WTP Does Niagara Falls: The 2014 #PhatAssChallenge

Phat:

1:  "Cool"
2.   "Pretty Hot and Tempting"

Not to be confused with Fat, which can be a noun, verb and an adjective.  This brings me to the origins of the #PhatAssChallenge.

The story goes that back in 2012 a few of the WTP Ladies got together to head to Philadelphia to run the Philadelphia Marathon.  Said ladies usually enjoy a good physical challenge and in their exploration of the city, decided it would be fun to race up the Rocky steps....because that's what you do when you're in Philly for the marathon.  Other than maybe eating a cheese steak or two.  Carb loading, you know.

Anyway.

This being the digital age, camera phones were on hand so they thought it would be funny to photograph the "event".    So, the girls run up the stairs and one of the wonderful husbands is on camera duty.  He snaps away from below as the girls run up the steps. 

You know where I'm going with this right?   Let's be real guys, that angle is NEVER flattering.

None of these women had an issue with this.  No, they took it and ran with it.  And that's how the #PhatAssChallenge was born.  So every fall, these ladies take a trip somewhere to run a race.  Last year, they went back to Philly again, this time with a bigger group.  And the addition of the LEGENDARY cat pants, which have now become a #PhatAssChallenge must.

This year, the WTP ladies put a vote out to the club with a few fall destination race options and Niagara Falls won out.  It was close and they offered 5, 10, half marathon and marathon options.  The proximity of the race brought a big turnout.  This year there were 31 people that came out to race or hang out.  Of course the highlight of the weekend was the #PhatAssChallenge.  Because it's not every day you see grown men wearing cat pants.

We all figured that the challenge would be something physical but the organizers and founders, Carm & Karen decided to dice things up a bit.  We had to assemble in the parking lot of our hotel, wearing cat pants (or similar) if we had them and we had to make sure we had a camera or smart phone.  This is part of the motley crew.  Most of us proudly wearing our WTP shirts I might add.

At shortly after 4:30 we were handed this and instructed to pull a lei out of a bag.

The colour of the lei determined the team you were on.  The ladies then walked us through the challenge.   It was a scavenger hunt of sorts.  The majority of things on the list were things we had to do as a group and get of picture of us doing it.  Nothing like running around Niagara Falls dressed in catpants or neon running attire, trying to get pictures of us doing stupid things.  So. Much.  FUN!  The tasks had different point values, some higher than others.  We also had the opportunity to find things and bring them back with us, as well as answer trivia questions.

A few examples:

Your entire #PhatAss Team with a stranger wearing catpants.  Which we did.  The rules didn't specify that the person had to already be wearing the catpants.   We managed to get not one but TWO people into Roger's catpants.

That guy in the front is a random stranger who was only too happy to put on a pair of cat pants!

Random strangers girlfriend also got in on the action!

 With a member of your team upside down with an upside down house (!?!?)

photo courtesy of Peter K

With someone dressed all in black:

Wearing funny hats:

Running Up Stairs (bonus for team member who's ass looks the biggest).  I LOVE the cat on Al's butt (the guy beside me).

People lying down on the ground spelling out WTP.  I wouldn't say they nailed it....

photo courtesy of Gary Kennedy

With a policeman or fireman in uniform.  As you can see, pretty much ANYTHING went as long as it was kind of in the ballpark.  In case you're wondering, that's a moose dressed in a RCMP Uniform.

photo courtesy of Peter K

You get the picture, right?

Needless to say, people thought we were nuts and the boys definitely raised a lot of eyebrows in the catpants.  But man, oh man was it ever fun.  We're already trying to figure out where to go next year.

Have you ever done a scavenger hunt?   What's the craziest thing you've ever worn running?

WTP Invades Niagara Falls & A Weekly Recap!

Wow.  Just.  Wow.  What a weekend.  I don't know if I could have jammed anything else into it if I tried.  After a long-ish morning bike ride on Saturday morning, G and I headed out to Niagara Falls with our run club for the Niagara Falls International Marathon festivities.  There were over 30 of us that went with about 20 of us running in either the 5, 10, half or full.   Our goal was to make sure we were there by 4:00 pm at the latest so we could participate in the #PhatAssChallenge.  That, my friends, will be a post on it's own.  I will say one thing:  Take the Amazing Race and add costumes.  Kind of.

But like I said, it deserves it's own post.  Complete with pictures of course.

Time to get on with the festivities of the week.  I'm having good days and bad days when it comes to my knees.  I haven't stopped running completely, right now it's only once, maybe twice a week and it's short.   I'm ok with that.  I don't want to push things.  It's still early days in the rehab process so I know that some days will be better than others and I can't let the "bad" ones get to me.  This week was probably about 50/50 and was saved from being even worse by my PT and the application of "Miracle Tape" on Thursday, which I kept on my knees until last night. 

My short tan is finally gone. 

Monday:  2550m swim.
Tuesday:  4km run on the treadmill, 70 minutes strength & mobility in the a.m., 24km on the computrainer in the p.m.
Wednesday:  2500m swim.  I actually felt really good today!
Thursday:  90 minutes strength & mobility.  Physio in p.m.
Friday:  Slept in
Saturday:  58km bike ride.  I could have ridden all day, it was awesome out.  It was probably one of the last rides we'll get to do outside in all the fall colours.  And it might have been the last ride I get to do with my friend Heather before she moves to B.C.  *Sad face* I shouldn't be allowed to take group selfies as I clearly don't know how to get everyone in the frame.  #SelfieFail

Sunday:  Niagara 5km.

Total: 7h 56 minutes. Pretty darn good.

I did spend a large part of the morning yesterday jumping up and down at the finish line of the Niagara Half.  It was so much fun cheering on the folks from my run group. There were a few PR's in the group, but the one that made me the happiest was my friend Bob, whom I've coached for the last 3 months.  He's been trying to break 1:44 and yesterday he came in at 1:42:27 and he finished strong.  He ran a smart race, paced himself well and had enough in his legs to pick it up the last 5km.  That was the highlight of my weekend for sure.  I saw him with about 500m to go, knew that he was going to do it and just about lost my mind.  

I also met up with two Facebook / Instagram pals in real life (Hi Shelley & Nicole!), which was a pleasure to say the least.  Speaking of Social Media, I had the funniest thing happen yesterday while we were spectating.  G and I were standing about 500m from the finish line cheering people on when this guy ran by, looked at me, pointed and said "Instagram!"  I just about died.  G couldn't stop laughing.  Oh the magic of the Interwebz once again.  Ian, if you're reading this, it was a pleasure to "meet" you and congrats on a fantastic race. 

Everybody had a blast this weekend and we're already thinking about 2015 and how we can make it bigger and better.

Anyone else race this weekend?