My first blog post is a review of the most recent Spartan Race, Saturday, March 12, 2016, in Houston.
First things first. I stuck the spear! 3 for 4 in Spartan Races. Maybe I have been coached well? Thanks, Tough Training!
It rained all week leading up to the race. We knew the Lazy W Ranch was going to be a muddy mess. My plan was to race in the morning, and volunteer on the afternoon shift. Spartan Race has a wide variety of volunteer opportunities available, and when you volunteer, you get a free t-shirt, a free race, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It is best to bring your own food, and plan for a long day. Theresa could not join me, as she was headed to Florida for Spring Break 2016 with Claire and Sylvia. Theresa and I will race together-ish in Austin next month. She waits for me at the finish line.
Below is a picture of the road leading up to the race site first thing on what was really a beautiful Saturday morning.
One of the things that made this a fun event was that there were several folks from CrossFit Vertigo taking part in the race. I’ve been doing this for a year, and I’ve made a lot of new friends in Texas and Arizona. I had an early start because I was volunteering. I was torn. I wanted to run with the Vertigo folks, but I also wanted to get going and see how I would do. I took the early start. Let’s do this! My 8:45 start was pushed back to 9:15 due to the weather and traffic delays. The elites had finished before I started. Again! This week’s winner, Isaiah Vidal, crushed the field in just less than 44 minutes. The Houston course was about 4.5 miles, or about a half mile shorter than the AZ race. AZ had a lot of elevation changes, but the course was dry. Houston was a flat course, but incredibly muddy and the elite winner was 15 minutes slower in Houston than in AZ. 50% more time to run a shorter course. Looks like we’ll all be getting our money’s worth today! Off we go. The trails in the woods are soupy. Thick. And there are holes on the trails. Deep holes. Up to your thigh deep holes. I am immediately concerned about my knee, and wonder if this is even a good idea. We head to the monkey bars. Slippery conditions, so who knows how this will go? I watched the elites, and it looked like several of them had trouble with grip, and failed this obstacle. I get up and get through it no problem, using the sideways method that Tough Training taught. Burpee avoidance in action! We go through some more walls and lots more mud. Shortly after the first mile, we get to the barbed wire crawl. The barbed wire crawl is closed! We are told to go around, no barbed wire crawl today. I ask one of the volunteers why it is closed. Fire ants. There are fire ants on the ground, and they are too thick to allow us to take on this obstacle. I feel bad for the folks who went ahead of us and had to find that out. Plenty of obstacles still to come! Plate drag is next. Didn’t have this one in AZ last time. A heavy plate attached to a rope. Pull the rope. Drag the plate. Once you have dragged the plate to you, return the plate to its original position. By dragging it again. Mud made this one a challenge. The plate would dig into the mud, making it immovable. Racers were helping each other out, freeing the plates so they could move. I never know if I am going to make it on this one. The first time in AZ, I really struggled, and needed help. So many of these obstacles are mentally challenging as well as physically challenging. Turns out I could do it this time. Next up was the sandbag carry. It’s a 40- or 50-pound sand bag, and you have to carry it in a loop. With no elevation change, they added some barbed wire! Just about waist high, so you had to bend down under the barbed wire while carrying the sand bag. Not sure how many of these there were, but it was a good challenge. Spear throw came next. I nailed it! I may have to post some instructional videos soon! I never know how the spear throw is going to go, but I have to say that after stopping in at Tough Training before the AZ Race, I do feel like I got some knowledge, and I have an idea of how to properly execute. And, it helps that we have the ability to practice spear throws at CrossFit Vertigo, so I can apply what I have learned.
The Herc Hoist is next. Failed this in AZ. Didn’t ask for help, and I should have. I thought about bringing gloves this time, but I changed my mind. Actually, Theresa changed my mind. I told her I was thinking I should bring gloves so I could get a better grip on the rope for the Herc Hoist and the Rope Climb. Theresa said she remembered how last year at AZ we said that people who used gloves were cheating, but I guess that’s changed now. Argh. I like my selective memory better than Theresa’s. I still tried on the gloves Friday night, thought about bringing them, heard Theresa’s voice in my head, and did not bring the gloves. In the Open heats, you are allowed to ask for assistance to complete this obstacle. I got there, and a guy was struggling. I asked if he wanted help, and he did, and then I asked him to help me. We both made it through. I will continue to work on this one till I get it. After this were the water holes and dunk wall. I find these to be fun and not too challenging. There are a lot of people that have a fear of the water, and really struggle to get through these. These races and their challenges are different for everyone. Then we had some walls and some cargo nets to climb. I struggled with the 8-foot wall this time because of the mud. It was really difficult to get a good launch in the mud, but on the third or fourth try, I got hold of the top of the wall, pulled myself up and over. Major victory in these conditions!
