Well guys, I'm waiting for my wave at the run and I'm just dropping in to let you all know: my friends have a betting pool going on whether or not I'll "survive".

My friends are jerks, but that's why I like them.

Well, I didn't quite survive - I ALMOST did, but a knee injury slowed me down through the last group of zombies I saw. But I did finish, and I learned a few valuable lessons about how better to prepare in the future, and I had some of the most fun I've had in all my life, so I can't exactly say I'm disappointed.

The injury was the result of a stupid beginner's mistake - I jumped without preparing for factors I couldn't see. There was an obstacle with two mud/water troughs, divided by a hill. You slide into the first trough, get up, and run through the second. The first one was mostly water - very little dirt. I assumed the second would be similar, but in fact it was only a very shallow layer of water over a lot of mud, so when I hopped in, my foot hit a lot more resistance than I expected...and my upper body's momentum carried me forward, and down I went, and I hyperextended my knee in the process. I know better than that; I should have kept my knees softer and prepared to absorb the fall properly if I hit anything unexpected, and in fact I did on all the other obstacles...I just got overexcited once, and once was all it took.

Like I said, it wasn't bad enough to stop me from finishing, but it was bad enough to have me on the ground for a good few seconds. But hey, ending up in the bottom of that trough was way better (for both a soft landing and for comfort during those recovery moments - it was 90° out there!) than ending up crashing on hot, dry, hard ground.

The bad news of the day is...it might have been a mistake for me to finish despite the injury. It didn't hurt much if at all as I continued, so I figured it was fine, but that lack of pain may have been the adrenaline talking - once I got settled after I was done, it got...pretty unpleasant. I don't regret finishing, though, and I think that not taking extra cooldown time may have worsened it more than finishing the run did, because it only started getting really bad after I stopped moving it and let it get stiff.

Another stupid thing I did was, I didn't account for the possibility that this might happen when I chose the shoes I planned to change into after the run. I brought one of my favorite pairs of casual boots - which have a pretty significant heel; not super high, and blocky so it's pretty easy to keep my balance, but still notably higher than you get on most men's shoes - and those were my only clean, dry shoes.

So, now I'm on a buttload of Naproxen, keeping my knee wrapped, icing it, and mostly resting it but still exercising it carefully to prevent stiffness - but, despite the unexpected worsening, it's still far from the worst I've ever done to my knees. I mean, proportionally, I was even more top-heavy as a kid and I played soccer for years, so it'd be pretty hard for me to do much worse than that. I've felt this all before, and from experience, I should be about 90% better within the week.

But, despite that, like I said, it was some of the most fun I've had in my life and I can't wait for next year. I'm going to be making a few changes to how I approach it, though, so not only do I not get hurt, but I also survive:

1.) For real-life safety: I'll be bringing better shoes and my own personal first aid kit, and also wearing compression sleeves for my knees and elbows (both for the sake of hopefully helping me correct before I hyperextend anything again, and for protecting my skin). I'll be starting that regimen at my next obstacle course in 2 weeks - which is great timing, because I'll be recovered enough to run it, but I'll still remember being hurt clearly enough that I'll be a lot more careful.
(And just watch, just by Murphy's Law, bringing more supportive shoes to change into and that first aid kit will mean I never get injured badly enough to actually need them again. I'd bet money on it.)

2.) For in-game survival: I will be running with a team and employing a new strategy. Pretty much the only people I saw who survived were on a team. what I noticed was, when 3+ people go by at the same time, the zombies have a hard time choosing who to attack. Another thing I noticed was, when they could decide on a target, they always went for either the first person or the last person to run by - those in the middle were generally able to make an easy escape. So, since each person starts with 2 life flags - anyone who still has both will be toward the beginning or end; anyone who's down to one runs in the middle. Also, the life flags are red - so, red pants or skorts are going to be part of our team uniform. The harder the flags are to spot, the harder they'll be to grab, after all.

3.) For miscellaneous improvements: My bib ripped completely off during the second crawling obstacle. I kinda wondered how they were supposed to stay on through that...well, apparently, the people who printed them hadn't quite figured that out themselves. So I'm going to make myself a few running shirts with sheer mesh bib pockets in front that I'll use for all of my events like this from now on.

Oh, and, one more fun thing about this: my boyfriend is probably going to volunteer as a zombie next year. He has no desire to run it (not up for for the obstacles over the distance + hates getting dirty), but he's gotten very excited about the idea of standing in mostly one place and terrorizing runners...and foiling my strategy. Well, we'll see how that works - sure, he may be able to fight the "'injured' runners in the middle" strategy to an extent, but there's only so much one can do about camouflaged flags~!

So, in short: got out there, ran, climbed, got attacked by zombies and completely covered in mud and loved every second of it - got hurt, but not badly enough to make me worry; it was totally worth it, and I'll definitely be doing this again next year and it's going to be even more fun.

I didn't eat as well as I should have today, though. I was out of the house for 12 hours, first doing that, then hanging out with a friend, because, well, their place was on the way back home so it was a good excuse to drop by. Ended up eating just something I could grab quick for breakfast, eating out for lunch...and I haven't had dinner yet. This after yesterday, where I forgot to eat for most of the day because I was so busy cleaning. I am very much feeling the effects of that. Whoops.

Tomorrow, I've gotta do some meal prep for the coming week.

@explodingmango - I have a running bag I throw in my car that has ice packs you have to break the little thing inside for it to get cold, but always have ice packs and ibuprophen and a first aid kit handy. It's like a luck thing I think, once you put your emergency kit together you'll never use it ;-P However - I'm sure I've forgotten to pack the one thing I'll really absolutely need someday - that's how it always is. Hope your knee is feeling better!

I did a 'Scary Run' today with the husband (no obstacles in mine or chases ). I think it was the funnest race I've attended so far. I usually run 10k but signed up for 5k, my racing season is over, I just wanted to have fun today and honestly - just wanted the medal y'all. For the next weeks until late Feb or early March I'll just be building my base and strength so I can run next year better, safer, stronger.

My husband has lost weight down to 280lbs, I entered him in the Clydesdale division and he took first place in mens for the Half Marathon! Whoa! So he came home with two medals today. That was super exciting. At the start of the season (Feb) he collapsed after the 5K and this is his second Half Marathon - same year. He hasn't missed a weekend of training since February. Really proud of him. Lately he has even given up his frozen pizza habit.

At the run they had a group of kids performing 'Thriller' and about 6-8 booths of freebies and stuff for a very well stuffed swag bag. There was a beer garden, a coffee station, caramel apples and so forth. Lots of costumes. I went as Runner 5 (Zombies, Run! Game - it's an app). The husband put a Starfleet badge on his red running shirt that our daughter made and was a Starfleet engineer. There was a really great Janeway in attendance, she had the perfect red hair for it.

In the PNW we get massive typhoon wind storms every fall, but this year we haven't been smacked with them (yet) -- so all the fall leaves were on the trees, and inland there are more hardwoods and less fur, so the colors along the trail were absolutely stunning. It was perfect fall weather to run in, clear and 55 f.

Normally I could have signed up for the Athena division, but you all have me losing so much weight that I almost lost my tights as they shimmied down on the path in the mist of 300 or so strangers! And I no longer qualify as an Athena runner (165lbs or over).

I had a bad day in food though, we were up at 4am to make the race and out the door by 5. I did bring an RX bar and an apple which I ate, but ended up starving and getting a few on the road stops too at McD's. But all in all it was a great day. Look forward to more physical activity as I lay in my base this season. I ran really confident and the Yoga has paid off with my posture getting better.