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.

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.

Motivation...I got it back!!

Wednesday I found out that I had gotten a guaranteed entry into the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) through Team Red, White & Blue and the Allied Forces Foundation. I can't tell you how happy I was to get this news. I didn't have to go through the stress of the MCM especially considering the IT problems they had during registration. You see, MCM had been on my race radar almost since I started running. Because I am a disabled vet, I love to participate in races with a military theme and you can't get much more military than the Marines! Sorry, Air Force...I still love you but...

Back in 2011 my motivator was to complete my first half marathon at TinkerBell Half Marathon. After that I was aiming to reach the highest level in the Half Fanatics, but became seriously ill with a bipolar flare up of my depressive symptoms in late spring 2012. In recent months since my bipolar disorder has been somewhat stable, I just haven't had the drive to run or train in any way. Things seemed to take a 180° turn after I got accepted into the program. All of a sudden I wanted to run again. I wanted to train. I wanted to get deeply into CrossFit. I want to fix the flat on my bike so I can start riding everywhere in town when I can instead of driving. I want to be ready for this race.

I have multiple races coming up from half marathons, obstacle/mud races, 5Ks and fun runs before this race even happens in October. I will most likely be going home to California in June to do either the Wipro San Francisco Marathon or Tracy's Fat Ass Marathon so I can see some running friends I have from Disney races and to mark California off my states for when I join the Marathon Maniacs. Doing the race in June would qualify me for the Maniacs after my full marathon in Alaska in August.

While I have the drive specifically for MCM training it's definitely going to step up my game for all the races coming before it. Heck, hopefully I'll even start the Spartan races and Tough Mudder with a great attitude of believing that I'll kick ass instead of being a nervous wreck. So I have the Marine Corps Marathon as my motivation...What is your motivation?

Race Recap: Spartan Sprint - Arizona

Race Day: Saturday, February 9, 2013
Location: McDowell Mt. Regional Park, Ft. McDowell, AZ (Venue change)

Race Day -1 (Friday, Feb 8, 2013)

I've driven to Arizona on my own and with the old man several times, but this time was the first time I've driven for a race. And it wasn't just for any race...this was Spartan Sprint my first obstacle course since USAF basic training some 30 odd years ago! My nerves were already on edge wondering why the hell I actually chose to do this on my own...no coercing from anyone. If anything, I coerced my team mates to do it with me! lol! So I picked up my friend, Jeff who I met at the YMCA a little over a year ago and who is less than half my age, to make what I had thought would be an 11-12 hour drive to Phoenix. Instead we made it in about 10 hours through the hellacious wind of eastern Arizona along I-40, the beautiful melting snow and mountains of northeastern Arizona and the beautiful desert of the Phoenix area. I simply love Phoenix and wouldn't mind living here if it wasn't for the blasted guaranteed triple digits in the summer! Some 20+ years ago we could've been assigned to Luke AFB here, but it never came to pass and we ended up in New Mexico instead...just not the same. The trip went smoothly with just a couple of stops for breakfast and gassing up. Jeff had pulled one of those "young people" all nighters...I do the "old people" version, lol! So he slept almost the whole trip.

Clear roads in the Arizona mountains.

What a view! What are those green things?
And those tall things in the background?

We arrived in Phoenix at about 4:30pm, checked into the hotel and since we hadn't had lunch I promptly took him to Ono Hawaiian BBQ for a mini meal...one of my must do places to eat anywhere...any kind of Hawaiian BBQ joint. We then headed over to my son's place (the only reason I'd drive 10 hours for a short, supposedly 5K race...to visit family/friends) sat around for a bit and then headed to dinner at Buca de Beppo's within 2 hours of having our last meal.

After a meal of lasagna and baked rigattoni we indulged in a super sized hot fudge brownie sundae...3 scoops of chocolate, 3 scoops of vanilla, 12 brownie pieces, hot fudge and plenty of whipped cream and sprinkles. Yum!! Out of the five of us eating 4 of us had lactose intolerance issues so it was a good thing that I had plenty of generic Lactaid in my purse! It would not have been pretty otherwise, lol!

