Race Recap: Spartan Beast - Utah

Race: Reebok Spartan Beast

Location: Soldier's Hollow, UT

Race Date: Saturday, June 29, 2013

A little late than never...Well, first off, I survived...that's good isn't it? lol! This was a killer race so here we go with the recap...

Day 1 - Travel Day - Thursday, June 27, 2013

Jeff, my race traveling companion, and I left home at about 5:30am while the hubs stayed with the K9s. The drive which was supposed to be 13 hours turned out to be 14 or so hours due to massive construction on the roads that we were traveling. We went up through Albuquerque, Farmington, thru Canyonlands National Park, Provo, Utah and finally to our final destination, Heber City, UT. The town is small and cute but there's not a whole lot to do here. Once we arrived, we unpacked and headed out for dinner since we had arrived at about 8pm. The first place we ended up at stopped taking patrons for seating at 8:30pm...it was 8:31pm. We ended up just going back to the motel (Swiss Alps Inn...nice place, older furniture but great owner and just nice overall. They do have pet friendly rooms (we were in one) and they don't smell and from what I can tell the rooms are all fairly large. We ended up ordering Domino's and then watched some TV and/or played on the  computers before bed.

Day 2 - Free Day - Friday, June 28, 2013

I woke up early and Jeff slept in so since I wasn't able to get my mile in yesterday for my run streak I had to start over and went to the local high school track to get my mile in. Afterwards I decided to drive up to the venue just to check it out. OMG! Was my first thought was, "It's all f*cking hills and mountains!" Here's some exapmles of the area...

Yup, we were knee deep in that sh*t. See the mountain on the left?
Yeah, we climbed the trail to the top.That was a b*tch

We were on mostly single track trails through this area.

Parking area, view 1.

Parking area, view 2.

We ate breakfast at a bakery/deli called Kneaders, great food! We've had breakfast there 2 days and are planning to go back today (Sunday) for more! We then headed up to Salt Lake City and visited Temple Square which houses the first Latter Day Saints buildings and which is the oldest area of the city.

The Temple from the west entrance.

Jeff in front of the Temple from the west entrance.

As much of the Temple that I could get in one shot.
Granite was quarried from 20 miles away by ox and cart
and took 4 days to transport until they built a railroad
which lowered the time to 4 hours.

Selfie in front of the Temple.

Assembly Hall, the oldest building and first building of worship.
Original pews are still being used.

Fountain in front of the Assembly Hall has plate murals
depicting the trek of the original settlers.

After the visit to Temple Square I made my first visit to a Lululemon store...just to say I've been in one!

We then headed to Gateway Center (shopping) to look around to kill some time. Jeff was looking for new mud shoes and I was trying not to spend any money. We then headed to REI where Jeff finally (we won't say how long this took!) found some shoes but they were out of his size so we waited for a friend of his from Clovis who now lives north of SLC who was going to join us for dinner and some impromptu shopping at the REI in Sandy, UT which had the shoes that Jeff was looking for.

We then headed out to Olive Garden, which luckily was pretty much around the corner and had dinner (I still have leftovers that are probably going in the trash). Megan, Jeff's friend, was a pleasant young lady who obviously had a great relationship with Jeff. After dinner we dropped Megan off at her truck at the SLC REI and headed back "home." We tried to turn in early so that we could be ready for the morning.

Race Day - Saturday, June 29, 2013

We were up by 7am and headed back to Kneaders for breakfast. We then headed out to the venue to get everything necessary for the race AKA packet pickup. We got everything together and found the small group of the Weeple Army that we were going to run with (more on that later). I didn't even think to take any pre-race pics of myself and Jeff but I did get some of the 10am heat at the starting line and of some of the Weeples as we waited in the corral for the 10:15 heat.

10am heat at the starting corral, 200 racers at a time.

Flags marking the start.

Bryce carrying the Weeple flag and wearing his GoPro.

Weeple people.

To the rear of the 10:15am heat.

Dave (our illustrious leader) and Bryce.

Weeple chicks.

Weeples preparing for the start.

To the front of the starting corral.

When the race started of course we were going up hill...and you know how much I love hills...NOT! (Yes,  I know I have to train for them for NWM 26.2!) It was this early point that I fell behind and rather than have them wait for me I just let them go and continued on  my own. I was able to do the race at my pace and asked for help from total strangers at obstacles that I needed it. I met several other women close to my age who I walked with for varying amounts of time  plus a young lady who was a tired of the crap we were dealing with and we were going to go through this together...until she got called to the medical tent for an emergency. So I trudged along and met a few other women and some men that I walked and chatted with throughout the race. One inspiring person was a young man named Lemoni (apparently a name from the Book of Mormon) who had lost a leg and had broken a spring so I let him use my phone (yes, I had it sealed in a ziplock bag) so he could contact his wife to meet him with a new part. I believe he had lost his leg in the war, but I'm not positive. The last time that I passed him, he had met his wife and was fixing the piece but also had to do some gerry rigging with athletic tape so that he could continue on. He passed me again and I saw him at the spear throw doing bupees with his prosthetic off...the man was a freakin' BEAST!! So as I continued on through some mud/water obstacles I worried that I should have taken my FitBit Flex off, but it handled the mud/water like a champ and is still working (only water resistant no proof). It was totally submerged several times for several minutes and it's going great today (Sunday). I also had bought a new waterproof, dustproof, shock proof camera that ended up totally covered in a thick layer of mud but is also working like a champ. Needless to say, I was unable to take any pics with it though.

