Not recommended for the faint of heart.
Are you just a glutton for punishment?
Doesn’t that intrigue you? It draws you in & if you are anything like me, you have to test your limits. You have to see if it is as tough as they say & you need to see if you are tougher than that.
The Lake Michigan RTS 10k race just became my favorite.
Hands down the hardest race I have done aside from my full marathon.
Hands down the most fun I have ever had in a race.
My friend, Roberta & I decided to take it on together & for a change, this race we were going to stick together every step of the way.
Your first mile is on the road which leads you off into the woods for a trail run. The trail was narrow & windy & uphill. Somehow it felt like we never really went downhill, just up!
Eventually, we found the sunlight again as we transitioned to the sand. However, we had zero idea what the sand portion consisted of or how far we had to run in the sand!
We ran down the lakeshore for what felt like a far distance only to turn around & have to run past the point we entered the beach at! We could not decide to go shoes on or off so we kept them on….they were soaked! Oh but we laughed. We ran the beach like some crazy mamas giggling, singing our playlists & occasionally even dancing a bit to the tunes. At one point, I was laughing so hard I had to stop running; I could not breathe! Way too much fun!
We turned off the beach to see the dune we had to conquer next. We might have grumbled a bit, kind of considered ourselves pretty stupid for getting up early on a Saturday morning to do such “stupid stuff.” Yes, this was said as we continued to laugh!
As I approached the top of this dune, what appeared to be a nice man was sitting there on a four wheeler. As my head was not looking upwards yet, I heard him say, “Thanks for coming. Water is at the top.”
In my head I thought, “At the top????….What the…”
It was then that I lifted my head up to realize we had not even begun yet. I looked over to this man & responded with, “I don’t even really like you.” Of course, with a smile as I turned around to watch Roberta’s face look up!
We stood there chatting with the man for a minute before we climbed down the current dune in order to begin the real trudge uphill.
When I stood there looking at this dune, at first I began telling myself how hard this was going to be. We still had to run a few miles after this point. But I shifted my mindset mentally & actually smiled at the challenge.
Smiled. Because I knew I was stronger than this. Because how blessed was I to be out in the dunes running around like crazy with my best friend. Because my body can do this. Because I felt alive.
In the middle of the dune, I asked Roberta if she still loved me.
“Umm….no,” she responded.
“That’s okay, I know you’ll love me again soon.”
The crazy stuff I talk that girl into doing with me!
The view at the top was worth it!
Then….the downhill. A straight down drop; one of those lean backwards kind or you will be rolling head over heels all the way down!
From here it was back to the trails that again seemed all uphill with not much downhill action! In this part, I felt so strong. I felt confident. I felt sweaty. I felt sexy & beautiful. I felt like me.
Others were quitting, some walking every uphill slant we had. We pushed. We ran. We were stronger than we knew.
Finally, we made our way back out to the road where it was just under a mile left to run before we crossed the finish line on the most challenging feat but the most fun one too!
The two of us were smiling so big, we felt so alive & proud. It was the craziest & strongest endorphin high I have ever experienced in my life! We giggled like little girls, we would bust out in random laughter out of nowhere as an image or some part of the race came back in our minds.
It was awesome. I cannot wait to do it all over again. Roberta, you’re in next year again, right? She did stop hating me again, just as we crossed the finish line!
Until Next Time~
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