I was forced to participate in the infamous phone stack. :(

 

Really, we ALL shared this...

Way too full after dinner!

To kill time and not rest before what was sure to be a grueling race the next day we headed over to Dave & Busters at Tempe Marketplace. This was a first time venture for myself, Noemi and Jeff. I felt like I was back in junior high/high school hanging out at the local video arcade or with my kids at Chuck E. Cheese's. We played for about 1-2 hours and instead of keeping the tickets from the games I gave them to Jeff as did Noemi. It's been so long since I've played any video games (I think the last console we had at home was an old Nintendo that actually belonged to the son) in over a decade...if not two. It was really fun to get back into that frame of mind and not have any worries for a few minutes.

Happy winner!

End of the night...

I think we finally called it a night about midnight and headed out to drop everyone off at the apartment to make final plans for the next day and finally Jeff and I headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.

Race Day

I didn't sleep well as usual getting only about 3-4 hours of sleep waking up at around 4:30 am. I did my usual hotel routine when I have a roomie of playing on the computer/phone/tablet and watching Pitch Perfect until it was a decent time to start getting ready. I did take off for a few to head to Target to look for some energy snacks for the race and maybe a small backpack or waist pack to carry some stuff during the race. That plan pretty much fell through but I did manage to get a couple of packs of Shotz Bloks and a quart of chocolate milk for my post race drink.

My race gear.

By the time I got back to the hotel it was time to start getting ready so that we could go grab some breakfast before heading out to the race. Just about the time I had finished getting dressed the son called and recommended just eating locally instead of going out for dim sum since the race venue had been changed to a location north of Pheonix instead of in Chandler. We ended up at a little sandwich shop not too far from the apartment and then headed out to the race around noon-ish.

The weather wasn't all that great...and it only got worse. It was cold, windy, overcast and just blah. The line to get on the shuttle didn't take too long (parking was a few miles away from the venue) and it was kind of surreal watching all the people who had already finished in various states of wet, muddiness. Some looked like they had even barely gotten wet or muddy while others were just totally
drenched/filthy. By the time we got checked in, numbers marked on our bodies and gear turned in we had about 20 minutes to kill before our heat started. We did some weak attempts at warming up, I was acting like an idiot trying to get the others hyped up but mostly we were just freezing our butts off.

Cold, windy and totally oblivious to what's in store!

When we did finally take off the guys basically left Noemi and I in the dust. So we just hung together and walked/jogged until we started hitting the obstacles. Now, I'm not going to do a play by play of the obstacles so here's a quick breakdown of what I can remember:

• Upright walls x3 ...5-6' high
• Monkey bars...fail (too far apart for my short arms, instead carried each other across touching each rung as we went) no burpees for punishement
• Upright walls...8' high used "cheater" steps (2 tiny 2x4 strips) and worked as a team to get over by giving a hand/shoulder to step on and a push on the backside
• Weight carry ~15-20# for females + 5 burpees and carry weight back to starting pt
• Crawl under barbed wire fences x 2 or 3
• Rock drag...up hill and back down
• Wall bouldering going sideways...worked as a team to support each other so we wouldn't fall
• Sandbag carry...up/down hill
• Javelin throw...fail (severe rt calf cramping...ended up on ground in pain had to stretch for about 5 minutes and kept going still cramping) = 30 punishment burpees
• Rope climb ~20' w/ water pit underneath...fail = 30 punishment burpees
• Barb wire mud crawl ~100-150' FAVORITE OBSTACLE!! Lost bib, went back to find it!
• Mud hills/pits x 5 - Slid down the mud hills on my rear...fastest way down
• Rope net climb up and over
• Angled wall/rope climb (3rd favorite)
• Fire pit jump

Numerous steep uphill and downhill climbs, single track trail/washouts primarily and plenty of cacti...just seriously hardcore! I'm not a trail runner so I ended up walking most of the race which was just fine with me. All I wanted to do was finish with minimal injuries and get the bling!

