Midwest Super Spartan Recap

FINALLY! Here is my race weekend recap.

Jon and I hit the road about 11am on Friday. He even let me write on the windows as long as I didn't use shoe polish or put "Chick" anywhere. Even though I really wanted to put "You Got Chicked" on the rear, I understood he was driving and he didn't want any confusion. Marriage, its all about compromise.

Five hours later we found ourselves checked into the Hampton Inn in Ottawa, IL. Jon changed to run around The Wal-mart a few times for his marathon training, and I went down to the pool. Since I had completely rested, soaked in Epson Salt, and massaged to allow my foot/shin to heal, I was a little worried about lactic acid build up and just overall stiffness. Post-swim I headed back up to the room to get ready for dinner. Jon returned from his run with the most marvelous treat ever: Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I'm talking light and crispy on the outside, but really chewy on the inside. Jon is a Hilton man, and informed me that all Hampton Inns bake them around 5pm and serve them free in the lobby. They earned themselves a very loyal customer. Vacations will be built around these cookies. FYI: We have since found out they are Otis Spunkmeyer brand. Go getcha some. Dinner was eaten at Bianchi's, a local pizza pub that makes their own sausage.Yummy. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, enjoying cable television (no cable in our home), and going back and forth between feeling like vomiting and excitement.

The next morning, I woke still feeling like vomiting from my nerves. Its much harder to calm yourself in a hotel room versus at home since there aren't as many distractions. Plus, Jon wasn't running so I really didn't have anyone to exchange race day fears with. This was a first for me, and it proved a little tough. I've always had friends racing with me to share angst and excitement, but this time I had to rely on myself to generate calming, reassuring, you're not going to die thoughts. So I did what I always do, and I turned to food. I did my usual race morning ritual of a sweet potato and fruit smoothie. Yes, I brought all of that with me. I do not want to have to poop in the woods. I have a good ritual finally figured out. During 'breakfast' I watched the IN Sprint episode on Spartan TV. This too is a a pre-race ritual/motivator. Its a reminder of how hard that race was, and I finished it. I can finish the next one.


Chicago Spartan Team

We eventually made it to the festival grounds. We got ourselves checked in. Pee'ed about a million times. Found the Chicago Spartan team tent. Didn't know anybody, but still kind of hung around the tent like a couple of Creepers. Talked to a pair of racers about shoes. Got our team photo taken. Still didn't know anyone. Really, it was just awkward. I'm not the most social of people when sober, so it was just a little uncomfortable. After meandering and observing some of the obstacles, Jon told me it was finally time to head over to the start line. The MC made some speech I couldn't understand, but I "Aroo'ed" when everyone else did. They played Drop Kick Murphys over the speakers to get us all amped up like crazy, drunk Irishmen ready for a bar brawl. A smile crossed my face and all race fears vanished, replaced by excitement and adrenaline. And then we were off through the Greek columns and smoke.

The first half of the race, we ran. We ran about 4 miles through the woods and creek beds. I can only remember 3 obstacles. The first was to shimmy down a culvert from the top of an embankment down to the creek. The second was a super muddy barbed wire crawl. I had to take off my CamelBak to get under. I simply chucked it ahead of me, and then moved forward. This made for an extremely muddy pack at the end. Not an inch of it was clean and I had mud and pebbles jammed in the clips. Using stick I cleaned it out, and threw it back on. At one point we had to cross a creek and climb up an embankment. They had ropes to assist in the climb, but I have been finding my shoes sufficient enough to climb without slipping. Other than that, we ran. The terrain was pretty calm in comparison to IN and the TM the weekend before.

Eventually we came out of the woods to an aid station and a spectator obstacle. I asked the volunteers how far we had come. She said we're about 4 miles; half way. She also said they added aid stations because of the cold and the directors were concerned about people cramping. I decided I was feeling really good, and could go without my Camelbak. I spotted Jon, shoved a Gu in my back pocket, left my Camelbak with Jon, and parted with a muddy kiss. I headed up the cargo net climb. Then we had 2 slanted walls to get over. Except, we had to go over them backwards. I used the supports on the side to help me climb up and also a wonderful stranger's cupped hands. This is what is great about Spartan races. Someone, even a perfect stranger, will help another racer out. After those 2 walls, we had to climb this ridiculously high structure. By far, my least favorite obstacle. The slats were muddy. I hate heights and ladders. Some A$$hole asked if anyone had fallen off. I not so politely told him to STFU until I had both feet planted safely on the ground on the other side. I bear hugged my way up. At the top, the damn thing was swaying. I wanted to cry. I wanted my mommy. I wanted a cherry picker machine to come pluck me off this thing. A guy next to me gave me good advice onto how to go over the top. With shaking legs, I listened to every word, and eventually found the ground. I was alive, now back to business.

