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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
