For those that don't know my style. I typically keep a pretty good base. It allows me to have an easy build, come race time. Since my Achilles injury back in March, I was fairly non committal. No watch, no real fluent schedule. But this was pretty much my steez heading into this race:
Tuesday: 8-10km trail run
Friday: Bike to work and back (40km)
Saturday: Beatdown hill workout in Gatineau for 6 weeks- approx 15-18km
I liked this schedule, and I felt pretty legit coming into spartan. By that I mean, I was nervous as hell -This race did kick my butt the 1st time.
Anyways....shall we....
Warm up climb - 9am
The spartan speech, the gong..and go. Straight up a mountain for 20 minutes. My training mate and I tried to get ahead in the front of the elite crowd before the gong went off- with no luck. We spent the climb passing a ton of peeps, and trying to keep a normal breathing rythym. What a climb!
As we crest the top of the hill, we begin a descent. This is my gravy, my flow state and where I feel most confident when trail racing. Confident and nervous at the same time. It's definitely a high you can't get everyday- Should nothing bad happen... More on that later.
Obstacles to boot
After all of the climbing, it's not so bad to have a few obstacles in the way. They really help on the getting back the breath part. We jump under a net for 20 metres. Then we carry a sand bag for a 3 minute loop and next we come up to our first wall hop and down to the front of the mountain where the crowd is.
There's a rope climb at the bottom of the mountain, where we must ring the bell at the top. We're about 5km in at this point. Next we must pull a propane tank attached to a rope up to the top about 20 metres. Then back up the mountain under barbed wire. We climb for another 5 minutes straight up, then take a left at the 1/2 point of the mountain and over a wall to descend towards the bottom again. Once we reach the bottom, there's a rolling monkey bar. Looks easy, fairly difficult though, especially when they're wet from the rain. I fell off and had to do 30 burpies, pretty brutal! Then a horizontal wall climb, and back up the mountain. 3 mins running, I realize I've lost my Garmin watch. Major bummer, but.. what can I really do at this point?
1/2 way there
I hit the 1/2 way point of the mountain again and there's a monkey bar to climb. It's about 10 metre climb to ring the bell. I almost fell before the guy behind me fell and was told to do 30 burpies. Not doing that again!
Next we had to climb over a big upside down V, again about 20 metres high, it had grid rope on each side. After that, we continued through a wall course of about 4-5 walls. Then we descended for a bit and back to a big climb of almost 30 minutes. Once at the top there was a big concrete ball to carry from about 10 feet, then 5 burpies and 10 feet back. We've reached around the 10KM mark now. 11KM to go.
What Goes Up, Must Come Down
After all that climbing, we finally get a break and can start a good descent. The nice thing in a race like this is that you can cover a lot of distance very quickly on the downhill. Today, I'm going a little bit fast and not being overly cautious. There are points where I'm grabbing the long grass and jumping into it to try and slow myself down a bit. I'm just not applying any brakes in hopes of making up some time. Stupid is as stupid does though. I pass some Spartan Volunteers who say "slow down bud, you'll hurt yourself" and I continue to fly until I reach the bottom more shallow part of the slope and catch my tow on a stump. This sends me on a somersault in the air, when I come down I crack my right shoulder blade on a rock and continue running. It took all of 2 seconds, I'm not even sure anyone saw it, but I was wincing with pain.
Onwards
I now had a difficult decision to make, continue or drop. We had this saying in training. "It's not about how hard it is, it's about not being a little b***h" I guess my mind was made up already. I folded my arm in and decided to continue as best I could do without any "obstacles" in the way.
Next Up
With one arm left, I was deemed to fail. It finally happened at 19KM on an inverted wall. I tried 4 times, but couldn't make it. I'd never DNF'd, but I guess there had to be a day where it would happened. As sad as it was, I learned a bit... It sucked being on pace for around a 3hr finish.
