The Survival Race, Columbus OH 3/1/14

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.

 

We were told to walk over the frozen pond (or to go around! but what’s the fun in that!)

 

 

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 …

Kern Series Arctic Dash, Oregonia, OH 12/7/13

A few weeks ago I was asking around for a local OCR that I could do before the year was up. I knew that getting outside this time of year in the midwest would mean freezing cold weather and I’d have to get wet and muddy. I knew all of that but I really wanted to finish out my fourth month in a row of OCR of my first year of racing. I could handle the cold, right?

I was directed toward the Arctic Dash by a bunch of Crazy Mudder Muckers (mainly Jenn & Kevin) and I knew I wanted to do it but I didn’t want to spend the money. Well, it’s Christmas season and tis the time to spend money on others. Lo and behold, Jenn tagged me in a post of someone trying to give up their registration because of scheduling conflict. Thanks Seth for setting that up! Sorry you had to miss it. I appreciate the hook up! I took the free registration and ran with it.

The day before the race, Cincinnati got hit by lots of lovely snow. It started coming down really hard on Friday around 1pm and we ended up with an average of 4″ on the ground around the Tri-State area (I think lol). It turned me off from wanting to race in the Arctic Dash the next morning … plus it took me 3 hours to get home from work so I was cranky and didn’t want to have anything to do with the snow.

When I woke up at 7:30am to take the dogs out, I looked out at the backyard glittering in white and smiled when I realized the sun was out. It was a gorgeous, 25°F day. I decided to Spartan the F up and put my winter running clothes on. I wasn’t going to miss this race. I wasn’t going to give up on a free reg that was a gift from a fellow racer. What kind of slacker does that? Florida girl or not, I had to get my butt into that snow and run my 3.1 miles with some equally crazy people.

Upon check-in at Camp Kern, just 30 minutes from my home, I found Kevin and the Crazy Mudder Muckers‘ table. I had yet to meet any of those guys and the team so it was nice to finally say hello. They’re a great group of guys there with an amazing passion for obstacle course racing and getting muddy. They were very welcoming and a couple of them recognized me not as Karen but as the Baby Spartan so that was nice. Haha. We took a quick photo (courtesy Kevin Jones) of the few of us there!

Start time was at 10am, the first wave, and I was so glad because we made the path for everyone behind us. The snow and the mud and creating slippery surfaces. I was thankful they took out the lake crossing obstacle (that lake surface was totally frozen over) but I would have skipped it anyway. My skin is still thickening up. I ran about the first half mile to 3/4 mile by myself and then ran into Joe who stuck with me the entire rest of the way so that was definitely nice to have a buddy. This was my first race without one of my gal pals or my boyfriend going with me but it was definitely fun making new friends.

After traipsing through mud, crawling underneath a school bus, barrel rolling through a spider web of bungee cords and climbing over a mud mound (skipping the pit of waist deep water), we had to climb up hill sides on old tires a few times. This brought us to our first tunnel to crawl through. It was a cement tube with a foot wide stream of water running through it. I went first, crawling with my knees and hands on either side of the water. My first thought was, “great. My knees are going to be beautifully bruised tomorrow!” haha.

After a bit more running, somewhere along the line we had to go down a slide made out of one of those black construction tubes with the ridges. It was like being at a water park because the tube was completely enclosed. The volunteer at the slide told us to try and slow ourselves down as we went down because it was slick. There was no water in it but my slippery pants still made it easy for me to pick up speed inside. I had my hands and feet pressed hard against the inside of the tube trying to slow myself down. It was kind of scary because I could not see where the end was and it was kind of steep. I got my right hand caught when I hit a separation between tubes … my thumb and index finger are pretty bruised. MY BUTT was so numb from that journey in the darkness. It took almost an entire mile to warm it up and feel “normal.” 😛

