Dallas Spartan Beast Weekend – Day 1.
If Tahoe was race trepidation, Dallas was race retribution. Last month I finished Tahoe strong, however, I knew I could have done better. For the three weeks between Tahoe and my next race weekend, the Dallas Double beast weekend, I buckled down hard. Super clean eating, laser focus on my needed macros, and a lot of effort on the ropes and footwork leading up to Dallas. Having run the Beast in Dallas last year, I had a rough estimate of the lay of the land and the terrain. A lot of rolling hill running, mud, plenty of water to wade in as well as swim and a hill that we had to climb a few times. Last year the Dallas beast was my fastest beast of the year – however, I only ran one race that weekend, not two as planned this year. I remember ending that race with shaking hands and my heart rate flying. I pushed really hard that day. Knowing that I needed to run the Beast race twice, one race over BOTH days of the weekend to meet my goals for 2015, I knew beating my time wasn’t what I was shooting for, however, I wanted to be within 30 minutes of my final time from last year. If I could do that, I knew I would have put in a solid effort and still have some “left” for the race the following day with Vicki as she was racing to finish her double trifecta. A double trifecta is two Sprint races, two Super races and two Beast races in one calendar year. Knowing I would have to provide a fair amount of support on Sunday, I had no reservations with my goal on Saturday. Race smart, push, but don’t red line – and finish strong.
We arrived in Texas on Friday afternoon to driving rains and wind. Weather reports we discussing crazy amounts of rain to the south and west of us, some locations getting over 12” of rain in several hours. Streams were overflowing and major roadways were flooded. It was bad. Very bad. Social media reports from other racers documented the weather as they were traveling to the area. Vehicles were getting flooded out and abandoned in the roadways. Some slowly sinking in the rising flood waters, other getting washed down the road or into fields as the flood water expanded in all directions.
Those unlucky enough to be coming from the south were getting detoured all over the state due to these rising flood waters, so a short two hour drive was becoming an 5-9 hour marathon session. Vicki and I made our way quickly from the airport to the hotel without much incident. Weather around the greater Dallas area was not to these flood stages, however, a wall of storms was starting to approach from the West, with plans to bring 5+ inches of rain as well as high winds. The weather channel was displaying all sorts of maps and projections and you could tell that they were excited about this weather that was raging through Texas. Vicki and I were concerned about travel to the venue as well as course conditions with all of this water falling from the skies as well as swollen rivers. Mud + wet walls does not equal fun for me, as most of my techniques for getting over the 8’ + walls (more on that later) involve a walk up technique that works 1000% better if the walls are dry. When they are wet, it becomes a struggle fest. Regardless, we hit the sack early (7 PM) with the hopes of getting a decent night sleep before the race.
“BaaKiiing!”
I opened my eyes at looked at my phone. It was around 9:20 and my Facebook messenger status had just fired off, alerting me that I had a new incoming message. I noticed it was from Kristine, a fellow AZ racer who was flying in with her husband to race in Dallas as well. She had been re-routed to Midland, TX due to the storms at Dallas, about a 5 hour drive from the hotel and was reaching out for advice. We messaged back and forth a few times with some options, all of them ending with her and Luke arriving very late. She was soon notified that the plane was getting gassed up and was going to Dallas, as they had a weather window. I flipped the phone over and went back to sleep. (Long story short, they arrived at the hotel at 2:30 AM. Ugg.. That was a long day of traveling.)
Waking up at 4:30 AM I started getting ready for the day ahead. Race clothes on, Geigerrig packed with my standard Amino Energy blend as well as gu Shot bloks and cliff bars. Due to the temp and the threat of rain, I elected to race with the long sleeve compression shirt and skip the arm sleeves. Compression shorts, and calf sleeves rounded out the gear for the race.
We jumped in the car and headed to the venue, about a 40 minute drive. The wipers pounding a steady rhythm to keep the rain off the windshield. I wanted to get there early as I remembered from last year, that one of the roads into the venue can get jammed up pretty quickly with cars. As we got closer to the venue the headlights would catch a reflection off the streams and standing water next to the roads. I could tell there was a lot of water moving in those streams, the storm had dropped quite a bit of rain on the area, how much was soon to be released to me.
Mass arrival and stuck cars
With about a mile to the turn off to the near side access road of the venue, I counted several cars in front of us, which I figured were all heading to the same location. We were the last of the three with the next car behind us by about a mile. As we crested the hill and began our quick descent to the left turn on to the dirt road I saw a flood of head lights, not turning into the road, but looking to head out of the road.
Uh oh.
The first car in our line took the left and headed down about 400 yards before their brain engaged to realize something wasn’t right with all of these cars LEAVING the area that they are trying to get to. The car in front of us made the turn and stopped rolling down his window to ask the driver of the lead truck (which was a lifted 4×4) that was trying to exit the road. I quickly told Vicki, “slow down but don’t turn in, roll down your window.”
She stopped in the road and got her window down just quick enough to hear the words that I hoped were not being spoken.
“Can’t go that way, the bridge is flooded..”
In the dark of the car Vicki shot a look at me. I turned my head to her, then looked forward through the windshield, waiving my right arm towards the front of the car.
