Ahh, my first full.
I left there glad I'd done it but kinda unhappy at it. And then by midnight I was already re-contemplating trying it again...
So... It went about like this:
Woke up to a nice 32F. Decided to try on my Injinji compression socks and confirm that they just barely fit in my See-Ya LS'. K, they'll keep me warmer and the compression should only help maybe.
And I guess I'll wear my Spahten arm sleeves for some warmth as well. I was of course already planning on wearing gloves since it might not be over 50F by the time we were done.
Left the house around 6:30. Thought maybe I'd be late as I hadn't accounted for time to de-ice the car!
Got to Bath around 7.
Headed for the buses, but thankfully, the area was full of helpful, happy staffers who directed me towards the FULL buses(I was headed towards the HALF buses) before I even got there. Really, this was the most well staffed race I've done. Everyone seemed quite happy and wished me a great run and directed me where I needed to go before I even asked. This carried through the race as well, there were people lined up at each town and at the finish, all cheering happily on. More so than any other race I've done.
Anyway, got to the starting area maybe 7:20. It was freezing. Waited in line for the portapotties.
More freezing.
Dropped off my post-race bag at the UPS truck. A towel, sweatshirt and pants for when I figured I'd be cold. Turns out I didn't need any of it.
More freezing, another turn at the portapotties.
Were I to do it again, I would have found an old sweatshirt somewhere that I didn't mind parting with and worn that prior to the start and tossed it to the side. I gave it a passing thought before I left, but didn't go further.
And then they said they were starting about 10 minutes late for more people coming, so more time standing out in the freezing(Ok, it was up to 36. It was damn cold!)
But then it was time to line up, new to this whole pacing thing. It was nice though, they had official pacers and I lined up at the 9:44 min/mile 4:15 hr/min finish, as theoretically according to the calculator it should be possible.
And we were off!
Took a couple miles before the feet started finally getting into it and not so numbish.
Largely though the miles just ticked away quicker than I would have expected.
Kept right on with the 9:44 pace.
Nutrition was a bit unknown as I suspected given the difficulty of trying to time out when I'd be at which water stops, but basically they were every 2 miles until around mile 20 at which point they were like 1-1.5 miles apart. I stopped and had Gatorade at almost every one and got Gu's at those 3 stops. I think I used one of my Gu's and I also had a snack Sized Payday for some protein once an hour.
Think I put my gloves in my pocket before we hit Kanona.
I think I hung my sleeves around my spibelt around Coopers Plains.
Spibelt worked well except I attached the extra pocket for some mustard and Paydays and apparently that swung around a bit too much a fair amount of the time. I'd do that differently as well.
But basically it all went quite well through mile 15. I was starting to get a bit tired, but not too bad. Then at mile 16 things started going downhill. Not entirely sure of the order, but I was definitely getting more tired and aches were starting to show up. Mainly the ball of my left foot and my left thigh/hip area. It gathered a lot of pain. Not exactly sure when, but by mile 20 for sure, it was MAJOR pain with every step. It was all I could do to find some periods of 12:30 minute paced running throughout the end. Well, I guess I found a bit more speed in the last half mile to the finish, but things were NOT feeling good at all. I was afraid I was going to cramp my thighs right up. I took the mustard somewhere around the last few miles as well, hoping that would ease something up but I didn't notice anything there.
So... It would seem I either need to work more on Barefoot/pavement and/or switch to something with some more padding to go those distances on pavement.
But I am now thinking I am going to try it again... I've also put about 10lbs back on this year and am sitting right about at 200, so I've got a good 40lbs to lose that would help a lot as well. That's going to be my focus now.
The Wineglass had great food afterwards. Greeted with chocolate milk and water, then a bag to put your food in, Wegmans had bagels and cookies and soup and bananas and... I think more... Then Rico's had pizza... It really was the best race as far as the structure around it. It was just the pain for the last 10 miles that was something I was not used to and was really killing me. But now I think we'll have to try again!
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Saturday, September 20, 2014
2014 VT Spartan Beast World Championships
What a ride... Not even sure what to include or what I remember at this point...
Left Friday afternoon. Stopped at the Waterloo outlet mall to see if there were any UA deals. As I feared, I think most of the good deals I found before were like start of the new year clearouts. Nothing really seemed great.
This stop was made worse by me going into the bathroom and somehow tossing my phone under/into an occupied stall. The guy was nice enough and handed it back to me but um... EWW to say the least...
Then I stopped at the UA outlet at the Adirondak Outlets near my hotel. I at least found a couple things I could use for 50% off.
And I think around 6pm I pulled into the Lake George Inn. Got checked in. Room seemed fine, a couple spots of drywall tape to be fixed, but nice and clean overall. Time for some food.
Decided on the A&W down the street. I just wanted takeout, but it took me a minute to figure this out and pull up to a parking spot up front so that the waitress could come to me as there were signs telling me NOT to go up to the window on the building.
Can't say I'm overly fond of these little lake towns, it reminded me of the 1000 islands, except considerably larger I think. Basically, the parking spots in the Motel were tight and slanted in a way so that some of them(like the one in front of my room) would be almost impossible to get in or out of. The A&W lot was similar, and the entire section of Canada Street is just packed full of little shops. I could see the appeal if you had a nice hotel right there and wanted to just walk around and were spending some time there, and it wasn't horrible since it was pretty much fall when I was there, but it all just feels a bit too tight/packed in.
So, back to the Motel, bikers were pulling in. I took my luggage which had somehow amounted to a Camelbak, like 3 backpacks, a cooler bag, and a couple others...
Ate some dinner, then dumped all my stuff out and finally got the Camelbak packed and ready for Saturday as best I could, along with my gear to wear and items possibly needed before or after.
Then to try for some sleep about 9pm. I slept not TOO bad, but I thought today's bikers were supposed to be more civilized. Fraid I heard tons of creaking from people walking around and LOTS of yelling and swearing and what not. Wasn't sure if a brawl was going to break outside.
Up at around 5am Saturday. Showered, ready and what not, left the Motel about 6:30. After a gas a couple potty breaks, it was just about 8:30 when I got to Killington. And according to my GPS, I was a mile and a half out when I hit the stop and go traffic... Well, about another half mile in and we got to pay our $10 to park. Somewhere around here is when I got my first glimpse of the actual mountain. There was definitely something about seeing it there, especially since the top was in the clouds.
Then about another half mile in I got to actually park. Which left about a half mile climb up to the actual starting area. There were shuttle buses running from somewhere, but I don't know how much farther down the hill you had to go to get to them, nor how long you'd have to wait to get on one. I had heard parking was close, so I figured I'd hang out in my car and what not before the race, but with seeing the big climb and not knowing the details, I elected to do the same as Jersey, just bring everything I needed with me and plan on not returning to the car. Only new items this time were a pair of pants and a sweatshirt that I was wearing while standing around for a couple hours. The forecast was actually looking good. However, in reality, it may have been 50F which wouldn't be that bad, but there was zero sun and STRONG winds blowing constantly. NOT warm at all.
So up I climbed, got to registration, got my packet, found the line for the pottys, saw a bit of the course and some tents and finally after a while found the Spahten team tent.
Interestingly as much as I had been hyped up on adrenaline or whatever excitement for about a week or so ahead of this, actually being there on the mountain and seeing some of the course and even the teeny tiny people WAY up on the mountain I was almost eerily calm. It was more of a feeling like "It doesn't look that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's gonna majorly suck, but we're just gonna go out there and do it!"
Mainly hung out near the team tent for a couple hours before our 10:30 heat. Looked around the vendors, would have liked to buy a VT t-shirt or something, but didn't want to make the trip back to the car and leaving stuff at the team tent wasn't a sure thing. Watched the course, but it was probably around 9:30 before the elites started hitting the bucket carry so we could see anything. The NBC helicopter was flying around then as well. As our heat neared closer, I slathered on some sunscreen, shed my extra layers, pinned my bib, then the elites hit the sand bag carry and scared me as I saw them pick up TWO sandbags. Oh sure, 60lbs for a half mile doesn't sound like enough, let's make it 120lbs... But then as I had hoped, someone said that was just for the elites. We had a team photo and then it was off to the starting line.
I aimed for a spot a bit closer to the front of the pack this time because you had to actually walk MORE uphill to get to the start, and then we were running DOWNhill to start. And downhill running seems to be where I do better than a lot of others.
Sure enough, that worked out about like I thought, and then we rounded the corner at the bottom and pretty quickly everyone slowed down as we began the first of many hikes up the mountain.
I don't remember a lot of what happened when exactly. But the first time up was just about all the way up the mountain and had some side trips through the woods as well I believe. Steepness varied from "quite steep" to "you need to find a foot hold, or you're just going to slide down". Really, it was steep.