I think the hardest obstacle … no, I KNOW the hardest obstacle was this tube climb. It was the same kind of tube we slid down but we had to climb UP the inside with a rope at a pretty steep angle. I went first with Joe and a couple of Tough Mudder dudes behind us. There was absolutely no way to get any traction with your feet OR your knees on the inside of that tube. It was all upper body strength and I was very thankful at that moment that I lift weights because it was all on my arms, pulling me up that tube … I was praying that I didn’t slip because everyone behind me would have been wiped out if I should have fallen. Ha. When I got close to the top, I shouted “there better be someone up there to pull me out of this thing!” and one of the other Tough Mudder guys that came out of the other tube, peeked over the side and grabbed me and pulled me up! Thanks dude! 🙂 That obstacle wiped me out but I definitely appreciated the challenge (says the Spartan in me).

After mucking through more muddy forest, crawling through yet another tunnel and barrel rolling in the dirt, we took a couple of photos. I wanted to get a pic of myself and my partner in crime, Joe but he shut his eyes. Thanks a lot dude! haha jk

Before we hit the home stretch, there was a mini water crossing which was only shin deep but I wanted to around it so I went up a little hill to go around it while Joe braved the water. I’m so awesome I slipped … wouldn’t it have been funny if I fell in to the water I was avoiding anyway? Hahahaha no. 😀

Home stretch, Kevin who got done in like FIVE MINUTES (;-)) was taking photos of us running in to the final obstacles. Climb a wall and down a cargo net and into a freaking awesome pool of freezing cold muddy water. Joe pushed my butt up the wall because I could not reach the top nor could I get a good placement of my feet on the wood planks. I climbed down the other side and Joe asked, “Are you going to get into this water?” and I said, “yes! It’s the end. I might as well.” So IN I went, then we climbed over the final mud mound to run to the finish line! What a blast! Here are some photos courtesy of Kevin. Thanks again. I love them!

What a great time! I am very glad that I got my butt up and drove to this race. I enjoyed myself and pushed myself to do a lot of things I never thought I’d do in the snow! We got some awesome t-shirts. There was no medal but my bruised knees, elbows and hips are my trophies. Weird as it sounds, I’m proud of those! 🙂

Until the next race …

Miller Park Spartan Sprint, Milwaukee, WI 11-2-13

In the couple weeks leading up to this Spartan Race, I was psyching myself out because I knew it’d be more cross fit oriented than the Vermont Sprint which was mountainous and muddy. I had never rowed a rowing machine, don’t appreciate stair climbing and knew that the rope climb was looming. Aside from the nervousness, I was so super excited for a new type of race and to run with the Corn Fed Spartans! AROO!

Andy and I were set to run the 9am wave with a whole lot of the CFS team. I rocked my Baby Spartan shirt with my dad’s tribute on the back and sported CFS compression sleeves to represent. We arrived at 7:15am, picked up our packets and were immediately surrrounded by Corn Feds! There were over 400 signed up to run this race together and a lot of us got together to take a team photo at 7:30am. I got to meet a lot of people I’m friends with on Facebook so that was awesome. It felt great to be a part of the Largest Team at the race (and the fastest). What a great group of people!!

We warmed up, stretched and tried to fight off the cold, 45 degree Milwaukee weather and then lined up with our wave, watching 15 Spartans take off every minute. I was so amped! PLUS I really wanted to get moving because I was freezing. Haha. When we took off racing, we started on one of the ramps going up crawling under ropes and hoping over them for about three or four levels. When we got to the top where the concessions area was, we ran half way across the length of it to get to the Medicine Ball Slam area. We all had slam 20 or 30lb. balls 30 times. I cant rememberr how much they weighed but THAT was not fun. I got it done (finally) and met up with Andy so we could start running stadiums. It really was not as bad as I thought it would be but my side had a severe stabbing pain from all of the med ball slams. I stopped to take some breaths and stretch and carried on for a bit as the pain subsided.