“Go!”
Vicki stepped on the gas and we were off. Now leading a stream of cars that were pulling out of the road behind us. 20-30-50 cars, it was a massive exodus, all heading for the secondary entrance to the venue.
“Jay.. I never drove in this way, and the GPS is all screwed up” said Vicki.
‘Make a U turn’ said the GPS.
“Don’t worry, keep going” I replied.
‘Make a U turn’ said the GPS.
“Jay”.. Vicki replied.
I responded, “Keep going”.
‘Make a U turn’ said the GPS.
“JAY!!” yelled Vicki.
I reached up and pulled the GPS off the dash and shut it off, just as we came up to a fork in the road and off to the left could see the flashing lights of a patrol car.
“Head that way” I said pointing off the road to the left.
Vicki complied and led the procession to the next entrance of the Rough Creek Lodge, turning left past the officer waving folks in with his flash light with a Lodge member in a full blaze orange vest signaling with his flash light as well.
The road to the lodge from this direction is a wide dirt road that runs for a few miles with cow fencing on either side. At a few points on the left we could see the fence stairs that we would be using to climb over the fence as the race course crossed over this road that we were driving on. Soon after we passed the Stairway to Spartan obstacle as well as the team version that was next to it, which was enormous.
Vicki caught a look at it as we passed by.
“Your shitting me.. we gotta go over that?”
“No” I replied, the smaller one. That one is for the team race.
“Jee-zus” was her response.
Within a few minutes we were making the left turn off the road on to the main property of the lodge. We passed several out-buildings, the boarding kennel for the hunting dogs, and several other features on the property as we headed down the drive. We came up to a T intersection where we were on the left side of the “T”, the right side of the “T” would have been the traffic from the now flooded bridge, and we were directed down the long arm of the “T”, or, needing to take a right into a large field to where we would be parking, and then head father down the field to the race registration, the venue and starting line.
Parking was moving slow. We had about 50 car in front of us and it was taking quite a long time to the car parked in the fields. Looking ahead, I could now see why. Cars were getting stuck in the muddy over saturated field. The volunteers would have racers drive their cars into the field then make a right to form up into a row. However, that final turn was more than 90% of the cars could handle in this soupy ground and would start to sink. From a distance up on the high “road” looking down into the fields, I could see car doors opening and folks bailing out of these cars, running around back to push them the last 20 feet to get them into the row. This was going on for 7 out of each 10 cars. It was 6:20 in the morning and these cars were already getting stuck. What was this going to be like at the END of the day?
The line in front of us continued to peel off the road and into the field. With two cars to go, it was looking like Vicki was going to have to drive all the way down the field (in to the very muddy section) to start a new row. She wasn’t happy about it.
She started pulling off the road then heard those magic words.
“Hey, we can get one more here..” said a volunteer pointing to a spot very high up on the field, almost equal to the height of the dryer road.
Vicki cranked the wheel and shot towards the spot. We were parked. I opened the door and immediately noticed two things. One, it was very cool, maybe in the low 50’s and slightly raining – and two, there had to be 200 cars (and growing) behind us queueing up trying to park. And that line was gowning much faster that folks were able to park.
“Oh boy” I thought. “This isn’t going to be good.”
I popped back in the car and Vicki and I sat and talked for a few min now that we were here. It was warm and dry in the car, so we decided it would be the place to meet up after registration and some Jay time. Registration was easy since Vicki printed out most of the forms before we left for Dallas, so I only needed to pick up the venue specific form (that most racers forgot about). The volunteers were working in the dark and using their cell phones for light at our specific registration line, however, they were very efficient with the tools that they had. Within 15 minutes I was through registration and heading to the porta-potties.
Here is a race tip if you have an active bladder or colon come race day. Get to the porta potties early. As in pre-elite race early. Not only do you get the joy of a freshly serviced porta-potty, you get the excitement of pulling the wrapper off a clean roll of toilet paper, almost like unwrapping a Christmas present, in the rain, and cold and mud.. in Texas. But hey, after running 19 of these things this year, I look for the enjoyments in the little moments. The casual conversations at obstacles, the joy of a Vanilla Almond Builder Bar, and the pleasure of unwrapping a fresh roll of TP in the porta-potty. It is all about the small joys one can find. This happens to be one of mine.
Finishing my business I headed back to the car and chatted with Vicki as we waited for the day at the race to start. At 7:30 AM we both headed back to the venue, as I had an 8 AM start and we wanted to see who showed up for the elite teams event. This weekend is special in that the Saturday Beast race has a prize purse for the elite teams who finish 1-4, and no prize money for the individual elite winner (beyond the trophy and points towards the points series). Sunday’s race does not have a team race, but does have a purse for the elite individual race. Most double event over a weekend race only have one purse, usually the first day. Knowing this, I was interested to see who had showed up for the team race and what the obstacles were going to be.
While I recognized the elite racers from TV as well as the other races I have attended this year, I do not remember (or care to put the effort in) to see who was on what team. All I know is that most of the top names when you think about the men elite were represented on the teams.
So, what did the teams have to do that was different that the individuals? Plenty.
