Spartan Race Workout

I did the Spartan Race workout yesterday! They hold these all over the country and they're totally free. I have been meaning to do one for awhile. And this one was at none other than my very own gym! I showed up just before 0800, signed in and got my free shirt. After a quick shirt change I headed out to the turf floor to find everyone was in lines based on their number. I looked down on my hand to see someone had written a 5 when I checked in. I get in the 5 line and started talking to the guy next to me, come to find out he had come into my store last week while preparing for Tough Mudder. My world is getting increasingly smaller, it seems I can't go anywhere without running into someone from my gym or that I've helped at my store.

So the Spartan coach comes out and starts giving us instructions using the world's worst bullhorn. We seriously couldn't hear a thing he said, except for one guy who has laser ears and henceforth became known as our translator. So our warm up was a series of squats, push ups with holds at the bottom, burpees, and reverse lunges. Lots of "I am a Spartan!" and "Arrrooo!" 's throughout. I have no idea how we were still inside on the turf, there were so many people packed in there. Eventually we did go outside to do some more squats/burpees/pushups/lunges on the parking lot, and then ran a couple laps around the buildings. Back inside for some water and then back out to do lunges around the building! This kind of sucked, but we were all smiling and making jokes the entire time. Next we did more of that same squat/lunge/burpee/pushup hold circuit. The coach then asked "Is it anyone's birthday?" A bunch of us were shouting "No!!!!" but someone responded. "What's the birthday girl's name?" I shouted out "Ed!" because it was the shortest name I could think of. "How old are you?" A bunch of us were shouting numbers from 1 to 5. Alas, we did 25 burpees. Hey, it could have been worse because I saw some people that were easily 50+. The coach also separated the people who were doing Trifectas this year. There were maybe 10 people, myself not among them this year. I spotted my neighbor, it figures he would be at the workout. He did the Ultra Beast this year and we hadn't crossed paths since, so at some point I ran up to him and asked how he did. 13 hours. Screw that! I also saw Leon! He was just hanging out spectating, his knee is still bothering him but he will race again soon. The next segment we did was animal moves, A B and C. A was for Ape. The ape crawls are fine, I do them at the gym often enough. B was for Bear, and this was annoying because people in front were moving slow so I ended up hanging out in a plank for long periods of time. Can we say barb wire crawls? C was for Crab. These sucked because my arms aren't used to crab walks. Alot of people were lunging instead, I only took a quick lunge break then switched back. At this point I was starting to get quite tired.

Back inside for more crazy stuff. The 5 line was reassembled, and we took the line and formed it into a circle. There were 5 circle like blobs around the room

Adam was kind enough to take pictures. I'm pretty much in the middle of the room. 

So we locked arms and did a group sit up. My circle was more of a blob, and I was at a really weird angle because we were a bit too far apart. We tried to adjust it but I was still too far away from them, and the guy on my right was really sweaty so hanging on while doing the situps wasn't easy. Then we all got into a plank, held it, and one at a time we had to crawl under the tunnel of human planks. THIS. Oh my god. I am terrible at planks to begin with, so waiting for the entire team to crawl under me was brutal. I took breaks. Then as soon as I was done with the eternal plank it was my turn to crawl through. And after the 2-3 minute crawl I had to get back into the plank so the people to the left of me could go all the way through. It sucked but it was really fun at the same time. Next it was back into our lines and partnering up with the person next to us. First up for us was one of us holds a plank, the other does a burpee and jumps over the other person's legs. I'm so glad my partner was a small person. Next, burpees in synch with one another. Then, 20 mountain climbers while the other person did squats - this is where I really ran out of gas because I don't do well with mountain climbers. I'm trying to remember what the last one was, bicycles and flutter kicks or something. Then it was back outside for some sprints, and we were DONE! 2 hours of Spartan crazy. Arrroooo indeed. 

This was fun. It was a challenge for sure, but there were so many great people and all of us together kept up morale, we made each other laugh and smile throughout. I heard there were 400 people there - still not sure how we all fit on the turf, but that's ok. I left sweaty, sore, and bruised, in true Spartan fashion. And I'll be back for more - looking at the DC Sprint in a couple months

It's too small

It's Monday and I'm off today, primarily to take care of some doctor stuff. I've had this mysterious pain on the left side of my chest for a few months now. I had an ultrasound and chest x ray. Breast tissue looks fine so it must be something with my sternum, so I'm waiting for the results to come back. I had my heart looked at separately and everything looked fine there. The pain isn't bad, I'm really just trying to make sure there isn't a larger problem here. I recently found out through Facebook that one of my middle school friends who is also 29 has breast cancer. Can't be too careful.

It took forever because they were trying to contact my Dr. to confirm something... so when I finally got out of there I went to the gym to do some lifting. I was feeling good because while I don't have an answer yet, we pretty much ruled out breast cancer. So I got to the gym and Sarah (manager) and Scott (instructor) were like "Come do the 12:00 class!" Uhh hmm... well today I was really just gonna lift, and I don't have my shirt. I ended up warming up on the row machine, chatting with another gym regular, busting out some deadlifts and pull ups, and then I jumped into the class. Sarah loaned me a shirt... but it was just a little too small...

Yeah, this happened. It was either this or the whole class has to do burpees because someone's not in uniform. Other than it being too short it was just tight on my shoulders.

