Agri-Fit Challenge - 2018!

We had to do this on a course, so I'm guessing this was about the 12th time I was flipping it, due to my expression!

This weekend was my absolutely favorite race - the Agri-Fit Challenge!  Why is it my favorite?  Because it really IS a challenge!  

My boys and two of their friends were a part of it!  They had a ton of obstacles and just a little shorter run than the adults.  These cross country runners and friends did an awesome job, making up the top five!

Another thing I love about the race is it's doing activities that my kids, as farm kids, are used to doing.  Moving tires?  Yes.  5-gallon pails?  Yep.  Running as fast as possible?  Yes, sometimes after heifers that are out.  

After the kid race, it was time for Kris, our friends, and I to start our heat.

Our race was:

Jumping over round bales - I somehow did this flipping over my back.  Unplanned, but it worked!  Some people leaped over it like gazelles.

Running through tires - Like a football drill.

Crawling under ropes - Kris' cousin Jess was right behind me at this point, but I didn't know it was her.  Someone running behind you in the woods does make you go faster!

Climbing up boxes - Hard to do gracefully.

Climbing wall - It was made out of metal fencing, so climbing it was easy, since we do this all the time!

Carrying a bale around a circle - I was happy it was straw and not hay.  Kris ran with his like it was nothing.

Pulling a tire - When I started, I thought, I don't know if I can actually move this.  It was huge, but I got it going.

Flipping a tire down a course - See picture of effort this took!  Ultimately my favorite obstacle.

Carrying a 5-gallon pail of water - All in a day's work.

Crawling under barbed wire - One year I tore my shirt, but not this time.

Walking a balance beam over manure - I didn't even know it was manure until after.  I thought it was mud.  Kris thought we were supposed to run through it at first, and thought nothing of it.  It's a challenge, after all!

Climbing up a grain truck through sugar beets - This was fun!

Running through a pond - Mucky for sure.  Kris half-swam through it to go even faster.

...plus a 5k through the woods!

The toughest part for me was the tire flipping. Putting tires on the pile all summer was great training! You had to flip it about 15 times down a course, and then roll it back.  My parents and kids were cheering us all the time, giving me helpful advice like, "Catch it when it bounces up!"  (I did a few times, but really that was harder.)

We all had chocolate milk after, and celebrated Team Chocolate Milk.  Our friend and  Kris' fellow MMPA board member Gertie Van Den Goor was there, and she's also on Team Chocolate Milk!

I ended up second woman overall and first in my age group, and Kris got second in his age group!  (He also beat me - he essentially trains every day in more ways than one.)  It was a spectacular day with our friends and family.  My parents were as always a great support and took the nice action shots.    

The more the merrier - I hope to see you all there next year!  See race updates by liking the page here.  

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Agri-Fit Challenge - year three

The Agri-Fit Challenge is my favorite race.  I look forward to it all year.  It's also the hardest race I've ever done - harder than my marathon or triathlons - and this year was the hardest of all!

It's a 5K interspersed with farming-based challenges.  The obstacles change every year.  Though I don't have many pictures due to rain and distance, this year we had to:

- Climb over round bales
I learned from the first year that I have to wedge my foot in between the bales.

- Run through a mucky pond
I actually fell and so I crawled through part of it.

- Mud run and crawl under ropes
I hit an electric fence with my spine last week.  Good practice.

- Carry a 50-lb bag of soybean seed around cones.
I started on my shoulder and moved it to my hip - like carrying a big kid!

- Pull a tire over and back a painted line
This made me laugh, because last night the boys and I were trying to move a big tire and couldn't ... but if it had a rope attached to it like here?  Better.

- Run up a steep muddy hill
- Climb up and down a wall with boards nailed to it
- Run through drain pipes
- Run over small square bales
- Scale some black, wet crates
- Climb up, through, and down a grain truck filled with sugar beets
I slipped and a volunteer yelled 'DON'T FALL OUT!' I think I scared him.  Also, I would have probably fallen on him.

- Jump over a fire
You could go around, but ... seemed more fun to jump over it.

- Slip on the slip and slide right before the finish!

The run through the narrow path in the woods is actually what makes it the hardest.  This year it was super slippery, and it's so incredibly twisty that I am always afraid that I've gone off the path and will just be running for miles.  You're usually alone, and that intensifies the feeling!

And what made this year even more fun was ... they had a kids race!  My boys have loved watching me in this race in past years and were so excited to do it.  They had a shorter run, but did a lot of the same obstacles - climbing round bales, tires, drain pipes, steep muddy hill, grain truck, fire, slip and slide ... it was SO fun watching them and they loved it!  Since they do live on a farm, there were also a lot of activities that are very familiar to them.

Like Ty yesterday on the farm ...

and Ty today:

And a normal day:

And at the race:

We all had chocolate milk afterward.  (Big surprise.  It's my favorite post-race drink and I'm sad when any race doesn't have it, so I just go home and drink my own.  This race was stocked!  Thanks, Cathy McCune!)

My parents came to cheer us on in the rain - and thanks to them for the pictures.  Kris had planned long ago to go to the MSU vs. Notre Dame game - so he was having a blast, too!

Thank you so much to Gratiot Area Chamber of Commerce and all of the volunteers and organizers for the most fun, hardest, and farmer-friendly race around!  See you next year!  We'll be in daily training ...

Home game

Away game

   

  

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Agri-Fit Challenge!

We did such a fun race today!  In the spirit of mud runs and obstacle races, we participated in the Agri-Fit Challenge - a 5k with farming-related obstacles!

The race was:

Climb over round bales
Go down a dirt hill
Crawl under barbed wire
Run through the woods on a winding trail
Crawl under more barbed wire
Go over a set of three round bales
Carry a square straw bale around an arena
Flip a tractor tire down a row and roll it back
Crawl through a culvert
Climb up a semi truck filled with corn, run through the corn, climb down
Carry two 5-gallon pails of water up and down a barn
Push a wheelbarrow of sugar beets around an arena

Then a sprint to the finish.

It was so much fun - and a challenge!

For instance, I thought the tractor tire flip was going to be the hardest, but it wasn't!  That wasn't so bad ... scrambling up the bales was definitely the hardest for me.  My mom made me feel better by telling me that almost all the women had to help each other get over them.

Kris and I were together until we got to the bale carry.  He could run and carry a bale at the same time ... as he picked it up he yelled to me, "This is actually exactly what I'd be doing at home if I weren't here!"

Some of the obstacles felt totally natural.  When I picked up the pails of water it was just like carrying grain for the calves - or two carseats with twins.

I loved that they had sugar beets as part of it.  We don't have a ton of sugar beets around us and I love seeing them.  Cole said that at first he thought they were giant rocks.

We all toasted with chocolate milk at the end - and since it was 29 degrees, got back in the car to warm up the kids.  I was so happy to win my age group, and we finished 7th (Kris) and 8th overall.

As soon as we got back home, we went out to deliver protein tubs to the heifers in the pasture.  It's cold, and they need their protein, too!  Even if it's not coming in the form of chocolate milk.


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