The Baack Paack

Arizona Spartan Sprint 2016

In 2014 I noticed that there was a team forming from the Be Your Best Foundation, (http://beyourbestaz.com/) an organization that I am involved with that promotes life transformation.

Now, we are not talking about transforming into a Werewolf,or the Hulk.. (even though that would be super cool), but personal and spiritual transformation for your own personal growth.  In February 2015 I lead a team and we completed the 2015 Arizona Sprint.  We were not the fastest team out there by any stretch of the imagination, but that was not the goal.  The goal was to finish, and that is what happened.

Flash forward to 2016, and the 2016 Arizona Spartan Sprint is in the books.   I again coached and lead another team of Spartan newbies, however this year several things were different.

1. I was able to rely on the skills and attitudes of my trifecta veterans that ran with me in 2015.  They were a MASSIVE help in keeping people motivated and moving throughout the race.  Thank you Vicki, Sara, Becca & Tad for all of the help and assistance.  Special shout out to Carmen and Gabby, who also assisted in helping a brand new racer complete her first Sprint earlier in the day.  I also had several Arizona Spartan Sprint veterans who ran with me from last year on the team this year, who were a great assistance.  Thank you Wendi and Tracie and Leslie.  If you at home are keeping track with the names, yes, it was a lot of women. In fact the entire team was female except for Tad and I.
2. After the 2015 race, I decided that if I was going to do this level of support again for the 2016 year, I was going to strongly suggest (cough… require) members to start training early in 2015 for the race in 2016.  This started in March of 2015.  I knew the fitness levels of some of the participants, but not all of them.  Starting to train with them early would allow me to help them get ready for this race, 8 months into the future.   For many on the “team” having structured work outs for so long ahead of the race was foreign to them.  However, I knew from my own transformation experience that they needed this.  Structure, accountability, a support system, and motivation to keep focused on the goal.  Before I offered to do this, I discussed the options with Vicki.  I explained that on top of my goal of racing 24 races in in 2015 for my 8 trifecta quest, I wanted to take this responsibility on to motivate, coach, and workout with this new group.  She agreed, knowing full well what it would take from our personal lives and I proceeded.

 

“I can’t work out on Saturday.. I have XYZ.”

One of the excuses I was hit with right away was lack of commitment.   We avoid what we are not good at as a species, and strive to stay comfortable.  In order to get these folks ready for the race in Feb 2016, I needed to break that cycle.   After the first post about our first workout, I was immediately flooded by several members with reasons why they could not work out on the day selected.

“Fine” I thought to myself.   We will do both days.  From March 2015 until Feb 2016, each and every weekend (except for my own race travel and holidays) we did the same workout on Sunday as we did on Saturday.  I wanted to nip the excuses in the bud.  No more avoidance of what is difficult, what you fear.  No more “next year, next month, next week I will start”.  This was going to be a commitment, and to some, one of the largest commitments they have every made to themselves.   I posted up to the workout group, “You now have two option every weekend, pick one and get it done”.  Slowly, the excuses started to fade away, as well as some potential members who I think now realized the level of commitment that was going to be required in order to finish the race.  Others dropped out completely, as they started to get an idea as to what this was going to be about, and the level of WORK they were going to have to put in to achieve their goal.  As the weekends ticked by, I started to see I had a Saturday crew, a Sunday crew, and a few folks who would hit both days.  This worked out well, as several members started to work out with, and at the same time learned to work with their teammates that they would be supporting 8 months down the road.

Burpees Burpees and more Burpees

As many of you know, the penalty for failing to complete an obstacle in Spartan races is performing 30 burpees.   I hate them.  Everyone I know hates them, expect Sara.  (Whatever).  I needed to make sure that the team was well equipped to deal with the amount of burpees that we would need to complete in this race.   We would NOT SKIP burpees.  Even if every person on the team failed an obstacle, 30 would be paid out for each failure.  Knowing this, we did a lot of burpee drills.  Five minutes of burpees, BLAPS (Burpees for 400 meters) and random burpee exercises.  People had to get very uncomfortable, from doing burpees in the dry sand with stickers poking them in their shirt and shorts, to burpees in wet conditions, where we did the BLAP, on a freshly soaked green area at a local park.  Wet clothes from head to toe pushed them out of their comfort zone, but they got it done, and started to see a glimmer of what was possible when they had to push way out of their perceived comfort zone.  We did short hikes, hikes with burpees, steep hikes, long hikes.  We ran on pavement (but not a lot of that) and practiced obstacles on the ropes course in Mesa, as well as the BaackPaack ranch in STV.