Today's class was interesting. The first station was a mini obstacle course. He had plyo boxes with pvc pipes set into them, 2 different heights. The higher obstacle was to be low crawled under, the lower one was jumped over. 2 sets of these, then some agility ladder stuff, and bear crawl back to the beginning. Then sled pushes. I love sled pushes, but after about 3 of them they start to suck the energy out of you. Third station was with dumbbells - push up, renegade row, into a thruster. Then we had some overhead ball slams coupled with ball leg raises. Last station was another killer - kettlebell swings with Romanian deadlifts. There were other cardio and core drills mixed in there too. I think the sled push was the toughest thing today, as much as I love pushing heavy stuff, and as decent as I am at it, it just totally drains me. Still, I was able to keep the momentum going today and performed really well in my opinion.

I have quite a busy week coming up so it's going to be alot of early morning runs and gym sessions. Bring it on..

3 year anniversary

It's been 3 years to the day since I made a choice to lose weight and become active.

3 years ago... my husband was still in the Army and we had just moved to our new house in Georgia. He just got back from a 1 year tour overseas during which we had not seen each other at all. So it was a great time in my life because we were happily reunited, had a great vacation together... also we just bought my Jeep and became homeowners for the first time. Still, I was unhappy with myself. Over the years I had really put on some weight. Not that I was ever thin to begin with, but this was kind of a new low for myself. I remember feeling so disgusting just sitting around all the time and not doing anything. I was also diagnosed with PCOS around this time, so now it was even more important to be at a healthier weight. It was time for a change.

Summer 2012

I began running. This was a huge change for me, I had never really been active before. I did swim team and other sports in elementary school, but did absolutely nothing in high school. In my early 20's I'd make a sad attempt to go to the gym every now and then, just bobbing up and down on the elliptical and maybe using 20 lbs on the chest press machine. Like once a week. I remember running the mile in school and how much it kicked my ass. So this was some really new and uncomfortable territory for me. I could run for like 30 seconds and then take a 5 minute walk. But I resolved to do this and each time I went out there I pushed myself a little harder. And as time went on I got better and really grew to love it. I felt like I was doing something meaningful with my body. I started signing up for races. I suffered through a few injuries, but eventually I would always get back out there.

In the early months I was also counting calories, cooking most of my own meals and exercising a whole lot of will power to say no to treats most of the time.

Now in late 2014 I got more serious about weight lifting. I hadn't done much of it up until now, but I knew it was key to preventing injury and being better at obstacle racing. I also did 5 Crossfit classes last year with Team RWB. This was all so new to me and so much fun. Then we unexpectedly moved to Maryland and I took like 2 months off. Around the new year I started running again, signed up with Gold's up here and that's where things exploded. I began to lift heavy 3x a week and it's been a game changer. I have muscles now. Back then I could maybe bench 40, squat 50, and deadlift 60. Now I can do 100+, 165, and 185 respectively. I am so much better at obstacles now too.

Recently I've lapsed in running, partly because of the summer weather. It's been hard to motivate myself to get up at 6am and run in a bunch of 80 degree humidity. Also lately I've found that lifting is giving me the awesome feeling that running did back when I was new to it. But - the past week I've gotten back out there a few times and I'm resolving to make it a regular part of my life again. I did 6 miles the other day and felt awesome. I need it for cardio fitness, future races, and also to help keep my weight down. I am by no means skinny, as I still like food just a little bit too much, but I'm damn better off than where I was 3 years ago.

Spring 2015, Savage Race finish

I'm stronger and more confident. Stuff bothers me less because I know I can go smash some weights around in the gym or go on a nice long run. Everyday physical tasks are easier as well. I've taken on some tough challenges in distance running and obstacle racing, completed things I'd never dreamed of attempting. In the future I'm going to continue on with what I have been doing, but possibly branch out into Crossfit and weightlifting competitions. Being active has been a whole new crazy adventure in my life. It's something I never thought I would be doing, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

DC Sprint Pics

I'm just absolutely flooding my blog with Spartan pics this summer.

 First we have this pic where my face pretty much sums up how I feel about this obstacle. Seriously though, that bucket carry wasn't so bad compared to what I've suffered through in the past! Note the clever use of the tree as a bucket rester by the gent behind me :)

Then a nice post- dunk wall picture for ya. Ptthhhbbbhh!

I love this one!

A nice sideways view of the fire crossing

DC Spartan Sprint

Once again the Trifecta is mine!

I got my third and final medal to make my 2015 Trifecta complete. This year the red medal came last, I got the hard stuff out of the way first I guess. Yesterday I was in southern MD for the DC Sprint. My heat was at 9:45, so I had plenty of time to check out the course map and find my buddy Leon who was volunteering in the morning and running in the afternoon.