After a number of miles and ups and downs I completely understood what Norm the course designer was saying a few days earlier on a podcast, something to the effect of "If I let people get a flat spot where they can run, I feel like I've failed." and "I like to just go out and bushwhack with the chainsaw. I found myself wondering if one section was too steep, then wound up falling head over heels landing upside down in a ravine. I laughed and thought: Yep, that was too steep." If we weren't climbing straight up the side of a mountain on a grassy path we were in the woods, and all those wooded sections were like someone just went through a dense part of the forest and cut some trees out of the way. Lots of slippery hills, jumps, fallen trees, bushes, branches, rocks, mud and whatever else you can think of.
There were a few obstacles here and there... The pancake carry and the first bucket carry that weren't that bad. A cool cargo net climb at the top up in the clouds.
Yes, it was crazy at the top of the mountain. We were literally in the clouds and the wind was blowing them. It's crazy to see clouds blowing through the trees in front of you.
Oh, and apparently I would later found out that we skipped the first swim and tarzan swing because someone went missing who later was found to just be somewhere else.
I think the biggest mistakes I made were regarding hydration. I should have been taking in some good sips every 15 minutes during the morning instead of every 30 with food. I was eating a snack sized Payday on the hour and a Gel ever half hour in between, that seemed to work well. But cramps showed up later, so I probably wasn't drinking enough.
And I figured I'd refill the Camelbak at the halfway point. Well, I guess everyone else had this same idea cause it was backed up pretty good there. And this was at the top, about the coldest point. So... I spent about 10 minutes waiting in line, filling my Camelbak(which is nice that it sets the weight at your waistline, but is difficult to fill at best, and as I found out once it's full of items, it's almost impossible.) But I got it filled, had my Nuun dug out and tablets dropped in, then as I was walking off to the side for a pee break I thought "that feels like it's too wet..." So I checked. Sure enough, never happened before or after, but somehow I got a piece of dirt in there or something and it didn't seal. And I had lost the majority of my water. And I did NOT feel like wasting any more time digging out the Nuun again and waiting in line and trying to refill yet again especially knowing that standing around was going to get me in trouble, let alone on the coldest spot. So I just got everything sealed and took off. Ended up refilling at 2 later spots and never put more Nuun in. Probably a mistake.
Oh, there was the log carry. As usual I didn't have trouble with this one, but it was about the hardest since they were all big around and not long, so were difficult to balance. But it was a dangerous place. LOG! LOG! LOOOGGG!! I believe I just barely stepped out of the way of a medium speed one, and after I completed my trip around, I saw one going supersonic down the hill, ready to take out several people if they hadn't moved.
Basically 5 miles in I was thinking "This isn't that bad... which scares me... I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bad at the end..." Which was correct.
The first 3hrs went by pretty quick and was leading me to think I might be done in 6hrs.
And around mile 10 or so, still not much for obstacles, but definitely getting tired.
I think around mile 12 or 13 they finally gave us the obstacle dump(though we were still going up and down hills). Oh, and apparently Spartan doesn't count the distance you take around obstacles, so Spartan said 14.9 miles, everyone else said 16(about what my Tomtom said) or up to 18 others had.
I think I just didn't have much energy left so I never actually exhausted my arms as much, and my cramping leg killed whatever little chance was left. That started right after the second bucket carry. I got done, started up the hill and UGH, right quad locked right up. Something I have never experienced before. THankfully I had brought the mustard. Wasn't sure if I believed in it or not since some people say it's just a placebo. But I tell you what, I took 4 packets, and as I took the third one, the cramps just went away. This happened again at the rope climb. Wasn't sure I was going to make it out of the water.
I started the platinum rig, but have never tried gymnastics rings, and as soon I was trying to hang by one hand I just fell right off.
The Atlas carry was trying to speed things up, so it was just a matter of taking it from the previous person, carry it out and back and hand it to the next. Never touched the ground or burpees which are the hardest parts, but I've never failed that anyway.
I passed the memorization test, and I hauled all the weights around, the herculean hoist, atlas, etc. Made it maybe halfway across the Tyrolean traverse. Wasn't sure just how hard that would be, but it was definitely a big drain on the arms. About halfway out I was doing all I could to try and stay on, pulling myself up to my elbows to try and keep going, but the arms were all but gone and then my leg started cramping besides and poof, it was time to drop. I'm sure I was supposed to do burpees there somewhere, but I didn't see a spot and my leg was partially cramping so I just kept going. Also got my biggest cut there along my knee(even with knee pads) while going over a fallen tree where branches had been cut off.
Failed both spear throws. One by not much, the other completely off.
Thought maybe I had a technique to get up the rope climb this time, but I didn't realize the ropes don't reach the bottom, so I had to pull myself up with my arms to get my legs on the rope, and there wasn't enough rope to wrap around my leg/foot to get a grip from the height I could pull myself up(not much at that point).
More cramping at the second barbed wire crawl, but made it without much issue for that and the final crawl and under the wall.
Made it about 3 or 4 hands along the pole hanging thing which was a couple more than I suspected I might get at that point.
Only made it to about the 3rd monkey bar as well, first time I've failed that one at Spartan. Just didn't have much left in the tank I guess.
And I was so whooped I think I did about 10-15 sloppy burpees for each of those failed obstacles. I was just trying to keep moving forward.
And it was getting dark at about that point. The last trip through the woods was definitely borderline for needing the headlamp. And then after the last obstacle and hearing "just up the hill, down the hill and you're done!" I was hoping he meant hill and not mountain... Yeah, it was a pretty good climb up the hill and over/under/through fallen trees to get around to the finish, and that part definitely would have been good to have my headlamp on for, but I didn't feel like spending 5 minutes to get it out of my pack when I was only a hillside away from the finish! Couldn't see a lot of where I was stepping, but I made it without a problem!
After that, it was the usual, get your medals, your foods, your finisher shirt. I went and found nicely that my pants and sweatshirt had not been stolen from the team tent. And I decided this was a big enough deal where I'd try to buy a Beast/trifecta shirt. They really suck at having stuff/enough stuff, but I did find a trifecta patch and a beast shirt.
My Tomtom watch died just over 8hrs in, I finished in 8:53. My phone recorded the whole thing, but as has happened a couple times before, it decided to erase almost all of it when I tried to sync it to runkeeper. *NOT HAPPY!*
I normally hose off before heading back to the car, but I didn't even see where those stations were(assuming they were) and I just wanted to get that 2 hour trip back to the Motel done before I passed out.
Well, there was that long walk back to the car, the usual sorting out of what stuff needs to go where back at the car, but I just laid down a couple towels on the seat and headed out. Stopped at McD's for dinner and it took them a good half an hour to get through the drive through. I think I got back to the Motel around 10PM, and after eating, showering, etc got to bed close to midnight...
But unfortunately while there was less biker noise this night my mind was just racing with race thoughts. Not sure if it was adrenaline or what exactly, though after the fact I have now realized that I believe like 7 out of 9 of the gu's and a last packet of jelly beans had at LEAST the caffiene equivalent of a 20oz of Cola, and since I don't normally drink more than a cup or two of Earl Gray, I may have been swimming in a good bit of caffiene.
I got about 3hrs, then couldn't sleep, think I got maybe another hour in, then it was like 5AM, I decided to sit in the bathtub for a bit, tried again and got maybe another 45 minutes and decided it was time to head home.
Quads were still quite making themselves known.
But made it home early afternoon, and thankfully the girls took a nice nap and let me get another hour or so of sleep and I felt a good bit better that night.
Monday the quads were still sqwuaking about getting up and down, but were considerably better by night. And Tuesday morning I had a 7 mile run scheduled. Well, I went a LOT slower, walked a LOT, and made it about 4 miles. Not much pain, but I could tell the legs were definitely not back up to speed yet.
But since then, I haven't noticed the "ugh" and pain as I get up from a chair, etc. so I think we're in much better shape.
I was really kind of undecided on future races and what not... But now I'm kinda really feeling like I'd like to get another trifecta next year...
The biggest issue with that is going to be that this year I won my entries... So... I'd have to either spend a crap load of money, or I need to find some time to volunteer... And of course there's no races that are close by...
We shall have to see.
For now, "just" my first full marathon in 12 days!
Left Friday afternoon. Stopped at the Waterloo outlet mall to see if there were any UA deals. As I feared, I think most of the good deals I found before were like start of the new year clearouts. Nothing really seemed great.
This stop was made worse by me going into the bathroom and somehow tossing my phone under/into an occupied stall. The guy was nice enough and handed it back to me but um... EWW to say the least...
Then I stopped at the UA outlet at the Adirondak Outlets near my hotel. I at least found a couple things I could use for 50% off.
And I think around 6pm I pulled into the Lake George Inn. Got checked in. Room seemed fine, a couple spots of drywall tape to be fixed, but nice and clean overall. Time for some food.
Decided on the A&W down the street. I just wanted takeout, but it took me a minute to figure this out and pull up to a parking spot up front so that the waitress could come to me as there were signs telling me NOT to go up to the window on the building.
Can't say I'm overly fond of these little lake towns, it reminded me of the 1000 islands, except considerably larger I think. Basically, the parking spots in the Motel were tight and slanted in a way so that some of them(like the one in front of my room) would be almost impossible to get in or out of. The A&W lot was similar, and the entire section of Canada Street is just packed full of little shops. I could see the appeal if you had a nice hotel right there and wanted to just walk around and were spending some time there, and it wasn't horrible since it was pretty much fall when I was there, but it all just feels a bit too tight/packed in.
