Urbanathlon!!!

Finally, the best race of the year came up. With a start time of 7 am, I got up at 4:30 ready to get going and more than a little nervous. I had committed to cutting 10 minutes off my time from last year before really thinking about what that meant. After breaking down the times, it looked like I would have to run consistent 7 minute miles, hit the obstacles hard and still finish climbing and descending a 52 story building in less than 17 minutes.

The race started poorly, with fog, light rain and tight calves. The wet course slowed everybody down and lead to one incautious racer to fall and then tumble down a set of stone steps right in front of me. Finished the first set of obstacles without problem, but breathe was hard and erratic. The middle leg was the hardest, as I just felt outclassed in terms of actual running ability. If this wasn't a wake up call to get off my ass and learn POSE, I don't know what is. The low crawl, monkey bars and marine hurdles were fine, but I couldn't wait to end the distance running and hit the stairs. It was here that I knew I would shine and pick up some spots.

Sure enough, people started gassing around floor 30, allowing me to pass 15-20 people in the building. A hard mile run to the end, quick jump over the taxi and wall climb and the race was over.

Best part, I finished 24th out of ~950 individual runners with a time of 1:12:31, almost exactly ten minutes faster. Even with terrible run form, I picked up the time, pushed hard and made it happen. It was awesome!