He needs to work on his selfie

They warned us that there were bees all over the place. I immediately had flashbacks of getting stung at the Wildwood Games. But no bees stung me this time! My heat started with the announcer taking requests for the opening speech. He rallied us with the Mighty Ducks speech and it was amazing. Ducks Fly Together! This course was 4 ish miles, 23 obstacles. Elevation wouldn't be an issue compared to the other 2 races I did this year, but it was still pretty darn hilly! I power walked the hills and jogged the flat areas. This course reminded me alot of the SC Beast, and that's a good thing! The first obstacle was some log hurdles, then the 6 and 7 foot walls. I needed a boost over the 6 because it had no foothold. The 7 had a foothold, and just like I did in PA I got up it all by myself. Within that first mile we were assaulted by obstacles. The inverted wall - this time I got up it by myself, which I have done before but the last 2-3 times I needed a boost. Then the Stairway to Sparta, a wall with a ladder on top. I got up the wall by myself, but somehow found myself wedged underneath the first rung of the ladder. I had to drop back down and I ended up getting a boost from somebody. Once I figure out a good technique for it I'll be able to climb it by myself. Water station next, also fueled up here because I did not want this race to turn out like PA where I started having blood sugar crashes. I stayed on top of my nutrition yesterday. We had an Atlas carry here, this thing is just getting too damn easy for me. I owe it all to my deadlifting. Next, the 8 foot wall. Victory of the day - I climbed it all by myself! This wall has 2 footholds. I stepped on the first, put my left hand on the outer edge of the wall, put my foot on the second hold, then reached my right hand to the top of the wall, pulled myself up and moved my left hand to the top. So now I was hanging off the top with my feet on the higher foothold. I pushed myself up from hanging position. It was hard, I was shaking and my muscles almost gave out on me. I remember the volunteer cheering me on. I hung my arms over the wall and pushed. And then I was at the top. I'm proud, not many women make it over that wall without help. Immediately after the wall were the monkey bars. Did alot of pausing and swinging here to maintain momentum because their bars are so freaking far apart, but this was easy peasy. I can see how my grip strength has imrpoved because I wasn't struggling to hang on at any point. Not too far after the monkey bars... there was the bucket carry. As much as I hate this obstacle, I was pleasantly surprised because it was really not that bad! There were some hills, but it wasn't up a damn mountain and also it was in the shade. I only stopped 3 times. Maybe I just hate carrying objects up black diamond ski hills. But next, the sadistic course designer placed the Z walls in our way. First burpees of the day for me. 

And so ended the first onslaught of obstacles! All within the first mile! More hills in the woods, then a very easy wooded sandbag carry. We exited the woods again to find a water station, an A frame cargo which was a very slow climb because of all the people, then a slippery wall. As I was climbing it the girl next to me slipped and instantly screamed for help. A guy appeared at the top of my lane to help her, which was nice of him except for the fact that I couldn't climb up because he was in my way, and I was gripping the chain at the top and it was hard to hold on to. Asking for help is fine, but this girl didn't even TRY to get herself over the wall, just instantly screamed for help. I remember fighting for dear life when I slipped on this obstacle at my first Spartan 2 years ago. Anyway. Back in the woods for more trails. The hills were pretty relentless. But we were in the shade, I was having fun laughing with some other 9:45'ers (because Ducks Fly Together) and then before you knew it we were exiting the woods for the mud hills. These things were steep (look at how small the guy on the hill is in the picture) and they had no ropes. The hills got very slippery. I picked what looked like the driest section, got about halfway up, then I just slid down really slowly and splashed back into the water. There was just nothing to grab onto. I exited the pool on the side and climbed the hill from the side. It was still within bounds :) Later in the day I saw they put ropes up so it must have been pretty bad. Next - rope climb. The mud hills actually tired me out quite a bit. My upper body strength was sapped from all the obstacles early on. I got into the pit ready to rock but I realized there was no knot at the bottom. The first knot was like face level! I pulled myself up as high as I could with my arms and scrunched my legs up, but could not get my feet on the knot. I tried 3 times and it just wasn't gonna work. Bummer. I'll get it one of these days.

Back into the woods for a long stretch of running. The trails were flatter so I ran here, but eventually we encountered several pits of crazy thick mud. This was like Neverending Story level mud. Many shoes lost, people slipping all over the place. I slipped and fell on my ass, totally played it off and everyone around me just laughed. My left butt cheek hurt after that and I know the bruise will be colossal. After an eternity of trudging through the peanut butter mud, we found a cargo climb in the woods. One of the ones that's between 2 trees so it moves around on you. There was bottlenecking because the net was extremely slippery from the mud we had all just been through. Right as I was about to go, a girl fell off the top and landed on her head/neck!!! She lay there silent for a bit, eventually said she was ok but the medics were called and she was most likely pulled off the course. The girl in front of me screamed as she almost slipped off the top. I said nope, screw this and walked on past. I'm sorry, but my health isn't worth a silly obstacle. If that thick mud wasn't all over it I'd have no problem, I have done obstacles like that many times. That just seemed borderline unsafe to me so I made a judgement call. I did see alot of people sidelined, one ankle injury at the inverted wall, tons of people with cramps, and a guy throwing up on the side of a hill. My take on it is, yes you do sign a waiver but you should also use your judgement and walk away from anything that looks unsafe beyond reason. But back to the race - many more hills were climbed, then we faced an easy plate drag, the final water station which was much appreciated, and the multi bars - rings, then a softball??? then a pipe. More burpees for me, yay! Followed by a very slippery Herc Hoist, but still conquered with amazing swiftness by yours truly. I guided a fellow chick through it, ready to help out if needed because she was struggling pretty badly. It took her awhile but she did it. Spear throw next, barely missed it! At least I'm getting better at it though. 

Then at long last we entered the barb wire crawl. This was a good old muddy, watery, fun crawl. I felt like I was back home in GA again with that orange clay like mud. I took a few breaks but got through it in 8-10 minutes, even faster than some of the boys. Caked in glorious mud, I emerged from the crawl, jumped the fire, and crossed the finish. I received my red medal, and therefore my 2015 Trifecta. 

I went and found Leon who wanted to get a picture of me all muddy. I wished him well and then he headed off to go run his race. 