So, back to the Motel, bikers were pulling in. I took my luggage which had somehow amounted to a Camelbak, like 3 backpacks, a cooler bag, and a couple others...
Ate some dinner, then dumped all my stuff out and finally got the Camelbak packed and ready for Saturday as best I could, along with my gear to wear and items possibly needed before or after.
Then to try for some sleep about 9pm. I slept not TOO bad, but I thought today's bikers were supposed to be more civilized. Fraid I heard tons of creaking from people walking around and LOTS of yelling and swearing and what not. Wasn't sure if a brawl was going to break outside.
Up at around 5am Saturday. Showered, ready and what not, left the Motel about 6:30. After a gas a couple potty breaks, it was just about 8:30 when I got to Killington. And according to my GPS, I was a mile and a half out when I hit the stop and go traffic... Well, about another half mile in and we got to pay our $10 to park. Somewhere around here is when I got my first glimpse of the actual mountain. There was definitely something about seeing it there, especially since the top was in the clouds.
Then about another half mile in I got to actually park. Which left about a half mile climb up to the actual starting area. There were shuttle buses running from somewhere, but I don't know how much farther down the hill you had to go to get to them, nor how long you'd have to wait to get on one. I had heard parking was close, so I figured I'd hang out in my car and what not before the race, but with seeing the big climb and not knowing the details, I elected to do the same as Jersey, just bring everything I needed with me and plan on not returning to the car. Only new items this time were a pair of pants and a sweatshirt that I was wearing while standing around for a couple hours. The forecast was actually looking good. However, in reality, it may have been 50F which wouldn't be that bad, but there was zero sun and STRONG winds blowing constantly. NOT warm at all.
So up I climbed, got to registration, got my packet, found the line for the pottys, saw a bit of the course and some tents and finally after a while found the Spahten team tent.
Interestingly as much as I had been hyped up on adrenaline or whatever excitement for about a week or so ahead of this, actually being there on the mountain and seeing some of the course and even the teeny tiny people WAY up on the mountain I was almost eerily calm. It was more of a feeling like "It doesn't look that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's gonna majorly suck, but we're just gonna go out there and do it!"
Mainly hung out near the team tent for a couple hours before our 10:30 heat. Looked around the vendors, would have liked to buy a VT t-shirt or something, but didn't want to make the trip back to the car and leaving stuff at the team tent wasn't a sure thing. Watched the course, but it was probably around 9:30 before the elites started hitting the bucket carry so we could see anything. The NBC helicopter was flying around then as well. As our heat neared closer, I slathered on some sunscreen, shed my extra layers, pinned my bib, then the elites hit the sand bag carry and scared me as I saw them pick up TWO sandbags. Oh sure, 60lbs for a half mile doesn't sound like enough, let's make it 120lbs... But then as I had hoped, someone said that was just for the elites. We had a team photo and then it was off to the starting line.
I aimed for a spot a bit closer to the front of the pack this time because you had to actually walk MORE uphill to get to the start, and then we were running DOWNhill to start. And downhill running seems to be where I do better than a lot of others.
Sure enough, that worked out about like I thought, and then we rounded the corner at the bottom and pretty quickly everyone slowed down as we began the first of many hikes up the mountain.
I don't remember a lot of what happened when exactly. But the first time up was just about all the way up the mountain and had some side trips through the woods as well I believe. Steepness varied from "quite steep" to "you need to find a foot hold, or you're just going to slide down". Really, it was steep.
After a number of miles and ups and downs I completely understood what Norm the course designer was saying a few days earlier on a podcast, something to the effect of "If I let people get a flat spot where they can run, I feel like I've failed." and "I like to just go out and bushwhack with the chainsaw. I found myself wondering if one section was too steep, then wound up falling head over heels landing upside down in a ravine. I laughed and thought: Yep, that was too steep." If we weren't climbing straight up the side of a mountain on a grassy path we were in the woods, and all those wooded sections were like someone just went through a dense part of the forest and cut some trees out of the way. Lots of slippery hills, jumps, fallen trees, bushes, branches, rocks, mud and whatever else you can think of.
There were a few obstacles here and there... The pancake carry and the first bucket carry that weren't that bad. A cool cargo net climb at the top up in the clouds.
Yes, it was crazy at the top of the mountain. We were literally in the clouds and the wind was blowing them. It's crazy to see clouds blowing through the trees in front of you.
Oh, and apparently I would later found out that we skipped the first swim and tarzan swing because someone went missing who later was found to just be somewhere else.
I think the biggest mistakes I made were regarding hydration. I should have been taking in some good sips every 15 minutes during the morning instead of every 30 with food. I was eating a snack sized Payday on the hour and a Gel ever half hour in between, that seemed to work well. But cramps showed up later, so I probably wasn't drinking enough.
And I figured I'd refill the Camelbak at the halfway point. Well, I guess everyone else had this same idea cause it was backed up pretty good there. And this was at the top, about the coldest point. So... I spent about 10 minutes waiting in line, filling my Camelbak(which is nice that it sets the weight at your waistline, but is difficult to fill at best, and as I found out once it's full of items, it's almost impossible.) But I got it filled, had my Nuun dug out and tablets dropped in, then as I was walking off to the side for a pee break I thought "that feels like it's too wet..." So I checked. Sure enough, never happened before or after, but somehow I got a piece of dirt in there or something and it didn't seal. And I had lost the majority of my water. And I did NOT feel like wasting any more time digging out the Nuun again and waiting in line and trying to refill yet again especially knowing that standing around was going to get me in trouble, let alone on the coldest spot. So I just got everything sealed and took off. Ended up refilling at 2 later spots and never put more Nuun in. Probably a mistake.
Oh, there was the log carry. As usual I didn't have trouble with this one, but it was about the hardest since they were all big around and not long, so were difficult to balance. But it was a dangerous place. LOG! LOG! LOOOGGG!! I believe I just barely stepped out of the way of a medium speed one, and after I completed my trip around, I saw one going supersonic down the hill, ready to take out several people if they hadn't moved.
Basically 5 miles in I was thinking "This isn't that bad... which scares me... I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bad at the end..." Which was correct.
The first 3hrs went by pretty quick and was leading me to think I might be done in 6hrs.
And around mile 10 or so, still not much for obstacles, but definitely getting tired.
I think around mile 12 or 13 they finally gave us the obstacle dump(though we were still going up and down hills). Oh, and apparently Spartan doesn't count the distance you take around obstacles, so Spartan said 14.9 miles, everyone else said 16(about what my Tomtom said) or up to 18 others had.
I think I just didn't have much energy left so I never actually exhausted my arms as much, and my cramping leg killed whatever little chance was left. That started right after the second bucket carry. I got done, started up the hill and UGH, right quad locked right up. Something I have never experienced before. THankfully I had brought the mustard. Wasn't sure if I believed in it or not since some people say it's just a placebo. But I tell you what, I took 4 packets, and as I took the third one, the cramps just went away. This happened again at the rope climb. Wasn't sure I was going to make it out of the water.
I started the platinum rig, but have never tried gymnastics rings, and as soon I was trying to hang by one hand I just fell right off.
The Atlas carry was trying to speed things up, so it was just a matter of taking it from the previous person, carry it out and back and hand it to the next. Never touched the ground or burpees which are the hardest parts, but I've never failed that anyway.
I passed the memorization test, and I hauled all the weights around, the herculean hoist, atlas, etc. Made it maybe halfway across the Tyrolean traverse. Wasn't sure just how hard that would be, but it was definitely a big drain on the arms. About halfway out I was doing all I could to try and stay on, pulling myself up to my elbows to try and keep going, but the arms were all but gone and then my leg started cramping besides and poof, it was time to drop. I'm sure I was supposed to do burpees there somewhere, but I didn't see a spot and my leg was partially cramping so I just kept going. Also got my biggest cut there along my knee(even with knee pads) while going over a fallen tree where branches had been cut off.
Failed both spear throws. One by not much, the other completely off.
Thought maybe I had a technique to get up the rope climb this time, but I didn't realize the ropes don't reach the bottom, so I had to pull myself up with my arms to get my legs on the rope, and there wasn't enough rope to wrap around my leg/foot to get a grip from the height I could pull myself up(not much at that point).
More cramping at the second barbed wire crawl, but made it without much issue for that and the final crawl and under the wall.
Made it about 3 or 4 hands along the pole hanging thing which was a couple more than I suspected I might get at that point.
Only made it to about the 3rd monkey bar as well, first time I've failed that one at Spartan. Just didn't have much left in the tank I guess.
And I was so whooped I think I did about 10-15 sloppy burpees for each of those failed obstacles. I was just trying to keep moving forward.