I started the race at 10:15am and finished around 5:30pm, according to Jeff only about 30 minutes after the Weeples finished, if that's true I'm pretty proud of myself! That's a little over 7 hours for a killer race and we had finished a Super in just over 5 hours and that was an 8 mile or so race. I was so tired that I didn't even want to think about taking pics, just wanted to wash all the mud off and get into the pool at the motel! So when we got back to the motel we showered, rinsed out our clothes/shoes some more, sat in the pool and hot tub then went next door to Dairy Keen to have some burgers and a shake (Yummy, thick shakes). We then came back to the room and although we wanted to go to sleep early we ended up finally going to bed at 11pm or so. Ugh.

Day 4 - Travel Day - Sunday, June 30, 2013

Well, I was up at 4:30am so I'm going to have to stock up on some 5 Hour Energy before we leave. Jeff woke up for a few minutes at 5am but is now back asleep. I'm considering another shower or to lay back down in bed. We managed to get on the road around 11am after having been disappointed that Kneaders, our fave breakfast/bakery joint was closed. We ended up eating at a cafe across the street before beginning the 15+ hour drive home. The drive was uneventful other than more frequent stops to stretch, gas up and nature breaks but we did stop to eat 3 times adding on another hour or so to the trip. Note to self...don't have the patty melt at Whataburger, it just didn't sit well with me. We finally made it home at almost 2am exactly. Another Spartan race done. A week of soreness to look forward to!

The Aftermath:
Bruised on every body part except neck and face. Bruises ranged from 10" to variously sized spots. Sore for 5 days after...ran/walked 5K on July 4th and soreness went away the next day.

What I liked about this race...
I finished, it was a bruiser but it can be done by a not so in shape 48 year old female.

What I didn't like about this race...
Hills, steep hills, loose rock...the 100 yard barb wire crawl roll...usually one of my fave obstacles. Didn't like my normal disliked obstacles...traverse wall, monkey bars, rope climb...took burpees for all those.

Would I do this race again?
Yes, just because I am a glutton for punishment and it would give me a reason to eat a Kneaders and have a shake at Dairy Keen.

Recommendations in Heber City, UT (about 10 minutes from Soldier's Hollow venue):
Swiss Alps Inn - Clean, roomy motel w/ pool, hot tub and sauna.
Kneaders Bakery - Great baked goods and breakfasts.
Dairy Keen - Right next door to the Inn, great burgers and shakes.

OCR Toys: Practice Spears & Tires

I, with just a little help from the hubs, made a new obstacle course race (OCR) training toy today and I'm so excited! Ya'll know that I started doing Spartan races this year, at first reluctantly but now I'm enjoying them...a lot. So much so that I've already planned 6 Spartan races for next year in hopes of earning 2 Trifectas (completing a Sprint, Super and Beast in one calendar year). But enough about that...back to my toys...

One of the obstacles that I have never succeeded at at a Spartan race is the spear throw ("Spearman"). In fact, when I did my first Spartan Sprint in Arizona my right leg cramped up so bad after throwing the spear that I couldn't even catch my balance and landed on my back screaming and cursing bloody murder. The poor volunteers at first didn't know what was going on and then they came and asked if I needed the medics and I was like, "NO! Cramp! Cramp! I just need to stretch my f*#$(@&g leg out!!"  I finally got most of the cramp out, did my 30 burpees (they weren't pretty) and hobbled along on my way. Needless to say that throw was an epic fail...I don't think it even got near the straw bales. At Super it was just a bad throw period...did my 30 burpees with the help of the Weeples and finished up. At Military Sprint I got the closest of all with the spear skimming too low on the bottom of the target. I'm hoping that with the ability to practice that I'll be able to nail the spear throw at Beast at the end of June!

So, here's the video that I followed but I'll also be putting step by step instructions in this post as well.

Let's talk price first. There are kits that you can purchase online that have everything that you need to make a spear. These run approximately $35. For my spears - yes, I made two - here are my costs:

One Time Use Items:
3/8" by 12" bridge nails - 2 each x 67¢
60" Rake handle with ferrule - 1 each x $14.99
60" Rake handle with ferrule - 1 each x $10.44

Multiple Use Items:
Mini Hacksaw - 1 each x $6.28
3/8" by 12" drill bit - $11.22
Liquid Nails - 1 10oz tube  x $2.27

We had to go to three different stores until we found the rake handles and I didn't realize that when we finally did get them that they were 2 different/types (the store we ended up had merged with another store thus the difference in price). So, for one spear (most expensive) the final cost of having to buy everything the first time was $34.50. The second spear (less expensive) came out to $11.11. Based on that price I may have my own little arsenal of OCR spears in the near future! lol!

So here's what I did:

1. Collected all the items and tools I needed. The battery for the drill was charging so that is missing.

2. Used the hacksaw to cut off the head of the nail. It helped having two of us to stabilize the nail but you could do it yourself with it clamped in a vice.