As the months went by I could start to see the emotional and physical changes in some of the members who started to let down their personal walls and started to work with other members.  For those of you reading this, team work in a Spartan race or any obstacle race for that matter is very “handsy” meaning you are pushing, pulling and helping your fellow teammates in a variety of positions.  One of the funniest moments for me was when one of the females asked Tad for help on the traverse wall.  His response.. “Umm.. where can I… ahh.. are you ok with…” trying to be polite and address her level of comfort with a married man touching her to help.

Her response made me laugh out loud.

“Listen, I don’t care if grab my ass, or put your hands anywhere… DON’T  let me FALL OFF this thing.”

That about summed up the attitude for this team.  Folks had developed a high level of trust with each other, and to be honest we needed to- with the varying levels of fitness and support needed, not to mention that there was almost 30 of us on the team, and they wanted to avoid having to do the burpees at any cost.

We worked through the heat of the summer with hikes and workouts as well as the fall, and the team started to gel and folks started to accomplish more on the obstacles.  Soon, folks were seeing progress on the rope climb, some even completing it for the first time.  Others were making it over the slip wall, something they thought they could not do.  As we got close to the event, the intensity increased, and the group handled it.  Leaders emerged, support personnel knew their roles, and other realized the importance of a nutritionally sound eating plan and its relation to weight loss.

As the new year rolled over, we started focusing less on hiking and running and more on the obstacles.  I wanted these folks to have as much experience with them as possible, so they would be prepared for what they would be facing come race day.  We spent a lot of hours at the ranch getting folks over obstacles and ready for the event.  We focused on building skills and confidence, both of which they would need come race day in ample amounts.  Two weeks before the race I put them through a mini course complete with barbwire crawl (Tahoe style: with a wall in the middle of it), and a grip strength series that would have made Norm proud.   The bucket carry was extra-long and extra heavy (all the women carrying the men’s weight of rocks) to drive home the point of pushing past what they thought they could do.  I put everyone in uncomfortable positions and stacked obstacles that used the same muscle groups (Traverse wall, followed by rope climb, followed by monkey bars). Everyone hated the extra-long bucket carry and yelled at me about it, people were struggling with obstacles alone and were teaming up to get them finished.  People were working together towards to common goal of finishing.

Mission accomplished.

 

Race Day

Race day arrived with a flurry of Facebook messages the night before.  Most of the team thought they were ready, but they were anxious.   I am sure many didn’t sleep well the night before.  Many of my veterans had been volunteering at the event for free race credits, while others scoured Facebook and social media for any tips or hints as to what they would be facing.   Several of the team had planned on watching their children run in the kids race, which started about an hour before, which meant people were showing up at all hours to the venue before our 11:15 AM start.   Racing at 11:15 is late for me.  I think the latest that I ran all of last year was 10 AM, due to my desire to be on obstacles early, and to beat the heat.  Thankfully, Arizona has their Sprint race early in the season, as the temps, while still abnormally warm, never broke 90 degrees.  (Yeah, my east coasters… 90 degrees in February).

Vicki and I were heading out for the drive to venue when several text messages started coming in.  This year the Phoenix marathon was held the same day as the Spartan Sprint.  This meant that a lot of the options to get to the venue were blocked due to the marathon runners, who were running as us Spartan racers were trying to get to the venue.  Blocked or lost team mates, as well as updates as to the length of the parking backup was keeping my phone buzzing as Vicki drove to the venue.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

“Who is that? Vicki asked.

“Sara” I replied, “ 20 minute backup on 87 before you turn to park”.

“Don’t worry, that will be gone by the time we get there”, she replied.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZ

“Who is that?” Vicki asked.

“Erica.  Her and Dana hit the marathon traffic, I am working on getting them set on directions” I replied.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ   ZZZZZZZZ

“And that one?” she asked.

“Elaine, she wants to meet an elite racer after the event, and wants to know the protocol”  I replied.

And so on and so on.

Forty minutes later, we were at the event, (without the traffic backup as Vicki predicted) and parking the car.   I needed some “Jay time” so I left Vicki at the car and headed to the venue, telling her we would meet up with the team over near the start line.  I soon found myself in a sea of Spartan racers, those that had finished and were walking out of the venue, and those that were heading in to make their mark on the course.   Smiles, spandex, and brightly colored tanks, shoes, and calf sleeves where everywhere.  Yep, I was home.

