Who Am I?

I am an avid runner and have been running since I was 15 years old. I began running low to medium distances while on my high school track team, running the 800 meter and 1600 meter races (I was a sub 5 miler and a 2 minute 800 runner). In addition to the track team, I also joined the cross country team. After high school I still wanted to run and decided to start doing road races. I have probably ran a couple hundred 5k races (16.29 PR)along with many 10k's as well. In 2009 I decided to step up my game and try to tackle my first marathon. I will be honest; the only reason I did this was because my father ran a few and I wanted to show him that I could do what he did. I trained poorly for my first one and regret it. If you are going to run a race, train like you want to win. I still continue to run marathons and other distances as well, and every race is a chance for me to better myself.
I started this blog to hopefully communicate with other runners and to shed any knowledge I may have about the sport that can help other runners. I believe running is the best sport and can be a great stress reliever. I encourage all runners to spread the word of our sport and show people why running is so good and why the community of runners has such great people. You can follow me on twitter @byrne1324 or find me on facebook- Shaun Byrne

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Gladiator Rock'N Run Recap


When: Saturday September 20th
Where: Steel City Raceway
278 Story Road
Export, Pa. 15632


Swag: T-shirt, bib number with beer coupon attached for post-race party and timing chip
              Now I am very critical of the shirts you get with races, and I have to say this is the most comfortable shirt I have got from race. I highly recommend you take a look at Hylete brand clothing.

Finishers Medal:



Post-Race: Once you finished they had a table with water and banana’s for you to recharge. You were almost guaranteed to be a muddy mess so there was a nice area with hoses that you could clean off. If you brought a change of clothes you could use the changing tents to get into some dry clothing. Once all cleaned up you could watch the later heats take on the course and enjoy a beer and shop the vendors while listening to music provided from a local band.

My Experience:

       My alarm went off at 5:30 am and I quickly jumped out of bed with excitement. After picking out my outfit (I wanted to wear something that when wet wouldn’t get to heavy and hold me down) I grabbed a small nutrition bar for breakfast. As I sat around my house waiting for my friend Tom to come pick me up, the nerves set in. I started to question myself on what I would be able to do. Tom picked me up around 6:45 am and we headed out. It took about a half hour to get to the race sight. Parking was 10 dollars. After parking we walked into the area and started to check out some of the obstacles. There was about 5 obstacles that I could see and tell right away what they were and then there were some in the distance that I could see but didn’t know what we would be doing at them. We signed up for the 8:00 am competitive wave. I may have been a rookie to this type of race, but Tom recently did the Tough Mudder and had an idea of what to expect. Once we got a look at some of the others in our group we both realized we were fish out of water. I mean some of these guys are diesel, and you can tell this would be a walk in the park for them. The ladies look like they could have crush me with their bare hands. Tom suggested we stick together during the race in case there were obstacles in which you would need assistance. We made our way into the starting corral and Dan “Nitro” Clark from American Gladiators came out and made a few announcements and went over parts of the course. Then he sounded an air horn and just like that we were off and running. I will spare you the reading time of me going over every obstacle, but there were a few that were quite challenging. The second obstacle was cinder block burpees. No let’s not do a regular burpee let’s do 25 of them with a half of a cinder block in each hand, while the ladies use one block total. Needless to say I was beat down early in the race. Not much later in the race you come to a 16 foot rope climb. This was one obstacle I was aware of going in and it made me nervous since I had not climbed a rope since grade school. I went up that rope though like I was a monkey getting banana’s from the top of a tree. Besides the obstacles this whole course was on a hill. You are either running up or down, except for the part when you get to slide down a tarp that was about 40 yards long and you ended in a pool of water. I wanted to stay on that obstacle all day. Tom and I kept a steady pace for most of the race. We did walk a bit just to get our breathing back on track. The only obstacle I could not complete was the Monkey bars. Right before you have to do them you swim across a pond, so my hands were wet and slippery. I just couldn’t get my hands to stay on the thick bars. If you can’t do an obstacle you must do 10 burpees. (No cinder blocks) The only other obstacle that gave me any type of problem was what is known as the beast. A slanted wall in which you have to cross water to even get to. Once at the wall you use a rope and pull yourself up the slightly slanted wall. It was a muddy mess and people were falling left and right. I however made it up my first time even though my arms were struggling. When I crossed the finish line after completing all 17 obstacles I felt like had accomplished something. I haven’t had that feeling in a race since my first marathon years ago.



       I will be honest I was one of those people that always put regular road races above the other races. I would laugh when people said they did an obstacle race. Well after running my first I can say I was wrong. It takes a different type of athlete to do these and be good at them. I am still a diehard runner and road races will always be my passion, but I now have a new respect for these races and the people that do them. I can say this, the Gladiator tested me like I have never been tested in a race and it was a real gut check. I look forward to doing it again next year and training for it the right way.



     If you have never ran an obstacle race and want to do one I would say this is a good one. It’s not too long and most of the obstacles are doable even if you didn’t train the proper way. I would not recommend doing that though, train if you can. If anything you will meet some really cool people and I promise you will have yourself a fun time doing the race.





8 comments:

  1. And thank you to my mother in law and my brother in law for taking pictures for me to post and cheering me on.....

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    1. Hahahah thanks Carol, the pictures were awesome

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  2. Great wrap up, and good luck this Saturday at battlefrog, I wish I was doing it with you.

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    1. I wish you were too man, I read the write up and it says some things you will need to help each other

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  3. Cinder block burpees?! 25 of them? Ouch! It all sounds really tough. Kudos to you for making it through and completing off those obstacles. 17 is a lot! And that's on top of running up a hill?! I am tired just thinking about it!

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    1. It was tiring but it was definitely worth the pain. It was a great time

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  4. Wowza! Sounds like a very challenging but rewarding time. I'm going to get brave & do one someday. Even "old" ladies like a challenge, lol!

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    1. Age was not a factor in this race, I saw men in their 60's and 70's doing it. And even ladies who are a lot older than you. You have to try at least one just for the experience

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