- First off, they all had to finish within 20 seconds of each other, or the team was DQ’ed
- They had a 12’ wall that they had to get all members of the team over
- The had a 12’ stairway to Spartan that they had to all members over (standard is a 7-8’)
- They had to go over the slip wall without the use of ropes
- They had a short tether that they had to tether together in pairs when going over the log hop. If one member failed, they all (the whole team) had to do burpees
- At the tire flip, there was a larger team tire that they had to flip (over 700#)
- At the sled drag, they had a sled with 7 sandbags in it. (A standard male sled has 2 bags) They had to pull it to the end as a team, then team CARRY it back to the start. Any sand that fell out of the sled resulted in team burpees
Needless to say, with money on the line, these guys (and ladies who started 20 min later) were in it to win it.
EFF-Norm!
As I mentioned before, we headed over to the start area at 7:30 AM ish to catch the teams take off. There was a Hurricane Heat going on as well from the night before, in the driving rain and wind – and I was looking around for them as well, as I knew a few competitors that were racing in that event and wanted to see if they had made the time hacks and finished. As Vicki and I walked over to the start, the first thing I noticed was the Hot Gate. It was a 6’ wall. AZ Spartan Training folks take note! This was not the 7’ wall at Tahoe, but a 6’ wall, the highest I had seen at any of the races this year outside of the championships. Maybe they had it here due to the special event of the team race, or maybe it was just the Norm Factor. For those who are not familiar with the Norm Factor, Norm Koch is a race designer for Spartan Race. Norm Koch’s official title is Spartan Race Director. In real life, he’s actually a course designer who delights in watching racers fail.
When courses are deemed “easy” or too fast, Norm is asked to consult or take on the course design for the following year. Norm make hard courses, harder, or miserable to some. Norm wants to push you to the point of breaking. Note, I didn’t say he makes things unsafe, he just makes a tough course that much harder both mentally and physically. He wants you to be challenged and really, really dig down deep into your soul to find the strength to complete the obstacles, or pay the price in burpee penalties. Hills, brutal terrain crossings and “pointless” miles (where a racer will start on a ridge, drop down to cross a stream, go up another ridge, back down the same ridge (on a slightly different trail), to go back into the water, then cross the same stream and back up to where you started.. 3 or 4 times in a row) is what Norm does to a course. In addition, “Norm” courses stack obstacles to try to smoke you. The Boston Super was a good example. The slip wall right to the rope climb, right to a long tyrolean traverse. (See my Boston Race Recap to see how I fared).
This race had a killer burpee fest in the last mile. The last mile consisted of:
- Herculean hoist (120#ish) sand bag that you have to hoist up to a pulley off the ground and back down without letting it hit the ground, then a 1/3 of a mile run
- Elevated Monkey bars (the new standard where the monkey bars are of different heights)
- Then right to the log hop
- Then right to the Cliff Multi-bars (hang from Olympic rings to a suspended horizontal pole to short ropes with knots on the bottom, back to rings, then ring the bell)
- Right to the rope climb
- Right to the tyrolean traverse
- Then fire and finish
Last year, that would have meant 90 burpees with the possibility of 150 if I slipped off the log hop and or could not make the traverse… all at the end of the race.
The ‘EFF-Norm’ moniker and dedicated Facebook page is well earned. Norm makes things tough, which is why I LOVE his courses. They suck and are brutal, but expose my weaknesses and FORCE me to get better. The fact that he lives in Maine has a special place in my heart as well. You can take the boy outta Maine, but you never git the Maine outta the boy!
Seeing the 6’ wall at the start made me realize that this was not going to be the speed course of last year. It was going to be longer, harder, and full of surprises. One of which, was going to happen right away.
Bear with us folks..
Last year this course was delayed 30 minutes due to the desire to start the elites with the sun up. It was just dawn when they started last year, and seeing how with the cloud cover and on again off again showers, this year I figured they would be delayed again. However, the delay this year was not for the lack of sunlight. It was for the raging currents on the course.
Remember how I had mentioned before that the bridge was flooded on one of the entrances to the race venue? Well, that was not the only water crossing affected. Starting with the HH the night before, the Spartan staff (blue shirts for those keeping track at home), had been monitoring and determining the safety factor of the water crossings on the course. There was a 4 mile section of the course (mile 9-13) that had several water crossings. These were all now flooded, and had a raging current.
I know what some of you are thinking. Hell I signed the “death waiver” (a term for the Spartan Race participation waiver as it plainly states “ You might die” in it) let’s race! However, Spartan Race really does need to think about the safety of thousands of racers at an event and the real possibility of someone drowning when they knew the water was unsafe would be a business ender.
So the announcer announces that we have a 30 min delay as the staff are evaluating the water crossings and the course for safety, as well as the long parking lines that were causing delays for the racers to get registered. Some groans from the crowd were heard Thirty minutes becomes 60 minutes. Another update that they are now altering (cutting) the course down to remove the water obstacles, as several of the staff were swept downstream when trying to attempt the crossings (or as so we were told) and this was way to unsafe to allow for the racers to attempt. (Not to mention the lack of water rescue support staff that would have been needed). The course would now be shorter, closer to 10 miles rather than 14+.
