Beauty and the Beast

The past couple of days I have been working out a very important, crucial detail: My hair.

Typically, I wear just your standard french braid. Its what I work out in and what I competed in for the Sprint and all of my local races. For the Super, I decided to spruce up the locks a bit, and sported the pig tail french braids. But, the Beast. The Beast is a race of epic proportions. I've spent months training to wage war against the Hell that will cover 14 miles of Glen Rose, TX. I will be dressed in my best compression from my feet up, my CamelBak will be strapped to my back, and my laces will be tied extra tight. When I step up to the starting pit, I will be ready to conquer whatever the directors have laid out. My hair, well its gotta be battle worthy.

I started experimenting last night. I knew I wanted the Mohawk look, but without chopping off all of my hair. In the past I've braided a section right down the top, middle part of my head and into a pony tail. This gave the right look, but I'm not a fan of pony tails. They sway back and forth when running and totally through off my groove (hence the braids). So I tried after finishing the top braid, pulling in the sides really tight, and then continuing down the back. Ah, it worked out okay. The problem was the top didn't poof up enough. Wasn't drastic enough to look like a faux hawk. I tried sticking my rat tail comb through it and loosening it, but to no dice.

Tonight, I had much better luck. First, we watched Snow White and the Huntsman. Surprisingly, a really good movie. Plus, I love Charlize Thernon. In the final battle scene, Snow White has a mohawk type do. Her mohawk is just a back combed poof with the sides braided. The poof would not fare too well under barbed wire. I've decided that I'm sticking with the braid. Luckily, I had a stroke of genius tonight which led to late night braiding. I decided to braid the top section in the anti-gravity chamber aka with my head upside down. Bingo. Mohawk is poofy. This is my first attempt, so definitely needs cleaned up, practiced, and smaller hair thingies but I'm digging it. Basically, I parted my hair into 4 sections: Top, 2 sides, and back. I braided the top upside down and tied it off. Then braided each of the sides as far out as they would go. Then I wrapped them around the pony from the top braid. Finally tying it all together with a second hair thingy. On race day I think I'm going to braid the big pony into several smaller braids. Strictly, functional (well and a tad bad @$$). It'll help with keeping knots to a minimum.

I give you Battle Braids. Well, what do you think?

Why?

Why am I willingly subjecting myself to miles of hurt and pain to walk away with a speckling of bruises and scrapes? Why do I jump into freezing cold ponds only to fall off of a slippery rope? Why do I climb a sketchy wooden plank tower with legs shaking from sheer fear? Why do I spend countless hours running through the woods stopping every so often to do a set of 30 burpees on my weekends? Why do I crawl around a soccer field on all fours getting weird stares from maintenance men? Why do I spend hundreds of dollars on trail shoes, CamelBaks, registration fees, hotels, socks, all things compression, spandex, ropes, kettle bells, free weights, pull up bars, weight vests, bandannas, Body Glide, Gu's, sand, buckets, etc? Why don't I just run 5k's, Half Mary's, or Triathlons? Why don't I just go to the gym like normal people? Why do I cherish like gold all of the cheap medals that get draped around my muddy neck at the finish line? Why the hell am I running down the street in urban Cincinnati with a military bag packed with charcoal? Why?

I know the answer from my inner child, through my nonsensical reasoning, and in my heart, but its often hard to explain. More than once, me, my training or my races have been called crazy. I accept that. It is crazy when we live in the 21st century with all of our luxuries. But that's the point. I tried to explain in my first blog post. Below is an excerpt by Jason Jaksetic from the Spartan eBook. He answers perfectly the "Why?"

In the middle of a race, in the thick of things, when your mind and body start to unravel around you, there is a revelatory wonder and sense of ‘now’ that goes beyond what we can rationally express. And thus the irrational act of racing through mud and fire becomes rational—an insane behavior transforms itself into a very sane demonstration of human will. Spartan Race orchestrates for its racers the sense of wonder that is found in a kind of self-reliance that we seldom need in this society, where we have far more than we could ever use. Spartan Race forces you to awaken your senses, and it is through the acuity of our senses that we feel human. 

This is what we mean when we say, "You'll Know at the Finish Line.".

The Duke couldn't have said it better.

