Spartan Race Weekend - Part 1

  This past weekend was my big Spartan double weekend.  I completed my first Spartan race in December 2012 - it was the Beast (their 13+ distance race) in Glen Rose and I remember feeling so amazing after it was over.  I couldn't believe that I had tackled something so huge!  I came away from that race ready to work on some skills and strength so that I could go back the following year and destroy.  Fast forward a year and things went a little awry.  September 2013 had my training schedule completed flipped and thrown by the wayside, I stopped running and just got caught up in life.  I had signed up for the 2013 Beast early in the year, so when December came around, I went out there with my cousin and decided that worst case scenario, I would walk the whole thing and finish.  Well, that's basically what we did...and it hurt like hell.  I walked away yet again, lamenting my fitness level and determined to get even stronger than I had been a year before.  Shortly after, emails for the Super (8+ distance) went out and I got a few people to jump on board with me to head to Burnet in May.  You see, if you run all 3 off the Spartan distances in a calendar year, you get what they call a Trifecta - and this appealed to me in a big way.  I heard rumors that they were working on bringing a Sprint to Texas and if that was the case, I wanted to try and get all 3 races done.  The Super was originally meant to run on Saturday and Sunday, but then the announcement for the Sprint (3+ distance) came out and it appeared that they were doubling up races during the same weekend.  Fast forward to present day and this is how I ended up running back to back races in one weekend.

  With all of the time changes and race shuffling, everyone that was going to go with me ended up unable to attend, so it looked like it was just going to be me running solo - something I haven't done at an OCR before.  Last year, I had joined a few FB groups that participate in OCRs and when I realized I was going it alone, I got more involved in one of those teams and added myself to their roster.  This way I knew I would at least have some friendly faces around to ask for help if I needed it.  Luckily the group I ended up in, Lone Star Spartans, ended up having the largest team at the event (close to 300) and they had their own tent and wave for each race.  It was really nice to have a place to hang out with people before and after, and there are definitely no strangers at these events.  Everyone was so nice and I made a few new friends - shout out to Amy, Bea, and the 2 Cassidys.  Back in April, I went to an OCR training simulation out in Rowlett and made a few new friends there, and they were all down there as well - shout out to JB, Melissa, Paul, Christina aka Honey Badger and Kimberly aka The Mud Pixie.  I seemed to run into people I knew every time I turned around, so it really helped calm some of my jitters before and during the race.  My friend Theresa was super cool as well, traveling with me to just keep me company on the drive and be a cheerleader during the races.  I was glad that I didn't have to travel alone and she and I had fun with her sister, checking out the nearby towns and trying to track down cupcakes.   

Kimberley aka The Mud Pixie

My new friend Amy, who just signed up for the 2014 GR Beast

Team Huddle before starting the Sprint on Sunday

  So the weekend started with some driving on Friday night - we stayed in Killeen, which is about an hour from the race.  Up early the next day to head to Burnet and try and get to the race site with a good hour before my Spartan Super wave time of 10:30a.  Spartan Race sites are always pretty awesome.  They set it up like a little village, which food vendors, bag check, registration, showers and changing tents, challenge areas, main stages, etc.  This little Spartan village was no different and this particular race seemed to have a lot of spectators.  The event is very family friendly, they have a Spartan kids race, so there were a lot of kiddos running around, just dying to get muddy.  The first thing I noticed once I got my bib information and checked in, was that the race had set up quite a gauntlet of obstacles right there at the festival area.  At the Beast in Glen Rose, there were usually a handful of obstacles that you do right there in the festival area - once about halfway through the course and then once again right at the finish line.  This race had 8-10 obstacles right there at the end of the race.  Once you hit the festival area after being out on the trails, it was all the big ones - herculean hoist, traverse wall, climb over, barbed wire crawl, spear throw, another barbed wire crawl, dunk wall, slippery wall, rope climb and then fire jump.  That was an interesting thought to keep in mind while out on the trails, knowing that there was a whole mess of fun waiting for you at the finish.  I caught up with LSS at their tent, got my bag checked and then just hung out for a bit until we headed over to the start.  I was a little nervous, but not too much.  I felt rested and fueled up, and I figured if I could finish the Beast in the shape I was in December, I could totally knock out this Super.