Sixty minutes became an 80 minute delay before the first elite teams hit the course. Five min later the elite men went off, followed by a 15 min gap for the female elite teams, (usually a 30 min gap), then 5 min later the female elite’s, then 5 minutes later the 8 AM (mine) and 8:15 open heat. The starting corral was jammed up as Spartan has started to really check the wrist bands of the racers so that that only the racers in that specific wave start at that time. (There has been a lot of heat jumping as of late which screws up the flow of the race due to too many people.) Once I got to and over the Hotgate, we crammed into the starting chute, where 500-700 folks from the combined 8 and 8:15 AM wave were ready to race. A short “ra-ra” speech by the MC to get us psyched up the smoke was popped and I was off and running. The 2015 Dallas Beast was underway!
Hay bales and balance beams
After crossing the starting mat the first thing you noticed was that everything was wet. Standing water in parts, thick mud in others. When I say thick mud, I am asking you to think about a pottery wheel and the mud that they use to make pots. For those that are having a hard time with this reference, think of the movie Ghost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW8j818w-qE
That was the consistency of the mud that we were trying to run trough.
Soon after the start came the first (and later the third) obstacle of the course, hay bales. They had these in Boston as well. The large round hay bales, not the smaller square ones that are at the spear throw station. Five or six of these bales are all lined up end to end to make this long “log” wall. What was different is that the volunteers were told that we only had one attempt at crossing them. Maybe they thought we were part of the elite heat, or maybe it was the rule of the day, but regardless, if you fell off the bale without going over, you had to do burpees. I was sure as hell not going to do burpees here, so I did a modified jump and belly flop on the bale digging my fingers into the bale like tines of a pitchfork. I then pulled my body up and over to land on the other side. Fairly easy – and off to running again. We soon ran by some of the course that was intersecting a stream which was MOOVING! The current was really strong in this stream, which looked to be about 3-4’ deep based upon what I could see as I jogged past it. We soon turned away from the water and entered a small grove of trees to emerge at the second obstacle, the balance beam. This was a 10 or 12’ 2’x6” standing on its edge. It was anchored at the front and the end, with a small anchor point in the middle, which meant it had plenty of side to side wiggle. This 2” edge was covered in mud and rain, so it was very slippery. This type of obstacle is where the Salomon race shoes that I wear suffer. While they are awesome at uphill and downhill traction, due to the aggressive cleat pattern, fine edge work suffers. I made it about 3 steps on to the board before I fell off. Burpees for me.
Penalty burpees = 30
Next was another hay bale wall, where I applied the same technique, followed by the cargo net A frame. Up one side, swing you legs over the top, down the other. From there we had more trail running in the rolling fields of Texas. After the Cargo net A frame is where I discovered the real obstacle for this race, the mud.
This mud was the soupiest and thickest mud I had ever faced. I was worse than trying to run in fluffy beach sand. If you went with your normal stride, you risked looking your shoe as you pulled your leg up. You almost had to make this quarter turn of your foot left or right with each step to free it from the suction of the mud before you picked it up and planted it again. Running in this was reserved for those who were almost running on their toes (and burning out their calves) to get through the mud quickly. I was doing all I could to maintain a 5 MPH pace slipping and sliding over the course.
Soon after we came up on a few 5’ walls which were slick with mud but not difficult. Another 1/3 of a mile or so had us to the Atlas carry, which isn’t all that hard of an obstacle, however, the mud was making walking with the stone something you had to think about so you didn’t drop it and have to pick it up again. I finished that one pretty quickly and ran up to the 7 and 8’ walls.
One of the issues with all of the walls was the ground right in front of them was getting really muddied up. Wet, thick mud that wanted to hold your shoes to the ground when you tried to jump up. Yes, I actually did see someone jump OUT of their shoes at the 8’ wall. His right shoe buried in the low calf deep mud. The 7’ wall was easy once I got my leg hooked at the top. The 8’ was another story. Full of mud all over the wall, I ended up finding someone who needed help and we partnered up. This was his first race, and first 8’ wall, so I did a lot of coaching on how to climb up on me (thigh and shoulder) as well as how to place his leg against the wall when offering assistance to me. He was wide eyed when he went over the top first, and I was relieved to see him come back around the other side to return the favor of help.
Clearing this one we ended up at the first water station, where I took a moment to slam a few Gu bloks and wish him well as he raced on.
Slippery Stairways & Spear Throws
Racing past the water station the course took us right up to the barbed wire that paralleled the main road that Vicki and I drove up on to get to the venue. The only difference was that drove this road at about 25 miles per hour, and the line of cars that were to my left as I was running the course was not moving at all. I looked over at the line of cars as I was yanking my feet out of the mud and placing them back down, I was down to about a 4 MPH walk at this point.
“Hey man!” said one of the guys from a car in line.
I looked over at him. “Yeah?” I replied as I kept walking?
“Hey, what time did you start, what mile is this?” he asked.
I looked down at my watch, I was right around 3.5 miles.
“Well, I was supposed to start at 8, but they had delays, didn’t start until amost 9:20.. here is about 3.5” I replied.
“Shit” said the driver, “I was supposed to start at 10, I have been in this line for 2 hours!”
