Spartan race today, I think I took like 9th but I'm not sure and I also have no idea what my time was except for that I got back to my car about an hour and 20 minutes after the race start time haha. Had a lot of fun though! I started out well with the top pack but I let a few guys go because the course was a lot more technical than I was expecting. When I did this in Utah it was mostly just a regular mountain trail, a fairly technical one- but I was pretty used to those at the time. This course has a lot of high grass and lots of rocks so I had to slow down because I didn't want a repeat of the most other races I've done on technical courses... Too many sprains. First couple obstacles went well, I was a little slow on the cargo net climb because I'm not great with heights- then I missed the spear throw, but I'm pretty sure almost everyone misses that. So I had to take a penalty loop there. Next several obstacles went well, I whacked my leg pretty hard on a post during one of the barbed wire crawls. Hercules hoist was heavier than I expected but I got it done just fine. Really everything went pretty well until the Olympus wall. I was in 5th place and had 3rd place in my vision when I got to the Olympus wall but my terrible technique on that obstacle caught up with me, I really should have taken the penalty loop. It's basically a 20 foot long wall and there are chains, climb holds, and holes for your hands but nothing for your feet. I know the better way to approach this obstacle is to grab the chains and push off the wall with your feet. But I decided to just use the holes and dead hang while I pulled myself along the holes, which went up and down. I almost fell a couple times and had to exert a ton of my grip strength and upper body strength holding on. I made it but the toll was way too great, I had to slow down and my upper body was shot bad enough that I had to take the penalty loop on the next obstacle- which I normally would be able to do fairly easily. 1 guy caught me while I took that penalty loop. Then there were the bucket carry and sandbag carry right after that and my upper body was still pretty shot, sandbag was 60 pounds and bucket carry was either 60 or 80. Both were about 200-300 meters up and down a hill. Again usually I would be able to get through both those pretty well, but my upper body was shot and another 2-3 people caught me during those. I think all the driving yesterday didn't help with my lower back for those as well haha. Overall a great workout and has given me a good goal to train for this year. I think if I keep training I'll be a lot better by the next one next summer in Cincinnati. Need to find some technical trails around Columbus to train on and do that once or twice a month, idk how to train to improve my technique on the Olympus wall haha. These are a lot of fun though! Might jump in a half marathon in Louisville tomorrow on the way home. |