BEFORE

  We headed to the start corral, which has a wall for you to climb before you even get to line up.  It's not super tall, so I was able to get over that one with no assistance, which was a confidence builder.  We all got lined up and after the customary Spartan start line speech (lots of "I am a Spartan!" and "Aroo!") - we took off.  They described this trail as a "Runner's Course" and they were not lying.  The first 2-4 miles were a great trail run, nicely laid out with some rolling hills, but nothing too technical.  There were a lot of rocks, but usually there were flat areas to work around.  There was a river crossing in those early miles, but it was all pretty reasonable.  I felt good, running at a nice pace, only having to stop here and there for bottlenecks, etc.  I got a few "Great job!" as I passed people, which was encouraging.  There were quite a few obstacles during that first few - several walls, some over unders, atlas carry, tire drag or pull, etc.  Then we got to Mile 5, which was a lot of upward climb on granite.  At first I felt like I could have run more, but the areas to pass were getting narrow and it was difficult to pass others.  So I just relaxed and found a groove in the pack.  Eventually we realized that the climb was not going to end any time soon - we started up a straight granite face and as we looked up, could see tiny outlines of racers WAY in the distance.

  The little pack I was in kind of laughed like, "Oh, ok...we see how it is."  I was starting to see people sitting and suffering a little and I tried to ask people if they were ok as I passed them.  At this point, I gave out a pack of shot bloks and some of my water to a guy I saw sitting on one boulder.  It was pretty hot out there and there were several people that had not brought camelbaks or nutrition.  We kept climbing up and up and when we reached the top, it was totally worth it.  The view was so beautiful and at the top of the dome, they call it "Decision Point", there's a cross with makeshift pews.  Just a place for people to come and reflect, I guess.  It was beautiful.  Several people stopped not just to rest, but to pray and take a moment - it was a pretty cool scene.  As we descended the dome, the mile marker for Mile 5 assured us that we were halfway home.  At least we hoped so - Spartan doesn't tell you the final mile count, but we all kind of banked on it being around 10.  

   Coming down from the dome was easy peasy - the downhill just kept going and going, which some rolling hills, but what felt like mostly just descent.  I was running really well, but I started stopping more frequently to help people with water and nutrition.  Spartan actually had several water stops, which I wasn't used to, but there were no snacks, etc., so I gave out the rest of my shot bloks and gels to people that needed them.  We started racking up obstacles again, the back half included the tractor pull, pipe crawl, inverted wall, log walk, mud trenches, swim and sandbag carry.  The pipe crawl was where I did my first set of burpees.  You could go in the smaller, longer, white pipes without penalty or crawl through the wider, shorter, dark pipes and do 15 burpees.  This claustrophobic girl took the penalty, and I was not the only one.  Those pipes were TINY. Once you got past the sandbag carry, you turned a corner back to the festival and it was time for the gauntlet, which I outlined earlier.

Dunk Wall!

DONE!

  BIG VICTORIES: I got over the inverted wall for the first time!  I landed the spear throw! I got over the slippery wall without help for the first time!  NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: I failed the traverse wall - burpees. I failed the rope climb - burpees.  The traverse wall is a silly fail, because I should have asked someone for help.  Ah well, live and learn.  The rope climb continues to be my nemesis, but I got a little further than I had ever gotten before.  It's tricky - the water was really high at this one, up to my armpits.  So jumping out of the water and then trying to find the bottom of the rope to get my feet around it was tough. Work in Progress.  I ended up finishing in 2:42, which was pretty damn good, because I had predicted something like 3-4 hours.  I finished so early that Theresa and her sister didn't even find me for another 45 minutes.  I had time to jump in the lake, change clothes, walk around, eat and chill.  It was fun to hang out at the festival though, just take my time and enjoy the scene.  The lake felt so great after being out on the hot trails, I could have just floated there the rest of the day.
  Post race dinner included a giant hamburger, sweet potato fries and a cinnamon roll.  That's right, I said cinnamon roll.  I had my heart set on a cupcake, but we could never find the damn cupcake place in Marble Falls. I was in bed and asleep by 8:30a since I had to get up the next day and do it all again....to be continued.