There were a couple water obstacles in this race that you could actually swim if you were so inclined. That was a first for me, and I liked it. Right up until people started talking about water moccasins. Really? Apparently so. The bucket carry was not nearly as challenging as AZ, or the Dallas Beast, and I got through it without having to stop once, which is a first for me. Keep lifting heavy stuff! After the bucket carry there was a pond crossing, leading to the Slick Wall. Ropes hang down from the top of the wall, you grab a rope, and you climb up. Just like the old Batman shows! A picture at the wall is below. I ended up spending most of my volunteer shift at the Slick Wall. I think this is a fun obstacle, and I enjoyed working there on my volunteer shift.
Now we are down to the last four obstacles. So far, I have not gotten hurt, and I have not failed any obstacles. I am moving at a pretty good pace, and feel pretty good about how things are going. The Z wall is first. I successfully navigated this in AZ for the first time, so I am going to try it on my own here. The wall is very muddy. Footholds and handholds are going to be slippery. I am already psyching myself out. I choose a wall that goes outside then inside. So I first have to navigate the outside turn on the Z, then the inside. I find the outside turn the harder of the two. I get to the outside turn, and before I know it, I JUMP around the corner, and land, and hold it! I can’t believe it. In fact, I am so surprised, that as I move to the inside turn, I fall off the wall. 30 burpees. Next up is the Atlas Stone Carry. The mud is going to make this one more challenging, but because I was able to complete it in AZ, I feel confident I can do it here, even in the mud. I try to help another racer first, but he can’t make the lift, even with my help. Doesn’t do much for my confidence, or his. I am able to successfully complete this obstacle, and now I move on to the last two. The rope climb and the multi-rig. Get your grip strength ready, and Where are those gloves? I had failed the rope climb in AZ. The skinny rope was hard for me to grip. I couldn’t get my feet locked in. I climbed the rope once at CrossFit Vertigo this past week, and that went well, but it’s a different rope. They have some practice ropes in the festival area of the course. I had attempted to climb one of those, and I failed. I’m not too excited about my chances, but I am going to give it a go. I jump up on the rope, I pull myself up, and I get my feet locked in. Pull. Lift my legs. Lock my feet. Repeat. I am on my way. I make it right up to the top of the rope! I reach for the bell. You have to ring the bell to complete the obstacle. I miss the bell. I lose my grip. I slide down the rope. I fail the obstacle. 30 burpees. But really, I feel pretty good that I even got up there. I think I am going to figure this one out. The multi rig is the last obstacle. It’s a different set up than AZ. A sloping bar leading to some rings, then a baseball, then three ropes, then ring the bell. It’s a muddy mess. I do what I can to dry my hands, and I jump for the bar, but it’s too slippery, and I come right off. 30 burpees. Jump over the fire, cross the finish line, get a medal and a banana, and get your picture taken. 3 failed obstacles, 90 burpees.
I have to say that when I finished the Dallas Beast in October and when I finished AZ two weeks ago, I teared up at the finish line. I was so overwhelmed that I finished, and so grateful for the experience. This time, I didn’t feel the tears. Not that I am taking this for granted, but maybe I’m just starting to feel a bit more competitive about it, and now I want to see what I can do here. I checked the results this morning, and I was blown away. My time was 1 hour, 55 minutes, which is about ten minutes longer than AZ, but with all this mud, I’m not complaining. I came in 14th place out of 89 men in my age group (50-54)! My finish is below.
I finished in the top 20% across the board! Top 14% overall! In AZ I was top 30% overall, 34% in my age group. I am really excited about this, and I feel like it shows that I can move pretty well. My new goal is to finish in the top 10% of the open field in a race in the next 12 months. Why not?
I can’t do justice to the mud. It was everywhere. It was overwhelming. People lost their shoes. Every vehicle that went in got stuck. The mud in Dallas was bad, but I think this was worse. Dallas was just longer, and it had hills. The third picture below shows the mud in the festival area.
Volunteering is such a cool experience. Being on course, and trying to be encouraging to people is great. Seeing people push through their fears and do things they don’t believe they are capable of is a wonderful experience. Families do the races together. More than once I saw a father tell his son how to get up that wall, and then be so encouraging when he made it. Friends who had no idea what they were getting themselves into came through, without any training, just trying to make the best of it. We all volunteered to run the race. Most people finish. Some do it in an hour, and some people took 11 hours. And they still finish. They still have experiences, like I do, of wondering if they can do it, and then finding out. It is transformational.
Austin is next! April 23 and 24. A Super and a Sprint! Theresa and I are signed up for both. I don’t know how I’ll be able to do it, but training starts today.
WanderingMcNulty 