And it was getting dark at about that point. The last trip through the woods was definitely borderline for needing the headlamp. And then after the last obstacle and hearing "just up the hill, down the hill and you're done!" I was hoping he meant hill and not mountain... Yeah, it was a pretty good climb up the hill and over/under/through fallen trees to get around to the finish, and that part definitely would have been good to have my headlamp on for, but I didn't feel like spending 5 minutes to get it out of my pack when I was only a hillside away from the finish! Couldn't see a lot of where I was stepping, but I made it without a problem!
After that, it was the usual, get your medals, your foods, your finisher shirt. I went and found nicely that my pants and sweatshirt had not been stolen from the team tent. And I decided this was a big enough deal where I'd try to buy a Beast/trifecta shirt. They really suck at having stuff/enough stuff, but I did find a trifecta patch and a beast shirt.
My Tomtom watch died just over 8hrs in, I finished in 8:53. My phone recorded the whole thing, but as has happened a couple times before, it decided to erase almost all of it when I tried to sync it to runkeeper. *NOT HAPPY!*
I normally hose off before heading back to the car, but I didn't even see where those stations were(assuming they were) and I just wanted to get that 2 hour trip back to the Motel done before I passed out.
Well, there was that long walk back to the car, the usual sorting out of what stuff needs to go where back at the car, but I just laid down a couple towels on the seat and headed out. Stopped at McD's for dinner and it took them a good half an hour to get through the drive through. I think I got back to the Motel around 10PM, and after eating, showering, etc got to bed close to midnight...
But unfortunately while there was less biker noise this night my mind was just racing with race thoughts. Not sure if it was adrenaline or what exactly, though after the fact I have now realized that I believe like 7 out of 9 of the gu's and a last packet of jelly beans had at LEAST the caffiene equivalent of a 20oz of Cola, and since I don't normally drink more than a cup or two of Earl Gray, I may have been swimming in a good bit of caffiene.
I got about 3hrs, then couldn't sleep, think I got maybe another hour in, then it was like 5AM, I decided to sit in the bathtub for a bit, tried again and got maybe another 45 minutes and decided it was time to head home.
Quads were still quite making themselves known.
But made it home early afternoon, and thankfully the girls took a nice nap and let me get another hour or so of sleep and I felt a good bit better that night.
Monday the quads were still sqwuaking about getting up and down, but were considerably better by night. And Tuesday morning I had a 7 mile run scheduled. Well, I went a LOT slower, walked a LOT, and made it about 4 miles. Not much pain, but I could tell the legs were definitely not back up to speed yet.
But since then, I haven't noticed the "ugh" and pain as I get up from a chair, etc. so I think we're in much better shape.
I was really kind of undecided on future races and what not... But now I'm kinda really feeling like I'd like to get another trifecta next year...
The biggest issue with that is going to be that this year I won my entries... So... I'd have to either spend a crap load of money, or I need to find some time to volunteer... And of course there's no races that are close by...
We shall have to see.
For now, "just" my first full marathon in 12 days!
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Tri State Super Spartan
Left the house about 6am. Was about a 4hr drive. However, while I did stop at 2 of the rest areas, I made the mistake of not stopping at the third, figuring it would be like the Tuxedo sprint and in less than an hour I would be parked and have lots of porta-potties.
Well, it wouldn't have been bad if I didn't need to go so bad. It ended up being another of the "let's figure out where I'm supposed to park" deals coming from my direction. There were people parked all along the sides of the road, then what looked like ONLY VIP parking at the registration area, then a lot of people walking down the road from an unknown location... Then definite parking to the left, but the sign saying to go straight and then finally finding an actual parking spot at what felt like 10 miles down the road. Apparently it was only 2, and I'm not sure why people were walking, the shuttle buses were running very quickly. But at the time I arrived, I REALLY had to use the bathroom and wasn't sure how it was going to work so I made the call to just leave what I didn't need in the car, and anything else was going with me in the Camelbak.
So about 10 minutes later I was at the registration desk, though there weren't any bathrooms there either. So another 10-15 minutes later and I was through registration, partway up the hill looking to the right where I was told they were, but then finally found them far off to the left.
It was QUITE warm. I heard 86F. And pretty humid as well. Know what's even better? When you've really got to pee and you end up standing in the portapotty for 5 minutes. It was over 100F in there, as soon as I got in the sweat was steadily dripping off my head and when I finally got out, it felt SO much cooler(though it was still nasty hot).
On the portapotty note... I was amazed at the amount of Spartans who don't understand porta-potties and latches... It's pretty simple. You look for one that's green and go in. Red means it's occupied. However, when I tried to do this, I opened the door on one male and one female Spartan who failed to latch the door. And when I was inside with the door latched, some guy came up, tried the door, it didn't open so he tried again and forced it open. At which point I had to reach behind myself, UNlatch the door so I could close it, then latch it again. *sigh*.
After that it was largely standing around for an hour before the start time. I should have brought another bottle of water to drink because I was hesitant to use up my Camelbak water before the race.
But then we were off up the hill. Nothing like climbing mountains with that hot humid sun beating down on you. But it was going pretty well. The swim section was new and was a bit interesting cause there were too many people in there including people with life jackets just laying on their backs kicking so I was getting hit from ahead and behind. But it was nice and cooling!
Thought I was drinking enough as I was taking a decent drink of my Nuun water like before and after a Clif Shotblock like every 15 minutes and a glass or two of water at each of the stations, but around maybe half way or so, I started to feel my calves acting up on the way down the mountain. This is the first I've ever had them start to cramp. I ate two of the mustard packets that had been recommended for this situation And continued on. They never completely cramped on me, but I could feel them getting stiff and I thought I might have been out of luck right after the fire jump, they really came close to a full on cramp as I was waiting for my medal.
But anyway, around this halfway or so point I was thinking I might be done around 3, but got to the bucket carry and was told they were pausing the race. Now, it had been thundering for almost an hour at this point. So it was not real clear as to just when they might decide to go again. Nor were instructions/explanation very clear... The first I heard was that the bucket carry was stopped, but you could do your burpees and continue on. Then that the course was stopped. Then that you could go at your own risk, then immediately no you can't. So ended up sitting for like 15 minutes and of course my body decided it might as well start shutting down since we were no longer in race mode... And given that the forecast was calling for MORE thunderstorms at this point I figured who knows how long we'll be here. Might as well eat a Clif bar. And of course as I was halfway through they started up again. So I've got my 5 gallon bucket full of gravel, climbing the mountain and half a Clif bar sticking out of my mouth. In retrospect I should have just dropped the Clif bar cause I think between the sitting and eating a whole bar at once, I didn't start getting close to recovering till towards the end of the race. Also didn't help that this was the start of like twice more up the mountain and a lot of the weight carrying/pulling stuff. It also meant that because of the pause but everyone still moving to obstacles that EVERY obstacle was backed up at least 5 people deep. And then they still weren't letting people do the rope climb when I got to it. Though the next time down the hill it was open again so I was kinda disappointed I didn't get to try it. But I still burpeed the spear throw and the log hop. Oh, I was so close, I just got leaning off to the side and missed the very last log! and I did 30 somethings, but they were REALLY sloppy burpees from the way I was feeling.
Anyway, it was good, but that pause at the middle which seemed just stupid(Umm, we already signed waivers that we might die and I'm sure we're more likely to get killed driving to/from this event than struck by lightning and what's the difference if we're moving or sitting still on the mountain?), well it just really killed my motion and I ended up with a 3hr 47 minute time which I think was about 45 minutes longer than it would have been... I didn't run down much of any of the remaining hills which is where I make some time.
Oh, there was a lot more water at the bared wire crawl too. You pretty quickly learn to just ignore any sort of worry about nasty water, etc. Cause it's like 10-15 minutes of rolling through foot deep puddles, lots of rocks, etc under the barbed wire. Everything is just completely filthy when you emerge. On this note, I tried using the Shotblocks in a ziploc bag, but while it kept them from getting too bad, it was definitely still muddy in there. Thinking I may switch to something more single use like Gu's for VT just to avoid this issue... Not sure.
But then the race was over, I did a quick hose down at the showers and it was another quick shuttle back to the car. I changed quick and was on the road. At which point in the first hour I did a good bit of yelling and swearing at a couple of idiots that were really causing me time. I want to get home to my girls by like 8, not after 9! The worst was a like 5-10 mile stretch of single lane construction with a 55mph speed limit so it shouldn't have been bad, but for some reason this rimmed Jeep with a U-haul trailer was topping out at 30mph and then slowing to like 20mph when the road had a turn in it... UGH!
Still, I made it home around 9:20 very tiredly.
But I now have my second piece of the Trifecta!
Killington is like ten days!
Well, it wouldn't have been bad if I didn't need to go so bad. It ended up being another of the "let's figure out where I'm supposed to park" deals coming from my direction. There were people parked all along the sides of the road, then what looked like ONLY VIP parking at the registration area, then a lot of people walking down the road from an unknown location... Then definite parking to the left, but the sign saying to go straight and then finally finding an actual parking spot at what felt like 10 miles down the road. Apparently it was only 2, and I'm not sure why people were walking, the shuttle buses were running very quickly. But at the time I arrived, I REALLY had to use the bathroom and wasn't sure how it was going to work so I made the call to just leave what I didn't need in the car, and anything else was going with me in the Camelbak.
