This weekend I ran the 3 1/2 Annual Warrior Princess Angel Run for the first time. I woke up to rain, which turned into a deluge as I quickly got dressed, had some peanut butter toast, and headed out the door. The rain didn't really concern me, in fact I was looking forward to getting wet, splashing through some muddy trails and generally playing in our great outdoors.
This race was started three and a half years ago by Chrissy and Michael Whitten to honor their daughter, Lillian Grace. She suffered from a chromosomal disorder, Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards syndrome which occurs in about 1:3000 live births. Unlike Down syndrome, Trisomy 18 is usually fatal, with most of the babies dying before birth and those who do make it to birth typically living only a few days. Lillian Grace lived 103 days and so this race has traditionally featured these numbers in some way with distances that have included 1.03 Fun Run; 10.3 Kilometer and a 10.3 Miler.
This year, Chrissy took inspiration from some her favorite Tulsa area runs (which also happen to be my favorite) The Snake Race and Lake McMurtry Trail Run. So this year the race was 103 minutes long and runners were to get in as many laps on the 1.03 mile long loop as possible. The course also featured a "Leap of Faith" inspired by McMurtry's "Leap 'O Doom".
It looked like turn out was small, although some people showed up to register just before the race. I was happy to see lots of familiar faces and got to chat it up with friends and meet new folks too.
I stayed towards the back of the pack when Chrissy blew the air horn and we were off. The rain had remitted but the course was still slippery. I think it had just about anything a trail runner could want, flat grassy single track, rocky ups and downs, nature staircases, the route even featured a steep muddy bank with a dead tree to clamber over.
I was fun. I don't think I had much of a goal going in, except I wanted to get at least 5 miles in since I'm training right now. In the end, I worked hard to keep moving and the mantra "hustle, hustle" came into my mind. (I think because this week I was telling a co-worker about Hustle up the Hancock. I've never done this but I think it looks fun.) My garmin showed a total of 5.88 miles when I finished right about 100 minutes in. I watched the last runners come in and stayed for the awards ceremony. My friend Lisa got 7 loops in and took second place. TZ thought I might have beat him, but I thought I only got 5 loops in.
It turns out I got in 6 laps at a time that put me in 9th out of 29 females. I'm very happy with that.
(I didn't get any pictures, snagged these from TZ and Ken Savath)
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