3. Used the drill and drill bit to deepen the hole at the lower end of the handle so that I could sink the cut end of the nail to the depth of the ferrule.

4. Removed the staples that were used as display hangers.

5. Insert some of the Liquid Nail putty into the drilled end of the handle and inserted the cut end of the nail.

6. Tap the end of the nail on the ground or use a hammer and repeat until you no longer get excess Liquid Nail putty coming out. Clean off the excess.

7. That's it! Just need to let the Liquid Nail to cure and they'll be ready to go! Now I just need to find some straw bales to put up as a target!! Woot!

All in all, the whole project for both spears only took about 20-25 minutes total. The hardest part was sawing off the nail heads but even then that only took about 5 minutes. If you were to use an electric reciprocating saw it would probably take half as long.

I'm adding these to my current OCR toys tires to flip, drag, push, whatever... Meet Momma (right, 95#) and Daddy (left, 113#)...

I'm hoping to add to the family of tires with Granddad (top, ~140#) and Great Grandad  (bottom, ~200#) this week...

Two new toys to play/practice with...easy peasy. Hopefully, 2 more free toys to play with too!! AROO! AROO! AROO! (Spartan battle cry...)

Race Recap: Spartan Military Sprint - Colorado

A little nod to my own military
aircraft maintenance background.
C/W = Complied With

Race Date: Saturday, May 4, 2013Race 

Location: Fort Carson Army Base, Colorado Springs, CO

Race Day -1: Travel Day

Thankfully, this was one of the closer races to home...only a mere 6½ hours away. I was able to drop my long haired fur kids off to be groomed (their daddy picked them up) and leave town mid-morning rather than before dawn. This was a route that I had taken many times in the past 20+ years so there was little chance of getting lost. Aside from getting caught behind a semi towing a double wide house on a two lane road that went up and down hills and had no way to pass which extended the trip by about 30 minutes just outside of Logan, New Mexico the trip was rather uneventful. There were more deer along the drive between Logan and Springer than I had ever seen in the past.

We (myself and my race partner, Jeff) arrived in Colorado Springs at about 4pm and found our way to the hotel. When we went to check in the clerk couldn't find my reservation and I ended up having to call their toll free number to find out what was going on. While I was on the phone the clerk did find my reservation, but I had made it for April rather than May...my bad! I first tried to call the USAF Academy to see if they had any temporary lodging facilities (TLF) open where we could have a full kitchen, but they didn't. Luckily the Super 8 where I thought I had made reservations had rooms open and the clerk gave it to us at the price I had made the original reservation for.

We drove around to find our way to the two entrances to Ft. Carson (somewhere I had been back in 1985 on our way to New York to drop our car off at Bayonne and fly out of JFK to our new duty station in England). Unfortunately my navigation program was no help to find the main gate and I knew that Gate 20 was a ways down the road. Listening to my navigation set to "Fort Carson Gate 1" ended us up at the Colorado Springs airport! I finally figured out how to get to the main gate and estimated the travel time needed to get there at 6am on a Saturday morning to be about 10 minutes.

Now that we knew where we were going we made a trip to the mall so I could get a warmer shirt for the race (Underarmor mock turtle neck long sleeve) and then headed to dinner at Famous Dave's. We just hung out in the room for the rest of the night since we needed to get up at 5am to go grab some breakfast and then head over to the venue to volunteer at 6am the next morning.

Race Day:

I woke up bright and early, even before my alarm and got ready to allow Jeff  time to sleep in a little before waking him up. I have to say that I wasn't quite sure of what to expect for this race as I hadn't even looked at the previous year's video, so I was just a tad nervous. I also didn't know what to expect for volunteering all I really knew was that I'd be racing for free for half a day of work. We headed to breakfast at a nearby Denny's where the chicks sitting in back of us were talking so loudly that I was able to discern that they were both exotic dancers, one had a kid, the other hated one of the dancers at the club for thinking she was better than everyone else, etc., etc., etc. I mean  really, the few people in the restaurant probably knew these girls life stories since they had been there before us! lol!

We made our way to the base and checked in at the volunteer tent. We ended up in our stations at the registration tents. I was going to bail a little early to go run with the Weeple Army at 10:30, but the Army ended up being spread out throughout the day so I just opted to finish my half day and run the last volunteer heat at 4pm instead. The weather was a bit cold in the early morning, but the job I had at the volunteer registration table was pretty low key and we were next to the gas area heater so that made life better.

Spartan Race volunteer t-shirt - Front.

Spartan Race volunteer t-shirt - Back

We finished our shift at 1:30 (I think) and left the venue to go grab some lunch and a nap prior to our 4pm heat. We planned on heading back to the venue at 3pm which ended up being a good thing because when we did return at 3:20pm we found out that the last heat was at 3:30 instead. Talk about not being psyched up!! We rushed to check our bags and get to the start. I forgot to take off my sunglasses and to grab my gloves out of my bag. We literally got to the start and had about 30 seconds before the heat took off! From here I'll go thru the race (~4 miles, 28 obstacles) obstacle by obstacle:

1. Moats - A series of 3 muddy pits one of which was wide enough to jump over (for those with legs longer than mine) and the other 2 pretty much requiring one to settle in and hopefully be able to climb out. A lot of people needed to help each other out of a couple of these moats, Jeff and I included. The water was cold and was pretty much a shocker at the beginning of the race. This obstacle took a toll really early on some of us. I heard later that a chick had broken her ankle trying to jump across the moats. If you're not positive that you can make it take the safe route and suck up the wetness and the mud...heck, that's why your doing a Spartan Race right? To get muddy?