So about 10 minutes later I was at the registration desk, though there weren't any bathrooms there either. So another 10-15 minutes later and I was through registration, partway up the hill looking to the right where I was told they were, but then finally found them far off to the left.
It was QUITE warm. I heard 86F. And pretty humid as well. Know what's even better? When you've really got to pee and you end up standing in the portapotty for 5 minutes. It was over 100F in there, as soon as I got in the sweat was steadily dripping off my head and when I finally got out, it felt SO much cooler(though it was still nasty hot).
On the portapotty note... I was amazed at the amount of Spartans who don't understand porta-potties and latches... It's pretty simple. You look for one that's green and go in. Red means it's occupied. However, when I tried to do this, I opened the door on one male and one female Spartan who failed to latch the door. And when I was inside with the door latched, some guy came up, tried the door, it didn't open so he tried again and forced it open. At which point I had to reach behind myself, UNlatch the door so I could close it, then latch it again. *sigh*.
After that it was largely standing around for an hour before the start time. I should have brought another bottle of water to drink because I was hesitant to use up my Camelbak water before the race.
But then we were off up the hill. Nothing like climbing mountains with that hot humid sun beating down on you. But it was going pretty well. The swim section was new and was a bit interesting cause there were too many people in there including people with life jackets just laying on their backs kicking so I was getting hit from ahead and behind. But it was nice and cooling!
Thought I was drinking enough as I was taking a decent drink of my Nuun water like before and after a Clif Shotblock like every 15 minutes and a glass or two of water at each of the stations, but around maybe half way or so, I started to feel my calves acting up on the way down the mountain. This is the first I've ever had them start to cramp. I ate two of the mustard packets that had been recommended for this situation And continued on. They never completely cramped on me, but I could feel them getting stiff and I thought I might have been out of luck right after the fire jump, they really came close to a full on cramp as I was waiting for my medal.
But anyway, around this halfway or so point I was thinking I might be done around 3, but got to the bucket carry and was told they were pausing the race. Now, it had been thundering for almost an hour at this point. So it was not real clear as to just when they might decide to go again. Nor were instructions/explanation very clear... The first I heard was that the bucket carry was stopped, but you could do your burpees and continue on. Then that the course was stopped. Then that you could go at your own risk, then immediately no you can't. So ended up sitting for like 15 minutes and of course my body decided it might as well start shutting down since we were no longer in race mode... And given that the forecast was calling for MORE thunderstorms at this point I figured who knows how long we'll be here. Might as well eat a Clif bar. And of course as I was halfway through they started up again. So I've got my 5 gallon bucket full of gravel, climbing the mountain and half a Clif bar sticking out of my mouth. In retrospect I should have just dropped the Clif bar cause I think between the sitting and eating a whole bar at once, I didn't start getting close to recovering till towards the end of the race. Also didn't help that this was the start of like twice more up the mountain and a lot of the weight carrying/pulling stuff. It also meant that because of the pause but everyone still moving to obstacles that EVERY obstacle was backed up at least 5 people deep. And then they still weren't letting people do the rope climb when I got to it. Though the next time down the hill it was open again so I was kinda disappointed I didn't get to try it. But I still burpeed the spear throw and the log hop. Oh, I was so close, I just got leaning off to the side and missed the very last log! and I did 30 somethings, but they were REALLY sloppy burpees from the way I was feeling.
Anyway, it was good, but that pause at the middle which seemed just stupid(Umm, we already signed waivers that we might die and I'm sure we're more likely to get killed driving to/from this event than struck by lightning and what's the difference if we're moving or sitting still on the mountain?), well it just really killed my motion and I ended up with a 3hr 47 minute time which I think was about 45 minutes longer than it would have been... I didn't run down much of any of the remaining hills which is where I make some time.
Oh, there was a lot more water at the bared wire crawl too. You pretty quickly learn to just ignore any sort of worry about nasty water, etc. Cause it's like 10-15 minutes of rolling through foot deep puddles, lots of rocks, etc under the barbed wire. Everything is just completely filthy when you emerge. On this note, I tried using the Shotblocks in a ziploc bag, but while it kept them from getting too bad, it was definitely still muddy in there. Thinking I may switch to something more single use like Gu's for VT just to avoid this issue... Not sure.
But then the race was over, I did a quick hose down at the showers and it was another quick shuttle back to the car. I changed quick and was on the road. At which point in the first hour I did a good bit of yelling and swearing at a couple of idiots that were really causing me time. I want to get home to my girls by like 8, not after 9! The worst was a like 5-10 mile stretch of single lane construction with a 55mph speed limit so it shouldn't have been bad, but for some reason this rimmed Jeep with a U-haul trailer was topping out at 30mph and then slowing to like 20mph when the road had a turn in it... UGH!
Still, I made it home around 9:20 very tiredly.
But I now have my second piece of the Trifecta!
Killington is like ten days!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Dam Good Trail Race
Ahh, the Dam Good Trail Race.
I dunno, I don't feel like I have a lot to say about it, but I bet I will anyway somehow...
In short, it was good, but it did feel like it was a bit harder/more tiring than it should have been... Why? I could guess...
-Not much of a taper. 18 miles the Sunday before and 9 miles on Thursday are a bit more than the 10 and 3 that would be on a good taper...
-Nutrition. I haven't been eating overly well.
Dunno. I still made it in about 2:40 which was about a half hour quicker than the pre-run which was REALLY sluggish. Although that pre run also had a heck of a lot more mud and apparently I took a couple longer sections than the actual course.
So... Let's see...
I guess this was my first time actually racing with my Camelbak. I've had periodic problems with the waistband rubbing on my back when I wear the Camelbak or the weighted backpack, but I put some Glide there thinking that would take care of it. Turns out, it wasn't enough and it rubbed an even larger area. Wondering about just putting a strip of duct tape across there for the Spartan Races coming up...
Sara nicely filled up one of my travel bottles with honey, so I used that for about the first 1.5hrs. Then a pack of caffeinated Sports Beans.
Overall, yeah it was good, a bit tiring. Nowhere near as muddy as the Pre-run, but yeah there were several sections of seriously muddy, I guess more so because so many people had already run through there. One point I was a half second away from falling for sure. And that really sucks the energy out of your legs just for a few seconds of running through!
Also amazing how much just like 5-15 feet of elevation hits those legs as there are quite a few stream crossings and it doesn't look like much, but especially on the return trip you just take like 3 seconds of big steps back up out of the gulley and UGH those legs!
Oh, and I don't quite understand how it was set up, but I did take the wrong turn at the loop. I didn't see anything overly obvious as to which way to go, and I could have sworn it was the way I went on the pre-run which I thought lined up with a previous runner's GPS, and also came back out where I was pretty sure I had seen other people coming back on the loop...
Either way, thankfully about the 4th person behind my said "hey, it's gotta be to the right!" And we only lost maybe 30 seconds going in the wrong direction. SORRY!
I wasn't the only one, I did get passed by one lady who then went straight up the other side of the creek instead of a 90 degree turn to the right. Once over the hill, they kinda went in the same direction so I thought maybe she just was taking an alternate route, but then she said she didn't know where she was going and thought she shouldn't be in the lead. hehe. We traded forward/back spots about 5 times I think. I think she may have been nursing an ankle or something.
But then I finally made it to the end. Well... Actually at that point I wasn't exactly sure WHERE the end was... I exited the woods, but it wasn't overly clear to me as to where/how far I was supposed to go. So I kinda slowed down more than I otherwise would have. Finally found that I was supposed to run across the grass for a while and then there was a line and then they kinda awkwardly gave me a medal. (they were younger kids I think so probably weren't quite as forward as a lot of adults are).
As usual, trail races are WAY better cause they FEED YOU! This time was possibly my favorite. Lots of pizza and desserts! (oh, and some fruit). (:
I hung around for the awards and it was worthwhile. I guess they try to give something back to everyone so they just pick race numbers at random and call your name and you get to pick out a prize. I ended up with a Patagonia Belt. It does look to be quite good quality.
I think that's about it. Now the Spartan Insanity is in full swing!!!!
I dunno, I don't feel like I have a lot to say about it, but I bet I will anyway somehow...
In short, it was good, but it did feel like it was a bit harder/more tiring than it should have been... Why? I could guess...
-Not much of a taper. 18 miles the Sunday before and 9 miles on Thursday are a bit more than the 10 and 3 that would be on a good taper...
-Nutrition. I haven't been eating overly well.
Dunno. I still made it in about 2:40 which was about a half hour quicker than the pre-run which was REALLY sluggish. Although that pre run also had a heck of a lot more mud and apparently I took a couple longer sections than the actual course.
So... Let's see...
