But I did it!
THE GOOD
The best part of the race definitely was getting to run with my husband. He was incredible. He ran earlier in the morning just to see how fast he could do it, and then he ran alongside me. He helped me through some of the worst parts of the race, but mostly he just encouraged me and worked alongside me. That's what marriage is! My husband could have sped up and left me by myself, he's definitely stronger and faster than me, but instead he chose to run beside me. He knew that I could make it through any challenge, and that if I felt I couldn't I'd simply ask for help. He never treated me as though he were there just to help me "get through it". Nope. He just wanted to enjoy the experience with me.
What a guy.
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| Muddy kisses. You know that's got to be love. |
Oh, and also, out of 3000 + people, Shawn came in 27th place. I'm so proud of him!
We also had a bunch of friends from church who were running with us. It was fun getting to hang out with them as we eagerly awaited the race!
Here we are before the race:
aaaaaaaannnnnndddd after the race:
THE BAD
I quickly realized where my training had fallen short: RUNNING. In all the strength training I had done, I guess I forgot that first and foremost the Spartan Race was, well, a RACE. It took place in a hilly mountain terrain. I had been doing a hill workout once a week, but what I didn't realize was that I should have been practicing endurance running on hills. I LOVED almost every single obstacle (Except for 2, which I will tell you about in the next section THE UGLY) but I was shocked when there would be long stretches without anything but running. The obstacles would be sort of clumped together after long stints of windy hills. The uphill portions were drastically steep. When we got to the downhill portion I was excited because I thought a nice downhill jog would help pick up my energy levels. I quickly realized that as steep as the inclines were, the declines were probably steeper. I watched beefy dudes try to power through and jog the downhill portions only to slip and slide down on their butts. One guy wiped out pretty bad, he tripped and fell and slid on his side for about ten feet on a gravel path. Shawn caught him and helped him up. He was taken off the course immediately as his knee was already visibly swelling. YIKES!
For all the pain that was in the actual jogging portion, the view made it worth it. It was incredible to see all of the mountains! It also made me realize how large Calamingos Ranch is. (that was the location of the race) We wound up one hill and saw that below, a wedding was taking place! Crazy to think of the drastic difference between the two!
THE UGLY
There were approximately 25 obstacles to get through during the race. Out of those, there were two obstacles that made me want to quit. I contemplated it quite seriously. They were by far the most hellish parts of the race.
Obstacle one: THE LAKE CROSSING
My first step into the lake brought the water up to my knees. That was enough contact for my breath to leave my body. If I had to guess, I would say that the water was below 40 degrees. My next two steps brought the water up to my chin. Now, for those of you who have ever invited me to a pool party, you know that once I'm in water deeper than 4 feet, I'm pretty much useless. I don't really know how to swim, and in that freezing water I couldn't even remember my name, let alone how to swim.
Panic set in as I frantically tried to kick my legs. The mesh on the tops of my shoes made it feel like water was just whizzing through my feet and my kicking wasn't doing a thing.
I. FREAKED. OUT.
It wasn't too far of a distance to go, maybe 50 yards, but the cold, mixed with a feeling that I wouldn't be able to get out soon due to drowning made me start to panic bad. I started saying in a frantic high pitched tone "I can't swim! I can't swim!" That turned into a noise I've never heard myself make before. Shawn said I was starting to hyperventilate. I was squealing and trying to catch my breath at the same time.
Luckily, this was a challenge that my husband was well prepared for. He used to swim competitively. He simply picked me up and pushed me across the rest of that lake. I had never been so happy to see
The next challenge was a fun one, in fact, probably my favorite, so that helped the panic I had just experienced wear off. The challenge was to lift a cement bucket on pulley up into the air and then slowly lower it. I know that this one was by far my best challenge!
What I did not know was that around the corner was the second worst obstacle in the race:
Obstacle two: BARBED WIRE CROSSING
I would have liked to be in the meeting where the Spartan Race creators decided to make this challenge. I think it would have gone something like this:
"Hey, you know what's too easy? Crawling under 75 yards of very low spiky Barbed wire. What can we do to make this tough??"
"Oh! I know, let's lay the barbed wire down over a terrain that is cover in tiny sharp rocks so people will have to drag themselves across spiky gravel!"
"Oh! I have another great idea! I know that they just got out of freezing water. Let's try to make sure they don't get too warm. Let's spray them with a fire hose as they cross!"
"BRILLIANT! That way it'll also be muddy, slippery, sharp, and tough!"
Yes. That has to be how that conversation went, because that is what I endured.
I found myself wondering if it would be better to just cut myself on the barbed wire rather than to continue to pull myself across that sharp gravel! Once they started spraying us with fire hoses, I had to restrain myself from squeezing through the barbed wire to stand up and punch the guy spraying us.
But eventually I found the trick was to barrel roll across the gravel! It required less strength and didn't hurt my elbows and knees so much. It did result in EPIC bruises all over my body though!
SUMMARY
All in all, I felt incredible crossing the finish line. Well, I mean, I was exhausted, but it felt great!
Here's a video of me and my husband running across the finish line. Please notice how I get double bumped on the butt by a mean Spartan!
Here are some more fun pics from the race:
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| My friend Phil about to jump over the second to last challenge... Fire |
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| We had to throw a spear and make it stick into the hay, otherwise 30 burpees! I didn't land it, but I only had to do jumping jacks on account of my bum wrist! |
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| Yup. Didn't land it, but don't I look cool?? |
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| They had put TONS of soap on this wall! |
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| I think what I was thinking here was this "Someone PLEASE talk me out of doing this again next year!" |
Overall, I had a blast! I felt so good about finishing it! During the race, my arm didn't hurt, but I think that was simply the adrenaline rush. I'm feeling the reprocussions now, but all in all I'm doing alright.
That night I came home and after cleaning up I sat on the couch. As I did, I noticed I was a pale white color. My skin had completely flushed. I looked in the mirror, I looked like a ghost. Why? Because I had never put my body through that kind of physical effort before. I took it as a sign to go to bed. and I did! I slept for almost twelve hours!
I think that's a good tell that I really pushed myself :-)
and I'm so happy I did!
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