..and I don’t mean “second breakfast.” Although I did have one of those about 10:15, after the race, in the form of a homemade breakfast burrito with some great–and spicy–salsa.

Today was the Mammoth Race, the 5k the BFF and I signed up for about 3 months ago, and our first goal race for all the running we’ve been doing.

As a motivational tool, it’s worked great:  I’ve lost 24 pounds in 3 calendar months! I started off doing 60-second running intervals, and the last long run I did was 45 minutes. Wow.

So, today. The Mammoth Race is a trail run that involves 2 river crossing, deep sand, scaling some rocks, and trails that are narrow, overgrown, and covered in loose gravel. I’m accident prone. I was not planning on running the whole thing. And the BFF had two migraines this week, one of which sent her to Urgent Care. We went into this race with our only goal being to finish.

Which we did, in somewhere around 50 minutes (times aren’t up yet).

Five minutes in, we had our first river crossing, which was pretty shallow and easy. Then over rough slabs of rock, complete with dinosaur footsteps, and up a root-covered trail to a flat, but narrow trail section (which we ran). Then we hit a pretty extensive muddy patch and walked through it–with the aim of not falling–through the woods, where the trail was covered in roots, rocks large enough to have to clamber over, and tiny, slick gravel.

We alternated between running when it was safe to do so and walking/climbing when it wasn’t. The paths were clearly marked (we had green bracelets to match our green race markers) and there were volunteers staggered out helpfully to give directions and to offer cheers and support.

(I don’t know who the guy was that said “Good job, girl,” instead of the much more common “Keep it up, ma’am,” but thanks for not making me feel old.)

Quite a bit of the last half was flat, so we ran a good bit. Obviously, they were using Grand Canyon miles, because when we crossed the river for the last time–which was almost knee-deep and very slick–the man on the other side said “You’re almost there. Less than a mile to go!…and so did the next guy, about 10 minutes later. And the guy after that…

But we finished strong–and together–and we had a good time.

The race was very well-organized, small, super-friendly, and everyone there was very helpful. And exuberant. The kids 1k was a blast to watch. Think we’ll probably do this one again next year.