“Parking is A*F*U” I replied. “Don’t worry, nothing you can do about it”
I threw him a short wave and pushed on. Looking behind him down the road, all I could see was car after car after car down the road for as far as I could see. I shook my head thinking to myself, it is going to be a loooong day for many of them- just another reason why I always try to race in the first heat of the day.
The next obstacle I came across was the Stairway to Spartan, which was in the same mud condition as all the other obstacles, not the nice dry conditions as shown in the picture below.
I knew I would not be able to use my typical run up technique due to how muddy the wall was, and this same obstacle gave me trouble in Boston. So, I went with a completely different approach, jumping up to get my hands on the top, and then swinging my legs up and equal to my hands to get a heel hook on the wall to anchor myself to where I could pull up to the next stair. I was surprised I managed the move in all honesty, but it worked. I quickly scaled to the top, swung my leg over, then truly realized how slippery this structure was as mud wasn’t just smeared on the rungs of the 2”x6” cross beams, but it was caked on. You really had to pay attention to what you were doing and how you were placing your feet and hands on each of the boards as you descended to make sure you didn’t slip off and crash to the ground. Climbing down and off the obstacle I was real happy to be off of it and heading to the spear throw station, which like everything else, was a mud pit. Jogging over to it I scanned for the station that I liked, which happened to be the spear throw station at the far left of the obstacle. From the time that I first spied the obstacle after finishing the Stairway to Spartan, to when I got my turn in line, not one person had hit the spear throw. Burpees were being done everywhere. There had to be 4 or 5 different burpee groups going on, and at least 70 folks doing burpees.
Three things were causing all of the burpees.
- The mud didn’t allow for any sort of run up to throw the spear
- If you stood still in front of the barricade fence, you actually started to SINK into the mud
- The spears were heavy- and coated with Crisco like mud
The racer in front of me stood on her spear tether and failed to even reach the bale. Instead of leaving it, she promptly dragged the spear back through the mud and got the tether all knotted up in the barricade fence… then ran off.
“Gee.. thanks” I thought.
I quickly went to work on getting all of the knots out of the tether and then moving all of it to the other side of the barricade. Then I grabbed the spear. I was so slick. There was no way I could get a purchase on it, it was just sliding in my hands. I quickly lifted up my race shirt to expose my “cleaner” compression long sleeve shirt, and grabbing the shirt by my stomach with my right hand, I then worked the spear back and forth with my left hand, to try and “clean” the spear as much as I could – at least in the area of where I wanted to hold it. I am sure from the those behind me, it looked quite strange.
Getting the spear to the point where I could at least grip it, I went through my ritual of finding the balance, getting the grip setting my feet, squaring up my hips, pointing my right hand…. And noticed that I was sinking into the mud. I had honestly sunk down about 4” during this short time. I broke form, stepped out of the hole I was sinking in replaced my feet and did it all again. The mud was going to keep me from being able to push off with my back foot and transfer to my front, so I needed another solution. The answer was easy. More shoulder.
I pointed with my right hand, took a deep breath and let it fly with my left – using about 70% more shoulder than I usually do.
Boom the spear stuck. It was low in the bottom bale, but it was there. No burpees for this guy! I was off and running.. well.. fast walking as I tried to get out of the mud.
The Devil of Ramadi
In February of 2013, the most decorated sniper in American history, Chris Kyle, was killed at a shooting range from a fellow veteran who was suffering from PTSD. While I am very familiar with the history of Chris from the books and the recent movie, what I did not know is where he was killed. I knew it was a shooting range in Texas, however, I didn’t know it was the shooting range that I was actually running across. The Hurricane heat the night before actually made a tribute to him at the shooting area that he was killed. Supposedly there is a memorial plaque at the firing line. I ran within 10 yards of it while out on the course. Next year if I race Dallas again, I will have to make a point to stop and pay proper respect. Rest in peace Legend, thank you for your service.
The Hill, again and again.. and oh yeah.. again
After running past the various firing points at the shooting ranges (one of the long distance rifle ranges with steel targets out to at least 500 yards plus a shorter steel pistol range) I started running towards the set of hills that were on the property. Last year I believe we traversed this hill three times. Once just to do it, and then once to go up and down for the sand bag carry and again (up and down) for the bucket carry. That was last year, pre “Normified” race. This year we went up and down this hill at least 6 times. Up one side, over the top, down the other, then right back up, then right back down, then right back up to run into the memory challenge wall. I have talked about this several times. A series of numbers and a word based upon the last two digits of your name. What does Norm do to make this harder? Only hand up one side of the massive 10 x10 banner, so the other side drapes down and forces folks to hold it open, and oh yeah, hand the whole thing in a waterfall so it is soaking wet, and hang it upside down, so all the words and numbers are upside down.
