C5k and a ruck!

This past weekend was a great one! My favorite 5k road series came back with craicfest. Cambridge 5k really does have an epic finisher party! All the beet you could want from 3 vendors and a cider option as well. The people are so nice, you will see so many awesome costumes. One guy was dressed as a pot of gold, and several people wore Celtics jerseys, and finally the coolest one i heard was a guy that dressed as Larry bird, and dribbled a basket ball the whole race! I went as superman again. They had to change the route due to snow, and made the after party indoors, and what a great idea, as the forecast was for cold temps and snow, the snow did not start until after the after party, but was there for the ruck! I was admittedly concerned about the snow, because Cambridge has been piling up the snow as much as Boston, it is pretty bad out there, but the new route was great, no issues. The swag you get from c5k is great, the beer, the food (California pizza kitchen) and they always have cool shirts! Make sure to sign up early, they usually have perks and a cheaper price, i got a hat as well because I registered early, (next year i think i will get the season pass, hindsight is always 20/20 right?) the next race they are doing if you are one of the first 250 you get a cooler shirt. Parking was in the mall and it was free, they gave out 5 free all day parking passes in the swag bag, as well as a coupon book for a bunch of the stores in the mall. If you are a new runner I would highly recommend this race, they have people that are really fast, I think the winning time was in the 17 min time frame, but there are plenty of people over 30, and over 45, and everybody is there to have fun, dance, and dress up. I went into the race hoping to get another pr, my last 2 c5k races I pr'd so I figured it was good luck. I did not, that being said, for my first 5k of the season I am not complaining, just shy of my pr, (I ran a 22:50, pr is about 22:40) so I still have my hope of hitting a 20 (or sub 20) 5k this year! I also learned some things about where you are in the starting corral and what it can do to your head! (I will probably elaborate in another blog post later on)

Next up goruck, they are a company that makes military grade bags and things, great gear, with great customer service! They also do events that are full of pt, carrying heavy stuff, a whole lot of team building exercises, a bunch of marching around a city (they are a national company)  they also have historical stories they share, related trivia, and personal recounts of stories. The people that run the event are called cadre, and they are pretty friendly people, granted they are recanting war stories sometimes and pushing you to do the task at hand. They have several levels of events with varying time frames and distances rucked. They did an H/C/L (heavy/carry/light) the light, more info here. The event was st Patrick's day themed (hence the green on the loges that they had to carry for a very long time, nut as a team and shifting people through). The weather was brutal, and not many came out to do the whole H/C/L and if you did way to go, that is really hard stuff! I have only done a light and am not sure about the upper levels and my training or comfort level. I decided to shadow this event (exactly what it sounds like) i knew a few people that were doing it, and a few of the other shadows. This was a tough one, because fairly early on into the light it went from rain to hail to snow! I was not dressed properly to stand in snow, but that was my fault I have the correct gear. I watched until just before the end and was very happy for everybody that did it, I could see some people hurting, and pushing through, which is always a good thing. goruck is great for getting you out of your comfort zone, and a good bonding experience, watching my friends do it made me nostalgic. I wonder which one I will do next, probably kill that 5k

So until next time 

Keep training

Stephen