Yesterday I finished the Run Amuck Race at Quanitco Military Base — With 3000 other people. The race as well done — scheduled in waves depending on your roster number so it wasn’t all crowded at once. Lots of nutritious food at the end — grapes, bananas — water and powerade! I did the race with some great women – Lidia – Queen B, Stac! – who is also training for the Marine Corp Marathon, and Cathy who kept trying to find ways to get out of the race but we wouldn’t let her!!

Now for the race  — It was not nearly as tough or rough as the Crossift race I did a few weeks ago but I think that they did that on purpose bc it was really more for mainstream folks. Lots of people who have not run a 5k before — looking to have fun. I know this because lots of people lacked race etiquette. You know the stuff like –

• if you are going to walk, don’t just stop in the middle of the road – go off to the side and start walking. There are people behind you!
• Don’t just spit while you are running with no regard to anyone around you. There are people around you!
• If you want to stop and play in the mud pits – go off to the edge — Again it goes back to the don’t just stop rule. There are some runners that actually do want to finish with a decent time.
• If you want to stop at the fire truck hoses to get washed off before the finish line – move over so that you don’t block others that want to finish.
• And this one – well I get that people like to run in partners but when you are on a narrow trail – and there are others that want to pass you – it’s difficult to do that when you and your race partner are talking and not paying attention to what’s around you.

Ok – those are the etiquette rules for races that I have found. If you know of some more – go ahead and leave a comment!

They had some exercises to break up the 3.5 mile run – like 10 flutters, 10 jumping jacks, climbing thru a tunnel. Nothing like 50 burpees in the heat!! The only challenging part to me was the crawling under the barbed wire — I was behind a slower person however the final part of it – it wasn’t really mud — it was very sharp rocks that cut up my knees in a bad way.  Yikes!

Personally – I didn’t think the race was all that hard and it got frustrating to me that there were so many casual racers. I think the only reason I would do it again would be to bring my kids and let them do the Kid’s Run Amuck. It’s a long drive for a race like that for me…

I want to mention that we got so lucky – the weather was perfect.  78-80 degrees – lightly overcast — Couldn’t have asked for better racing weather!