I did it all for the cream puff

(with minimal apologies to Limp Bizkit)

I did it all for the cream puff
Come on
The cream puff
Come on
So you can take that cream puff
And stick it up your, yeah!
Stick it up your, yeah!
Stick it up your, yeah!

I signed up for The Bad Thing right when it opened at midnight, I heard that the race was sold out by 12:07. Crazy to think this is the last in person race of the year. Two major changes was that the race started at a park in Auburn instead of the hall, and would be out and back instead of point to point. I should have reread my old blogs more carefully, because both times I wrote that the worst part was between 30-35K on the p2p course and I trained crazy hills to prepare for this. Before the race, I talked to Hellen, one of the RD's and she said, "it'll be much easier without the up-and-down parts!" 

There was a socially distanced kit pickup, stayed relatively warm near the fire pits and was motivated by really loud AC/DC. The louder AC/DC is, the more motivating it is, because science. There were also two waves for each distance, and being a sloth runner, I was in the final wave. Before I knew what was happening, the first water crossing was there.  The water was so cold, it took my breath away. I made sure to wear shoes that drained quickly, and wool socks, so thankfully my legs and feet had feeling again after only a few minutes.

There was quite a bit of rain in the days leading up to the race, and the trail was quite soggy, so I kept my eyes down. After about 3K, I turned onto a road that was unfamiliar and also had no flags, but I figured it was a straight shot so maybe that was the reason for no markers? I probably should have backtracked, but DID NOT and came to a T where there were flags in both directions, so I turned right to keep the river on my left and to get back on course. Later, I suggested to one of the RDs that maybe a big arrow sign could be put at that junction and he said, "Patty, you've been running trails long enough and done this race enough times to know you should be following blazes." That was a nasty burn, but he was 100% right.

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I reached the turnaround point at 13K, maybe the wrong route that I took was longer, or maybe it was trail math, doesn't really matter. 

There is a row of apple trees that usually bear glorious fruit, but this year was slim pickins and thankfully I wasn't relying upon them completely for my race nutrition strategy.

In the second water crossing, staring at the fast moving water under my feet made me really dizzy. To top things off, I must've rolled my ankle on the rocks but couldn't feel it due to the icy water. I definitely felt it as the feeling returned to my legs and feet in the last 100 metres of road to the finish. I enjoyed this year's finish, as it was much less hilly and mostly downhill instead of the usual road grind.