We ran up and down and across all of the sections in the upper bowl of the ball park and came back down into the concession area. This is where it is all a blur to me. I can’t remember the order of obstacles but that’s okay. I know we did Over-Under-Through walls, monkey bars and Hobie Hops (band around your ankles, hopping up the stairs three flights with your feet together) somewhere in here. Haha. And more running.

I was finally feeling warmer, no matter the temperature in the ball park. When we came back in for the second time from running stadiums, it was time for the dreaded rowing machines. We had to row 500m in 2 minutes all the while I’d never ROWED. EVER. But I’m strong so I thought I could do it. Andy and I started beside each other at the same time and I made the mistake of kind of stuttering, realizing just how far I could pull back and SHOULD pull back. Andy got a big AROO! on his screen so no burpees for him. I got down to 35m left and BURPEES! NOOOOO! I was so upset that I was that close and failed. I felt nauseous and lo and behold, Andy was too! He sat and waited while I SOMEHOW pushed out 30 burpees. Then it was on to the 7′ wall. Up and over. Done.

I don’t recall the order but we had to go down to the parking lot, hit the Traverse Wall (I failed), climb over the 8′ wall, then Spear Throw (FAIL AGAIN!) and then back up the ramp into the building again. I saw a camera guy and acted like an idiot. Here you go. Enjoy even though it’s dark.

 

I don’t know what was next but maybe it was Sandbag Carry. I can’t remember how much it weighed for me but all I know was it was light and I could have carried it all over that stadium. No joke. After we dropped the bags off, little kids were lined up along the railing giving us all high-fives. It was sweet. Water time and then back down the stairs, through the dugout and club house and out back.

We had to Jump Rope 50 times but it was a huge rope and I don’t know much extra weight it was  but it was a challenge. It was rough but I did it, counting out loud for the moderator. There were push-ups too. But we had to lower all the way down to our chests, lift our hands and then push up. 20 of those. Not fun for my shoulders.

We ran out to another parking lot area and met up with some more Corn Feds. We had to do the Jerry Jugs, carrying them around a loop of the parking lot with the water sloshing around in it. That was fun. I don’t know why I get a kick out of carrying things on my shoulder. Then we came to the Atlas Carry. THAT beast of a concrete block was heavy. Lifted it, carried across maybe 25 feet, put it down, 5 burpees, pick it up again, carry back and set down without crushing my fingers or toes. BOOM. Done.

We ran in with CFS and back out on to the clay around the diamond. We climbed the cargo net which was fun. Got a lot of hellos from the CFS team and a big hug from Bob. We went up to my favorite beast mode obstacle, the Herculean Hoist. I hoisted that block up to the top with no problem and slowly lowered it down, moving on to the Rope Climb.

I’m mad that I couldn’t complete this and had to do burpees. I know the technique to use WITHOUT the knots and I felt like the knots only hindered me. I failed but I was so proud that Andy got all the way to the top and happily rung that bell. Some day that will be me too!! 🙂 We ran around the outfield to the Box Jump area. Jumped up on top, stepped down and did it again 20 times. FUN! Then down through the gladiators (who didn’t even hit me hard) and to the finish line!

I absolutely want to do this race again. It was harder in so many ways than my Vermont Sprint was but I did it quicker. I think not having to climb a mountain had something to do with it. Ha. Next year I’d like to do it again and some other Ball park races as well. I was proud that I ran 90% of the race, walking only when we got stuck behind others who were walking but man, it was fun! Hearing the “CORN FED!” shouts throughout the course was encouraging and exciting! I was so glad to represent and be a part of that team! SO excited to see everyone again at another race!

I’m very thankful that my boyfriend, Andy came to Vermont for our first race and again to Milwaukee for our second. Racing together has been amazing and I really love the time we spend together. He’s a great support system and we always have a blast together! I’m proud of us for finishing our second race!! :-* I love my Spartan.

Now I’m mad the winter is here. I want the Indiana Sprint to come sooner … or maybe a race in Florida!? 🙂 Until next time … AROO!