The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/141816
A9 et Dirty omething more for running enthusiasts dirty would really pick up the colors." This offbeat spirit is part of what makes these runs different from your average 5k, and each has its own flavor. The Warrior Dash, whose symbol is a Viking helmet, has sort of a Renn-Faire-meets-Mad-Max theme. Run For Your Lives is where you find the zombies; in fact, you can register to be one, where you'll help "spread the infection" at this apocalypse-themed race. Anything goes at Dirty Girl runs, as long as it's pink. And it's hard to tell what people wear to Color Me Rad, since they all end up looking like crazy pastel kaleidoscopes. Runner Dawn Schuman is already registered for a Color Me Rad run in New Jersey later this summer. She has a decade's worth of running under her sneakers and recently finished a half-marathon. She's taking on a shorter distance for reasons beyond pushing herself to go faster. "I'm doing the color run with family," Schuman says. "Some of us run; some of us are going to walk it. I love running but I'm more about the social aspects of it at this point than anything else. I like just being with people. I'm looking for fun things to do that bring everybody together." Schuman thinks these runs with extras, like colors or mud, are gaining in popularity because they appeal to a broad spectrum of people. "Take the color run, for instance. They Contributed Tutus and knee socks may not be standard runners' gear, but they're common enough at events such as Color Me Rad. make it very clear on their website that you can go and be a fast runner or you can walk it. You can even have kids in that one. It can just include a greater spectrum of people. That's what appeals to me, too," she says. Leigh Zimmerman found the appeal of mud and obstacles when she ran the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Buffalo last fall. Dirty Girl is open only to women and is a fundraiser for breast cancer charity organizations. Zimmerman had been running for a year before she tackled the run with a group of friends from Brockport. "It was more challenging than I thought it would be. It was on a huge ski hill so there was a lot of uphill running and downhill running, which is tough to do, in mud," she said. "But I did really like it a lot." She enjoyed the obstacles, with names like the Utopian Tubes and the Runaway Bride, so much that she decided to dive into one of the mud pits, she said. "I really got mud really deep into my ears. It took about seven or eight days to really clear all of the mud out of my ears. There were a lot of dirty Q-tips," she said, laughing. Four-year veteran runner Faith Tiemann is no stranger to mud runs. She ran a mud-and-obstacle 10K in the Bronx that benefited Operation Homefront. The last 25 feet of the run was treading water through a mud pit before you could cross the finish line. While that might seem as fun as getting stuck out in the rain, Tiemann said she enjoyed the whole experience. "I like that there wasn't a lot of pressure to go fast," she says. "It was more about being with the group of people you had run with to help them through the obstacles. We all ran different paces. One of the girls than ran with us hadn't run in like 8 months. So we would wait so that everyone could do each of the obstacles together. " "I loved it," she said, but added as a caution, "I did have to throw away all of my clothes when I was done." Some ruined racewear, though wasn't enough to deter her from doing it again; Tienmann has already signed up for the Oneonta Tuff eNuff event. July 4: Tuff eNuff, Neahwa Park, Oneonta; leafinc.org/tuffenuff July 27: Warrior Dash, Windham Mountain, Windham; www. warriordash.com AuG. 17: Run For Your Lives, Buffalo; www. runforyourlives.com/ locations/new-york. SePT. 7-8: Dirty Girl Mud Run, Buffalo; godirtygirl. com. SePT. 8: Inaugural Run, Sherlock, Run! Road Race and Scavenger Hunt, Utica; beta.active.com/utica-ny/ running/run-sherlockrun-2013 SePT. 21: Color Me Rad, Albany; www.colormerad. com. "It appeals to more than just the runner who trains for races," she says. "It appeals to everybody — and I think kids are really going to enjoy it." Even if participating isn't your idea of a good time, there will be plenty of space for spectators and cheerleaders. Be forewarned, however. The spirit of a non-traditional race can be contagious. You might just find yourself on the lookout for color bombs or mud. July 3, 2013 O-Town Scene 9