I had a freaking blast. I forgot how much fun the Sprints were, having not done one in over a year. I need to move back south, because I'm learning that I love Spartans just like this one, and the Carolina Super/Beast. They are challenging, muddy, and fun. The mountain races were just too difficult to the point where it wasn't fun anymore. I have no problem climbing hills, they're a good challenge and serve their purpose in creating a good race, but climbing mountains just for the sake of climbing isn't really what I want to do. If I wanna do nothing but hike then I'll go hiking. The mud is also considerably absent in the mountain races, and that's a huge part of what makes it fun for me. So with any luck we'll be back down south for the 2016 season and I'll be happy running the GA/SC races. 

I also said farewell to my Inov8's. They got me through a year of trail running, a half marathon, and like 8 OCR's. 

And my results - I did pretty damn good considering the fact I didn't even try to go fast whatsoever! I didn't run much at all and spent a lot of time bottlenecked at obstacles and helping other people out. It'll be interesting when I get really really good and actually try to go fast.

• Overall
  2,374th
  of 7,472
• Female
  510th
  of 2,630
• F25-29
  121st
  of 642

Spartan Super Aftermath

I have my pictures from PA!

Sandbag carry, obviously not even aware of the camera

Exiting the swim, not aware of this camera either

At the top of the slippery wall

At the time I didn't realize 3 other people were climbing this at the same time as me

"Calm down yall, it's just a fire"

...And I look like I'm eating something. Typical me, forever hungry!

Some of them I really love, others not so much. I do wish Spartan would start photographing different obstacles because I feel like I have 8 million fire jump pictures.

This race really was an ass kicker. After talking to my friend Ashleigh, and then Spartan Leon who came into my work, I don't feel quite so defeated by that mountain. It's not just me, it was definitely harder than the Beast I did a few months ago.

I have some of the nastiest bruises I've ever had. Giant red bruise on my inner thigh among the noteables.

Went for a 5 mile run yesterday, it felt great to get back out there after being so lazy the last few weeks. Unfortunately my alarm went off at the wrong time this morning, and rather than rush to get to the gym I opted to stay home and do some things around the house/just relax before heading to work. Aint nothin wrong with that :) Plus I'll be at the gym with my husband this weekend!

PA Spartan Super

I'm trying to find the words to describe the brutality that was the 2015 PA Spartan Super.

Put simply, this was the hardest Spartan I have ever done.

I'm not sure what exactly happened, but I was clearly not ready for it. Blame my lack of trail running in 2015? Either way, I don't have any mountains to train on. And the mountain itself is what did me in I think.

A shot of the mountain from the parking lot

Let's start from the beginning. I arrived bright and early to Blue Mountain ski resort to meet my team for our 9am start. It was my neighbor and 2 of his friends - Andrew and Chris. The course was 8 miles, 32 obstacles, and 3200 feet of elevation gain. Shortly after a nice uphill start we found some log hurdles which were easy to get over, then it was straight up for our first ascent. A cargo net climb was somewhere in there. It didn't take long for me to realize my team was in way better shape than me. They were running up the mountain and I just couldn't. They said they were going to take it slow, but their definition of slow was clearly different than mine. I said they could go on ahead if they wanted, but I didn't actually expect them to leave me behind. Most folks I've run with have been pretty team oriented. Ah well. Around mile 2 we reached the summit of the mountain. The Hercules Hoist awaited us. It was refreshingly heavy. The women's bags used to be heavy, then they made them lighter, and now they're heavy again. You're allowed to have help if you need it, but I am a champ at this obstacle so I'm glad they made it heavy enough to be a challenge again. Right after it was mountain top monkey bar. Again with the really far apart monkey bars. Aced this one as usual! 

The sandbag carry. Usually not a very intimidating obstacle, hell even in NJ it was easy. This was ridiculous. Straight down and then back up a double black diamond slope. I swear some bastard hosed them down too because mine was soaking wet. The downhill wasn't fun, and I knew just what kind of special hell I was in for on the uphill because I could see it. I stopped several times - but I refused to put my bag on the ground once. I dunno, some weird challenge I made for myself. At the top of the hill I met up with the guys again and we all took on the spear throw together. That was the last time I saw them as a group. For the first time ever I was really close to hitting the target! It went exactly where it needed to go, just didn't go far enough. Back into some woods, very slippery rocks and soft ground so treaded carefully here. We hit a regular wall followed by an inverted wall. I think they made the inverted walls higher this year cause I've been having trouble getting over them without a boost. But the boost was received and the wall climbed. Next they had this thing called "Stairway to Sparta" which was a wall with a ladder on top. Not really a big deal. After this we had a pretty crazy descent. All wooded, rocky, extremely slippery trails. It took alot of muscular coordination in my feet and legs to navigate it. My feet were killing me already and we were only in the 3rd mile. It was also very mentally tiring because I had to calculate every single move and step. It felt like forever but eventually I found myself at the bottom of the mountain with an Atlas stone to carry. This thing keeps getting easier. 75 lbs isn't a huge deal to me anymore, just the roundness of the weight is awkward. A few more obstacles - a plate drag and farmer's log carry. A couple smaller uphills here and there, then the set of 2 walls. Badass moment of the day - I climbed my first wall by myself! This was either 7 or 8 feet and it had a tiny foothold just big enough to get your toe on. I put one toe on it, jumped up to get my hands on the top, and not really expecting to get anywhere I pushed myself up. I found I had the strength to push myself all the way up and over the wall. Finally! The next wall proved to be too much for me to climb on my own simply because it was taller and I couldn't reach the top by myself. But it was still a victory for me. 

