Weekend Warriors

So, I work a little with the GOAL Foundation in Ogden, Utah. It is known for the Ogden Marathon that it organizes and own as well as its ability to draw in huge events like the XTERRA Mountain Championships and the World Archery Championships to the Ogden area.

A while back the foundation asked me to help lead out the marketing for a new event called the Hurt in the Dirt. To make this blog a little shorter, we'll say I was stoked about the idea, not too stoked about the venue. The idea was to draw in a regional crowd and show off the Ogden area. So, the natural venues of Snowbasin, Wolf Creek and Powder Mountain came to mind. However, the organizers had a different place in mind - Fort Buenaventura (AKA The Fort). Having grown up in Ogden, I knew of The Fort. However, I had never been there. I had my own stereotypical - this is the ghetto hole where the mountain men come to party - view of The Fort and fought tooth and nail to have it somewhere else.

I have to admit. Helping organize this event wasn't my best showing in participation. I helped a bit a first, but then was out unable to attend most of the planning meetings. When it came down to it, I was really out of the loop and when the event came up I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But, I knew I needed to participate and show my support.

The Hurt in the Dirt race is a crit race. However, it is an offroad crit race. This means that there are a bunch of loops that you go through. There is a run loop as well as a bike loop. The run loop is 1.75ish miles and the bike loop is 5.1ish miles. Each participant, or team, has to complete 2 loops of the run course, 2 loops of the bike course, 2 loops of the run course and then finish with 2 loops of the bike course. In total the running is about 7 miles and the biking is about 20.5 miles.

I asked Glenn, my father-in-law and all around great cyclist, to be my partner and do the bike legs of the course. We weren't to stoked about the 5pm start of the race, and were both kinda pooped after a long day and contemplated not showing up. However, after participating the race, rubbing shoulders with the other competitors, and having an all around grand time, we will do this race again, and again, and again. This will most likely be on our annual event calendar.

Now, we need to explain offroad. One would naturally think of mountain biking and trail running. That is what I had in mind. I love trail running and given the right trail I can knock out some quick times trail running. However, offroading to the GOAL Foundation when applied to the Hurt in the Dirt race is not trail running. It is more like off-trail running.



Before the race began at a participant meeting, I was told that I would cross a river twice, run up some stairs, climb over some trees and follow some flags. I was not told that I would stumble through a mud pit (one side of the river), nearly be decapitated as I fenagled my way through some trees while trying to watch for some flags marking the "course", pop my quads burning up 80-100 stairs, only to bomb back down another set trying to keep my balance, or have to nearly crawl under some other trees like a rabbit being chased by a bear. Nor was I told I would eventually lose one of my shoes in the mud, drop the other one, and run the final "offroad" 1.5 miles like shoeless Joe Jackson - that was by my choice, though I don't recall mentally making this decision.

This does deserve a little explanation as it landed my name in the paper. I remind you that this came after five or six miles of "running" - more like obstacle coursing - the Hurt in the Dirt obstacle course. I came up to the first of two river crossings on the course. I plunged into what I thought would be the sweet spot to get me across the river the quickest. Turns out that I picked the sweet spot to gobble up shoes, because after sinking up to nearly my hip in water and mud I felt and heard a great suction cup noise relieving me of the weight of my shoe. I took the other step it took me to get across the river and without any thought whatsoever reached down in stride and yanked my other shoe and tossed it.

About 50 meters down the path, it occurred to me what I had done. It also occurred to me that I had nearly 1.5 miles to go to the exchange. The heat must have really been getting to me, because for some reason the 10-15 trees I had to climb over, the other river crossing, the stairs and the tree dodging that I still needed to do - now without shoes - didn't seem to be an issue in my mind. Luckily, I completed the course without any injury - other than some pains in my feet.

Hurt in the Dirt is one of the coolest events I have ever participated in. The Fort was an excellent venue. Any negative words that might have come out of my mouth about this event need to go right back in and be replaced with total positivity. Props to the organizers of the event and the GOAL Foundation for pulling off and excellent unique first year event. I will be back, Glenn will be back too. We might even bring a few other friends along for the ride - challenge. This race brings a whole new meaning to race. It brings a whole new dimension and challenge to training. It doesn't matter that I can click of sub-six minute pace for hours. It doesn't matter that I can click away miles on end above 20 mph. This race brings a whole new challenge to the table. It is a race of agility, stamina, reaction, and a whole lot of unique fun.

There were some amazing photogs at the event, one of them even dug my shoe out of the mud it was buried in, picked up the other shoe I had tossed, and brought them to the finish area for me - thanks Bryan. This photog in particular created some sweet documentation of the event. I love his style. Check out the start to his video of the event and some of the pics he caught.

Dirt Preview from Shane Osguthorpe on Vimeo.

I hope to see each of you out there with Glenn and I next year at The Fort for more adventurous fun!