Registration and confused racers

At the registration table I was presented with two timing chips, which while not a big deal (as I have two wrists), it was seriously confusing folks in the registration line.  Racers with registration numbers 1 – 1500 were presented with two chips.  We were the guinea pigs for this race.  One was the standard blue timing chip, the other was a fancy Chronotrack chip wrist timing chip.  My theory is that Spartan is looking at changing timing providers / making the process easier with Chronotrack.  Regardless, one went on the left, the other on the right.  However, you would have think that you had asked some racers to run naked.

“I have to wear both of these?”

“Yes” replied the volunteer.

“Why?”

“Because we are testing a different timing system” replied the volunteer.

“What if I don’t want to?”
“Then you might not get an accurate time” replied the volunteer.

“Hey Tim, (shouting to the next line over who DID NOT have to wear two timing chips) do you need to wear two timing chips??

And so the conversations went for several of the racers in front of me.

 

Dude, just grab your stuff and move on.
You are not running Elite.  Wear the two chips and be happy about it.
Today you are special, deal with it.

If people can’t handle change at registration.. This race should be a barrel full of fun for them.

Starting line

Getting all of my gear straight, timing chips on, TomTom watch synced and ready to start timing, I headed over to the starting area where I found some of the team hanging out adjacent to the kids Spartan race course.  I approached with a huge smile and high fives.

RACE DAY!! WHOO HOO! I yelled.

My trifecta veterans, all used to my pre-race excitement, just looked at me and smiled.  I knew they were ready.  My new racers were all over the map.  Some were amped up, others had their eyes darting all around from the start to the hills to the obstacles that we could see.  I took a few seconds to talk with everyone and pulled some of my stronger racers aside, letting them know that when they are helping a slower racer on our team, make sure they keep going once they get done the obstacle.  We will have time to rest as we get people through them, but we do not have the time to have them rest ahead of and after completing the obstacle.   We wanted to beat the time on the course from 2015, and the only way that would happen is if folks kept moving.   I learned at this point that a few of the racers who were questionable with injuries were not going to be able to race with us.   I think their decisions, while tough on their pride, was the right one.  Starting to race in a compromised position is never fun.  Starting in a compromised position for your first race is a plan for disaster.

As the time got closer to the start more and more of the team showed up.  Tad showed up, fresh from his 8 AM heat and watching his daughter in the kids race.  He was going to pull a double race day in preparation for Hawaii 2016, where he is going after his weekend trifecta.  He looked dirty, yet strong.  Asking about the course, the first thing he said was:

“Your bucket carry was about 4 times longer than this one, this one is a lot easier”.

“YES!” I thought, “I did it right”.

I congratulated him on his finished and then gathered our team around for a quick motivation speech.

“I had a big long speech planned out for you all about being an ocean.  However, I think I want to focus on three things with you all.   For this race I want you to be thinking of three things.” I said.

“Look up, Get up, and Never give up. We have trained for 8 months to get to this point.  Now training is over.  It is time to race, it is time YOU BECAME SPARTANS!  Today we will have integrity with the obstacles and do the burpees if we have to.  We will help each other, and we will all finish!”

With that we headed to the starting corral, and started helping folks over the 5’ starting wall to get into the race shoot.   The reasons for all the hard work, sweat, effort and meal planning was about to present itself in 5 minutes.  I had gotten them to this point, now the team just needed to get everyone to the end.

AROO! AROO! AROO!  GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

With that we were off.

Part of my strategy for this race was that all the racers on the team had to keep a 19-21 min / mile pace.  Basically 3 miles per hour, when not on an obstacle.  If we kept this pace, we could finish the distance in just over an hour and a half, then double that time for the obstacles, giving us a total of 3 hours on the course.  It was an ambitious plan, but a necessary evil to keep everyone pushing and moving.  The team had racers on the team would could do 8 min miles all the way to 19 min miles when pushed.  Some would have to slow down to help, and others would have to really dig deep to get it done.

