Since I wasn't in Texas for Gerred's 24th in February, I decided to do something special for him when I came out in March. Knowing we both love running, I signed us up to race in the San Antonio Jailbreak 5K.
When it came time to race day, we get there a half hour late. I was freaking out about how long it would take us and if they would let us run at all. They almost turned us away since volunteers were already taking up the course, but they called on their walkie talkies to see if anyone would help. Thankfully, they allowed it. We got our bibs, ran over to another station, and began our race 20 minutes in.
It was just us. We had the course to ourselves. Since, the volunteers had already taken down the flags of the beginning of the course which made it a lot more real. It looked like we were actually running from something: prison guards or zombies or whatever. It was definitely post-apocalyptic, in fact, we were running on The National Shooting Range in San Antonio, TX. They had shut down more than half of the range for this event so we could run through obstacles, but there were people still shooting off live rounds not too far away. So really when we were running around and we he ardthe pops of guns in the background we felt like we were really living in this adventure world. It made us both think about the zombies run app, which I swear by.
First thing we do is follow this silver truck up into the hills. We hear the pop pop pop of the guns in the background and we find our first obstacle, a small mud patch. It's not threatening, just a mud patch we run through. We think this is going to be easy then we run into the woods and find our first real obstacle, the under over hurdles. So I had to climb under then jump and hop over an orange parking barrier. I was a little less skilled with going under but I surprised myself. Our next obstacle was a dark wooded area with stretchy cables laced through the tree like a spider web james bond laaser that you had to find yourself through.
[via]
When it came time to race day, we get there a half hour late. I was freaking out about how long it would take us and if they would let us run at all. They almost turned us away since volunteers were already taking up the course, but they called on their walkie talkies to see if anyone would help. Thankfully, they allowed it. We got our bibs, ran over to another station, and began our race 20 minutes in.
It was just us. We had the course to ourselves. Since, the volunteers had already taken down the flags of the beginning of the course which made it a lot more real. It looked like we were actually running from something: prison guards or zombies or whatever. It was definitely post-apocalyptic, in fact, we were running on The National Shooting Range in San Antonio, TX. They had shut down more than half of the range for this event so we could run through obstacles, but there were people still shooting off live rounds not too far away. So really when we were running around and we he ardthe pops of guns in the background we felt like we were really living in this adventure world. It made us both think about the zombies run app, which I swear by.
First thing we do is follow this silver truck up into the hills. We hear the pop pop pop of the guns in the background and we find our first obstacle, a small mud patch. It's not threatening, just a mud patch we run through. We think this is going to be easy then we run into the woods and find our first real obstacle, the under over hurdles. So I had to climb under then jump and hop over an orange parking barrier. I was a little less skilled with going under but I surprised myself. Our next obstacle was a dark wooded area with stretchy cables laced through the tree like a spider web james bond laaser that you had to find yourself through.
[via]
Once we got out of there we went through a small tunnel. I had a bit of a fear going through. I don't think I have a fear of heights or of small spaces, but I definitely have a fear of crawling through long tunnels because I think I'm gonna get stuck. I'm in there and I find small rocks and gravel inside. I was crawling through with my arms and hating it. I say to Gerred "sing to me to get me out" and he immeditately sings "Talk to Dirty to Me." That helped me get through, surprisingly.
We pop out and we had to do high knee tires, It was fun 'cause it was like a work out. I took it like a bootcamp or interval ladder. The whole time we are running Gerred is coming up with a post-apocalyptic story since it looks like we are on an abandoned farm with obstacles. After that we run under barbed wire. We get out and crawl through more tunnels before reaching the water slide cut into the side of a hill. It's essentially soap mud and water and we slid down it and got wet. We had water in our shoes and come back and jump over the tunnels.
We get to the pallet walls. I got to the wall and said I didn't think I could do it but I give it a try. Gerred coaches me over like just swing your legs over and I did it. I made it past this obstacle. And I've always thought I'd never be able to do that and that's why I never joined the military--well there are plenty of reasons why I never joined and that's one of them.
