weather ended up being a perfect 70 degrees, little windy, with some rain sprinkles around mile 2-3 which felt amazing.  The ten miles flew by and I finished with a time of 1:56:35 which was great because I wanted to finish under 2 hours.  Here are results in my age group if you want to view them: Women 35-39 results.  Here are pictures to enjoy!

My racing bib.

Front of shirt

Stuff inside the packet

Me taking a picture of myself in front of a super large cactus the day before the race.

Morning of the race around 7a.m.  Pre-race picture of Tracy and me.  We bought matching tanks and ran the entire  race together.

Picture taken right after the race.

Me holding my awesome finishing medal.

Back in the hotel, after a long hot shower, after lots of stretching, wearing our race shirts!  My face was a little sunburnt.

2012 LIS Panther Pride 5K and 1 mile Run--Williamsburg, Iowa

My friend Stephany showed up at our home to get a ride to the race, and then we all left at 7:35a.m. to get to Williamsburg. It was cold out, around 45 degrees so I told all the children that wearing running skins and long sleeve shirts would be a good idea. Most of them listened. This race started at 9a.m. and had both the 5K and 1 mile races going at the same time. Brenden, Alyssa and I all ran the 5K race. Brenden's 5K time was 24:14, Alyssa's time was 33:29 so this is a new PR for her, since her last time was 37 minutes on the dot. Scott ran the 1 mile race and his time was 9:35. My 5K time was 29:05 which is good for this course since last year my time on this same course was over 30 minutes.

 Great points about this race: 
 Massive amount of door prizes and you got to choose what you wanted when your name was called. Chances of being called for a door prize was very high since there were so many. 
Indoor bathrooms. Indoor places to set your stuff, sit down and relax from the cold. 
Plenty of food and water after the race 
Water on the course 
Well marked course 
Police to lead the race. 
Volunteers on the course to tell you where to turn. 
Unique piece of pottery given to all winners in their age group and overall winners. 
Some parking at the school so you didn't have to walk far to get your shirt. 
You get a shirt and race number bib for your scrapbook. 
Accurate timing.

 Not so great points about this race: 
 It is a super hilly course, hills every 1/8 a mile it seemed so if you don't like hills or haven't ever trained on them, then this race isn't for you. 
Whoever the volunteers with the water stop were, they were talking at the table to each other and not holding out the water. Both of my children running the 5K mentioned this same thing.
 Both the 1 mile and 5K race are done at the same time so if you are running the 5K and your child or children are running the 1 mile race, you won't get to see them run or take pictures of them. :(

Before the race.  Scott, Me, Brenden and Alyssa

our shirt

My race number and it adds up to 13.

Our entire race group.  Alyssa, Scott, Me, Tracy, Stephany, Allison and Ryan

Scott running his 1 mile race.

Brenden about finish his 5K race.

 I love her shirt that says, "It never ends" when she is finishing.

Alyssa after she finished.

All my friends and family won door prizes.  Scott got a football, Alyssa won gift certificates to Cold Stone Creamery and Pancheroes.  I won two gift certificates to a local Mexican Restaurant.  Brenden won bbq and hot sauce.  My friends all won gift certificates as well.

My friend Allison and her husband Ryan both holding gift certificates they won as well!

Alyssa finished 2nd in her age group so she received  a cute little  piece of pottery.  I  love how Scott is  being cheesy in the picture.

I won gift certificates to a local Mexican restaurant!

My friend Bill.

My friend Crystal right after she finished her 2nd ever 5K.

2012 Warrior Challenge--Iowa City, IA

On Saturday, March 31st in Iowa City over at the Hawkeye Recreation fields, 3 friends of mine and I were in a race together. This was a unique race put on by the VA hospital for the Wounded Warrior Project. See link to know more about that. It was a super cold morning around 45 degrees out.  The weather said it would be a heck of a lot warmer so we basically froze the entire time.  None of us had gloves and should have because it would have helped with our events as you will see below.

This year one of my goals is to do a lot of longer races and a lot of harder races.  I consider this one of those "harder races".  There were three events.  First you had to flip a bus tire, weighing approximately 100 pounds down 25 yards.  Then you had to carry cinder blocks 25 yards and stack them into the correct formation with your team.  Then you had a backpack with 15 pounds of rocks in it that you had to carry on your back for a 5K distance.   You could run or walk with these rocks.  Our team walked/jogged the entire race because we had a team member that just had knee surgery 4.5 weeks ago.  I was so proud of her to be able to participate in this event given how her knee was still not 100%.

I have lots of pictures to tell the story of the day.  I have to say this is one of my favorite races so far that I have done.  Races are so much more fun when done with friends!

Showing off our cool shirt sleeves.  My friend Kris Tharp owns a running store in North Liberty Iowa called  We Run and she gave us all matching shirts!  Then Rhoni Jo's husband designed the back of the shirts for us.

Our shoes with our timing chips.

Before the race began.  From Left to Right:  Me, Kari, Rhoni Jo and Allison.

The back of the shirt that Chad designed.  I love it!  I'm sure we looking the most awesome.

Allison flipping her tire down 25 yards.

Me flipping the tire, putting my knee into it.  This thing was soooo heavy.

Caleb and Jacob were asked to DJ the event.  Here is their website

Another shot of Allison.   You can tell from her expression how hard this tire was to flip.

Kari flipping the tire with no problem at all, she is so strong.  We all admire her.

Rhoni Jo getting the tire over.

Another picture of me.  I was making all kinds of growling noises.  I really struggled getting this thing lifted and over.  If you double click on the picture you can see my expression.

Next was the cinder block carry.

I thought this was hard to do as well.  The block is just awkward.

Finally we did it.  The blocks all made a flag.

This was taken just before the 5K.  Our backpacks are on and we are ready to race.

this was during the race, not sure where Rhoni Jo was.  She was with us the entire time because we had to run /walk or jog as a team and couldn't be further than 50 yards away from a team member or you were disqualified.

Posing with our heavy bags.

My favorite picture taken after the race was over.