Norm, you would have loved all the bitching going on. Folks were so pissed that
- It was upside down
- It wasn’t hung up property
- It was in the middle of a waterfall
I just shook my head and laughed. Classic. I quickly found my word and number and went to work on remembering it. Mike 326-8127. After a few minutes I thought I had it, but I got caught up in a crowd of racers who were all saying their numbers out loud to remember it. Eighty yards down the trail, I had totally forgot the order of the first three numbers. Three six two? Two six three? Shit! I could not remember it. I had the word, I had the last 4 numbers, but the first three might be my downfall. We would find out in the next 5 miles of the course when I would have to repeat them- however, at this point, it was looking like I would be doing burpees. I was not feeling confident about them. We ran across the top of the ridge (which was also covered in mud!) and then back down a trail that was parallel to the up hill climb of the bucket carry. I could see racers sitting on their bucket resting at the top. I turned my focus to the loose rocks and mud on the descent as I hopped from the base of one tree to the base of another to stop my momentum on the descent. At one particular tree I leapt to the base of it and then grabbed the trunk with my right hand only to have a sharp stinging pain emanating from my right thumb. I opened my grip off the tree to find I grabbed right a hold of a thorn vine that was wrapped around the tree. As I opened my grip a ¼” thorn popped out of the base of my right thumb.
“Don’t do that again” I though as I continued down the trail, now with blood running down my thumb and pointer finger, dripping all over the trail. I closed my fist for the rest of the descent only to emerge at the bottom of the trail with a bloody fist. I paused at some mud and smeared it all over my hand to stop the bleeding as jogged over to the rock pile to fill my bucket for the bucket carry obstacle. This bucket carry consisted of small pea sized gravel as the material to fill the buckets. They had the standard red buckets for females and the black for males, with the holes in the side as a visual to the level that the rocks needed to be covering for the obstacle to count.
This year I have raced 19 Spartan races. My total Spartan race count since I started two years ago is now over 30. I have raced all over the lower 48 states as well as Hawaii. I have seen uber athletes, average joe’s and adaptive athletes compete. I have seen shared bucket carries with teams and couples.
However, as this 2015 season has progressed, I continue to see more and more cheating at obstacles, especially on this obstacle.
The rules are very simple for this obstacle and the volunteers do a GREAT job telling everyone what they are. Women take a red bucket, men take a black. Fill the bucket PAST the holes in the sides so you cannot see daylight through them. Climb up, then down, dump your bucket in the pile, but note, materials WILL settle in the bucket so make sure you end with the holes covered.
Sounds simple enough right? You don’t have to figure any math, or remember anything, just cover the holes with rocks and carry it.
Now before I get any replies with:
“race your own race”
Or
“Me not filling my bucket all the way does not affect you”
Or
“You don’t know me or what I am going through”
This is what I will tell you.
If you take a bucket and fill it with rocks to within two inches of the holes and can carry it.. YOU CAN CARRY THE FULL WEIGHT designed for the obstacle.
STOP BULLSHITTING YOURSELF and STOP making excuses.
Stop defending weakness.
Stop accepting mediocrity.
Prove to yourself you can do it.
The rules don’t say “make the best attempt you can” they say “fill the bucket past the holes” or pay the burpee penalty.
Yes, it will be hard. Here is a news flash.
IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE.
When you cheat the event, you cheat all of us. Every single person out here, everyone else who is struggling with an injury or working with a disability to complete this obstacle the way the rules are written. Your lack of integrity pulls down the entire sport. You claim to be a Spartan, rock the T shirt, post of FB.. yet can’t find it in you to add two more inches of dirt or pea stone to a bucket?
Bullshit.
I have seen 90# women CRUSH this obstacle and 250# men fail it miserably. I have seen adaptive athletes show more courage and integrity that 40% of the “able bodied” racers out there, crawling, struggling with each step. It isn’t about strength. It is about integrity. Don’t be the guy that I spied on Saturday dumping out rocks of his bucket into the bushes at the top of the hill when he though no one was looking. Don’t be that ass hat.
Believe in yourself, carry the weight, embrace the suck, and know for the rest of your life you did it RIGHT.
What about Teams?
I am not saying you cannot work as a team. I have seen this many times as well. Team carrying buckets to help someone else with their bucket in Open class that is totally legal.
However, the rules say the bucket needs to start and end with the holes covered. Helping with the bucket does not mean it does not have to be filled to the regulation line, it just means that you can help someone share the load.
Enough about that. Long of the short of it, stop making excuses and start developing some integrity before you wreck the race for all of us.
For those of you who read this and have integrity to the values of the race, sorry. I had to get that off my chest. For those of you who stop reading my blog or label me as “one of those”, so be it. The race has rules and a clock. It IS supposed to be a competition, either against others or yourself.
After the bucket carry was another water station then another set of up and downs on the same ridgeline, where we dropped down to the sled pull. This distance seemed shorter than other races, and the sled was actually pulling up a slight angle hill, which made it easier (yes, pulling up the hill made it easier) as the sled was not diving down into the ground and creating ruts to fetch the sled up. I crushed this obstacles in my fastest time this year and headed back up the hill for what I thought would be the last time up and down.