There's a barb wire crawl right before this slip wall

And so began the most miserable climb ever. Uphill in the hot sun, just a never ending climb from hell. I stopped for so many breaks - we all did - and it just felt like there were hot coals in my shoes. I had a splitting headache by this point. I really think this is where things started to turn south for me. I just couldn't get my energy back because the hills were so taxing. The worst part about it was, immediately after we reached the summit we turned a corner and went all the way back down. At least put an obstacle or some distance up there to make it feel less pointless! There was some sort of obstacle at the bottom, more walls or something. And then there was more climbing of course. We exited the woods onto the slope and all I heard was "LOG!!!!" The log carry was above us uphill and a stray log was tumbling full speed down the hill. Racers scrambled to get out of the way and no one was hurt. We moved on, now knowing what awaited us at the summit. Yes, a 50lb log carry down (and up) hill. Thre was a very steep tiny hill to get down at the beginning, the kind where you should get on all fours and scooch down on your butt. While holding a log. I slid mine down the hill on the cut side because I know I would have fallen and dropped it if I tried to walk down. The downhill sucked. The uphill was a nightmare. I was stopping, sitting on my log, just absolutely exhausted. Logs were rolling left and right as people lost them. Whoever thought of this obstacle is a bastard. After an eternity I dropped that son of a bitch log back at it's station and moved on with my life. Then down the mountain again. I was trying to keep my mind from going to a dark place, chatting with people and listening to their conversations just to keep my mind occupied. I couldn't help but feel abandoned because my team had left me behind. We found some mud hills and pits next, I normally love them but was too exhausted to even care. A Tyrolean was next. Nothing new, I still can't cross it. A refreshing swim shortly followed, there was an option to swim in 8ft water and go underneath floats, but I was so tired I just waded through the chest deep part just so I could cool off and recouperate for a bit. It felt amazing. After we got out I was dismayed to see the traverse wall, an obstacle I'm not good at. I didn't make it far before my hip started to cramp up and I was down for the count. I turned a corner to see them. Buckets. Rocks. The goddamn bucket carry. The third uphill loaded carry of the day. I looked at this thing and said Fuck This. I don't usually skip obstacles but I was literally feeling sick at this point. So I moved on to the rope climb. I have never made it. And knowing how tired I was my chances were definitely low, but I went for it to see what would happen. I ALMOST MADE IT. For the first time ever. I was one more segment away from reaching the bell, but I could feel my foot slipping off the last knot. I went back down to retry. Still slipping. My strength was failing and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I guided myself back down 2 knots, then dropped and fell the last 2. My whole body was shaking from the effort and I was almost in tears because I was so close. My first Spartan I couldn't even MOVE on the rope, not one inch. And now I'm almost at the top despite being in a state of complete exhaustion. 

The Rig and the fire pit right before the finish line

The final stretch - I was close to the festival now, and thus the finish line. I saw Chris here, I guess the team had left him behind too. So it was 2 very long barb wire crawls. 1 crawl in the grass, then a slippery wall, then another barb wire crawl in the dirt. Think of it like a U shape. This did me in. By the time I was in the second barb wire pit I was about to throw up and pass out. I had nothing left in me to even attempt "The Rig". I walked right on past. All I wanted to do is be done. I jumped the fire and it was over. 8 miles of pure insanity. Finished. 

All I did was get my bag, mumble something in response when the volunteer asked me a question, sit in the shade and eat a banana. I felt better about 20 minutes after eating it. 

And about 30 minutes later I was already looking forward to doing the Sprint next month.

Isn't that so messed up? I just stumbled through this sadistic ass course and now I'm looking forward to doing a 5 mile one of these in a month?

I don't feel good about how I did. Yes, I have strengthened in some areas which is new and exciting, but I did not have the endurance to tackle this mountain like I wanted. I don't feel good about skipping obstacles, but trust me when I say I literally felt like I was going to collapse. I made some judgement calls where necessary.

That being said, I clearly need to get my ass in gear for future races so I can continue to do better.

Tough Mudder Virginia 2015

About a year ago I did my first Tough Mudder in Georgia and had a blast. I had to go back for more, and opportunity presented itself to run the Virginia TM last weekend! I was so there.

This was at the Meadow Event Park, about 1.5 hours from my parents house. I came down the night before and crashed with them, then it was out the door at 6am. By the time I got there it was already hot. Like 85 degrees at 8:30 am hot. I was actually very nervous about it. We all know I don't do well in hot weather. Got into the warm up area (this was new) did the warm up thing and then it was into the start corral. Announcer was great just like last year, funny and encouraging. My stomach felt like an ocean was tumbling around inside it, I was already drenched in sweat and hadn't even done anything yet. My original goal was to finish in about 2:30 but I had to write that off. I told myself it was ok to walk, just do whatever I needed to do to survive in the heat.

By the time I got through the warm up stuff it was 9:30, and off we went into the hot sun. Ran past my mom and waved, then it wasn't long until we encountered the inverted wall. There wasn't anything to grab onto so I had to get a boost from someone. Within the first mile I was already taking walk breaks. It was insultingly hot. Luckily TM was on top of their game and added extra water stations, and there was the first one. Right after it was a log carry where you had to navigate 2 walls and not set the log down. Joined a team of 3 gentlemen to carry this tree trunk of a log. A shoulder killer for sure. Up next - Birth Canal. This was an obstacle where you had to crawl underneath a plastic sheet with water on top - so the water was bearing down on you while you were in there. Loved the fact that the water was red, given the name of the obstacle. It was no big thing until someone entered the obstacle behind me and the weight shifted all to the left. It was pretty much crushing me and it took a good bit of strength to move through it. Definitely one of those obstacles not good for people with fear of tight spaces.