 

Thanksgiving Eve Musings and Goals

I can do 4 pull ups as of this morning!!! Yee haw! Maybe, just maybe, I'll be up to 5 by the time I leave for Texas. That gives me just over 2 weeks, with a hefty Thanksgiving dinner and lots of apple pie tossed in there (by 'there' I mean my tummy which means more weight to heave to the high heavens).

Monday night, I was for once really happy to have ridiculously wide feet. I went to Dick's to buy some B-ball shoes. All two pairs of women's basketball shoes were too narrow. The men's were too big. But the Boy's were just right. And, $45 cheaper.Yippee! Chalk one up for my Flintstone feet. Now if only they made strappy heels in Boy's sizes.

I've realized that I never wrote about any of the Post Super Spartan festivities, so here it goes. A Spartan chick who lives in Morgan, IL hosted a post race party aka The After Spar-Tay. I met Ami and her husband, Jim at the party. Ami and I discovered we were both Cincy local on the Spartan Chick page. Finally, nice to meet someone as crazy as me who lives local. And kudos to Ami for finishing 7th for the women in the Elite Heat. Quite an accomplishment! I also had the privilege of meeting Chris Davis of the Chris Davis Project. Basically, with sheer determination and the help of Spartan he has gone from 696 lbs. to 272 lbs and he ain't stopping. He is truly an inspiration and a lot of fun to chat with. Hi Chris!, if you happen to read this. So to all of you naysayers who say I can't, I'm out of shape, I don't have time, I could never do that, blah, blah, blah... Its time to Spartan the F up.

My finish at the Super Spartan was slower than I hoped, but I am certainly proud of my finish. My goal was a 10 percentile finish. I didn't get it. There were areas where I killed my time (stopping to ditch my CamelBak, waiting in a line and then opting for burpees, etc), but I'm not mad about it. When I signed up, 8 miles was unfathomable to me. The distance seemed impossible. When race day approached, I had a 13.6 mile run under my belt plus big girl push ups, rope climbs, pull ups, experience, etc. All things I could not do when I signed up. On race day, I was scared shitless, but confident in my ability to finish. The day I signed up for that race, I gave myself a goal. I don't know that I've ever really had goals in my life. I've accomplished stuff, but I've always thought of them of as things I just had to get done or else. Getting my degree - an item on the list. Plan a wedding - item on the list. Quit smoking - or die a slow, painful death. But Spartan has given me goals, and I've shared them with you. Pull ups were a goal. For all of my races I have had goals, even if just to finish. I wake up and train with the goal of finishing/surviving my upcoming Beast. I set these goals by my own free will, and work to accomplish them. And I must say it feels good. For once, I feel like I'm doing the things I want to do to which is making my goals easier to come by.

I put a little chart together comparing my IN Sprint Finish with my Super and you can really see the difference. Training has paid off.



	IN Sprint	MW Super
Mileage	4.5	7
Time	2:05:39	2:45:53
Age	43/140 31%	23/127 12%
Gender	202/615 33%	102/881 12%
Overall	1499/2450 61%	969/3257 30%

 

Good luck to those running in the Thanksgiving Day Race!

Eats: Thanksgiving Stuffed Peppers

Saturday evening our friends had a Thanksgiving dinner, Pot luck style. It was quite a feast. We had turkey three ways: Turduckin, Bacon Smoked turkey, and Deep Fried Turkey. We had 2 types of mashed potatoes, 3 kinds of stuffing, corn, macaroni and cheese, pies, cookies, and all sorts of Thanksgiving goodness. Needless, to say we were sent home with leftovers. On some cooking show Jon and I were watching, one of the hostesses used left overs in stuffed peppers. Genius! So tonight I made my version. Envision a KFC bowl but in a bell pepper.

Ingredients: 

• 2 Bell Peppers - I used green
• Thanksgiving leftovers - Ours was Turduckin and Stuffing
• Gravy - I used store bought since it wasn't included in our doggy bag
• Cheese - Freshly grated Parmesan for us 

Directions:

1. Bring your leftovers to room temperature so everything cooks evenly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut off caps of peppers and scrape seeds. Boil for a few minutes to soften them.
3. In a bowl mix together leftovers with gravy. Stuff the peppers and place in a casserole dish. Fill bottom of casserole with about 1/4 inch of water. Cook for 20-25 minutes until peppers are tender and ingredients are heated through.
4. Top with cheese and return to oven for about 5 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Bon Apetit!