I guess this was my first time actually racing with my Camelbak. I've had periodic problems with the waistband rubbing on my back when I wear the Camelbak or the weighted backpack, but I put some Glide there thinking that would take care of it. Turns out, it wasn't enough and it rubbed an even larger area. Wondering about just putting a strip of duct tape across there for the Spartan Races coming up...
Sara nicely filled up one of my travel bottles with honey, so I used that for about the first 1.5hrs. Then a pack of caffeinated Sports Beans.
Overall, yeah it was good, a bit tiring. Nowhere near as muddy as the Pre-run, but yeah there were several sections of seriously muddy, I guess more so because so many people had already run through there. One point I was a half second away from falling for sure. And that really sucks the energy out of your legs just for a few seconds of running through!
Also amazing how much just like 5-15 feet of elevation hits those legs as there are quite a few stream crossings and it doesn't look like much, but especially on the return trip you just take like 3 seconds of big steps back up out of the gulley and UGH those legs!
Oh, and I don't quite understand how it was set up, but I did take the wrong turn at the loop. I didn't see anything overly obvious as to which way to go, and I could have sworn it was the way I went on the pre-run which I thought lined up with a previous runner's GPS, and also came back out where I was pretty sure I had seen other people coming back on the loop...
Either way, thankfully about the 4th person behind my said "hey, it's gotta be to the right!" And we only lost maybe 30 seconds going in the wrong direction. SORRY!
I wasn't the only one, I did get passed by one lady who then went straight up the other side of the creek instead of a 90 degree turn to the right. Once over the hill, they kinda went in the same direction so I thought maybe she just was taking an alternate route, but then she said she didn't know where she was going and thought she shouldn't be in the lead. hehe. We traded forward/back spots about 5 times I think. I think she may have been nursing an ankle or something.
But then I finally made it to the end. Well... Actually at that point I wasn't exactly sure WHERE the end was... I exited the woods, but it wasn't overly clear to me as to where/how far I was supposed to go. So I kinda slowed down more than I otherwise would have. Finally found that I was supposed to run across the grass for a while and then there was a line and then they kinda awkwardly gave me a medal. (they were younger kids I think so probably weren't quite as forward as a lot of adults are).
As usual, trail races are WAY better cause they FEED YOU! This time was possibly my favorite. Lots of pizza and desserts! (oh, and some fruit). (:
I hung around for the awards and it was worthwhile. I guess they try to give something back to everyone so they just pick race numbers at random and call your name and you get to pick out a prize. I ended up with a Patagonia Belt. It does look to be quite good quality.
I think that's about it. Now the Spartan Insanity is in full swing!!!!
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Howard 5k: The one where I win!
Well, ok first off, this was a small race. I dunno, maybe like 40 people there and half were walkers? Not sure.
But I was like I believe the 4th one back.
And FIRST in my age group!
And I was not actually slow... This was the only 5K I've been in with big hills and rocky roads to run on(and hard packed dirt and pavement and grass...) So I was NOT expecting a PR...
But I did! 25:08! That's like maybe 10-15 seconds per mile off! On a hilly course! Woohoo!
There is a possibility that I might be able to pull off a 4hr marathon... Still a REALLY big IF there!
Marathon miles are seriously climbing. That 16 on Sunday REALLY tired out my feet and that on again off again right ankle, though they were considerably better by afternoon. Then again, I haven't cleared more than about 13.5 miles since almost March I think. We'll see how 18 goes this Sunday!
But I was like I believe the 4th one back.
And FIRST in my age group!
And I was not actually slow... This was the only 5K I've been in with big hills and rocky roads to run on(and hard packed dirt and pavement and grass...) So I was NOT expecting a PR...
But I did! 25:08! That's like maybe 10-15 seconds per mile off! On a hilly course! Woohoo!
There is a possibility that I might be able to pull off a 4hr marathon... Still a REALLY big IF there!
Marathon miles are seriously climbing. That 16 on Sunday REALLY tired out my feet and that on again off again right ankle, though they were considerably better by afternoon. Then again, I haven't cleared more than about 13.5 miles since almost March I think. We'll see how 18 goes this Sunday!
Saturday, July 26, 2014
PA Grand Canyon Half Marathon
Well this one started off Friday when I drove down to pick up my packet. Went smoothly enough, though I wasn't overly impressed with the goody bag. Basically just flyers for Wellsboro stuff and one of them had a granola bar attached. There was a nice tech tee though.
As for the race itself?
Well it was early...
I got up at about 3:55am, out the door about 4:15am.
Arrived at the high school parking lot about 5:30.
There were a lot of people there waiting.
One bus shows up. Didn't make it on.
I think it was about 5:52 when (5:45 was supposed to be the last bus) the next one showed up. And then thankfully like 4 more buses.
It was almost a half hour trip down to Colton Rd. Same place the rally cars run.
So we got there just before 6:30. One last potty break and then basically just hung around the woods for half an hour.
And then we were off!
Now, I have to say... I wasn't entirely sure about the elevations... From their description it made it sound like it was mostly flat with maybe a few little hills, or that's what I was picturing. But from the rally car days of walking these roads, I didn't remember anything flat.
And in the end, that was all kinda correct... There weren't any big hills like I'm used to... But there was NOTHING flat.
So... there was a bit of up and down throughout, but more down for the first 2/3 maybe. So I was aiming for a 9:09 min/mile pace to break 2hrs, and I was beating that on those downhills, but not by enough that I thought I was going to keep it for the way back. Thought for sure I'd be walking parts. But no, I DID manage to run the whole thing. But I did slow considerably for the way back up. Ended up with a 2:08 finish time and considering the hills I'm quite happy!
Oh, also had a short chat with someone shortly before we started heading up again, she was saying the same thing about how on the way down we weren't looking forward to knowing we had to go back up. It was nice to have someone to chat with!
Afterwards, got a nice medal and a box filled with all sorts of post race recovery foods like chocolate milk and hummus and chips and a few other things. That made up for the goody bag. And they had water, sports drink, bananas, apples and pretzels out as well.
So I hung out for maybe 20 minutes afterwards stretching out my calves. Then decided to head back to the buses.
Well... I ended up right behind this like over 6 foot tall European guy who was just SO enjoying his post race high. "this is so awesome!" Every couple minutes. We got in line to wait for the bus and talked a bit with him and a couple of his friends who ran as well. It was nice to be around other crazy runners!
This ended up being a while. We waited for I believe over an hour for the bus. This is also evidence of just how sweaty I must get cause I was STILL dripping by the time the bus came. I literally soaked every inch of my clothing. And I missed any notice that there was a bag check at the race itself, otherwise I would have at least brought a towel.
So we finally get on a bus at like 10:40 or something... And we start heading back. We drop off spectators. And more spectators. Then... We start heading back a bit. I laughed it off, but obviously there were some mess ups with the buses. I guess they were saying the buses were so slow because they didn't have full buses going to Wellsboro. So they decided to swing back to the spectator area and combine the half full buses of runners into one full one. Now, why no one could have figured this out back before we got ON the buses is a mystery to me. And while I laughed it off, some people were getting quite frustrated with it and some were complaining that they had to check out within an hour and we weren't back yet. Hopefully they'll get that figured out next year.
When we picked up more runners, ended up having another nice chat with a lady from West Virginia about all the races she was doing as well.
It was also interesting to hear the number of people who were going to do the full the next day too! I'm not THAT crazy yet!
Anway, about 11:20 and we finally were back to the high school parking lot.
So, in all it was a lot of fun!
Next up is just a 5K, but those Spartan races are coming up soon!
As for the race itself?
Well it was early...
I got up at about 3:55am, out the door about 4:15am.
Arrived at the high school parking lot about 5:30.
There were a lot of people there waiting.
One bus shows up. Didn't make it on.
I think it was about 5:52 when (5:45 was supposed to be the last bus) the next one showed up. And then thankfully like 4 more buses.
It was almost a half hour trip down to Colton Rd. Same place the rally cars run.
So we got there just before 6:30. One last potty break and then basically just hung around the woods for half an hour.
And then we were off!
Now, I have to say... I wasn't entirely sure about the elevations... From their description it made it sound like it was mostly flat with maybe a few little hills, or that's what I was picturing. But from the rally car days of walking these roads, I didn't remember anything flat.
And in the end, that was all kinda correct... There weren't any big hills like I'm used to... But there was NOTHING flat.
So... there was a bit of up and down throughout, but more down for the first 2/3 maybe. So I was aiming for a 9:09 min/mile pace to break 2hrs, and I was beating that on those downhills, but not by enough that I thought I was going to keep it for the way back. Thought for sure I'd be walking parts. But no, I DID manage to run the whole thing. But I did slow considerably for the way back up. Ended up with a 2:08 finish time and considering the hills I'm quite happy!
Oh, also had a short chat with someone shortly before we started heading up again, she was saying the same thing about how on the way down we weren't looking forward to knowing we had to go back up. It was nice to have someone to chat with!
Afterwards, got a nice medal and a box filled with all sorts of post race recovery foods like chocolate milk and hummus and chips and a few other things. That made up for the goody bag. And they had water, sports drink, bananas, apples and pretzels out as well.
