I had such a great time. I participated in the Fat Ass last year and remember the chill in the air and the sprinkling of rain. This year presented such warm temperatures and sunshine that it felt a bit like spring. The course was it?s usual wet mucky mess offering something for every kid who likes to play in that kind of stuff. We should be thankful that it had an opportunity to dry up a bit with not much of rain in the last week because if it hadn?t we would have needed our swim fins.
The start of the race was a bit different from most race starts. A throng of people all trying to
get down the one mile rail bed that was our starting trail. We were also met with those Hasty P?s that ?we didn?t see at all? along side of us dressed for war. It was a bit startling to see them lined up along the sides, guns in hand, some sporting smiles, some seemingly upset that we had disturbed their fun. But it wasn?t long before they were behind us and they were left to hiding in the woods without our knowledge of their whereabouts. It didn?t take long for the group to thin out with the faster and more determined people passing us on all sides. It was really quite a social event listening to runners talking of their weeks events as the flew by us and out of sight. The puddles were few and small at this point and it was great to have a chance to get those feet warmed up and ready for the ones to come.
It didn?t take long to start shedding cloths. The temperatures were perfect. The sun refreshing. With all the laughter and giggling the time passed so quickly that before we knew it we were at the first aid station. Yummy, was there ever a spread laid out. Who would have thought that coke and chips and chocolate bars would look so good on a trail run (they don?t know our little group do they). This was another opportunity to greet some friends as they came strolling in too.
Refuelled and refreshed we were off again. Now this is just about where we started to encounter the puddles and truly the real meaning of trail running was coming to light. It wasn?t long before we had our first casualty of the muck with Jane?s feet deciding to go out from under her and down she went. Not too messy and thank goodness not hurt. Further dabbling in the water was short as we very quickly hit the start/finish/transfer station and a short break for a trip to the bathroom. We surely didn?t want to take a chance of scaring any hiding persons with whatever sight we might make by using the outdoor facilities. We thought it best to break in a building out of harms way.
And we were off. It didn?t take us long to realised that we had lost half of our party. There were only Jane, Heather and myself. Oh ya right. Catch up time. So we flew down the access road and soon we were at the third aid station being greeted by friendly faces and more goodies. Who would have thought that coke would taste so good.
This next trek was probably the most fun that I have ever had on these trails. We managed to catch up with Janet, Shannon and Susan and continued down the trails hitting the icy puddles and slippery mud at every chance.
No sooner did we get muddied up then we got washed off and our feet cooled off at the same time. Boy some of those puddles (or shall we call them ponds) were cold. It felt like I had ice cubes for feet for a while but that didn?t last too long. I don?t think that I have ever laughed so hard. We had so many near misses for falling and tripping and the whole time the giggles could probably be heard all the way back to the hill. We continued down through the loop and back again to our aid station and more goodies. It appeared that we were just about the last of the bunch out there and we had determined that our predicted times were just a waste of time because there was no way we would finish close to anyone?s. So more time to frolic was ordered up and off we went. Our shoes were so full of mud and leaves it was hard running down the road.
Here we are showing that we really are FAT ASS Runners. Just following the signs.......
Off the road and back onto the trail we soon raised voices in song. Hope no one was too close to us. We might have been a bit out of tune. But oh well, what did we care. We still had lots of bounce left in us but when we hit that last puddle by the small bridge I think our feet became icicles and totally drained us all. I know that my feet were never so cold, so we skipped the next puddle in order to get them warmed back up. We hadn?t seen any people for quite a while but there looming just before us coming from the other direction was Derek and the last volunteer to direct us all onto the right path to home, that last mine of rail bed. Derek was looking a bit tired. He had had quite a hard week, what with the stitches and getting kicked and all. But he took up stride in front of our happy group and we stormed the finish line, laughing the whole way.
What a grand time. Thanks to all the volunteers for all they did to make this years race such a success. Thanks to Sandy and Elizabeth for taking this on again this year. It just gets bigger and better. Thanks Jane, Heather, Shannon, Janet and Susan for making the morning such a memorable time. Will definitely be participating again next year. 25k anyone???? Lots more time to snack and giggle.