Views, Sand bags & field running
Reaching the top of the ridge the ridge line trail provides some great views of the overall terrain of the area. Even in this dreary, cloudy day, you could see for miles and miles. Fall foliage changes from deep green to lighter green and even some yellow was present. Even better was the view of the upcoming trail, which looked to be about a mile to a mile and a half of fields running. Yes! A place to make up some time! Then I spied the next “Norm factor” the 10 foot wall. Yep, Spartan friends. A 10’ wall for the individuals and a 12’ for the teams. This thing was a beast. Ten feet tall and slick. I quickly found a few folks who needed help and got them over and then got help in return. Technique? Leg hook! I just had to get to a height where I could get my hands on the top of the wall to then swing my hips to get the ankle on the top of the wall. I really don’t want to have to build a 10’ wall in the back yard, however, I have a feeling that in 2016 the 10’ might be the new standard. More to come on this in the next few races I am sure. Finishing the wall, I jogged up to the next water stop, slammed a few more shot bloks and some water, then hit the sandbag carry. For the Trifecta Training crew, this carry was very similar to the length and steepness of Temecula. A good steep up and a steep down. One foot in front of the other and power breathing, I never stopped or set the bag down until the finish.
I again set off on a 5-6 MPH across the fields until hitting the low lands, which were full of mud and put the brakes on my quicker pace, knocking me down to about 4 MPH again. The good thing was that I was closing in on mile 8 which meant I had less than a 5K to the finish. Towards the end of the run exposed the barbed wire crawl, which was one of the cleanest softest crawls that I have done this year. Soft stick mud clung to me, but it was a welcome change from the rocks, or sandy crawls that I have done to date. Low barb wire made rolling difficult at points, and it was definitely an obstacle that you had to take you pack off or it would have snagged just about all of the barbed wire. One my second on third roll I managed to take a big chuck of skin out of my right knee from not getting it under the barb wire as I rolled. That is going to leave a mark!
Out of the barbwire crawl I headed to the rolling mud pits and the slip wall.
The rolling mud pits were about 3’ of water and slick sides on the climb out. Not terrible difficult but I was trying to keep my hands dry due to the next obstacle the slip wall. Before the slip wall was a long 50 yard walk in a stream about 1-2’ deep. I was glad for the water walk, as it provided me time to shake my feet around to knock off the mud from the past 8 miles of racing. My legs felt like I was running with cinder blocks tied to them due to the weight of the mud that was stuck to the treads, the sides and top of the shoes. Coming out of this water walk, my shoes were almost clean, which made the wall easy to scale up with very minimal slippage. Grabbing the top of the wall I transferred from the rope and started my descent. I stole a quick look behind me on the wall and no one was coming up where I was so I didn’t feel the need to stick around to help anyone. I jumped off the back side and was heading towards the access road to the venue (that I crossed over after the Stairway to Spartan) only to find that the road was STILL bumper-to-bumper full of racers trying to get TO THE venue, and this was close to 1 PM!
Mile 13 & the Burpee gauntlet
I jogged across the road, thanked the Patrol officer for pausing the very slow traffic, and climbed over the far fence. This was the point of the race that had the distance cut out. The original course went left. We were all told to go right. Within a ½ mile of field and woods running with short stream crossing (about 6’ wide and 2’ deep) followed by a steep hand and foot climb up to a small ridge to where we were presented with the ONLY mileage sign of the entire race, as the staff pulled all the other signs dur to the course being re-routed. The sign said “Mile 13”. My TomTom Multi Sport Cardio watch said 8.4 miles to this point. Either way, with the original course being 14.x I was close. I was almost done.
Passing the mile 13 sign we had more rolling hills and mud running until we ran up to the herc hoist. Those of you that follow this blog know that the herc hoist is one of the easier obstacles for me. I can usually knock it out without incident. Today however, the ropes, or at least the start of the ropes (the first 8-10’) were very slick with mud. I gave a tug and my hand slipped on the rope.
“Ok” I thought, “I need to pay attention to this.”
Just then another racer who was much smaller than me asked me “Hey man you want to partner up?”
On this obstacle, in Open heats you can partner up on the obstacle, you just have to do it twice.
Not realizing that he was asking me because HE needed help, I replied “Naw I got it..”
“You sure? We can partner up and just do it twice.” He replied.
Then it clicked. As I have told others racers on the BaackPaack, “Sometimes you get a little, other times you have to give a little.” This was a case of the latter.
I looked at him, “Sure, let’s do it, you take the end, I will stand here and pull”. With both of us on the rope, even being slick, the weight leapt off the ground. As soon as I hit dry rope I started pulling as usual and taking a large majority of the weight. He noticed it right away and started to say something but quickly shut his mouth. The weight got to the top and we let it back down slowly. Getting to the bottom, he was starting to get up off the ground to thank me when I interrupted him.
“We aren’t done yet, we have to do it again.. stay right there and we will knock this out” and I started pulling. I think the rapid turnaround on the second attempt caught him by surprise as he quickly started to catch up and contribute to the pull. Twenty seconds later the bag was on the ground for the second time he stood up, threw me a high five and a thank you, and was gone – off running down the trail.
I soon followed and ended up at the one “major” water obstacle that they kept in the course, the dunk wall and short swim. I popped into the water waded up to the dunk wall, felt for the bottom and pulled myself under. Due to the flood waters, I bet I was a good 3-4’ under the water, which isn’t a big deal, just a lot deeper than the standard races. I emerged from the other side with a smile on my face and swam out the far side.