So I hung out for maybe 20 minutes afterwards stretching out my calves. Then decided to head back to the buses.
Well... I ended up right behind this like over 6 foot tall European guy who was just SO enjoying his post race high. "this is so awesome!" Every couple minutes. We got in line to wait for the bus and talked a bit with him and a couple of his friends who ran as well. It was nice to be around other crazy runners!
This ended up being a while. We waited for I believe over an hour for the bus. This is also evidence of just how sweaty I must get cause I was STILL dripping by the time the bus came. I literally soaked every inch of my clothing. And I missed any notice that there was a bag check at the race itself, otherwise I would have at least brought a towel.
So we finally get on a bus at like 10:40 or something... And we start heading back. We drop off spectators. And more spectators. Then... We start heading back a bit. I laughed it off, but obviously there were some mess ups with the buses. I guess they were saying the buses were so slow because they didn't have full buses going to Wellsboro. So they decided to swing back to the spectator area and combine the half full buses of runners into one full one. Now, why no one could have figured this out back before we got ON the buses is a mystery to me. And while I laughed it off, some people were getting quite frustrated with it and some were complaining that they had to check out within an hour and we weren't back yet. Hopefully they'll get that figured out next year.
When we picked up more runners, ended up having another nice chat with a lady from West Virginia about all the races she was doing as well.
It was also interesting to hear the number of people who were going to do the full the next day too! I'm not THAT crazy yet!
Anway, about 11:20 and we finally were back to the high school parking lot.
So, in all it was a lot of fun!
Next up is just a 5K, but those Spartan races are coming up soon!
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Tough Mudder (VS Spartan?)
So Tough Mudder...
Did this one with my friend/neighbor/mechanic Mike. This was my first time having someone else to run with and was a lot of fun! I was kind of wondering how we would pace each other. Mike works all day with his hands, so I figured he probably had me beat on upper body strength, but he hasn't run as far/often/fast as I have, so I thought I might have him beat there.
As it turns out, we seemed to end up right about the same pace from what I could tell. Though he is taller which I hadn't really noticed until we were in this run and he would stop to a walk and I had to periodically bump up to a run to catch up to him since my strides weren't as long! He also seemed to have some advantage jumping to things, etc.
So let's see...
We got there about a quarter to 8 and figured we'd do the 9am wave. We were early but that was good, we got a decent parking spot that I think might not have been the full half mile distance from the starting line area. When we left, the other end of where people were parking was probably another quarter mile away across hay fields. We opted NOT to take the $5 each way shuttle. (:
Got our bibs, bathroom break and headed back to the truck to get ready.
I went with:
Fivefinger Spyridon shoes. Upped one size since I had a did lose a pinky nail on a 13 mile trail race with thin socks and I went with thicker Injinji knee high compression socks this time. I'm undecided on this at the moment. I think the socks were a good idea for protection, but the upped size Fivefingers feel a hair large and the straps definitely seem too long and at one point when I tried to re-tighten them after some mud/water, the straps seemed too long to be able to get a good grip with the velcro. Really thinking I would prefer the Spyridon LS. Not entirely sure which size... would be nice to get a good handle on this before Sept Spartans!
UA Compression shorts, UA Running shorts, UA Coldblack shirt, UA trainer fingerless gloves, bandaids on the nips, Glide a bit on the feet, Spibelt and took my Fitbit One and old Boost Hydro phone in LokSaks in the Spibelt to track the run.
So we thought we had time still, but then they said the 9am wave was leaving. When we headed up for the 9:20 wave we'd realize we probably did still have time, it seems they have a pre-starting line holding area where they keep people until like 10 minutes before, then you head up to the starting line, spend another 10 minutes there or so and THEN leave. As such, we were at the back of the 9:20 wave pre-holding area and I started Runkeeper on my phone, and it was apparently 9AM, but it was 9:20 when we actually left to start the run.
Overall? I dunno, I feel I can only compare it really to the harder races I've done. One being the 10 mile Pfeiffer Nature Center Trail race that was wicked hilly. The other being the Tuxedo Spartan Sprint which was 4.5 miles on ski slopes.
So...
Mud:
-Spartan really wasn't that muddy at all. Yeah, there was some, but not a ton of it. Though I ended the race the dirtiest of any race I've done.
-The trail race had a light amount of mud throughout the entire race.
-Tough Mudder definitely had the most mud, deeper, pits of it, mountains of it to repeatedly climb over, etc. Though it seemed to be placed out so that by the end, I was the cleanest of any of the OCR's I've done and not soaking wet.
--From what I could guess, this may have changed if you did the legionnaires loop and more likely, ran Sunday. We were only in the second wave and you could see the paths were muddy and getting worse. I can only imagine after everyone ran Saturday, let alone on Sunday when it was raining!
Running/lower body:
-The trail race pretty much was the hardest. It was a number of times up and down maybe 400'+ hills, one of which they had a rope to help you go up, and generally everyone was running as much as they could. This one left me a bit sore afterwards.
-Spartan was definitely second. The slopes were similar in height to the trail race, but ski slopes, so some were significantly steeper, but usually not quite as far/high at once as the trail race. And of course it gets broken up by stopping to do obstacles.
-Tough mudder was EASY in comparison. There were only a few hills and of those, only about twice maybe was there anything that was even a real hill. There was like one steep climb(I think they called it the cliffhanger as an obstacle) and it was a steep hard climb, but it wasn't as steep or as long as the majority of the trail race or Spartan was. I think we were only going up it for a couple minutes at most.
Upper body:
-Well, probably obviously the trail race was the easiest, since other than the rope or scrambling for a grip on a steep section or two or pumping your arms, there isn't really any upper body used.
-Tough mudder ... OK, I was gonna say it was easier than Spartan and it was for sure, but I'll add that it was a bit different....
They had parallel bars that were long and went up maybe a few feet, then back down. I wasn't sure I would make it at all, but I did actually get about 75% of the way before I just kinda ran out of enough strength to keep it and I was in the water. That was definitely more taxing on my shoulders than any other race I had done.
The other one they had was the monkey bars. I think Spartan's were maybe unevenly spaced, but they weren't as long and they weren't as elevation changing. And they didn't seem as slippery. I made Spartan's monkey bars. For Mudder, there was again maybe a few feet elevation change up then back down and it was a span of... Maybe 20 feet? I grabbed the first bar and thought I was going to fall off immediately, my fingers had like no grip. But then I guess I grabbed farther on the next one and got it hanging on my palm more and I'll be darned if I didn't make it up, across the middle and again, about half way down the other side, but then I felt my fingers slip like a half inch too far and I was like "nope, I don't have the strength/grip to reacquire what I just lost!" and poof, I was down in the water again.
-Spartan... Like I said with those two exceptions, Spartan is WAY more upper body. I wasn't really sore at all after Mudder. Spartan took out my upper body for a few days. The monkey bars may have been shorter, but they also had a monkey bar cargo net, a big sand bag lift, atlas stone carry, log carry, cement block drag, barbed wire crawl, rope climb... Traverse wall... Probably others I'm forgetting.
On that note, rope climb. Yeah, Mudder gives you a wall next to the rope and I had no trouble climbing up over that(though it was a bit scary to realize you're about 15' up and just holding on to this rope and should you drop your grip, you're going to be lying flat on your back with nothing but a bit of mulch to cushion your fall...) Compared to Spartan's maybe 15' just vertical rope climb that I couldn't even quite get myself out of the water at.
Wall comparison.... Eh, hard to really compare. I think they both have the same sorts of variations... Mudders reverse inclined walls didn't have boards to stand on like Spartans, so I only made it over Mudder's walls on my own by standing on the supports on the side.
6' walls I made it over either way...
I think Spartan had like 8' walls that I had to get a boost to get over. Mudder I believe had like 10' walls, but with a 2x4 2' up which made them somewhat similar. I think I got over those by using the studs and center support as well. Can't remember for sure, cause I think I remember getting a boost over some walls as well, so I may be forgetting another set somewhere...
Mudder has some different maybe more fear oriented obstacles. I definitely felt more fear when I did walk the plank than I have on any other obstacle. I went right off, but it was a bit scary jumping like 15' above the water. And interestingly that one threw me off more than any other because it hit my nose/ear/inner ear thing and took a solid day before my head was clear again.
Arctic Enema was about what I expected. I was mentally prepared and not worried about it, but it still kinda took over the body a bit and took a bit of work to keep everything focused and moving and going under the water to get under the board took more effort than I would have thought, but it wasn't bad.
Electro shock therapy... I was apparently too ninja like and completely avoided the shocks! I half wonder if I should have gone back for the full experience! Mike said he caught a good one to the chest.
Oh, I'll also note that Mike made it across all of the obstacles without a problem.
Yes, there were like some 6' high round bales and I couldn't get over those without a hand as there was just about nothing for me to grab on or get a foot hold on.
And the mud mile was difficult sometimes just to find a foot hold, and after you did 5 of those 6' banks (and then again in the other direction a little later) you could definitely feel your legs!