2. U-O-U-O-U-O (Under-Over series): Simple obstacle to go under some hanging mesh and over a short 4' wall three times.

3. O-U-T (Over-Under-Thru): Go over a 6' wall (couldn't use the side braces for support), under a wall and through a square hole in a wall about 3' high.

4. Monkey Bars: This is always such an epic fail for me when I try by myself that I just opted to do the burpees right away when I found out that no partnering would be allowed. I regret that decision. I mean, I was already the last one in the heat so I may as well at least have tried. lol!

After this we had to slog our way under a wet, slimy, stale smelling underpass and a little mud...I was still in last place and was walking and talking with the elite runner who was doing the route to let the officials know as each obstacle was clear of racers.

5. Hobie Hop: This was a little different from the hay bale jumping at Super. This time you still had to put the narrow exercise band on both legs above the ankles and below the knes but instead of hay bales, we had to jump over wires or duck under them on an uphill mini course. This was quite a bit easier than the bales IMHO.

6. Weaver: Basically a tall A-frame ladder build with cross beams about 3' apart. Climb up, over and back down.

Back under that soggy overpass..

7. 6' Wall (if you're running alone and need help, don't be afraid to ask for it!)

8. 7' Wall

9. 8' Wall

10. Atlas Lift: Carry a concrete weight across to a marked point (maybe 50' away) do 5 burpees and return the weight back to the start.

11. Log Hop: Logs on end, spread out at varying widths/heights. Step over them without losing your balance from one end to the other. I've seen some fairly nasty falls on this and I have terrible balance...you bet I accepted a spotter when offered!

12. Barb Wire Crawl: This one was fairly low...keep your butt down!

13. Spearman: Yet again another epic fail, but probably the closest that I've gotten the spear to actually hitting the target so far.

14. Traverse Wall: A longitudinal climbing wall with wooden blocks instead of climbing holds. Always an epic fail for me, but I did at least try. The blocks were covered with piles of mud and footing (at least for me) was impossible. As usual, couldn't even get on the damned wall! 30 burpees for 60 total so far.

15. Trenches: Water filled trenches with the occasional netting above. Easy peasy.

16. Slip Wall: A frame wall with a slick, muddy uphill slant and ropes with knots and cross beams on the back side to climb down. OMG!! I swear I did not think I'd get over this. Luckily the volunteers were helping almost everyone. This was the slickest slip wall so far...and I thought the one at NV Super was bad! The mud at the base had to be about 6-8" deep of clay mud and even with bungee laces my shoes almost came off many times. A volunteer was kind enough to support the rope in such a way that with a lot of work and coaxing I could push myself up with my left leg then pull up until I could get my foot to the next knot. I really felt like giving up on this obstacle but stuck it out and eventually got over. By the time I got off this one, my feet were covered in that heavy mud making even walking difficult.

Start mile 2...

17. Herc Hoist: One of my favorite obstacles! Pull a concrete weight attached to a rope/pulley about 20' high and slowly lower it. Just dig in, plop your butt on the ground and pull. Easy peasy.

18. Tire Drag: Pull a tractor tire out to the end of a rope and then drag it back to the start. The tires were smaller than at Super where I couldn't even budge the stupid thing. Part of it may be because we didn't have the deep sand in Colorado and the surface dirt was fairly even but I was able to do this unassisted.

19. Tractor Pull: Pull a concrete weight (deck pier) on a chain up a steep hill and back down. This was also easier than Super because the terrain was fairly smooth (even on an uphill) compared to the rocky terrain in Nevada but it was a hell of a hill!

Start mile 3...

20. Sandbag Carry: Sand filled "pancake" to carry up the other side of the steep hill and back down. Again a hell of a hill. By this time I had passed several people and was no longer the last in the heat.

21. Tire Flip: Just what it says...flipping tractor tires. Only 2 flips required which surprised me because at Super it was 3 if alone or 6 if partnered up. The tires seemed smaller here as well and I didn't have any problem doing this myself.

22. Rucksack Carry: Pack a weighted ruck up a very steep hill and come back down. The downward trip was much easier. This just about killed my back as I didn't stop to take the time to adjust the ruck. My least favorite, but doable obstacle.

23. 5' Wall

Start mile 4...

24. Rolling Mud and Balance Beam: A long barb wire crawl with steep hills and areas that were really close to the ground. A lot of water involved including getting sprayed over and over with the fire hose. I ended up getting caught up a couple of times and ended up with a nice hole in my new $50  UA shirt...at least I was expecting that as a possibility when I bought it so no worries. At the end of this was a moat where you could either go over a balance beam or just slide in and climb out. I love the barb wire crawl, but this one was long and tiring. I can't roll for too long because I just get too dizzy, but that's the way to go especially when things get really low.