This is where it gets really fuzzy. The last half of the race had a bunch of obstacles crammed together. So less running and more physical exertion. I'm pretty much going to name the obstacles that I can remember and promise them to not be in race order. There was the Hercules Hoist which I rocked. I was a little worried about this one. In an older post I mention how I tried to haul a Cinder block up and over a tree branch, and I failed miserably. Apparently, pulleys are key. From there we had to climb over walls. This one I nailed too. TM prepped me for this one. I got up and over 2 walls, and helped a fellow racer over them as well. After that we did more walls; under, over and through. We had to do the tractor pull, which I really enjoyed. Basically, have your pick of concrete blocks attached to chains and drag it around a short course. There were hills, the last one was particularly steep and they didn't slide very well. We had a tire flip. Simply flip it two times off the block, and two times back onto it. I managed to pick a tire that still had the wheel inside of it, so it was HEAVY. But I stuck with it. My tire also did not start on the block. So flipping it back, I had to go 3 times. On the third flip, I actually ringed the block and had to shuffle and scoot it back up onto the starting block. Water station and Gu.

After a bit of running we had another bunch of obstacles. And its really fuzzy. There were log over, unders which the volunteer told us to just go under all of them. Somewhere in there was the Pancake Carry. Then there was a log obstacle that you were supposed to run across, but it had turned into a scoot train. I took my first set of burpees. I didn't care to wait in line, nor did I feel it very challenging. There was a crazy obstacle that had logs stretched perpendicular across a water ditch. You had to climb across 4 wet, muddy, slippery logs onto a really wet, muddy, slippery hill. They were pretty far apart and I have no idea how I actually made it across. Jon says I must have busted out my Ninja moves. I like it, and I'm sticking with it. Of course I only made it across three, but it was farther than others. This was my second set of 30 penalty burpees. From there I think we had to just go up and down mud hills and into mud-water ditches. These water ditches were really freaking cold and hard to get out of. In the first one I jumped into, there was a larger man struggling to get out. I shoulder pressed him out. He was shocked to turn around to see that I was the one responsible for helping him out. "Sorry for getting fresh. It was really cold." His buddy remarked, "That was like when people get Superman strength to move cars to save kids." Yep. That sums it up. Don't come between a girl not built like a walrus and getting out of freezing water. I came across these two later at the monkey bars, and 'The Buddy' gave me a "Great job." He witnessed me talking to myself as I crossed. At this point everyone's hands were numb. Standing in line we all shoved them under our armpits or were blowing on them. Once it was my turn, I had to jump to get on them. Then I proceeded to talk to myself out loud for everyone to hear. "You got this Nick. Come on. Hands don't fail me now." You know, just stuff that a crazy girl says to herself. But it made my day for 'The Buddy' to acknowledge my small success.

There was also a log hop which I got across. The logs were spaced a fair distance apart with one log actually under water. It required balance and just confidence in your footing. The volunteer working the log hop, used the sun and shadow pointed to us where the hidden log was. You could also see it if you disturbed the water. The rippling water outlined it. I used both techniques to make sure I landed it. I think the really tall climb with a log-over was after that. It was a stretch to get to the top log and then you dropped about 8 feet. Little scary and probably dangerous. Then there was another log balance turn scoot. I started to wait in line, but decided I would just take the burpees. So up to 90 burpees on the day.

I made sure to run whenever possible. More than once I came upon a guy walking who I would Chick, only to have him all of a sudden sprint by me. I found it very amusing. Some men just can't stand being beaten by a girl.

I eventually saw Jon as we came upon trenches we had to go in and out of. I knew we were near the finish. First, the Traverse wall. Fail. Looking at my pictures my mom noticed I was going the wrong way. She reminded me that I am left handed which explained why I was going sideways and not against the wall. In Texas, I'll be sure to lead with my right foot. So my fourth set of burpees. I think I'm better at burpees with an audience because that was the first time I did 30 in a row. Right afterwards I had to throw a spear. Robby that I work with had given me some lessons with one of our inflatable lite sword toys and it had paid off, sort of. My spear throw was actually really good. It went the distance, it was the right height, but my aim was off. Next time....  Up to 150 burpees. Then the Fire Jump, which resulted in the best picture of me In the Entire World.

I'm in the middle

Next up, was the rope climb. In the middle of ice cold water. A majority of people skipped and took the penalty. However, I trained on my rope and was going to give it a whirl. I chatted with a man in a very lovely kilt. We both agreed, we're at the end, WTH, might as well freeze our butts off. The pond dropped off, so we had to swim to get out to the ropes. Once out there I got my feet on the first knot and pushed up. Then holding on, I pulled up my feet to the next knot visually checking to see if they were on since I really couldn't feel them. I continued this a couple more times until I just couldn't go any longer. I dropped. I froze. I swam as fast as I could. I literally clawed at the giant hill we had to climb up to get out of the pond. Yeah, it sucked, but it was my favorite part of the race. After that, it was one long, muddy, barbed wire crawl and climb up another giant hill. I skipped climbing up the logs that were there because it simply looked really dangerous. I slid down the hill to the Gladiator pit. Biggest disappointment ever. They were in La La land, oblivious to a blood thirsty Spartan Chick headed their way. They didn't come at me, but I hit one of their puggles to wake them up. Gladiators, step up your game. Then the finish line.

Final Barbed Wire Crawl

 

The finish line

 

Best Pic EVER!

Spartan Race video is HERE.