And I thought for sure I'd fail Everest, but when we got there it was dry, so Mike went up without a problem, and even I ran right up the thing, but I couldn't pull myself up at the top and needed a couple volunteers to help me up.
I think that was most of it... In the end we came out about 2hrs, 40 minutes later. Considerably quicker than I had thought likely.
And as I had suspected, the Dos Equis beer at the end was about the best tasting beer I had had(since I don't really like beer at all).
Then we stopped by the Muddy wheaties tent. I had never even thought of chocolate milk on cereal! Which turned into us jumping on the trampoline for a chance to be on the Wheaties box. Well... They couldn't quite get me registered but we went on together, I kinda wondered how that was going to work. Sure enough, right after the short video they took I ended up getting thrown off the back of the trampoline! Ahh, it was a fun time!
Not sure if this motion jpg will show on here or not.
Did this one with my friend/neighbor/mechanic Mike. This was my first time having someone else to run with and was a lot of fun! I was kind of wondering how we would pace each other. Mike works all day with his hands, so I figured he probably had me beat on upper body strength, but he hasn't run as far/often/fast as I have, so I thought I might have him beat there.
As it turns out, we seemed to end up right about the same pace from what I could tell. Though he is taller which I hadn't really noticed until we were in this run and he would stop to a walk and I had to periodically bump up to a run to catch up to him since my strides weren't as long! He also seemed to have some advantage jumping to things, etc.
So let's see...
We got there about a quarter to 8 and figured we'd do the 9am wave. We were early but that was good, we got a decent parking spot that I think might not have been the full half mile distance from the starting line area. When we left, the other end of where people were parking was probably another quarter mile away across hay fields. We opted NOT to take the $5 each way shuttle. (:
Got our bibs, bathroom break and headed back to the truck to get ready.
I went with:
Fivefinger Spyridon shoes. Upped one size since I had a did lose a pinky nail on a 13 mile trail race with thin socks and I went with thicker Injinji knee high compression socks this time. I'm undecided on this at the moment. I think the socks were a good idea for protection, but the upped size Fivefingers feel a hair large and the straps definitely seem too long and at one point when I tried to re-tighten them after some mud/water, the straps seemed too long to be able to get a good grip with the velcro. Really thinking I would prefer the Spyridon LS. Not entirely sure which size... would be nice to get a good handle on this before Sept Spartans!
UA Compression shorts, UA Running shorts, UA Coldblack shirt, UA trainer fingerless gloves, bandaids on the nips, Glide a bit on the feet, Spibelt and took my Fitbit One and old Boost Hydro phone in LokSaks in the Spibelt to track the run.
So we thought we had time still, but then they said the 9am wave was leaving. When we headed up for the 9:20 wave we'd realize we probably did still have time, it seems they have a pre-starting line holding area where they keep people until like 10 minutes before, then you head up to the starting line, spend another 10 minutes there or so and THEN leave. As such, we were at the back of the 9:20 wave pre-holding area and I started Runkeeper on my phone, and it was apparently 9AM, but it was 9:20 when we actually left to start the run.
Overall? I dunno, I feel I can only compare it really to the harder races I've done. One being the 10 mile Pfeiffer Nature Center Trail race that was wicked hilly. The other being the Tuxedo Spartan Sprint which was 4.5 miles on ski slopes.
So...
Mud:
-Spartan really wasn't that muddy at all. Yeah, there was some, but not a ton of it. Though I ended the race the dirtiest of any race I've done.
-The trail race had a light amount of mud throughout the entire race.
-Tough Mudder definitely had the most mud, deeper, pits of it, mountains of it to repeatedly climb over, etc. Though it seemed to be placed out so that by the end, I was the cleanest of any of the OCR's I've done and not soaking wet.
--From what I could guess, this may have changed if you did the legionnaires loop and more likely, ran Sunday. We were only in the second wave and you could see the paths were muddy and getting worse. I can only imagine after everyone ran Saturday, let alone on Sunday when it was raining!
Running/lower body:
-The trail race pretty much was the hardest. It was a number of times up and down maybe 400'+ hills, one of which they had a rope to help you go up, and generally everyone was running as much as they could. This one left me a bit sore afterwards.
-Spartan was definitely second. The slopes were similar in height to the trail race, but ski slopes, so some were significantly steeper, but usually not quite as far/high at once as the trail race. And of course it gets broken up by stopping to do obstacles.
-Tough mudder was EASY in comparison. There were only a few hills and of those, only about twice maybe was there anything that was even a real hill. There was like one steep climb(I think they called it the cliffhanger as an obstacle) and it was a steep hard climb, but it wasn't as steep or as long as the majority of the trail race or Spartan was. I think we were only going up it for a couple minutes at most.
Upper body:
-Well, probably obviously the trail race was the easiest, since other than the rope or scrambling for a grip on a steep section or two or pumping your arms, there isn't really any upper body used.
-Tough mudder ... OK, I was gonna say it was easier than Spartan and it was for sure, but I'll add that it was a bit different....
They had parallel bars that were long and went up maybe a few feet, then back down. I wasn't sure I would make it at all, but I did actually get about 75% of the way before I just kinda ran out of enough strength to keep it and I was in the water. That was definitely more taxing on my shoulders than any other race I had done.
The other one they had was the monkey bars. I think Spartan's were maybe unevenly spaced, but they weren't as long and they weren't as elevation changing. And they didn't seem as slippery. I made Spartan's monkey bars. For Mudder, there was again maybe a few feet elevation change up then back down and it was a span of... Maybe 20 feet? I grabbed the first bar and thought I was going to fall off immediately, my fingers had like no grip. But then I guess I grabbed farther on the next one and got it hanging on my palm more and I'll be darned if I didn't make it up, across the middle and again, about half way down the other side, but then I felt my fingers slip like a half inch too far and I was like "nope, I don't have the strength/grip to reacquire what I just lost!" and poof, I was down in the water again.
-Spartan... Like I said with those two exceptions, Spartan is WAY more upper body. I wasn't really sore at all after Mudder. Spartan took out my upper body for a few days. The monkey bars may have been shorter, but they also had a monkey bar cargo net, a big sand bag lift, atlas stone carry, log carry, cement block drag, barbed wire crawl, rope climb... Traverse wall... Probably others I'm forgetting.
On that note, rope climb. Yeah, Mudder gives you a wall next to the rope and I had no trouble climbing up over that(though it was a bit scary to realize you're about 15' up and just holding on to this rope and should you drop your grip, you're going to be lying flat on your back with nothing but a bit of mulch to cushion your fall...) Compared to Spartan's maybe 15' just vertical rope climb that I couldn't even quite get myself out of the water at.
Wall comparison.... Eh, hard to really compare. I think they both have the same sorts of variations... Mudders reverse inclined walls didn't have boards to stand on like Spartans, so I only made it over Mudder's walls on my own by standing on the supports on the side.
6' walls I made it over either way...
I think Spartan had like 8' walls that I had to get a boost to get over. Mudder I believe had like 10' walls, but with a 2x4 2' up which made them somewhat similar. I think I got over those by using the studs and center support as well. Can't remember for sure, cause I think I remember getting a boost over some walls as well, so I may be forgetting another set somewhere...
Mudder has some different maybe more fear oriented obstacles. I definitely felt more fear when I did walk the plank than I have on any other obstacle. I went right off, but it was a bit scary jumping like 15' above the water. And interestingly that one threw me off more than any other because it hit my nose/ear/inner ear thing and took a solid day before my head was clear again.
Arctic Enema was about what I expected. I was mentally prepared and not worried about it, but it still kinda took over the body a bit and took a bit of work to keep everything focused and moving and going under the water to get under the board took more effort than I would have thought, but it wasn't bad.
Electro shock therapy... I was apparently too ninja like and completely avoided the shocks! I half wonder if I should have gone back for the full experience! Mike said he caught a good one to the chest.
Oh, I'll also note that Mike made it across all of the obstacles without a problem.
Yes, there were like some 6' high round bales and I couldn't get over those without a hand as there was just about nothing for me to grab on or get a foot hold on.
And the mud mile was difficult sometimes just to find a foot hold, and after you did 5 of those 6' banks (and then again in the other direction a little later) you could definitely feel your legs!
And I thought for sure I'd fail Everest, but when we got there it was dry, so Mike went up without a problem, and even I ran right up the thing, but I couldn't pull myself up at the top and needed a couple volunteers to help me up.
I think that was most of it... In the end we came out about 2hrs, 40 minutes later. Considerably quicker than I had thought likely.
And as I had suspected, the Dos Equis beer at the end was about the best tasting beer I had had(since I don't really like beer at all).
Then we stopped by the Muddy wheaties tent. I had never even thought of chocolate milk on cereal! Which turned into us jumping on the trampoline for a chance to be on the Wheaties box. Well... They couldn't quite get me registered but we went on together, I kinda wondered how that was going to work. Sure enough, right after the short video they took I ended up getting thrown off the back of the trampoline! Ahh, it was a fun time!
Not sure if this motion jpg will show on here or not.
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