Then we got to the first mud pit which was the hardest thing for me because gerred jumped in just fine. I tell him to watch me jump in because I thought I'd jump in and get through it like it's black Hawk down but I didn't I slipped and fell backward submerging myself in the muddy water and kept slipping as I was trying to climb out.
After that we made our way over to more barriers to jump over. We then caught up to the people that started before us. We actually caught up to them, passed them, and beat them in the end. So we meet these guys at a diagonal rope climb wall. I think I'm too muddy and almost give up, but I start to pull myself up this wall by grabbing knot after knot and I get over. Coming down I fell though. I pretended to belay but actually just chose to fall so that I could continue the run quicker.
Soon after we made it to the tire wall and I thought I was done with the tall walls. But I make my way over, passing more people. I couldn't believe it. Then we had to climb up a cargo net. We passed more people and soon we reach the last obstacle of the 5k: the water slide. Gerred and I race each other up it and I screamed when I slipped down.
Finding we weren't 100% worn out, we decided to take the road less traveled. The Road Less Traveled was an added 2 miles to the journey that included us running up and down a severely steep hill 6 times, army crawling under barbed wire, carrying a tire up a hill, running around trees with sandbags. Basically the last part was added Crossfit that I still can't believe we did. I flipped that tire all the way up the hill. I told myself like I was doing the whole race that I wasn't going to quit.
When we came to the last part, we found it was a swimming mud pit. Oh, it was great. When we passed the finish line we were both awarded medals and given a beer. We threw our shoes into a donate pile and got hosed off by firemen. It was definitely a great birthday gift for Gerred and I loved that I got to be a part of it.
We pop out and we had to do high knee tires, It was fun 'cause it was like a work out. I took it like a bootcamp or interval ladder. The whole time we are running Gerred is coming up with a post-apocalyptic story since it looks like we are on an abandoned farm with obstacles. After that we run under barbed wire. We get out and crawl through more tunnels before reaching the water slide cut into the side of a hill. It's essentially soap mud and water and we slid down it and got wet. We had water in our shoes and come back and jump over the tunnels.
We get to the pallet walls. I got to the wall and said I didn't think I could do it but I give it a try. Gerred coaches me over like just swing your legs over and I did it. I made it past this obstacle. And I've always thought I'd never be able to do that and that's why I never joined the military--well there are plenty of reasons why I never joined and that's one of them.
Then we got to the first mud pit which was the hardest thing for me because gerred jumped in just fine. I tell him to watch me jump in because I thought I'd jump in and get through it like it's black Hawk down but I didn't I slipped and fell backward submerging myself in the muddy water and kept slipping as I was trying to climb out.
After that we made our way over to more barriers to jump over. We then caught up to the people that started before us. We actually caught up to them, passed them, and beat them in the end. So we meet these guys at a diagonal rope climb wall. I think I'm too muddy and almost give up, but I start to pull myself up this wall by grabbing knot after knot and I get over. Coming down I fell though. I pretended to belay but actually just chose to fall so that I could continue the run quicker.
Soon after we made it to the tire wall and I thought I was done with the tall walls. But I make my way over, passing more people. I couldn't believe it. Then we had to climb up a cargo net. We passed more people and soon we reach the last obstacle of the 5k: the water slide. Gerred and I race each other up it and I screamed when I slipped down.
Finding we weren't 100% worn out, we decided to take the road less traveled. The Road Less Traveled was an added 2 miles to the journey that included us running up and down a severely steep hill 6 times, army crawling under barbed wire, carrying a tire up a hill, running around trees with sandbags. Basically the last part was added Crossfit that I still can't believe we did. I flipped that tire all the way up the hill. I told myself like I was doing the whole race that I wasn't going to quit.
When we came to the last part, we found it was a swimming mud pit. Oh, it was great. When we passed the finish line we were both awarded medals and given a beer. We threw our shoes into a donate pile and got hosed off by firemen. It was definitely a great birthday gift for Gerred and I loved that I got to be a part of it.
So awesome! We did the Jailbreak in El Paso last year and are doing it again this year. It's such a fun race. :)
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