Here's mud in your eye!
Contacts & mud don't mix.
I'm bringing swim goggles to Beast!

25. Rope Climb: 20' rope climb with knots. I so suck at this and by the time I saw how muddy and slick the ropes were I decided just to go straight for the burpees. When I finished the race Jeff told me that most people had done the same. 30 burpee penalty = 90 burpees for the day.

26. Cargo Bridge: This is becoming one of my favorite obstacles. Climb up and down a 20' high cargo net on either end and cross another 20' net at the top. A crab crawl using the net to sit on and crawl sideways works for me.

27. Fire Jump: I was tired, but nowhere near as tired as when I did the Arizona Sprint.

28. Gladiator Pit to the Finish: I think they took it easy on us back of the packers. ;)

I didn't finish last...not that that would be a bad thing just as long as I finished. Got my medal and headed to the "showers" (just hoses on platforms with sprayers). The water was fiercely cold and it was already just a bit cool out as well but at least the changing tent was heated...yay! I ended up talking to another girl there who had moved to Colorado from Sacramento...talk about a small world (I'm originally a NorCal girl).

Considering that I wasn't quite ready to start the race so quickly after we arrived on site I'm pretty happy with my 2:28:55 time. After returning to the hotel and taking a real shower we ended up eating dinner and doing our laundry before turning in early (or at least trying to) for a full day of volunteering the next day.

Sorry, between the sun flare and wiping the lens
with a muddy finger this came out terrible.
The muddiest I've been after a Spartan Race.

Military Sprint - Fort Carson, CO medal mud and all!

Race Day + 1: Volunteering for a Free Race

Again we were up at the crack of dawn. No race to worry about on this day, but a full 12+ hour shift of volunteering instead. We had breakfast at the Village Inn before heading back to the base to check in. The weather was significantly colder and windier than it had been on Saturday. I ended up getting a Spartan Race hoodie (using a $50 gift card for volunteering a full day) and wearing that plus a thermal UA mock turtle neck, a volunteer t-shirt and occasionally a sweater that I had brought. The wind was blowing things around and I was glad that I was assigned to the spectators registration table right next to the table with the gas powered heater.

I really felt sorry for the folks that were running on Sunday. I mean, I thought it was cold at the Arizona Sprint, but I think this one actually got colder than that one. I had heard that there were people being pulled off the course or just not finishing due to hypothermia. We had many more participants stopping by our heater just to warm up than there had been the day before.

With the weather turning bad, it was a pleasant surprise to find out that we'd be getting off early. After packing up the registration area we were sent down to the volunteer area to help unload a truck and then we were cut loose. We ended up getting off at about 3pm instead of 6 or 7pm as we had anticipated. It had been so dusty out that we had to take another shower before heading out to On the Border for a late Mexican lunch to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We got back to the room and just chilled and packed until it was time for a late dinner at Arby's. The plan was to leave by 10am for the drive back home.

Race Day + 2: Travel Day

No major problems after leaving Colorado Springs at about 10:30am after breakfast at Denny's. It was a smooth cruise home and the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. We managed to make it home by about 5pm and I was basically a vegetable the rest of the night.

All in all it was a good trip. When we started out I was feeling a bit travel weary and really wasn't "feeling" the trip but by the end I had had a good time and enjoyed the volunteer experience. I really recommend that if you can volunteer for a race in exchange for a free race to do it! I mean it literally saved me nearly $300 and I was able to race the Military Sprint and will be running the Utah Beast next month for a day and a half of volunteering.

What did I like about this race?

This is what most Spartans would consider a runner's race. Most of the obstacles were spaced fairly far apart with only a few exceptions...usually after obstacles that were expected to wear you out. The trails were pretty tame compared to the whole of the Arizona Sprint and some areas of the Nevada Super. The hills for the obstacles were the killers.

What did I not like about this race?

The race itself was fine. I was just a little concerned that our volunteer heat was at 3:30pm instead of the 4pm that had been noted on our volunteer emails. It would have sucked not to be able to do the Military Sprint because there is not another one close enough for us to do. Luckily we got back just in the nick of time!

Would I do this race again?

YES!! From what I've heard there were more obstacles last year including a grenade throw (fake grenades) and I think a shooting obstacle as well. I'd love to do those! Jeff wasn't able to purchase a Military Sprint shirt so we'll probably head up here again next year.

Race Recap: Super Spartan & the Weeple Army

Race Day: Saturday, April 6, 2013
Location: Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, Nevada


Race Day -1: Travel day

Nothing special happened during the drive. After a 13 hour drive, including stops to eat and pick up snacks for the drive, we arrived in Henderson around 4:30pm or so. By "we" I'm referring to my friend, Jeff, who is 20 years old and the one who got me into doing these crazy races. We drove out to the venue for the next day's race to make sure we knew where we were going and then I took him down to the Strip for a quick tour and some dinner. By they time we got done it was about 9:30pm so we headed back to the hotel to settle in for the night since he had the volunteer heat at 8:45am.