I passed my mom again and gave her an update - it was way too damn hot to finish in 2.5 hours. She said Ok, They had this water mister you could run through and I hung out in there while I talked to her. Through a tunnel to the other side of the park grounds, to find "Balls Out", a slanted wall you traversed sideways with ropes to grab onto. This obstacle was all about momentum. Did one similar to it at Battlefrog and had no problems, but this one the ropes were super far apart and I did not get very far before I just started falling off. Oh well! That's what I love about TM, you try your best but no big deal if you can't do something.

Next up, probably the most fun Tough Mudder obstacle. The Mud Mile. It's a series of mud pits followed by hills to get over. There is absolutely nothing to grab onto so you need help to get over. This year they did like 6 or 7 of these in a row and it was a blast. And the cool muddy water felt great too. Almost immediately after was the Beached Whale. Basically a giant inflatable blob with nothing to grab onto except a rope at the top, so once again nearly impossible to get over without help. I got a boost and then somehow got stuck underneath 2 people at the top who were helping others over. It took a bit of yelling at them but eventually they moved and I was no longer pinned.

At this point the course did alot of zig zagging. There was absolutely no shade to be found. Just us running back and forth in the hot sun. Another water station greeted us and then we were at Cry Baby. This is a new obstacle where you crawl through a box filled with tear gas. My strategy for this was to keep moving and only breathe when necessary. It was like the air had suddenly turned into Vicks Vapor Rub. A cooling menthol breeze filled my lungs. This is definitely one of those obstacles where you just shut off your brain and keep your body moving. Because my brain was thoroughly confused. At the end of the chamber there was suddenly a wall. Uh, how do I get out? Help? There was no space big enough to crawl under. Then someone opened a hatch from above and I could climb out. Really should have put an arrow or something in there so people know what to do. This thing cleared out my sinuses. Made the corners of my eyes water just a bit, and my skin did not itch at all. I talked about it with my husband and he says it's definitely a milder form of the gas, I think cause they want to keep everybody moving and not render them unable to continue the course. The kind they use in Army basic training has the potential to mess you up for a little bit. But I say, this was not bad. Next!

Warrior Carry. A gent carried me through this - well most of it. I'm a heavy girl and perhaps he underestimated me. I'm sure the picture is just my pink and purple butt in the air cause he carried me over his shoulder. More zig zagging through a field. Came to find "The Liberator" which is a steep incline wall where you climb up using pegs. The pegs were already fixated into the wall so it was just a matter of finding footing to get you to the next place. Coming up to this obstacle all I heard was "Hey, it's pink tie dye shorts girl!" It was 3 guys who I kept running into. I said "You know what, why don't I just run with yall?" And so it was. I joined Brian, Matt, and .. Greg? Now, they kept me ON POINT!!! I would have done SO much more walking if not for them, just for not wanting to over exert myself in this heat. But after every obstacle we jogged to the next one. They were struggling in the heat as well but we did very little walking.

Arctic Enema! Yes! I seriously needed about 4 more of these on this course. You know it's too damn hot when you approach this obstacle and it's dead silent!!! Usually you hear screams of absolute terror as people plunge into the ice bath. It felt amazing. And Matt's wife was spectating and grabbed a picture of us after we got out. My feet were a little chilly as we stood there but that went away soon as we headed back out into the hot sunny field. Next we found 10 foot walls followed by a ladder wall. Nothing too crazy.

At the top of the ladder (on the left)

We toiled on under the hot sun, to be refreshingly greeted by "King of the Swingers" A new obstacle where you jump off a platform to a bar hanging in mid air, the bar swings forward, you let go and try to ring a bell, and fall 15 feet into water below. The line for this was long, some folks started to chicken out but we all cheered them on until they overcame the fear and did it. The bell in my lane was broken so I just tried to jump out and reach the bar (I did!) and just let myself fall since there was no bell to ring. It was really fun! The water felt great too. This was followed by some more things like a big hay bale stack to climb, a pipe to crawl through, and FINALLY we retreated into the woods for a mile or so. SHADE! I was so happy. There was mud to trudge through, then we came to a clearing to face Funky Monkey. I was apprehensive about the changes, because historically I don't do well with transitions. But here goes. Made the monkey bar climb. Made the switch to the trapeze bar (which moves by the way), Made the switch to the pipe, then once I went to put my left hand on the pipe my right hand slipped and I fell. But I did pretty good to get so far I think. Unfortunately, tore my hand open in 3 places from that fall. It made doing Dead Ringer impossible. But I conquered Everest the half pipe sprint on the first try, even though I needed some help to get over the edge. Skipped Electric Shock Therapy once again, I have an irregular heart beat and don't feel like some silly obstacle is worth the potential risk.

And then it was across the finish line with the group! I picked up my orange headband, and my brand new green headband for completing my second Tough Mudder!
Never saw them after that, but 2 of them did friend me on Facebook so I could see all the pics. I found my mom, rinsed off, enjoyed a beer, then headed home.

