Is Mitch Crazy???

You decide: Mitch ran in the X-Terra Wheeler Canyon Xduro, which took place this weekend. The race was over 12 miles long, on a mountain trail, and most of it was uphill. To give you an idea, the announcer at the finish line kept saying, "This race isn't easy. If you want easy, go do an Iron Man. The X-Terra isn't meant for easy." Geez, I thought Iron Mans were tough ... Mitch trained for this race for quite a while, he bought new running socks, and he started using running GU energy gel (gross!). Overall, he did very well. He didn't get hurt on the rough terrain, and he finished just 1 minute over his goal time, which I think is amazing. (He wanted to finished in under 2 hours. His actual time was 2:01:08. Awesome!!! Especially for his first X-Terra race!)

Here's Mitch coming up the last hill just before the finish line.

Here he is getting ready to cross the finish line ... I was yelling, "Go Mitch!!!"

Hooray, you finished!!!!

While I have absolutely zero desire to run this type of race, I was proud of Mitch and I am glad that he is so motivated. And I'm glad Dan invited him to run with him and his buddies because I know Mitch really enjoyed it. Here's Mitch, Jim, Toby, and Dan after the race. (BTW, the fall colors on the mountain were stunning!)

After the race I asked Mitch how he was feeling. He laughed and admitted to me that he almost cried when he saw the finish line. Ha,ha. But let's be honest, I would have cried at mile 3. He also said he thought it was so mean that they put the biggest hill right at the very end of the race. I concur. He also said he's glad he did it and that it was a great sense of accomplishment. Yes, an accomplishment and proof of your partial insanity. :)

The rest of the day I kept expecting him to lay around and stay off his feet, but he didn't. He did say that going up and down stairs were the worst, but overall he felt pretty good. I made him a strawberry smoothie (which ended up being the consistency of ice cream, yum!) when we got home. Hope it helped. Perhaps he'll be really sore tomorrow, but I hope not.

Good job, Hubby! I'm proud of you!!! I do think you're a little bit crazy, but I totally admire you ... as for me, I'll stick with the downhill/flat races.