Here's what I managed broken
Ammo Box Carry - 2 arms , 3 minute course
Water Bag Carry- Left arm. 2 Minute course
Bucket Carry through the lake- 3 minute swim/sand walk
Deck Post Chain Pull- 4 minute swamp walk
It seems I've met my match with the Spartan Race. It was very tough to drop for the first time in my racing career. But in the end, there's always next year. I think I'll return again and try to best my times of this year, in hopes of a good trail season. Getting tired of the road!
BTW.. I'd give this race a 4/5 for the course. Changed since 2012, less arduous. More water stops, tougher obstacles.
Here's to you and not falling down the side of a mountain!
D
Obstacles to boot
After all of the climbing, it's not so bad to have a few obstacles in the way. They really help on the getting back the breath part. We jump under a net for 20 metres. Then we carry a sand bag for a 3 minute loop and next we come up to our first wall hop and down to the front of the mountain where the crowd is.
There's a rope climb at the bottom of the mountain, where we must ring the bell at the top. We're about 5km in at this point. Next we must pull a propane tank attached to a rope up to the top about 20 metres. Then back up the mountain under barbed wire. We climb for another 5 minutes straight up, then take a left at the 1/2 point of the mountain and over a wall to descend towards the bottom again. Once we reach the bottom, there's a rolling monkey bar. Looks easy, fairly difficult though, especially when they're wet from the rain. I fell off and had to do 30 burpies, pretty brutal! Then a horizontal wall climb, and back up the mountain. 3 mins running, I realize I've lost my Garmin watch. Major bummer, but.. what can I really do at this point?
1/2 way there
I hit the 1/2 way point of the mountain again and there's a monkey bar to climb. It's about 10 metre climb to ring the bell. I almost fell before the guy behind me fell and was told to do 30 burpies. Not doing that again!
Next we had to climb over a big upside down V, again about 20 metres high, it had grid rope on each side. After that, we continued through a wall course of about 4-5 walls. Then we descended for a bit and back to a big climb of almost 30 minutes. Once at the top there was a big concrete ball to carry from about 10 feet, then 5 burpies and 10 feet back. We've reached around the 10KM mark now. 11KM to go.
What Goes Up, Must Come Down
After all that climbing, we finally get a break and can start a good descent. The nice thing in a race like this is that you can cover a lot of distance very quickly on the downhill. Today, I'm going a little bit fast and not being overly cautious. There are points where I'm grabbing the long grass and jumping into it to try and slow myself down a bit. I'm just not applying any brakes in hopes of making up some time. Stupid is as stupid does though. I pass some Spartan Volunteers who say "slow down bud, you'll hurt yourself" and I continue to fly until I reach the bottom more shallow part of the slope and catch my tow on a stump. This sends me on a somersault in the air, when I come down I crack my right shoulder blade on a rock and continue running. It took all of 2 seconds, I'm not even sure anyone saw it, but I was wincing with pain.
Onwards
I now had a difficult decision to make, continue or drop. We had this saying in training. "It's not about how hard it is, it's about not being a little b***h" I guess my mind was made up already. I folded my arm in and decided to continue as best I could do without any "obstacles" in the way.
Next Up
With one arm left, I was deemed to fail. It finally happened at 19KM on an inverted wall. I tried 4 times, but couldn't make it. I'd never DNF'd, but I guess there had to be a day where it would happened. As sad as it was, I learned a bit... It sucked being on pace for around a 3hr finish.
Here's what I managed broken
Ammo Box Carry - 2 arms , 3 minute course
Water Bag Carry- Left arm. 2 Minute course
Bucket Carry through the lake- 3 minute swim/sand walk
Deck Post Chain Pull- 4 minute swamp walk
It seems I've met my match with the Spartan Race. It was very tough to drop for the first time in my racing career. But in the end, there's always next year. I think I'll return again and try to best my times of this year, in hopes of a good trail season. Getting tired of the road!
BTW.. I'd give this race a 4/5 for the course. Changed since 2012, less arduous. More water stops, tougher obstacles.
Here's to you and not falling down the side of a mountain!
D
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