Crush That 5k & Mens Fitness City Challenge!!!

What a great weekend that was!

It all started on Saturday Oct. 3 over at Tropical Park. The Crush Games partnered up with GoRuck and were hosting a 5k during the crossfit competition. I decided to push myself and sign up for the Elite Ruck Division. That basically entails running with at least 30 lbs on your back. The other two divisions were the regular runners (no weight) & the ruck division with any other weight less than 30 lbs. Like I said last post, it was just great being out there and running again.

Mind you, I haven’t ran or really trained with a ruck in over a years time. I was not prepared for this whatsoever. We started the race and I had a pretty good pace, but within a half a mile my shins started hurting and my calves felt like they were going to implode. I made it past the the first mile, but had to walk a bit after. Once I actually got warmed up at about 1.75 miles, I was able to keep moving without a hitch. Now what sucked even more than my legs hurting was the fact that I was running with a ruck and speedo (my normal attire as most of you know). The ruck kept rubbing against my lower back and I felt it. After the race was over my back was chaffed raw and it burned! But its all good. I finished at about 32 min which was faster than I thought I would have not really training for this type of event.

Funny little story! Towards the end of the 5k maybe about 600m left, I noticed another rucker come up next to me. I didn’t mind him at all because I figured he was one of the ruckers that had a weight less than 30 lbs. Then when I looked down at his bib, I noticed that he had the green circular sticker that indicated he was in the competitive ruck division and I was like “HELL NO!” So I sped up a bit and got a pretty comfortable lead on him. THEN right after the 3 mile mark with about 200m left he decided to come up on me again and I just said screw it. I kicked it into high gear and went on for a full sprint towards the finish line. I was heaving while crossing the finish line, but I did it! And I beat him. lmao

The course was great. It was a nice flat paved course and the weather was beautiful. it was sunny, because of course it always is in Miami and I used my Nike Air Zoom Structure 18s for the run and it was quite comfortable.

It was really cool because after the race we got to stick around and check out the Crush Games which was an amazing event.You got to see all these athletes perform at what they do best (crossfit) and it was a hell of an event. There was also a strongman competition that was going on that was amazing! I had coaches and friends competing in both and it was great actually being there able to cheer them on.

I even made it into the Crush Games promo videos twice! You can check those out on their instagram @thecrushgames

I even jumped in on a 50 cal aerobike challenge even after the 5k ruck. Let me tell you, that is exhausting. As soon as I stepped off that bike, my legs were jello, I had to scramble to the grassy area and I just collapsed. It was pretty awesome.I tried my best and came in first on the day, I finished in 2:28, but ended up losing out to someone on Sunday.

After cheering my friends on and checking out the vendors I just headed on home because the next day I had the Men’s Fitness City Challenge at Sun Life Stadium! What had me excited about this was the fact that it was the first obstacle-esque type event that I would have done since my injury. It ended up being a beautiful sunny day and before I knew it, I had my toe to the start line. That right there, is one of my favorite feelings in the world.

I would soon be let down though. I believed the event was going to go into the stadium. I mean, why else have an event AT a stadium. It was basically a 5k of straight cut backs in the parking lot of the stadium. I was not happy. Especially since my legs were still pretty much destroyed from the ruck I did the day before; all that pavement running was not fun at all. I had higher hopes for the Mens Fitness City Challenge, but then again, I got to see my dude John Macatangay who just recently came back from the Spartan Race Ultra Beast as a finisher!!! So we hung out and just caught up while running the 5k. Was I expecting much for the discounted registration? Not really, no. Would I do it again? If they next time actually went into the stadium, for sure. It was a pretty good time. Great people, beautiful weather, wasn’t as bad as I initially made it out to be.