Race Day: 

Let me start off with I survived! :D I've now done my second Spartan race and truthfully I feel a lot more comfortable and happy after doing Super Spartan than I did doing Spartan Sprint. When I did Sprint in AZ it was myself,  my son's female friend, my son and my local friend who kinda got the idea of doing an obstacle course race (OCR) into my head in the first place. At that race I ended up cramping up severely in my calf and told my son's friend to go on without me so that I could stretch out the cramp for a while. I then went through the rest of the course on my own with the occasional help of complete strangers. By the time I hit the fire jump (the last obstacle on both races other than the Spartans with the pugil sticks at the very end) I was totally spent.

In comparison at Super I had signed up through one of my TinkerBell Half Marathon friends to run with the Weeple Army. What is the Weeple Army you ask? They are a group of extreme/OCR racers ranging from beginners (like myself) to elite Death Race athletes. This is a true team...no one is left behind. I can't tell you how many times they saved me from having to do punishment burpees or helping me by sharing my punishment burpees when I did receive them. To me, the burpees are possibly the worst thing of the whole race! I love the camaraderie, support and motivation that these guys and gals provided! Enough so, that I have joined their ranks and hope to meet up with some of them at the Military Sprint in Colorado next month and then Spartan Beast in Utah at the end of June.

So, let's get to the race already...

Jeff and I got to the venue at about 7:45am and picked up our bibs and just hung around until his heat at 8:45. After I saw him off I went to my car to try to take a nap because I was having some dizziness that had been an issue since I started getting sick on the previous Thursday. When I couldn't sleep, I sent a message to my friend Jessica who had posted that they were on their way and she said to meet her at the "Biggest Team" tent. After a few more minutes trying to nap, I gave up and headed back to the festival area to meet up with Jessica and the Weeple Army for the first time.

At the start of the race the Weeple Army was recognized as the largest team. This resulted in a tent/canopy just for the team to use. The heat started at 11:15 and you could feel the anticipation in the tent as time was counted down until about 11 o'clock when everyone started heading to the start. With the traditional battle cry of "I am a Spartan! Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!" the race began with the throwing of a smoke bomb through which you had to run. Now, I hadn't been feeling well for the 2 days prior to the race and was really questioning if I should race or not due to some dizziness that I was feeling. I decided to go for it and just drop out if I needed to.  So this early into the race I was still feeling the dizziness until we came to the first obstacle...the moats. These were 3 dug out holes of muddy, slickness that you either jumped across or waded through. It seemed that they started our narrow enough to just jump over then progressed a little wider which I jumped but one leg slipped into the muddy water and the final one I just said "Screw it!" and waded through the muck. So early on I was wet and muddy but the dizziness had disappeared, maybe because I had something else to focus on.

Next came a hike on hills...never ending hills. I thought Bataan was bad but this race came pretty close to that! The next obstacle was the under and over repeated 3 times. You basically crawl under some netting then go over a wall I think it was probably a 6 foot wall.  After that we continued on, I should mention we weren't going for time and there were several of us newbies so the pace was slow and steady and finally passed the one mile marker...only 7 1/2 more to go. The next obstacle came up the over-under-through...basically another wall to go over than the guys helped the girls get over by providing a step/lift, then crawl under a wall, then climb through a square hole in another wall easiest done by going feet first.

Another hike of seemingly never ending hills and we came to the monkey bars. Now these are not the typical school or park playground monkey bars. These are thicker and the spacing is uneven...mostly too wide for my short arms. Thankfully, my friend's husband was kind enough to give me a lift on his shoulders (yes, this kind of teamwork is allowed) and as long as I touched each bar I was good to go...thank you Mike!

More hills followed on rougher terrain that was marked as non-drivable by the race map. Next came the Rolling Mud which in this case were big mounds of mud that you literally had to slide down and wade across to yet another mound for a total of 3 if I remember correctly. Obviously, it involved mud but I can't remember if we just had to wade through it or what. A nice hike over some smoother terrain landed us at the Hobie Hop. OMG. I wasn't expecting anything like this...you had to put a rubber exercise band on both legs between your ankles and knees then could only hop to get around. To make it even more challenging, you had to jump over or on/off hay bales. Let me tell you, I need to start going to CrossFit more regularly and do some box jumps! Unfortunately, some of the bales were already falling apart from previous heats and the baling string holding them together posed a tripping hazard if your foot happened to get caught in them. One Weeple did go down with either a cramp or sprain and several of the more experienced Weeples stayed with him.

Back over some more rough terrain we landed at the Tractor Pull. This is basically a weight attached to a chain that you have to drag behind you up a hill and back down to the starting point.  This wasn't too bad and I was familiar with it from the Arizona race. After a mix of continued hills over both smooth and rough terrain we passed the 3 mile marker and landed at the tire flip. Nope, these are not little car tires. These are tractor tires, slightly smaller for females, that you literally had to flip over 3 times if you did it alone or 6 times if you had a partner. You did this out and back to the starting point where you had to center the tire on top of a block. There was absolutely no way that I could do this alone, so my friend, Jessica, helped me with it...let me tell you, Jess is a beast and probably could have done hers alone fairly easily compared to my t-rex upper body/arm strength!

