We Are Spartans!!!!

So, the Spartan Race....what to expect...

I thought this would be an easy peasy trail run with a few obstacles, simple right?

Well simple if you're in somewhat good shape and don't race it, but run it to complete it.

Our day started out with picking our race kits up. I say our day referring to the 3 friends of mine from work that opted in for the race. We stood in the starting line up with 300 other "would be" Spartans waiting for the beginning of the unknown. We squeezed up near the front and listened to the announcers narrative of Spartans warriors, screamed "we are Spartans" a couple of times in reply and felt our hearts pump. Inspiring speech.....then...

"charge!"

To Begin

We're headed on a downslope and artificial smoke fills the runway. We wrap around a corner and veer left, escaping the smoke. It's chaos at this point everyone is vying for a spot in the lead,  it's every man/woman for themselves.

Mud Madness

We enter a muddy opening, at first step, my foot touches down and slides two feet to the right, I wrench my weight and hold on to my balance, this would happen throughout the remainder of the race. I run to the side on muddy grass to avoid the thick mud that seemed to be everywhere as we arrive at a 5 foot wide stream crossing. It's still a fight for the front as I move right from the mud pit to avoid traffic. I come to another entrance to the stream ahead and slip. My legs falls down into what feels like knee high mud, I throw my body forward to avoid completely falling in and maintain speed to jump over the stream. Just a head is a swamp, technique went out the door for this one as well as speed while tredging through quad high in water.
After we escape the swamp there's a forest entrance with a small opening, it was single track technical trail for a bit going around close corners, roots, rocks, small mud puddle openings, and of course the unrelenting mud surrounding. After this I felt the crowd starting to thin out slightly, as the endurance portion started to play a part. With the marathon last Sunday,I felt alright at this point. 

1st Obstacles

After escaping the grips of the forest we arrive at a spartan volunteer standing at 2X4's on their side lined up like a stair case, maybe 20ft in length. We had to walk along these without falling off. There was 3 of us there when she said. "good job guys, you're the first group" I thought, wow, I must be in 2nd place right now, crazy. We continued running off the 1st obstacle along some trails until we hit a 5ft wall that we had to hop over and entered a forest to a kettle ball attached to a rope, that we had pull up a tree and slowly let down.

Next....we continued our trek through the muddy trails to a small grid rope wall to climb, and then on to a pile of concrete deck blocks lying at the entrance of a 250m circle. At this point me and 2 others remained at the front of the pack, we walked around the circle dropped our blocks and picked up the pace to the rope climb.

Rope Climbing Sucks

A massive tree lay fallen in the pathway, we hopped over it and stood at a line of 5 ropes hanging from a tree, me and 3 others jumped on the rope. They climbed theirs, I struggled and began to fall down from the mud that lay on them. I decided to try and do the burpies,after the 4th place runner showed up and jumped on the rope, I realized it was going to take me much too long and got back on that rope and gritted my teeth more than ever! I slid down the rope and race out of the forest back on the trail.

How Hard Could Barbed Wire Be?

I spotted the other 3 racers ahead of me, and only slow down for the 300 meters or so, of barbed wire that lay ahead. It seemed as if there was 3 or 4 tired ruts that had dug space out along the barbed wire stretch. I scrambled under the left entrance and start crawling "doggie style" under the rope arching my back low for certain bits of wire. Eventually the wire became lower and I got lower with it, digging my toes in the mud to push me forward, I tried to forget the rocks and roots scraping my knees & passed the 4th place racer who struggled, the barbed wire went on forever! I finally got out and continued to run while catching my breath, and chasing the top 1 and 2.


Sandbags


Ahead of me a spartan volunteer stood on the side of the path and directed me to pick up a sandbag, and run it along the path and back to continue running. As I grab my sandbag, I realize the 2 racers ahead are walking, I felt like I could run with it on my shoulders. I started a light jog and ended up passing the two racers ahead to drop the sandbag and take 1st place. I tried my best to stay ahead but just as I entered the single track trail in the forest, one of them passed me to reclaim the lead. 