Also picked up this shirt

This is so perfect. Gotta represent the state I'm from :)

So - my thoughts on this race. It didn't "wow" me as much as Georgia did last year. The course was kinda "meh", even aside from the heat factor. It was pretty uninteresting, just lots of running through fields and zig zagging through the same areas. The wooded trail towards the end was nice but very brief. Definitely needed some pizzazz in their course design.
Finisher shirts and merch are not as nice - what happened to the Under Armor gear? For the price of this race I would have appreciated the tech shirt like we got last year, and also the good merch for sale.
Free samples were very good, tons of preworkout, hydration, protein, gummies, and even beef jerky to munch on. Water stations were plentiful.
Loved the new obstacles, they do a good job of keeping it fresh every year. They were a good mix of challenging and fun. Great teamwork and camraderie as always.
Photos - what the hell? I waited a whole week before publishing this post, thinking I'd get some action shots of myself. None to be found. I know they took pictures of me, but I guess now TM only takes the liberty of posting the ones they like. Half of them were of their sponsors' products. Booo.

Overall - TM VA had it's ups and downs, I had a great time but it was not quite as amazing as my experience in GA last year. Still, I'm definitely down to run Tough Mudder #3 next year and upgrade my headband to whatever the next color is!

Savage Race results

I finally have my pics from Savage Race!

These logs weren't heavy enough!!! 

Results wise I was quite pleased with how I did.

Finished in 1:46
I got 36th in my age group/gender category, 248 total females in my age group
129th in my age group overall

At least they took the pic before I fell off

Pretty good considering I wasn't really trying for speed. I made sure to keep up the pace and challenge myself, but by no means was this a balls to the wall effort. Priority #1 was to have fun, so I savored the experience versus rushing through it, plus I stopped to help people from time to time.

This year I'm also noticing a nice change in my appearance vs last year's race photos. I look (slightly!) leaner and much more muscular. Noticing my leg muscles are more pronounced, bigger butt and smaller yet more muscular arms. Hooray for progress!

 They also got a pic of me exiting the ice bath. It was a little bit cold :)

Finally, I managed to make an appearance in the official video. I'm at the start line at some point and then there's a shot of me at the monkey bars. Pretty cool cause I usually never make the videos or featured shots. The photo/video coverage of this race was excellent. Very good quality photos and they take them at all the right moments!

Highly debating signing up for it again when they return in the fall!

Savage Race

My Savage Race adventure is complete.

Stupid photo - mission accomplished

6 miles, 25-ish? obstacles. Let's do it!

This morning I made the drive across the bay and through some very pretty countryside to Kennedysville, got there just in time to jump into the 11:00 wave (I wave jumped - I'm sorry, but I had no desire to run at 1:00)

Crowd surfing at the start line

The announcer did a great job getting us all hyped up. He led a quick warm up followed by some shouting matches, locking arms with our fellow racers, and crowd surfing. A young guy in USMC shorts and no shirt standing right next to me was chosen to lead the screaming contests. After some more yelling and chanting we were off! Ran through the field for a bit before reaching the first set of obstacles. Hurdles, a ladder wall, then surprisingly within the first mile was Shriveled Richard - an ice bath obstacle. This would have felt great later on in the race, but all it really did was knock the wind out of me when I hit the water. But I knew the key was to stay moving and use the wall to pull myself forward so I could get out as fast as possible.

The trails were pretty easy, mostly flat with maybe the occasional hill but nothing to cry about. I think the next obstacle was the balance beam. My clumsy ass made it about halfway across before falling. Oh well. Back into the woods for more trail running. Met up with a pack of Avengers, a bunch of guys wearing those Under Armor superhero shirts. Every Avenger was represented and there was even one of the X Men thrown in there. I kept running into the USMC shorts dude from the start line, we got to chatting and turns out he did the NJ Beast too. But I was about to leave him in the dust permanently because he injured his leg on an obstacle.

At one point we faced some walls - a straight wall with a large overhang that you had to maneuver over. It wasn't too bad. The other side was inverted with 2 footholds. The second wall was the first wall only in reverse. Climb up a slanted wall with 2 footholds, they were muddy and there was no rope so it took some time but I got over ok. The top is where I kind of froze. The upper lip stuck out and there wasn't really any way to get down other than dropping. But they put some hay bales there, and I just knew I would fall and roll an ankle or something if I just relied on the hay bales to catch me. A guy talked me through it because I was freaking out a little bit, he suggested I turn around and drop off that way. It worked. Thanks, random stranger!

Somewhere in here was an A frame cargo net, and a barb wire crawl through grass. Following the barb wire was an obstacle that was basically one of those big black plastic pipes that was set up like a see saw. You crawl up into the pipe and once you get to the middle your weight makes the pipe shift down and you slide out to the other side. Alot of females were backing out of this one and once I entered my pipe I saw why - there was nothing to grab onto. I just pushed my back into the walls of the pipe to act as a brace. It really hurt my knees. But before I knew it the pipe was tilting and I was sliding out the other side.