I love water obstacles, I guess I am crazy like that. Climbing out of the short swim, I made my way to the last water stop to pause to throw down a few more Cliff Shot Bloks, more of a metal energy moment than anything else, and jogged up the last rise to get to the start of the final 6 obstacles. I had been on the course for 3 hours and 25 minutes and I wanted these last six done in less than 30 minutes. There was a real possibility that I was going to do 60 – 120 buprees here so I needed to stay focused. I jogged up to the monkey bars and took a quick look. This was the new one with the elevated rungs. Nope, not today, not if I was going to finish strong with the rope climb and traverse. I touched the obstacle and hit the burpee area. At this point Vicki was standing across from me in the spectator area, watching me do my burpees. I got a set of 10 in when my right knee really started to ache, badly. “Damn..” I thought, “this is going to suck.”
When I finished Tahoe 3 weeks earlier I was up in weight and the additional weight plus the long running descent off the mountain put a toll on my right knee. Right at the base of the knee cap and along the outside edge. For the past three weeks I have been pain managing (or masking as some would call it) as well as basic stretching to try to get it right for this weekend and the miles I would be putting on it. It had not bothered me until this point, but doing these burpees, and then explosive movement from the bottom of the pushup to where you bring your legs back under you to then push your jump up, was shooting pain through my right knee. This was screwing up my form, causing more of a walk up, then a jump, then a chest to ground bottom move to a “hop/walk up” to another jump. I was starting to slow down and micro focus on my knee rather than macro focus on how much race I had left, when I heard Vicki from the other side of the obstacle.
“Stay focused Jay, you are almost done!”
That snapped me back to the present situation and I grinded out the last 15 burpees that I needed for the penalty on this obstacle. I picked up my pack and jogged over to the log hop.
Penalty Race burpees: 60
Arriving here, I found two ladies who were unsure of which log run they wanted to try. I walked up to them and said “Hey, you want a spot?”
They both looked at me and said “You can do that?”
“In open hell yes!” I replied.
So I spotted both of them on their runs and then they returned the favor for me. I think I could have made it without them, but hey, having someone walk next to you in case you need the hand is a good way to calm the nerves. I jumped off the last log gave them both a high five and jogged to the cliff multi bar obstacles. This one was mounted really low. As in I could grab the rings with my arms in the “L” position, where your bicep is flexed and your forearms are straight up and your bicep and upper arm is parallel to the ground… which is how you want to be when suspended on this obstacle. The problem was, I was STANDING on the ground with my arms in this position. So, unless I wanted to try this obstacle with my legs tucked up under me I was going to have to do burpees. Guess what?
Burpees for me.
Penalty race burpees: 90
I really wanted to knock these out quick. I wanted this race over. However, at the same time I forced myself to slow down to three sets of 10, one reason was my knee, the other was the next obstacle, the rope climb. I needed to have something in the tank to be able to get it done.
Finishing my three sets of 10, I started walking to the rope climb while fishing out my new football receiver gloves that I had kept safe and secure in a zip lock bag just for this obstacle. In an obscure forum post I found a reference to folks using football receiver gloves on slick muddy ropes. In Temecula I really wanted the rope climb, but the rope was very slick from the mud from other racers and I was not able to complete it. I wanted to get it done here. I pulled on the gloves, paying attention to get the fingers on tight. Spying the rope that I wanted I took a second, gave a deep breath and grabbed the rope high with my right hand. It felt like Velcro locking together. The grip was amazing.
AWESOME!
Four solid leg locks I was at the top and ringing the bell. CLANG CLANG!
The additional 5-10% in grip from the gloves gave me a 1000% percent mental boost. I flew up the rope to the cheers of Vicki from the spectator area and some amazed looks from some of the smaller, fitter racers who were standing at the bottom watching me climb. I splayed my feet wide and let the rope slide through my hands on the way down.
I jumped off the rope for the last 4 feet and ran over to the Traverse. Not wanting to loose the mental high from the rope climb I quickly slung under the rope leaned back and started throwing my legs over the rope as I alternated the left and right arms. The gloves providing excellent grip here as well, as I flew across the rope and hit the bell. Dropping my feet I ran the last 70 yards to the fire jump, leapt the flames and flashed a “6” – all five finger of my right hand and one finger of my left. Then ran across the finish line. Finishing in 3:51.XX, a solid 8 minutes faster than my plan.
Dallas Beast day 1 DONE!
I collected my banana, my Vanilla Almond Builder bar and a FitAid drink. Got in line for the customary finisher pic, and headed over to collect the #6 trifecta medal. In line I ran into several other multi Trifecta earners, a few threes and a 4, all of which were running Sunday as well. We chatted up next races (I will be seeing most of them again in South Carolina as well), and then parted ways.
Vicki gave me a big hug and a smile as well as a few pics of me with Trifecta #6.
Which was quickly followed by.. “Can we go eat now?”
Yes dear we can… eating right now is something I definitely CAN DO!
Stay tuned for update #2, Day two of Dallas Spartan Beast weekend, where Vicki races for HER second trifecta!
Photo credits for many of the pics used in this post belong to: Wendy Bascom