Spartans & Spears


The forest exited to a wide opening, more wide then we'd seen since the start of the race. This was a sign that we were almost finished. To the right there were massive blocks of hay on sticks up 15 or 20 feet, in front of the hay obstacles about 10 feet away, lay some spears. We all lined up and thrust our spears at the targets, all 3 of us succeeding in hitting the bails of hay and avoiding burpies. 
Off to the next task as we continued along raised rectangular concrete blocks for 250 meters, after we jumped off the blocks there lay a tunnel made of hay that ahead. We each picked a lane and got crawling, it only lasted a minute and we continued to what would be one of the more difficult obstacles..... 


The Grid Wall


Ahead stood two transport crates piled on top of one another, maybe about 30 feet high. On either side of them, there was a grid net, I ran hard at it and jumped high, my weight shifted heavily to the right and left, I felt like this is was a task I really wasn't prepared for. The 2 racers ahead of me have already made it atop of the crates and were headed down the other side, I was frustrated as I clumsily made my way to the other side and carefully crawled down. It was scary, and very high up, I came back to reality for a second. I got down finally and continued to the next obstacle which was a concrete construction tube, this was easy other than the knee scraping, it seemed we were reaching a heavy obstacle portion at the end of the race. We continued along arriving just before the front of the race track, where the horse races are held. 


Barrel Leveling 


A slope to the left reveals rows of wheel barrels  at the top of the slope without the barrels, only sandbags tied to each handle. The slope itself was maybe 30 seconds walk down and back up, but with the barrels it took about two minutes, and felt to be about 60pounds. I was pretty wiped at this point, my head fuzzy from being anaroebic for so much of the race and I had lost the top two runners...ah gheesh


The End in Sight


I headed down to the front portion of the horse track where the family, friends, and other racers gathered, there were a ton of people there cheering, this was uplifting. I pass them and head to the left to the few final obstacles. First of which, a double sided ramp without a middle, just a net on top and ice underneath, this was quick and easy. The next obstacle was odd, there was no volunteer there, so I was uncertain how it worked, it was about 15-20ft of lined barbwire with ice underneath, so I hopped through it and got zapped. (it was connected to electricity) I guess you were supposed to crawl under, ah well. After that was a massive almost 20ft high roof, picture an upside down V at a really steep angle, there were 5 ropes hanging across and soaked plastic to make sure if you couldn't hold your weight that you'd slip, I charged at this and nearly fell grabbing for the rope to hold on. Then I dashed across to the other side where there were 6 Spartan costumed gladiators with massive foam q-tips. They tried to stop me, but I crashed through them to cross the finish line.

Conclusion

 After catching my breath, and nearly yakking, I was proud of the 3rd place finish. But the race was very poorly organized, from the race kit pick up. (slow slow line up, reading through sheets to get your info, for each of the 3,000 people/day lined up) There was about 5 times on the course where I had no idea what to do, and no one was there to yell a command over and over. (Example: "hit the target with the spear!") I actually had to ask twice where to go and what to do. Also, I wasn't happy that I didn't know about crawling under the barbed wire obstacle near the end of the race.

All that said, I'd run it again, it was crazy, and I definitely felt like a warrior by the end!

Enjoy the outdoors!
D

From 4:17 to 3:01, 6 weeks later

 For those of you who already know and maybe some that don't the 2012 Boston Marathon kicked the shit out of me. I'm sure I'm not the only one. It really did a number on me, more than I can say about any race I've ever run. I experienced excruciating shredded muscles, exercise induced asthma (which I'm still using a puffer for) and extreme weight loss(from 156-142) in a day. I was deteriorated, afraid to race again, afraid to train, and ashamed of my performance. I felt like I my qualifying was a lucky break. I needed vindication that I was just beaten from the 90 degree heat. I was aiming for Ottawa to be that release; 6 weeks from Boston.
......................
I wake up, I'm tired but not unlike usual at 5am. My race gear is prepped and laid out, my stomach is yelling at me with excitement. I'm unsure, it's not great to be unsure, but it's not horrible either. It's a ? I love race morning, not unlike this morning, everything is so routine and so particular, one tiny mistake and it can cause your race to explode and you'll have trained 16 weeks and run 42km for nothing! The adrenaline is pumping, I'm quite nervous this morning, for marathon 8, it's a feeling I haven't had in a while, like I'm about to run my first race. When you run your first race, it's usually unplanned madness, but the excitement is awesome. You just never know how the run is going to pan out. This is where my head space was at. Slight anxiety, asthma thoughts, and 5 weeks to train and recover had me pretty silent, lets say lost in thoughts right up to the start line.