Soon we were back in the woods and entered a big mud pit. As soon as I stepped in I was on all fours. The mud was so slick that I was just sliding around everywhere. Getting out of the pit meant scaling a hillside - a guy offered me a hand which was not needed, but I thanked him and took it anyway. A bunch of other girls were screaming and sliding around trying to get up the hill so maybe he felt like he had to help out, but I was flying up that hill and grabbing tree branches to pull myself up, then I was out of there. Right after the big mud pit was Pipe Dreams - a pipe to shimmy across horizontally. Tried to dry my hands off as best I could to prepare. Despite being good at monkey bar type obstacles, I failed a similar obstacle at the Beast, so I wasn't about to let this one claim me. Felt my hands slipping a few times but I made it. Next was Me So Thorny, a barb wire crawl that had barb wire on the sides too, boxing you in completely. I think after this was the traverse wall. I got SO CLOSE!!! I had like 2 more holds to go and my foot slipped. The volunteer consoled me by telling me I was one of the few to have gotten so far. I think she was right, I saw alot of people fall off at the beginning and only heard 2 bell rings.

A picture of a picture of Sawtooth

Around mile 4 or 5 we were out in the fields again and encountered an obstacle called Thor's Grundle. A mud pit with 2 walls you had to pass underneath by going underwater. Saw someone try to go over top despite the fact there was barb wire there. A couple "Pthhbbthhpph" 's later I was out of the obstacle and furiously spitting mud out of my face. Running through the fields, noticed most everybody was walking at this point. The next obstacle was a log carry through a pond, the sign said "Grab 2 if you're a bad ass!" 2 logs it was! They were really light, should have grabbed more logs. The most logs carried by 1 person all day was 9. Next was the cliff jump obstacle. I got to the top and alot of people were scared so they said go ahead. Took the middle spot and had 2 people on my right and we were waiting for the countdown to all jump at the same time. As soon as he said "go" I let out a loud "WOOOO!" and was up in the air. Didn't even see the other 2 jump. Feeling the rush of joy/fear as I fell, then hit the water and brought myself back to the surface. Whee! Nice and refreshing too. Closing in on the end here. Sawtooth was next. These monkey bars were really tall and really far apart. I got halfway - up to the "tooth" part, and when it was time to go back up it was just too tall of a gap and I didn't make it.

The race was almost over. I didn't even care, I was having so much fun. Still running, had energy and was just enjoying the ride really. There was a third barb wire crawl, this time through water/mud. Chicked the guy next to me! But then I was slipping and falling all over the place trying to wade through the mud after the obstacle. Next we had some over/under walls. Got over all 4 walls, struggled with the 3rd because it was slippery. I saw a lady try to step through the barb wire on the "under" wall - seriously people, wtf??? The barb wire is there because you're NOT supposed to go over the wall! There's even signs pointing down! Anyway - approached a cinder block drag - pull the cinder block on a rope up hill, then carry it back down. It wasn't heavy, no big deal. The next obstacle was interesting, pull yourself up a slide with a cargo net while you're on your back. It had running water so you wouldn't get stuck, so at the very top I couldn't see what I was doing because water was hitting me in the face. 2 kids were standing there with a water bottle and asked "Wanna get wet?" I said "Sure!" and they proceeded to splash the water on me.

In the home stretch - time to face Colossus. the quarter pipe obstacle. Had to wait for a good bit and watch people attempt it, it was about 50/50 from what I could see. The ropes were really short. I sprinted towards my rope - couldn't quite get it and slid all the way down. Damn. Waited for a bit and tried again. Sprinted, reached - and fumbled again! Slid down and gashed up my elbow in the process. Well crap. I didn't try again because of all the people waiting for their turn. Felt pretty defeated but moved on to jump over the fire and cross the finish line!

This race was awesome! Very fun, loved the obstacles - a good mix of challenges, some obstacles were easier but fun, and other obstacles were really challenging. I loved all the water obstacles too. Volunteers were great, they actually had 3 water stations with full water bottles for every racer. Think I would have preferred cups though, I didn't want to waste too much water so I drank half the bottle/poured the rest onto myself, but I ended up having a full bladder from over hydrating. Savage Race does a great job at getting you pumped up and ready to go, yet they are laid back and don't punish you for failing or opting out of obstacles. I was having fun the whole time, there wasn't ever a point where I was hoping the race would end.

Anxious to see what my finishing time was - didn't try for speed and stopped to help others/cheer people on, but considering how many people were walking at the end I'm thinking maybe I did ok. The pictures should be good too!

I picked up a case of beer on the way home - really coming to love Shock Top lately, especially the lemon flavor. Hanging out and eating some baked ziti I ordered, the husband is trying to watch the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight so maybe I'll get in on that. Laters!

New Stuff - Savage Race

Yes. It's finally happening. Tomorrow I am running a Savage Race for the first time. I have wanted to do it for a very long time. Savage is an obstacle race series that comes very highly recommended from those who have run it. Some of my GA/SC buddies ran it in GA recently and had a blast. I would have been there with them if I hadn't moved. But it's coming here to MD this weekend and tomorrow I shall head up there to see what Savage is all about.

6 miles, lots of obstacles - very fun looking, some of the obstacles are standard and others I haven't even seen before.

Here's a video of the GA race - watching it gets me hyped up!

NJ Beast - The official pictures

During the Beast last weekend I noticed photographers throughout the course. Despite how challenging the race was, I did my best to look decent whenever I saw a camera. Usually that backfires on me because I'm not very photogenic. But I gotta say, these aren't too bad.

I like how the only real pictures of us doing obstacles are at the 2 obstacles I struggled with the most.

I look ok, but the reality is that bucket carry was hell. Looking back on it now though, I am stronger for having completed it.

After the dunk wall. I didn't have to put my head all the way under, but my face was covered in mud from falling off the rope and into the mud pit - which happened about 30 seconds before this picture was taken

This was towards the beginning of the second barb wire crawl

Right before the finish line!