Again, more hills over smooth and rough terrain and we landed at the Sandbag Carry. I thought that this was actually easier than at Arizona because if I remember correctly we actually used sandbags at that race compared to the "pancakes" that we used at Super...but then I could be wrong too. So up a hill with the sand pancake on my shoulder shifting it to the other shoulder every so often just to keep from getting too tired on either side. We continued on then hit the Tire Drag which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a tractor tire tied to a rope and you had to drag it out to the length of the rope and then pull it with the rope back to the start. Yup, no way I was able to do this alone so one of the other Weeple ladies and I worked together to pull it inch by inch over the sand that would pile up in front of the tire (did I mention that you couldn't lift the tire up?) which took us forever and Jess had finished hers (alone) and came to help us get the tire all the way out and the three of us pulled it back in. Thank you Jess and I think it was Ursula  (?)  for the teamwork! :)

More hills over rough terrain...you guys know how much I love hills! Not! and we ended up at probably the worst obstacle to date...the Bucket Carry. You take a bucket and fill it with dirt to the marked line and carry the damned thing over some rough terrain, slightly uphill and then back over the same kind of terrain which in this case involved a bunch of small hills one right after the other. You couldn't lift the bucket over your shoulder (not that I could anyway) so you end up holding it close to the body...there were no handles on the bucket..that would be too easy!! LOL! I managed to get almost to the end with about 3 of the little hills left when I slipped or tripped falling forward with the bucket but landing so as to not spill any of the dirt. I got back up and continued on to the end but was so tired that I couldn't climb the hill of dirt to dump it down to the people filling their buckets, I just ended up dumping it where I was basically laying.

Just a little bit more rough terrain before some easier hiking still on some hills and then we came to the Atlas Lift. This is a weight that you carry across to a marked point, do 5 burpees and carry it back to the starting point. Not really too bad other than your arms being a little tired from carrying the weight then having to get the burpees done. It could be worse..but I don't want to give Spartan Race any new ideas. LOL!

Onward we went hitting mile marker 6...and let me tell you at each mile we were counting down, "only x miles to go!" Then came my most hated obstacle from Arizona...the Traverse Wall. Basically it's a climbing wall using blocks instead of climbing holds to hang onto. There's no helping on this, although at Arizona you could, and I couldn't even get onto the first set of blocks...so more burpees to do. Wait, now that I think about it that was the first set of burpees I actually had to do. I think I had gotten to about 10 total when some of the guys came over and did some burpees for me and the other ladies that needed them. I can't thank these guys for all the burpees they did for us in this last portion of the course!

Not very far from the traverse wall came the Barb Wire Crawl. Would it be wrong of me to say that I actually love this obstacle? The wire was lower in Arizona but the bottom there was truly mud. Here at the Nevada race it literally was like a stone covered bottom...not smooth stones either. I wished at this point that I had worn my neoprene knee sleeves just for some extra cushioning, but I kept going no matter how much my knee were hurting. Finally towards the end the muddy water was deep enough that you could float and pull yourself along with your hands. Thankfully one of the other Weeples who had already gone through had taken a bunch of our hydration packs at the start and carried them to the end for us. Once you got out of the mud there was a pool of still muddy water that you could at least rinse off some of thicker mud on your body and clothes.

The next obstacle is another of my most hated ones...the Log Hop. I have no sense of balance and when I tried to do this on my own in Arizona I failed miserably. This time Mike again came to my rescue and guided me with each step. All the guys were knights in shining armor during this race! As we continued on, we had to wade through a knee high swampy area which wasn't bad at all...I was thinking it would be a lot worse.

The next obstacle was both fun and a bit scary at the same time. It was the Cargo Net Bridge. At Arizona you basically climbed up a cargo net, got over the top and climbed back down. Not in Vegas! You had to go up about a 20 foot net, get on top of the tower, then cross another cargo net about another 20 feet to another tower and then climb down. Climbing up and down was no problem for me, it was getting across. Basically I just sat down and scooted across using by butt crack...yes, that's what I said, to perch on the ropes scooting over one at a time until I got across. When I was on the towers all I could think of was "If someone falls between the holes in the cargo net, there's nothing to catch them" and "I wonder if too many people get on these towers will it topple overs?" I think that was enough incentive to try to get down as soon as possible.

Then we came upon the next obstacle...the Herc Hoist. Basically this is a weight tied to a rope with the rope going through a pulley at least 20 feet above. You basically had to just pull on the rope to get the weight all the way up to the pulley then bring it back down in a controlled manner. I didn't find this too difficult, it was just a matter of digging in and pulling in a controlled, short manner. The men's weights were about twice as heavy as the ladies, and one of the guys who was fairly small almost went flying as the weight was coming down until some of the other guys grabbed him and the rope saving him from what could have been a bad situation.

Some more hiking and we hit the last of the walls. First a set of two 7 foot walls and then a little further down a set of 8 foot walls. Again Mike, Dave and the other guys came to the ladies rescue and helped hoist us up until we could get our footing and swing over the walls. There are some 2' x 4' screwed into the right side of the wall on both sides but they're even hard to climb onto by yourself. Finally, we were almost at the end...