The first .3 miles had people pushing way too fast out of the gate.  I was tracking 11 and 12 min miles by our slower team members and I knew they could not keep up this pace.  I slowed down to a 17 min mile to slow them down.  I knew they would burn out of gas by the first mile if we tried to keep that speed.  At this point my friends from the CrossFit SanTan team went flying by us, all sporting the olive green t-shirts.  It was great to see them and give them a high five as they ran by, as I have a special place in my heart for Courtney and Mike for believing in me even when I was 400+ lbs and struggling each and every day with the workouts at the box.

While I was sweeping on the course, Tad was in the front with the faster racers, helping everyone on the obstacles or directing others to work with each other until I got there with the slower racers, then we would team up to get them through the obstacle, then he would push ahead again.  He was doing double duty and I was very appreciative of it. As I spied the first obstacle (over 5’ walls) My veterans were doing a great job helping and telling the new racers what to do.  We quickly made work of the obstacle and pressed on the course.

 

Minus 1

Hitting the second obstacle I knew several of the racers had a mental block with this one. The dreaded vertical cargo climb.  About a 12’ pure vertical cargo wall up, then over the top, and down the other side.  Vicki had a fear of it early in 2015, then dominated the obstacle in Vegas, only to freeze up and have a melt down on the obstacle in Temecula.. but, listened to the coaching and believed in herself and completed it.   I wanted to make sure I was there for her and some of the other racers, so I pushed ahead from my sweep position and got there to coach them over it.  I started talking to Vicki, and when she reached the top she looked down at me from the top of the obstacle and said “I got this”.

I knew I was able to leave her alone and focus on others.  I quickly scampered up over the cargo net wall and down the other side so I could coach Tammy through it.  While I was focused on Tammy on the other side of the wall came this tremendous screech.  I could not tell what was being said, only that it was loud.  Lezlie, who was still climbing the wall started calling out for me to come over.

I looked over to see Vicki throwing me the “STOP” symbol shaking her head NO.. NO.. NO – and she start climbing back UP the obstacle to help the racer out. Tracie also climbed back up and helped coach her though the obstacle.  Several minutes later everyone was back down on the ground and I was moving on with the team.   Vicki was having a heart to heart with the racer who panicked at the obstacle and soon caught up with me to let me know she had dropped.  While, I was sad to see someone not being able to complete the race, it was for the best as the effort or desire wasn’t there on that that day.

Hitting the Spartan hurdles we made quick work of those, with several members offering support on the obstacle, dropping to a knee to give something for someone to stand on, or bracing them from the front or rear, and then we were back to trail moving towards the next obstacle.

Rope climb

I think everyone on our team was excited that the rope climb was early in the race this year.  For me and few others, it meant we were still “fresh” and could hit the obstacle feeling good, and for the rest of the team, the 30 burpee option was better to get over with around mile 2 than mile 4.   I ran up to the obstacle tossed off my pack, pulled out my secret weapon (Under Armour football receiver gloves) and threw them on.   I ended my 8 trifecta season last year failing the rope climb, which bothered me more than I thought it would.  I wanted this year to start fresh.  For the past 8 months I had been working on my climbs in the back yard, using slippery gloves to work on my grip strength, but saving the skin when I slid down the rope on the descent.   I used shoes with worn treads to force me to get solid leg locks to the rope.  In the weeks coming up to the race I was on the ropes every day, getting 3-5 climbs a day, pushing myself and my strength.   I wanted to crush this climb.

The Arizona race didn’t have any ropes with knots, and the ropes did not start in the water.   I grabbed the bone dry rope and set my feet in my first lock.  BOOM. Solid.  Three more moves and I was ringing the bell at the top.

2016 season rope climb, Jay 1 rope 0.

I slid down the rope, with my gloves taking the heat and friction of the rope on my hands, stripped them off and ran over to the burpee zone, where I gave 5 burpees for two of the racers on my team to help them out.  I finished my donation burpees and caught Becca out of the corner of my eye sliding down the rope.   I gave her a thumbs up and she shook her head “no”.  She got about ½ way before her strength gave out.

Vegas Becca, Vegas!  Let’s own that thing!

I walked back over to the rope climb area and saw that Emma was just getting up from doing some burpees.  (I should state that the burpee “area” for the rope climb is just about everywhere as so many folks fail this obstacle.)

I asked her if she completed it.

“Well heck ya!” was her response.  Way to crush it Emma.

Soon Christina was on the rope.  Christina was one of the group that crushed the rope climb in training, but had a hard time with it during my mini course.   I wanted to be there to cheer her on.  Each leg lock on the rope she got a bit higher, however, by the 4th or 5th, I could tell she was starting to struggle.   I started cheering… OK.. SCREAMING.. at her to keep going.   I know some of the other racers on the obstacle were now looking over as I was very loud.

