Spartans were not my main focus this year (I was more concerned with the marathon and triathlon.) But I did want to do Boise. My idea was to run the race twice. I wanted to go once fast and then again where I could spend more time attempting the hardest obstacles. I was really close to paying twice so I was registered for both competitive and open heats. But my friends convinced me not to feel bad about going back up the mountain and doing the obstacles again. So I did not pay for it, and thank goodness because we got the list of obstacles and they were all easy ones. None of the ones I wanted to repeat were on there. So I was really glad I didn't pay twice!
And another thing... I could not have done it twice if I wanted to. I have no explanation. Sometimes my body just fails me. I trained. I've been running. I've been running hills and trails. This race has some steep up and downhill. This first picture shows the first big hill. We couldn't even try and go very fast anyway because most of it was single file. But we didn't go slow. It was after the barbed wire crawl when I stood up that I felt a little pinch in my IT band on one leg. It was okay when I ran, but going downhill, especially carrying a sandbag, I felt it more. I started favoring my other leg, dropping onto it instead of supporting myself with my sore leg. It wasn't long before I felt the same pinch in the other leg. Why? It was not really something I had ever felt before, but I knew it was my muscles giving out. BUT we were killing all the obstacles! We got to spear throw and mine stuck. I was so excited that I yelled and threw my hands up and jumped around. Then I asked if anyone had a camera they could take a picture for me, lol. I was joking, but I was so excited! I have never made the spear before. Jen laughed at my antics and then threw hers, and hit it too! She screamed as loud as me. I think we both had the thought that we might have a perfect race. But we didn't want to jinx it so we didn't say it. We started on the downhill and after a few steps, my IT bands were toast. A few more steps and the sharp pains moved to my inner thigh as well. I even started feeling it on my calves. I don't know what was happening! But I was not sure I would even finish the race. I told Jen to go ahead, but she wouldn't leave me. I think she was concerned that I would have to drop out too. She told me to hop on her back, I refused. I took small, painful steps down the hill. I stopped to take breaks, to try and stretch. I was a mess. I was lucky I didn't fall on my face and roll down the steep hill. I wanted to crawl. The hill seemed incredibly long. But once I finally made it to flat ground, I could jog. I still felt pain in the muscles but it wasn't increasing in intensity to the point I thought I would tear something (like it was on the downhill). The next obstacle was the bucket carry, which they always put on a hill. It was short but steep. I looked at the hill and thought 'there's no way.' I could barely make it down without collapsing with just myself, how can I carry a bucket filled with gravel? But what was I supposed to do? Skip the obstacle? Burpee out of it? Honestly, we did five burpees on Atlas Carry (because that's part of the obstacle) before the downhill and my IT was screaming then. I didn't think I could do 30 burpees even if I failed an obstacle. All I could do was try. I might collapse and drop the bucket. Or I might not. I picked up up and started uphill. Going up wasn't bad at all actually. The downhill was short enough that my muscles held. They got worse with every step, but after a break they could go a little bit again. I had just enough of a break, and it was a short enough hill. Thank goodness!
I was able to jog, and the race was almost over anyway. One of the last obstacles were the rings. Sometimes rings are fine, and sometimes I can't hold onto them to save my life. Moment of truth. Was I going to have a perfect race? The guy working there mentioned that the bells were a bit high, which was nice of him to let us know. Last year I swung for the bell and barely nicked it and fell off the ring I was holding onto. So I knew it was very possible to get to the end and think you have it and then miss. I got to the end, and it wasn't easy but I didn't die (see the crazy face pictures below). I took a few extra swings on the last ring, and even held onto one ring with both hands to make sure I had a good hold while I swung until I could reach. Jen swung and missed but held onto her ring, so she swung back and slammed into the pole at the end. She had to swing a few times but she got it. I would have fallen off for sure only holding with one hand.
And that was it. Perfect race! Perfect and miserable at the same time... If I hadn't fallen apart, we could've gotten a good time since we didn't have to do burpees. I heard later that they are keeping all Sprint courses pretty easy now. Only 3 miles and none of the hardest obstacles. Boo, that's no fun. But Kylee wants to do one so I guess that might be good for her. All in all it was fun minus that one hard part. We hung around afterwards waiting for our friends and chatted with them a bit. Spartans are really, really fun.