The next hurdle was the Water Crossing. Now, if any of you know me personally, you know that I've been taking swimming lessons for the last month trying to get over my fear of deep water and drowning. Thankfully it's worked enough that I had no issue getting into the deep water, with a life preserver. The hardest part was getting on top of the floating platforms. The guys were again helping everyone up and Dave had me and just when I thought I had a grip I slipped off and under the water. Surprisingly, I didn't freak out and just tried again. The second time I managed to drag myself over with Dave's help and slid into the water on the other side. I didn't try to swim with the PFD on because it just wanted to do it's own thing so I grabbed the rope they had buoys on and dragged myself across. Then came the attempt to climb onto the second platform which also took a couple of tries but I eventually just took off the PFD since I could stand in the water and was able to get dragged up by Jessica and Ursula. I had survived the water crossing without freaking out! That was a huge deal to me! Again I wouldn't have been able to without the help of the Weeple Army!

There's just certain obstacles that you know you can't do and for me one of them is the Rope Climb. You get one try at climbing a knotted rope about 20 feet high, ringing the cow bell at the top and then climb back down. Heck, I couldn't even get my feet onto the lowest knot. I did try, fell in the water below and proceeded to the burpee area. Again the guys had finished and came and helped all the ladies with our burpees...I'm telling you, these guys are great! :D

Next came the Slip Wall...basically and incline wall that is slippery as all heck. I managed to get near the top and had my fingers over the edge when my feet went out from under me and I started sliding down. Again the Weeple Army was there to save my ass! The guys at the top had grabbed me and were pulling me up, Dave was at the bottom hanging onto a rope himself and helping to push me up from there and with some effort I finally made it over! These guys are so awesome!

Yup! That's me that the Weeple guys are saving!

The Spearman was next and another obstacle that I hate because I can't figure out how to get the form right. Basically it's literally a sharp pointed spear that you throw at a bale of hay. If it sticks you're good to go...if not, it's burpee time. Needless to say that It was burpee time again. And once again the team came to the rescue and helped those of us doing burpees by sharing the burpees and doing some for each of us.

Burpee time after the Spearman...that's me bent over on the right.

Finally, it was the last two challenges the Fire Jump and the Gladiator Pit. As the Weeple Army gathered together to make the final charge, I kinda stayed back because I was just a visitor amongst the Army and not a true member but Dave said to join in and while I still remained at the back of the pack I crossed the finish with these awesome band of people.

Weeple Army charge to the finish, I'm standing on the
left but eventually joined the group.

Now, let me clarify something here. The Weeple Army is all about teamwork. I didn't matter if you were a Weeple or not, they stayed back as long as anyone needed help and then we went on together or the slower of us moved on knowing that the guys would catch up sooner than later. The Weeples define the true spirit of teamwork and I am now glad to be counted among their ranks. It's going to be an honor and a lot of fun to be going through these extreme races with these folk!

At the end of the day I couldn't find Jeff who was supposed to be working at the registration area which was being broken down. My phone had died so I ended up just hanging around until I thought of moving the car to the parking area directly in front of the entrance to charge my phone and finally got to see an text from him. He had been moved to the Spearman obstacle, evidently I had looked directly at him 3 times while I was there and didn't recognize him, and hadn't eaten all day so I got us both some BBQ sandwiches and he took a break to eat then returned for the rest of his shift. Once he finished we headed back to the hotel to shower (we had "showered" at the race using garden hoses and sprayers) and then headed out to find a Fatburger to eat at. Luckily the hotel clerk knew of one that wasn't on the Strip, the only one I knew of, and we grabbed some burgers and fries there for dinner before heading back to the hotel. I stayed up doing laundry having to wash the clothes twice to get most of the dirt/sand out but still would be needing to wash them again at home. Jeff had already crashed out and I finally finished the laundry and fell asleep around 2am.

Race Day +1: Travel Day

We had decided to sleep in and woke up just in time for the last 30 minutes of breakfast. We were both a bit stiff but I was moving much easier than I had been the day after Sprint. The trip home involved eating...a lot. I think we made three stops just to eat with the final stop in Albuquerque at Texas Road House for a nice ribeye steak. I swear, that last 3 1/2 hours seemed to take forever! We finally arrived home at about 1am and after some calming down of my pack of K9s and a viewing of my obsession, the movie Pitch Perfect. I pretty much died not waking up until noon today. All in all it was a great weekend!

What I Liked About This Race:

The camaraderie of the Weeple Army was by far my favorite thing about the race. Finishing was also great and especially finishing with a group rather than alone was a big plus. The course was challenging but not too technical even on the rough terrain. The fact that I got through the water crossing without freaking out was a bonus as well.

What I Did Not Like About This Race:

Other than those obstacles that I truly dislike or can't do, the race was great. A couple more water stations would be useful because of the heat people were finishing the fluids in their packs before getting to a water station. Other than that I did see anything that needed fixing.

Would I Do This Race Again?

Well, considering hat I'm signed up to volunteer for both days at Military Sprint in Colorado next month and race on one day, plus planning to do Spartan Beast in Utah for my Trifecta...I'd say, yes...I would do this (or some other Super) race again.

NOTE: All photos courtesy of Sandy Erb