After three hours of sleep, I was up and ready to go at 3:45 AM. After a quick briefing with my supervisor and co-interns, I was off to the finish line! I set up a backdrop for interviews, brought over the awards and winners’ checks, and set my computer up at the finish line media center. 

Finally, after hearing the national anthem from the start line, several blocks away, the race was off! I ended up tracking the elite races! Cyclists were following the elite leaders and texting me who was in the lead and what their mile splits were. (I have no idea how they were texting and cycling at the same time!) Then, I would update a large mile-by-mile leaderboard for members of the media to use. 

Of course, when the elite race was over, I was at the finish line to see all four elite races finish! Afterwards, I just stayed around the finish line area and helped answer any questions media had. At 3:50:00 into the race, I got to see a friend cross the finish line for the full! I also got to meet Amanda cross the finish line for her half (congrats, girl!). 

After that, I was in charge of escorting the Mexican delegation to the Finish Line Festival and awards ceremony. One of them eventually gave me his card and told me to send him my resume—looks like I’m going to work in Mexico (uhmm…not). 

Following that, I helped man the media center again and helped with general clean up at the finish line. On my way to the finish line, I ran into Adrian Crouch of chasefear! It was an honor to meet her—I was a total fan girl!

I was even there to see Wayne Kurtz, an ultramarathoner, cross the finish line after ten hours on the course! Kurtz participated in the 48 Dreadmill event at our Expo. He ran/walked for 48 hours and immediately tackled the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh marathon afterwards! He ended up walking/running 173.2 miles in a course of 58 hours—we gave him 7 marathon medals when he got to the finish line!

After cleanup was done, the entire staff enjoyed a Cinco de Mayo celebration at a local Mexican restaurant (margaritas included!). 

It was a wonderful experience, and both the Race Director and the Director of Operations told me to apply for the internship again next year! This past weekend was truly one of the best weekends of my life—it’s amazing to lookup and see my contribution culminate in this wonderful race!

After five hours of sleep, Saturday started bright and early at 5:30 AM. Besides manning media center for a bit, I was in charge of the 5K awards and getting the winners, so I headed to the finish line.

I helped with some general set-up, but once the race was off at 8 AM, I sat around and waited for the winners. The male winner came in at 15:53, followed by the female winner with a new course record of 17:18. Once the athletes recovered, I got the top two males and females and brought them around for the awards ceremony, followed by some media interviews. 

Immediately following the 5K race, was the Toyota of Pittsburgh Kids Marathon—a 1.2 mile race. Seeing the younger kids cross the finish line was just incredibly adorable—and they all looked so proud of themselves. While the race was going on, I helped with finding lost children. All children and their parents had matching bib numbers, but in a crowd that large, it was easy to get separated. Thankfully, there were only a handful of separated children and they were all found rather quickly. 

Following the kids’ race, I went over to Point State Park for the Purina Pro Plan Pittsburgh Pet Walk! It was so adorable; there were so many cute dogs! 

Finally, I spent the rest of my day manning the media center and finishing up some information on the elite athletes for media. Although, at about 9 PM, I did have to run around to find an open store to buy an elite runner two Cokes—apparently their race drink of choice. 

Other than that, we really spent Saturday night preparing for Sunday—the big race day!

Race weekend seems so far away, when I know it was only two days ago. It was one of the best experiences of my life. 

Friday morning, race weekend was kicked-off by a press conference and the opening of the GNC Live Well Pittsburgh Health and Fitness Expo. At the press conference, I helped with giving different members of the media their credentials for the weekend, as well as distributing media guides and pertinent press releases. I also got to meet Michael Wardian, an elite endurance runner, and Lauren Woodring, a local elite runner who won the Columbus Marathon last year!

After the press conference and ribbon cutting for the Expo, I was pulled into runners’ services and helped pull packets for late pick-up. I was running around like a crazy chicken with my head cut off trying to pull bib numbers, goody bags, and correct t-shirt sizes—all while fighting the crowd of runners who came to pick up their bibs. 

After a good four hours of packet pulling and answering some questions for Expo visitors, I went to man our Media Center. 

To end my evening, I had a quick staff meeting with my supervisor to go over my tentative schedule for Saturday, and I sat in the elite athlete suite, helping with different tasks that needed to be done.

I definitely wasn’t as hectic as I thought it was going to be, but I loved it and was incredibly excited for the next two days when the running finally began! 

• Color Me Rad Pittsburgh 5k: August 25th
• Gatorade Steelers 5k: September 2nd
• Montour Trail Half Marathon: September 8th
• Color Me Rad Columbia 5k: October 20th

The Rebel Race was, to put it simply, fantastic. We were in the 1:30pm wave and were expecting to be running in excruciating heat—but we were in the shade for a good portion of the course and, once we were covered in mud, were quite cool. 

The first “obstacle” of the race was the Sergeant’s Sprint—we basically had to sprint as fast as we could. Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to cut right in front of me so close that he pushed me over. My dad and I were almost at the front of the pack, so when I fell to the ground, I had two people jump over me before I could get back up. I let out a few choice words, but took off running.

The obstacles that followed were a small mud hole, a tire run, monkey bars, log climbs, hay stack climbs, and a fire jump. It was all uphill—ugh! The race took place at an horse farm and we were literally running through the fields with horses next to us. Next, we had to climb up and over a cargo net and over some more logs.

One of my favorite parts of the race was the mud slide! My dad and I waited for 5 minutes or so in line to go down this huge tarp slide thrown over a hill and into this murky, mossy pond. It was totally worth the waiting time! When we got to the other side of the pond we had to run uphill, and then downhill on a really muddy path. Anywhere on the course that there were no obstacles, the trail was usually made of mud, at least half a foot deep—I’m surprised I didn’t lose my shoe!

We also had to climb up and over two walls, climb through a tunnel, do a military crawl though mud and under rope, go through muddy water under barbed wire, cross a balance beam, run backwards, go through several mud pits, and run through a river.

However, the muddiest obstacle was the Military Mud Pit. It was a mud pit that came up past my waist and we had to climb over pipes, then swim under a pipe, then over again, and so on. Everyone else was just going over them! However, my dad and I were one of the few that actually went under—hence the mud all over our face and in my hair!

I finished in 1:07:56—longest and slowest 5k ever, right? I was surprised to see that I finished in the top half overall and in the female division. I was 1201/2724 overall and was 485/1323 females. The average pace was 1:13:00.

I don’t know if it was my lack of food or the heat or drinking too much water, too fast, but after the race I threw up all the water I had drank. However, after it happened I immediately felt better and proceeded to drink more water. We stopped to get a super late lunch—which helped. 

Overall, it was fabulous. And I really want to do another mud run! My forearms and knees are all scraped up. I’m sore and can hardly move. It took an hour to get all the mud out of my hair. And I have a huge scrape on my back—it has to be at least half a foot—from when that guy pushed me over. But it was worth it! I’m a Rebel Race Survivor!