The aftermath!

Jeff came in first on the team in something like 1:21, Darryl was at 2:05 or so, Noemi at 2:23 or so and I came in at 2:39.01 which actually included me walking up and down the length of the barb wire crawl looking for my lost bib for about 10 minutes. Most of us weren't fast, but we all finished...in a standing position even!

Finisher's medal and my bibs...

We hung around a little bit to take pictures and grab gear but for the most part we just headed back to the shuttles to get back to a warm heater in the car. A quick stop at In-n-Out to pick up some burgers for lunch and then we dropped the others off at the apartment while Jeff and I went back to the hotel to get cleaned up. We were supposed to get together again in the evening to head out to City Center to go to the Mardi Gras Festival, but by the time I was cleaned up I was way too tired to do anything else. I arranged for Jeff to hang out with the others while I played the old fogie roll and stayed at the hotel to wash the race gear and go to sleep early. I was so tired that I didn't even have the energy to eat the burger that we had brought for lunch and just barely managed to stay awake to run the gear through the wash cycle a couple of times and through the dryer. In order to stay awake during that time I relied on watching Pitch Perfect (go figure) and starting this write up while conversing on Facebook and Twitter. I'm pretty sure that as soon as my head finally hit the pillow I was out like a light. I don't even remember when Jeff got back to the room and I'm usually a very light sleeper...Yup, I guess I was freakin' tired! lol!

Race Day +1

Well, the original plan had been to be on the road home by about 8am but even though I woke up at 6am I was just not in the mood to be driving that early because I was so sore. Instead we had homemade Eggs Benedict that my son made at about 10am and then we headed out to C-Fu Gourmet to pick up some dim sum to celebrate Chinese New Year when I got home (hubs and I love dim sum and we can't get any decent dim sum here in New Mexico). After waiting close to an hour for the food (the place was packed because of it being Chinese New Year) we were finally on our way back home.

Offering for Year of the Snake

Not quite San Francisco Chinatown, but close enough for now.

As we hit the mountains there was a pretty significant amount of snow that hadn't been there on the drive in. The higher the more heavy the snowfall got. We finally hit Heber -Odegaard where the snow almost stopped and the drive became pretty easy again. Just before the AZ-NM border the weather changed and there was a point around Gallup that I really thought that we'd have to pull over and hunker down for the night because the snow was starting to come down pretty heavy. Luckily, after about 75 miles the snow cleared up and it was smooth sailing again.

Um, yeah...there was very little snow here on the trip up to Phoenix.

Snow on I-40 west of Gallup...and this wasn't the worst of it!

We stopped for dinner and gas in Albuqerque originally planning to eat at a Japanese place on Central Ave that I had been to once, but they were close so we ended up at Fuddrucker's instead. A quick stop in a book store and to gas up and we were back on the road or the last leg of the trip home. A little over 3 hours later we arrived back in town just before midnight and the quick and somewhat painful weekend trip was over. Goal of completing Spartan Sprint accomplished, new bling, plans to move up the Spartan Race ladder to the next level...Super Spartan, an 8+ mile mud/obstacle course, is now in the planning. A weekend of good food, fun, new/old friends and family and a bunch of  "firsts" for Jeff (Spartan race, trip to Pheonix, In-n-Out meal, etc.)...all in all it was a resounding success.

What did I like about this race?
The main thing is that this race was a serious challenge. The last time I even did anything resembling it was the obstacle course in USAF basic training which was only 1.5 miles long and actually quite easy. This race really put me up against a wall to see how well I could push myself to reach the goal I wanted. I succeeded so it's all good.

What did I not like about this race?
I am not a fan of trail running, in fact I hate it. So I trail walked/hiked instead for most of the race. If only it could be a nicely packed wide trail without the loose rocks, steep hills and such I probably would have been a very happy camper! lol.

Would I do this race again?
Ummmm...YES!! In fact, I just signed the husband and I up for the 2014 race this afternoon, so I definitely WILL be doing it again! The big difference will be that I will train for it next time! lol.