Super Spartan - Miami Feb 25
We signed up for it and began to train. Immediately School set in and we stopped training! We were unprepared for the run, but so were the people we went with (his buddy Daniel and Daniel's sister Donna.) It was the hardest thing I've ever done. I think it was harder than the 2.5 mile ruck on fractured legs. I didn't cry, like I did back then, but I'm a little older now. :D I'm bruised, lacerated, and picking mud out of pretty much everywhere. I had so much fun.
The run is made up of "15+" obstacles, some road/grass run, and a huge chunk of trail run. Real trail; as in, we cleared it three days ago and left some stumps sticking out of the middle of the trail. The obstacles I recall off the top of my head, in as close to the order as I can come up with...
-10' river crossing (wade.)
-100m lake swim/wade.
---Some grass/hill run. Dove through thick reeds. Youch!---
-"Under, over, under" netting and short wall.
-20' river, pull yourself across via rope, no feet allowed.
-Monkey bars (wet! Couldn't grip and paid 30 burpees.)
---Some woods run, then a short road run, then back into the thin wood.---
-4' wall, with "under" wall behind it, and another 4' over behind that.
-6' wall with a hole at 3' to crawl through.
-5' wall, with 6' wall behind it.
-Muddy water pits with firehose spraying you from perpendicular. (Where I lacerated my knee, on the jagged rocks at the bottom of the pit when the mud-hill gave beneath my heel and sent me down on all fours).
-Rope wall up/down with horizontal rope crawl 20' up.
--Insert LONG trail run, with lots of little bridges, roots, rocks. I hit the deck once (broke fall with hands instead of face!) Everyone in Vibrams was in agony. I low-grade-sprained both ankles at least twice. We saw one guy taped to a backboard by one bridge. Mostly single-file so we constantly pulled over to let fast-people from the next heat go through.--
-Tire carry up a hill.
-Concrete block pull.
-7' wall, in front of another 7' wall!!
-Balance beams.
-Bucket of concrete hoist. (Stood up from this with non-weight bearing right knee.)
-Down the side of a canal via rope, to hoist a bucket from the canal and dump the water on yourself 5x, then up the other side of the canal via rope.
---Road run, almost done!!---
-Tunnel crawl, maybe 40".
---Last real run portion, pretty short. The rest is all PACKED in at the end.
-Barbed wire mud crawl.
-45 degree incline wall with rope. I didn't slide down but I hooked my chest at the top to gain purchase and scraped it pretty good.
-Rope climb. I made it two knots up and then couldn't get my arms to pull with my legs. Paid 30 burpees.
-Lateral wall climb. It was so muddy and the blocks so thin, I couldn't gain purchase. Watched men with 2% body fat fail. Paid 30 sloooow burpees.
-200 meter "row". Some odd gym equipment like a triceps pulldown machine. Easy peasy.
-4' box stacked against 8' box. I need help for both boxes. I was so spent! Shane had to be helped up and then his calf cramped at the top. We heard the "gather" call for the 330 heat. We went down the other side of both boxes.
-Big guys with pugel sticks. We worked as a team. Shane feinted the first to the left while I dodged around him to the right. The second guy didn't fall for it, having seen us to it 8" in front of him, but when he came at me he barely tapped me. Good thing, since I probably would have fallen over if he'd hit me any harder!
**Daniel, Donna, Shane, did I forget any? I feel like I'm forgetting some! Maybe because of ALL the WALLS!
-Across the finish line to have a tiny Hooters girl give me my medal. I remember water, a banana I thought might choke me, and a freeeeezing hose off.
I couldn't even drink my free beer, for fear of vomiting! Shane threw away our shirts (glad I just wore an 'A-frame') and we collected up Daniel, Donna, (finished before us, when we all got split up at the rope section), and Chelsea (who would have kicked all our butts, I'm sure), and took the shuttle (free on the way back) back to the car to de-frock. We put down a crapton of calories at a Taco Bell, all covered in mud and with the boys barefooted. I drove the Durango home while the boys racked out in the back.
Damage report:
-Badly lacerated left knee.
-Non-weight-bearing right knee.
-Dime-sized hunk of skin missing under right breast.
-Various bruises, scrapes, and bug bites.
Shane came out much worse, due to the Vibrams and ill-fitting shorts (cringe).
All in all I had a BLAST. I was wiped out and half-dead at the end, but I thought it was so fun. I'd go again, but I want to train a little better for it. The boys didn't really like it (at least, they seemed to hate it during and right after.) When Chelsea's fracture heals we all plan on killing the Muddy Buddy in December. WEEE!
There were things about the setup we didn't like.
-Chelsea paid for her ticket months in advance and then broke her pelvis. The refused to refund her ticket, or even bump her to next year unless she volunteered at this year's race. Not sure what she could do: the woman can't SIT without pain-killers.
-We were also told we couldn't refund our tickets, though we found out Husband's unit had reserved spots for us (and other soldiers who wanted to go.) "Thank you Soldiers" indeed.
-I'd paid 131$ total for the ticket but they didn't bother to reserve a small shirt for me. Bad logistics or lack of "Give a crap"?
-We also were expected to pay 5$ per person to take the shuttle from the mandatory parking area, which was two miles from the race site. From what I hear it costs them maybe 20 grand to set these up and they can pull in 2 million dollars, so scraping people for 5$ seems reaaaally low.
-I also noticed there were no places to use the can along the way. While I didn't need to go I know a compatriot of mine urinated in the river and some of the water holes, as I'm sure several other runners did. For something that long, some runners need to make a #2 stop along the way. We didn't see anyone going in the woods, but I'm sure someone had.
So, to me, more positive than negative, even discounting the pride I feel for completing such a task. BUT, I'm not sure I'd want to give them my money again. There are so many other races I'm willing to go try first! :D
P.P.S.: Official times came through today!
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