Virginia Super Spartan
I'm not tagging this as a race because after about halfway, I had to treat it as a training run. It was so awful. I'm coming off of a hamstring injury. It took me out for 2 months - 2 months of no running. Your fitness goes fast. I was still able to do some cross fit, but nothing that kept it up. So I've had 4 weeks to try and get it back before this race. It wasn't enough.
The amount of things weighing on me at the beginning of this race was overwhelming. I had had a stressful, drama crazy week to begin with. And then my body had been rejecting my push to go hard. 2 weeks ago I struggled with knee pain (quad tightness). - this week my other hamstring was on the verge of straining. I decided to go to the race on wed night (i left thurs) which is crazy for me. I had no mental preparation, and still wasn't sure if my hamstring was going to be ok. On the plane ride there, my hamstring insertions were burning under my butt. My leg just ached. I had ran 3 miles on tues - very slow - and hamstring was definitely not good. i wrapped it wed and ran 5 miles - handled it ok but hurt by the end. It was a pretty crazy decision to go run this race.
so I spent all day fri babying it in the hotel. I massaged it, and used my scraping tool to dig in. I was thinking if it hurt bad enough, i'd just accept a DNF - I didn't want to deal with another hamstring strain.
So this was my mental state at the starting line. Not ideal. I was hoping for a win, but I don't think I was in right vicinity to do so.
I got to the starting line and they were ready to go. I had lost track of time and didn't get a good warm up in. So once they started, I wasn't in front and had a hard time seeing the front ladies.
Immediately we started heading up hills. Unfortunately, I start feeling the burn early on. This was so foreign to my body - my legs love the hills!
Let's stop and explain what this race was. It was the hardest spartan of my career and had elevation changes in the 8000 ft range (4000 feet of climbing) in 8 miles. The previous day's rain had made everything wet, muddy, and very slippery. We were basically running up and down a ski hill the entire time.
I didn't even see where the front ladies were. I had wrapped my hamstring and was so focused on that that my mind was not even in the race.
Obstacle #1 over walls, under walls, through
My other downfall was my shoes. They were not trail shoes, and were slipping and sliding all over the place during the entire race. Definitely will have them next time.
Obstacle #2 over small walls
The downhill was steep, grassy, and very slippery wet. I would catch the girls on the uphills, but couldn't be as ballsy as they were on the steep downs. It was extremely frustrating. We were running down the open hill, not on any sort of trail. At times we would wind through the forest going through the brush and through whatever we could. Not my favorite. I guess i'm just too cautious.
Obstacle #3 long hill slide - fun! into a nice water pit at the bottom
Obstacle #4 monkey bars
About 3 miles in I'm starting to get really annoyed at how much I'm slipping and sliding. I hate that I can't break out and "run".
Obstacle #5 log flip - new flip long log down and back - really easy
So basically if we weren't going downhill, we were going uphill. Steep uphill. There is already a lot of hiking going on.
Obstacle #6 spear throw -I MADE IT TODAY - first time in my spartan career - the one bright spot
Obstacle #7 really long uphill barbed wire crawl - hard to roll under
Obstacle #8 mud pits - more barbed wire
Really long downhill in the stream through the forest that it just annoying and slow
and it's about here that my ankle bobbles and its sprained - again - same one as always. i can usually get it to calm so I tried to walk it off. It took about 10 min for the pain to die down. I knew my race was gone at this time - CRAP! It's so hard to get motivated. I convinced myself to use it as training for the next months race (which is going to be exactly like this).
Obstacle #9 hugely long uphill section - over a mile - everyone is walking - I try to run/walk it.
And then I slip and fall and my ab pulls. Seriously any drive I had to do well at this time was gone. I try to run but the pain was taking my breath away. It was going under my rib cage (i've had this prob before) and any downhill running is making it worse.
I get bit by something but don't know what. It was on my ankle but the guys around me don't think it was a snake. so I'm going with bee sting. another min lost on my race. I'm in about 5th or 6th at this point.
Obstacle #10 Hercules hoist - there's a gate around the roped part. I haul my up easily, but it pulls me forward a bit when it comes down so that I touch the gate. Volunteer tells me to do burpees. WHAT? I guess he had been telling us that when we got there not to touch the gate, so ask to do it again. He agrees.
Obstacle #11 7 ft wall that I weirdly have trouble with. I couldn't run up the wall like I usually do, and try to use the women's helper bar. It seems to be lower now and I can't just grab the top. some girls come along and I let them go. They try to help eachother and i nip that in the bud. no helping if you sign up for elite. I eventually get over and go over to the log carry.
Obstacle #12 steep hill log carry - over 400 m down and up - not too bad but again really steep
more uphill
The downhills are just agonizing and i'm barely running down them
Obstacle #13 8 ft wall - again more trouble on something I don't normally have trouble on
I know I have things out of order and there may have been more obstacles.
we are getting near the end and it's one freaking long drive up another forever hills
Obstacle #14 Inverted wall - new -fun! no probs
up to rope climb
#15 rope climb - my legs are exhausted at this point and makes it more challenging
more up to the
#16 traverse wall
#17 mud pit / rope climb up muddywall
#18 fire jump
Lessons i learned
Wow where do I start
Pay attention to hydration and fuel - we were out there for 3 hours and I had 3 half cups of water and 2 gels
My mind will either make me fail or succeed - so much of our racing is in our head. I was not there that day
Get better shoes! Learn to trust them going down hills
Have a better attitude no matter what. Start thinking positive thoughts about the things I struggle with
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