2012 RNUTs Review

     The 6 race 2012 RNUTs (thats Roanoke Non-Ultra Trail series for the uninitiated) ended Sunday June 3rd with the Conquer the Cove 25k and Marathon races. Participation in the series requires an individual to complete at least 4 of the 6 races and I completed 5. I opted out of the 6th and final RNUTs race, the Conquer the Cove events, in favor of a sprint triathlon being held on the same day.

    New for this year was the inclusion of a separate awards ceremony for presenting the series awards. In years past the RNUTs awards have been presented at the end of the final race in the series. This year Josh and Gina, creators of the Mountain Junkie brand, decided to offer a 6-8 mile social run and then follow that up with a pot luck cook out, door prizes and the series awards presentations. It worked out well and I hope this will continue as the new tradition.

2012 RNUTs Social Run route

     The 6-8 mile trail run was held on the trails around Mill Mountain. It was nice to just be out on a casual and social training type run with people that I usually only race with. Being an adrenaline junkie of sorts I wanted to do something to make the run a little more interesting though, so after about a mile and a half I decided to throw myself into the ground at just such an angle so as to take a big chunk of skin out of my knee.

     It seemed like a good idea because I have been researching the relationships between mind, matter and pain lately and I figured a big gaping wound would give me a good chance to test a theory I have been working on. Incidentally, I have reached the conclusion that even though pain is still most certainly an illusion, that varying the intensity of bodily damage can make the illusion seem more or less real. I further theorize that it will take me 3 days to practice disbelieving the particular painful illusion that I have now incurred myself as a result of this experiment before I can return to my original pre-experiment state.

Nice and cleaned up now, but its deeper than it looks.

Bonus abrasions on the forearm!

     So I finish up the trail run, enjoy a great cookout with huge selections of healthy and even some not quite so healthy foods. After the cookout I was fortunate to have my name drawn from a hat for a door prize of a $100 gift certificate to Walkabout Outfitters! Then, after the door prizes, I was awarded the 2nd Place Age Group (40-44) award for the series.

All participants who complete the required 4 events get a super nice pull over jacket. Also pictured is my $100 gift certificate and my 2nd place Age Group award.

     Great start to the day! I appreciate the way the Mountain Junkies reinvest so much back into the running community and the race participants. One guy was awarded a GoPro camera today and I was awarded a Garmin GPS watch as a door prize at the 2010 RNUTs awards. 2013 RNUTs is definetly on my calendar!