Jen wanted to do the Utah Super. I had said all along that I wasn't doing it. I had thought it was on the weekend of Pioneer Day in Newton that we do every year. Either that or the Spudman Triathlon I wanted to do. But I didn't sign up for the triathlon in time, and then found out that the Pioneer Celebration was the weekend of the tri anyway. So it's a good thing I hadn't signed up. But that left the previous weekend free, which happened to be the Utah Super. Jen pressured me in her quiet, little way. And I said that I needed to test my legs before I signed on for another crazy mountain run with tons of mean hills. Utah has always been sooooo high and steep. This year was a different venue, but I heard it was maybe even worse. My legs actually recovered rather quickly from the Boise race, but I was nervous, understandably. The week before I went into the mountains and found a steep hill, and I climbed it over and over until my legs got shaky. They got tired and shaky but they didn't not cramp up or die like that did in Boise. So I decided to go for it. I also made it The Edge for one training session, even though I wanted to go multiple times. I knew that I wouldn't be winning any awards, lol. I would be going slow and steady.
Utah was HOOOOTTTT. Our start time was 9:30 because we joined the CrossFit Amrock team, even though we only know like two people from there. It started out rough. We headed up a hill and I was feeling weak. I think the elevation was high to start with. And I probably started too fast trying to keep up with the crowd. Then we came to monkey bars, which I've never failed. And they were greasy!! I swear they greased them. It occurred to me later that if I had chosen a different stool, that spot might have been less greasy. But I just went for it. I made it most of the way but couldn't hold on with how far apart they were and being greasy. Jen made it, but she came over and split my burpees with me. I would've objected but I was so frustrated and not having fun and thinking it was going to be a loooong race. Right after that was the sandbag carry, which was long and uphill of course. I. Was. Dying. It was so hard. I was walking slowly but could not catch my breath. I was seriously thinking this was going to be the most miserable race ever (including that really painful marathon last year).
But things only went up from there. They had Twister and Olympus right next to each other, which I thought was rough because that's a lot of burpees back to back. But Twister was only two sections, like it was in Seattle when we made it, and I was able to do it! It wasn't too hard either, though the last two were a bit scary. Jen fell off on one of the last ones, so we split her burpees and I felt better about her helping me. We decided we were not going to fail Olympus even if we had to help each other. So Jen stood behind me and "spotted" me while I did it, in case my foot started sliding or something. But it didn't!! I passed it on my own and it wasn't all that hard either. The chains now have balls on the end so that helps a ton! I did the same for Jen but she didn't need me either.
It was a long race with lots of climbing, but not as much up and down as the previous years. We had fun. We drank tons and poured water over our heads at every station. But the air has a cool breeze when you are up that high so we didn't die. I ended up failing the multi-rig, the one with rings. These rings were slippery. The other ones were more textured. I don't know how people do those so easily. Anyway, Jen made it so we split burpees once again. I was just glad we didn't hurt ourselves on that obstacle because it was on a downhill slant and so many people were dropping and falling forward hard. I heard later that there were something like 20 people sent to the hospital for that obstacle alone. Broken wrists, gashes on heads. Not smart Spartan.
There was a new obstacle that looked like it would be hard, but we weren't sure. It was like monkey bars but there were a few bars that swung. It ended up being quite fun! There were a couple other new obstacles, which are always fun to try. Nothing hard. We both attempted the spear throw two or three times but still couldn't get it. I decided the one in Boise is easier because it's closer. Part of the easier sprint course. Frustrated and tired, we looked at each other and said, I'm not doing all 30. We decided 10, ha ha. Later I would feel guilty about that and think that I still owe 20 more burpees. But I was happy with the decision at the time.
It was still a long race. We jogged as much as we could, even though it didn't feel good. (Usually running feels better than walking for me, but I was beat). It took us a really long time, like 3 hours and 40 minutes. But we did it! And I was tired but not dead. I was pretty happy altogether. I'm glad we did it. They really are so fun. And challenging too.
These two pictures were taken at the top of the mountain by a stranger who texted them to me. People are nice sometimes :) The matching was still unintentional. We had agreed it would be wise to wear shorts and carry packs. And black is just smart. And the glasses, well we just have similar taste.
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