#WOahMAN

Let me just start by saying I don’t think I’ve ever been so sore in my life. In the past year I’ve done 50 burpees, and they were all last Friday. In the past year I’ve probably completed 2 full tours, and they were both in the past month. WOahMAN was probably not the best idea, but I went for it anyways.

For those of you who don’t know what WOahMAN was, it was a crazy workout hosted by November Project. We started at the top of Summit Ave (our normal Friday workout destination) at 4:30AM (not our normal workout time..), ran 2.2 miles to Harvard Stadium and completed a full tour, ran 2.2 miles back to the top of Summit, did 25 burpees, ran a full hill (roughly 1.3 miles), did 25 more burpees, and ended with another full hill. All in all my GPS watch said it was about 8.5 miles of running and roughly 1800 feet of elevation gain.

It was hard. Getting out of bed would have been the worst part if it weren’t for the burpees. Or the hills. Or the full tour. But in all seriousness, getting up and walking to the hill was the most difficult part for me. Luckily, I had my accountabilibuddy, Matt, to make me get out of bed. I literally got dressed, brushed my teeth, filled my hydration pack, then laid back down on the bed and whined to him that I didn’t want to go. To be fair, I have a difficult time waking for November Project when it starts at 6:30am, let alone 4:30.  Once I was up and at the hill, the hard part was over – I just had to work out for 2 hours, which seems not so bad when your partner just ran for 27 hours.

We started around 4:38am after each getting a race bib and taking a group photo, of course. At the start, it was too early, foggy, humid, and misty, but we were all sprinting like adrenaline junkies looking for their fix. By the time we got to the stadium, I was extremely hot and already tired from running so fast. I decided slow and steady was the way to go for the stadiums. Normally, I attempt to run a few sections, but knowing I’d have to run 2 full hills when I was done, I decided to march up all the sections and run down when I could. By section 19, my form had deteriorated and my hands were already finding their ways to my knees. I took a moment to breathe and pull myself together, and pushed myself to keep my form and focus on staying strong. That went well until the last 5 sections, and then all bets were off. I just wanted to finish this tour and get running.

On my way out of the stadium, I ran into two ladies I had met before but never really chatted with. We ran back to the hill together and it was glorious – we all needed to vent about how little we were looking forward to the hills, and we also were glad to have an excuse to run slower on the way back than we were on the way out. Once I got to the hill, I powered through my desire to walk up to the top and just ran before taking off my hydration pack and jumping right into burpees. I debated the hydration pack in the morning, but decided I’d go with it since I like having both hands free while I run.

10 burpees in I was thinking “50 burpees isn’t so bad!” About 2 burpees later I thought “50 BURPEES IS WHAT HELL IS I AM SURE OF IT!” I contemplated just laying down on the ground for a little bit to rest, but I was well aware of the fact that I have no upper body strength and no amount of rest would make the remainder of my burpees easier. I sloppily finished my burpees and happily ran down Summit, ignoring the fact that I’d have to go right back up.

The rest of the hills went by fairly uneventfully, as I was hoping they would. The second set of burpees nearly killed me, but I had Matt cheerleading for me (AKA watching my pathetic burpees and not laughing because I’m sure his were even more pathetic than mine) so I felt motivated to just finish. On my last hill, I ran with a woman I hadn’t met before and asked her if she was on her last hill. She goes “Oh I finished the race and have just been doing the hill workout.” I picked my jaw up off the ground and realized if she could do a hill workout after finishing this race, I could run the rest of my hill as fast as possible. Turns out, she was the first female finisher of the race!

I finished strong with minimal leg-shakeage. By the time we got home my arms were already sore – I knew it was going to be a rough weekend at work lifting kegs. As much as it’s embarrassing to admit… my pecs and calves are still tight, 5 days later! Overall, it was dumb and ridiculous, but I’d do it again this Friday if they said it was happening. Maybe that makes me dumb, but hey… #noFOMO.