Dances with Dirt

Dances with Dirt is just a ridiculous adventure. I had no idea what to really expect going in since I'd never done it before, only the promise from Shawn who was assigning legs that mine would be mostly trail (for my knees' sake) instead of having to wade through mud or pass a river. Dressed in red tights, a t-shirt with a red lightning bolt on it, a red bandana and a huge red cape to fulfill my team assigned super hero role of "Flash" (we also had Cat Woman, and two Captain Underpants) I took off on the first leg, a long 4.75 miles.

I went out fairly quick but as there are more than three hundred teams there were a lot of runners ahead of me. I had heard that it was important since we would be on a single track trail before long. Regardless, after about seven minutes people started falling away and despite keeping the same pace, I moved through to the top twenty or so. Our placing really didn't matter though, we were all there to have fun and I was just thinking it would be a nice way to get in my first fifteen mile day in a while, even if it was split into three runs.

My second leg was longer and I didn't get lost as I had on my first (I mistakenly followed the guy in front of me who took a wrong turn, only about 100 yards total, but still meant I had to pass a lot of people again, hard on single track) though I did drop my sunglasses and realize it a minute later. Luckily the guy behind me had picked them up and had them on his head so I only lost a minute (what a nice guy, really how everyone should be). After my second leg of 6.something I had to wait until the last leg of the day, probably four or five hours at least so I started eating some of the awesome sandwiches Nobuko brought. A number of the middle legs seemed pretty rough, people were coming out muddy up to their chests among other things. It was great to sit around and take note of all the costumes people had put together and see some people we knew including Tom and Babs (one of my professors).

The last leg was just over four miles but it had started raining and was down to sixty degrees. Even though I knew we were out for fun, I still wanted to run fast and couldn't help but feel it was a race, maybe not quite the same but certainly similar feelings to when I last stepped on the track. I guess I'm competitive... But with the rain and the trails, I took a lot of care on the downhills since they were flowing like little rivers, turning the run into a long series of sprint-jogs, sprinting the flats and hills and then carefully maneuvering down the other sides. I passed a fair number of people and then after the final downhill, put everything I had out. I was annoyed after the triathlon, not knowing exactly where the finish was and feeling that if I had I could have run faster, not only that I should have run the last five miles faster but that I should have sprinted harder at the finish despite being alone. The result was that I sprinted as hard as I could, as hard as I could at the end of fifteen miles and it felt amazing. I can't wait to have the same feeling on the track in spikes. But I can be patient.

Our team was fantastic. Jason drove for a bit in the morning, Allen ran hard and was good company in the car between legs, Nobuko kept us in line and certainly had the best costume out of all of us, running hard in fishnets, Shawn had on black CK briefs over spandex and took the hardest legs (thanks) and then Adam ran all of his in a row which meant the rest of us had time to sit around and refuel. It was a great day. But now I'm exhausted and ready for Donut Sunday. I've missed the last two and I'm anxious to get back at it.