Sunday Funday

Let me start by saying, "Wow." Over 2,000 hits on the blog. Pretty sure 20% of them are mine. You do the math. Yes, I do read my own blog. A lot. Mostly, as a way to stay motivated and remind myself of my accomplishments, or fun workouts, or bad work outs, or major fails.

Today, really was a Funday Sunday. Jake, Gina, and I met at the Devou Park Mountain Bike trails to go on a little hike. The catch? We carried DIY sand bags. That's it. We just carried our bags up, around, and down the mountain. From shoulder to shoulder, to bear hugs, to curl holds, to behind the neck. We just carried our bags. It was simply long, slow distance (LSD) training. We chatted. We answered the questions of fellow hikers. "Ah, campers. Carrying your sleeping bags?" "Nope, its sand." "Why are you carrying sand?" "To work out." "Oh, well I'm old and need to get down the hill. You can carry me down." "Hop on." And so we marched. Stopping here and there for breaks. Telling Jake to stay on the trail and not to roll down the side of the mountain. Gina and I weren't sure if we would be able to pull him up. Luckily, when he did finally fall, it was literally at the very end of the trail and bottom of the mountain. In total we climbed about 380 feet and traveled 4.5 miles in about 2 hours. Not a bad way to start out a beautiful November Sunday.

Spartan Race has also started updating the Texas Event page. Probably shouldn't have read it with almost 3 weeks to go.

Race Day Information

What You Need to Know

Spartan Beast - 10-12 mile Obstacle Race from Hell. If you have done any race anywhere in the world: whether a mud run, fun run, olympic run, bike race, death march or any kind of event claiming to be the "toughest race on the planet" you will be happy to know that this is where it ends..THIS IS THE SPARTAN BEAST...Step up and get out of your comfort zone, many will arrive, but few will leave!

NOTE: If you are unsure as to if you can do The Beast we are allowing you a 'dignified exit' if you need it at mile 3. This will also serve as the ultimate test of resolve for those who plan on doing the full event. Each racer will have to confront choice between luxury and relaxation or facing 9 more miles of HELL. You are welcome to plan on only doing 3 mile section of course but price remains the same and you will not receive official time or medal.

Mandatory Headlamps - All racers who are still on the course at 5pm will be required to have a headlamp. We expect it will take most people longer than 3 hours to complete this course, some up to 7 hours. If you don’t have a headlamp you will not be able to continue. Please plan accordingly.

Key word: Hell - used 2 times. First, to inform of me its orgins. Then again, to remind me that the course has transcended from the depths and now exists here on Earth, specifically, Glen Rose, TX.

Let the urges to vomit due to nerves commence.

Beast Mode Laundry

I hate laundry. I would be willing to move to a nudist colony if it meant no more laundry. I hate sorting. I hate waiting around for it to switch it over. I really hate separating and folding it. I only do it every other week and it usually ends up taking a week to do it since I hate it so much. But we as a society have decided to wear clothing to hide all of our parts and keep us warm in the winter. Thus, I must continue to do laundry to forgo weird stares and time in the slammer for indecent exposure.

Last night I came up with a game to make laundry a little less miserable. I named the game Beast Mode Laundry. Spartan has recently decided to change the Burpee penalty to include the push up. Since I haven't been training with the push up, Burpees and I must become really close Frenemies over the next few weeks. Beast Mode Laundry is my Two Birds, One Stone solution. Every load of laundry that went into the washer earned me 30 burpee/pull ups (my pull up bar is in the laundry room doorway, so I thought it only appropriate to add the pull up). One would think that this plan might back fire and I would just do less laundry. On the contrary, I got all of it washed and dried (not folded, but hey, this is an improvement). In a crazy way, it made laundry much more fun. Jon even joined in and we took turns at the pull up bar and counting for each other. Yep, pretty crazy. I realize this. But it was multi-tasking at its finest. Working out, getting chores done, and all without stepping into a gym.

In other news I joined a co-ed basketball team. I am super excited about this. Rhonda, a former AAU and High School teammate, contacted me Monday night via Facebook to see if I'd be interested in playing. Heck yes! I've been wanting to play, but its really hard to find women basketball players. Jon inflated our basketball last night, so we practiced our dribbling and passing in the basement between burpee/pull up sets until I almost broke some stuff. Looking forward to getting out there and practicing so my first shot in a game isn't a glorious airball.

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.