Running Mad...Alice in wonderland themed virtual with some forrest friends

As a Mother’s Day gift I registered my mom for the Running Mad virtual race that was sponsored by Mom’s Run This Town running club.  Since we do most of our training runs together, I figured this was something we could do together as a mother daughter team.  Also, since the theme was Running Mad, ( Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter), this race was perfect for these Disney fans! There was a 5k, 10k and half marathon option. I committed us to the 10K option. At the time of registration, neither of us had raced that distance before so I thought it would give us something to work towards. The race didn’t start till July, so we had some time.

Well, we did our Running Mad race yesterday. I ran my first official 10k last month at the Robbins Run 10K. ( if you missed that recap, you can see it HERE) This course was a trail run very deep into the woods.  It definitely was not like the level terrain of the rail trail or the trails along the river that I usually run. To me, it was a bit extreme, but I finish with a time of 1:06 which I was happy with.  I wanted to show my mom this trail that I ran last month and since it was already marked out as a 10K route, we agreed to run this trail for our Running Mad run.

The first half of the route I remembered very clearly, but there were a couple times we were hesitant on which way to go because I just couldn’t remember.  Fortunately a lot of the orange flags and orange spray paint were still on the path and trees, but just a tad more would have been helpful to me!   If we would have ran the 10k on the flat trail we normally run on, we probably would have made a little better time, but we wouldn’t have had as much fun.  We chose this wooded trail because we haven’t been so happy running on the rail trail lately because it is so stinking hot and there is not a lot of shade on that trail. We knew this wooded trail would provide much needed shade on a hot July morning.  With that being said, there was also a lot of mud we had to either dodge or go slow in so we did not slip and fall, some swampy parts of the trail that got our shoes wet, and a visitor that crossed our path. 

 That’s right, A deer ran right across our path. My mom says I must attract them or something. (If you hadn’t read about my previous deer encounter on a different trail, you can read that HERE)  This seemed to be a nice deer though. Once it leaped off the path and into the woods, it stood there a while and left me take some pictures of him. So this of course slowed us down a bit too.  We did see some rabbits as well (but unfortunately none of them were white). We finally finished our 6.2 miles with a time of 1:12. I didn’t think that was bad at all considering the circumstances! 

 

We chose to forego the post race picture since we were wet and muddy by this time but here are some pictures of our race swag.

Our custom bibs courtesy of MRTT.

MRTT also sent us these Boston bands that have the date 4-15-13 on them.

We also got these cool koozies. 
Notice the back design is fitting with true Alice in wonderland fashion!

 If you would like to participate in a MRTT virtual run, check their website in the winter months for their winter virtual at http://www.momsrunthistown.com/

~M