This was my first obstacle course race of the 2014 season and I was excited that it would also get me into the Arnold Fitness Expo in Columbus! I wanted to see a few of my fitness faves there after I beasted through my first course of the year.
Two days before the race, I had heard that Arnold himself would be at the starting line to high five everyone as they started the race and that got me more excited about the race. It was chilly out that morning and there was no sun. I found some friends from the Corn Fed Spartans and got in line with them to take off for the race. Arnold was late but when he arrived, he made a speech (that I couldn’t hear over the music) that ended with “I’ll be back!” Haha. He counted us down to start the race and we all shuffled our way to him to get our high fives. I didn’t get a photo of me from the front during my interaction with the Terminator but my friend Julia got us holding hands in this shot here:
Yup that’s me on the left, holding hands with Arnie! 🙂
So the race had begun. First thing was to run up the ramps of the Crew Stadium, along the top to the other side then down the ramps again. There weren’t many obstacles the first mile or so but it was okay to warm up because I was still so cold. Eventually that would change, I knew but waking up my body and my muscles with a run was good.
There were lots of great athletes out there running, gal pals getting out and getting active as well as families with children overcoming the fun and challenging obstacles. My first real challenge (aside from the rope climb that I failed) was the pyramid wall. I was baffled that it was so difficult for me to get to the top point (which wasn’t too high) and slide down the other side. I ran up the ramp but couldn’t get a good grip at the top so I slid back down, collecting splinters on my thigh from the plywood. Annoyed, I stepped back a little and made a second attempt. Same thing. Couldn’t grip with my hands and slid back down. On the same thigh. Ouch. So I backed up EVEN MORE and ran up as fast as I could. I got myself on top of the apex and threw my right leg over. As I attempted to throw my left leg over so I could lower myself down on my belly, my right leg slipped and that’s how giant bruise #1 of the OCR season occurred. I bruised my thigh and hit my pelvis really hard on the top of that wall. I slid down the wall, ON THE SAME LEG AGAIN, and limped away. I felt like a schmuck for having such a difficult time and of course for getting hurt but hey, whatever. A bruise is a trophy to me.
The obstacles really weren’t that hard. Climbing over tubes, walls, up the side of a mound, balance beams, sand bag carry (which was actually a great weight bc I struggled even with the women’s bag). Here are a few photos of a couple obstacles.
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We were told to walk over the frozen pond (or to go around! but what’s the fun in that!)
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I finished the race in 59 minutes which made me upset. Okay wait, first I’m glad it was under an hour but it would have been much faster had there not been as much bottle necking as there was at each obstacle. There were so many people running at the 9:30am wave and not enough space on certain obstacles for multiple people to do them at the same time. I was standing around a lot. Waiting for people to go. Regardless, it was fun. I don’t know if I’ll do this one again but we’ll see.
I ended up not being able to go to the Expo because my sick dog had to be picked up from the vet in Cincinnati so I had to rush back. Babies first. 🙂 On to the next race …
The Baby Spartan 