 We arrived at 6:30am, after a bathroom break, and warm up, I made it to the start with 2 minutes to spare. Watch "check",tunes "check", lets rock and roll! The gun goes off, I'm feeling pretty good right from the start, I'm relaxed and am quite close to the front at this point, I could catch the leader if I sprinted right now...uhhhh..actually...nope they're gone.. I check my watch "woh" I'm hitting a 4:15 pace, I wanted to stay on 4:20/km, but I feel pretty good at this pace. Huh... Maybe I'll roll with this for a little while to bank some time for the inevitable hills and pain coming later in the race. Chances are if I keep the pace up just a bit right now, I know I'll slow near the end, but it'll be okay.Carry on my wayward.

 I'm at about 10k, I feel my left lung, just having a bit of trouble keeping up, I start thinking wearily of the worst possibilities. You just never know when you could lose a race from under you. Sure, right now is golden,but in an instant everything can change, and your mental strength is left carrying your entire weight the rest if the race-the worst kind of fun.
After about 5k later:15k in my lungs start to give me a break, I've kept up the 4:15-4:17 pace at this point, I'm losing it a bit on some hills, but I'm starting to form a new game plan in my head. I like this kind of racing, it's the kind that pays you a little more than you thought you were getting. I'm popping a gel every 30minutes and an e-tab every 30, I don't enjoy them but it only takes 5 minutes for me to notice the positive benefits from both, as my body continues to maintain strength coming up on 20km's. 20k is a place I know I can really start to believe that I can keep this race as a BQ. Funny, I wasn't sold on the idea just a few kilometers back.

There's a group just ahead of me near the war museum, they seem to be shooting for a 3 hour marathon, just judging by the size of it (about 10 people) and the energy they come back with after a hill. I catch up to them on my the last bridge before the War museum. They're moving, but about my pace, I stay with them for a few kilometers and decide to move on, 4 of them stick with me until we get back from Quebec onto Sussex.

We're nearing the 25km mark, I start picturing the rest of the course in my head, and visualizing running it, this is a definite advantage. I've left 3 of the 4 racers I was with behind, the one has actually gone ahead about 750m. I've decided to try and catch up with him. By 32 km I start to close in, I've remained consistent with 4:15-4:17pace. I thought I'd lose it in Quebec, as we confronted a long sloping hill, I thought I'd shut down, but a gel saved me and really kept me in. It seemed it was almost over, but now at 32km, I've only begun to get stronger.

We arrive back on Sussex, I'm feeling the effects at this point, I'm ready for the big crowd that's bound to be off Wellington, as I crest the Sussex bridge and arrive back close to the Canadian Mint, I find a massive cheer section that fills me with energy for the next few kilometres, along with my next target.
As my unrelenting WALL arrives,a debilitating feeling, the feeling of needing to stop, of needing anything but running, it's mostly mental. I need new focus, there it is a tall dude in a blue and white shirt, he's been infront of me for a while, I almost passed him a few kilometers ago, but he's gotten stronger and is a head 500 metres. I focus on a yellow shirt beside him as we pass the mark for 40km.

I feel like the pain of Boston was much worse than my current state, and reminded me where I didn't want to be mentally. I decided not to go there this time, not to let go of everything, not today. I stayed locked like a radar on this yellow shirt, quickly checking my pace. I've started to fall off a bit, and I'm really struggling to hold, but as I pass the yellow shirt, I see the light. I'm crossing pretoria bridge with less than 2km's and refocus on the blue and white shirt who has continued a strong pace. It's so great right now, to know it's almost over, I'm passing some people without noticing them because of that friggin blue and white shirt. I pass 750m, then 650m then 500meters...wait what? This guy I've just passed refuses to be passed and starts a sprint, I refuse, and grit my teeth in a sprint, the crowd goes wild, and we're both giving it every last bit to cross that line first. He's got me the last 100 meters and then I push once more and beat him across the line by a second! What a great feeling, what a great finish, I'm woozy...I might pass.... "wheelchair!"

After I get out of the first aid tent, the medics see that it was just the last effort that had me struggling, all is good, another proud race, another PB, and another BQ. So close to a sub 3!! I didn't catch the blue and white shirt, but it's all good! Right there is the huge difference between a great race, and a crap race.

Enjoy the outdoors,
D