DO NOT LET GO.  TWO MORE PULLS AND RING THAT BELL!!
KEEP MOVING CHRISTINA!! YOU ARE RIGHT THERE. REACH GIRL – DIG DEEP, MOVE!

I don’t know if my “cheering” helped, but two pulls later she hit the cowbell.

“YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I bellowed and gave her a big high five when she was back on the ground.   I found out later that Dana also crushed the rope and was in the lead group.  Four of us on the team completed it.  Almost 20%.  Awesome.

 

Concrete wall

 

Soon after the rope climb (within a mile) was the concrete wall.  A massive stone wall made of large construction blocks as a giant retaining wall.   At the race, Spartan mounts rope to the top of them and has the participants climb up the vertical face of the wall.   It sounds a lot harder than it is, as there are very large cracks that you can put your feet in on top of each block.  You literally just have to hold the rope and pull up on it, and then walk up the cracks in the rocks.  It is a much bigger mental obstacle than physical one, as long as you keep your body vertical with the rope.  If you start leaning back, it becomes a major shoulder and forearm burner and that is where people struggle.
I made it up to the wall and coached several through the obstacle.   I know several members of the team looked at the wall, then me and then the wall and said “I can’t”.   I wasn’t having it.   I looked at one of them in particular, Monica, and said:

“You have lost over 100 pounds, you do Crossfit 5 times a day, you sure as shit can climb this rope.”

Grabbing the rope, I put it in her hands, stepped back looked her in the eyes and said..

“Go!”.

She grabbed the rope and climbed.  Struggling at first by then settling in and making it up and over the top.  Then it was Lezlie’s turn, and with the same coaching she made it fine.  I looked around to see who else was left, and noticed that a few of the other racers were just heading to the burpee zone.  I quickly scaled up the rope and jumped down the other side then hit the burpee zone to help with the penalty burpees for the other racers.  Once everyone was done, we started moving again.

 

Minus two

At this point in the race the team was starting to stretch out, which was expected.  We were coming up on the sandbag carry then a small hill, and a water stop.  Many of the team was already through the sand bag carry a short course going up and down a steep hill while carrying a sandbag.(a 20# sandbag for women, a 40# for men, and a new square larger 75# sandbag for the elite racers).  I wanted finish this quickly so I could persuade folks not to rest here after the obstacle, but to push over the hill to get to the water station to rest there.  I grabbed a bag and headed up the obstacle, passing a few younger racers up the hill.  I then stumbled upon Amy and Wendi, who were sitting just off to the side.   Through breaths I asked they were OK, I got a smile back, to which I took as a positive sign.  To help out Amy who looked like she was struggling a bit, I grabbed her bag and threw it on top of mine.    Reaching the bottom, I dumped both of them into the bin and stood off to the side and waiting for Amy, Wendi and a few others of the team to finish the obstacle.

And waited…  waited…. waited.

About 10 minutes had gone by and now I was starting to get concerned.

“They should have finished by now” I thought.   Then I saw a racer dump a bag and look to one of the volunteers.

“Hey man, you have a radio?  One of the racers fell and hurt her ankle”.

My heart sank.  Deep down I knew it was one of the team, I just didn’t know who.

Several minutes Wendi came down with her bag and called me over as Amy was limping down the course.  It was a pretty slick descent, so I went over and helped her down and to the flat.  I could tell she was hurting physically, but more mentally.

“Jay, I am so sorry”.. she kept repeating over and over.

“Amy, no worries, it is what it is, how can I help you.” I replied.

“I want to keep going” she said, limping on one leg.

“Let’s get to the water station and we can discuss it” I replied, walking next to her, holding her arm and shoulder to take some of the pressure off her foot.

Surprisingly, going up the hill, she was moving at a slow but manageable pace.  Going down the other side, with the water station in sight, was another story.  I could tell the downhill pressure on her foot / ankle was causing a lot of pain.  I got her down to the water station where some of the other members of our team who were waiting grabbed her and guided her over to a shade spot under a small scrub brush.  I grabbed a cup water and brought it over to her.

“Jay, I am so sorry” she said, fighting the tears.

“Amy, you are injured, there is nothing to be sorry about.” I replied.

“Look” I said.. “We have to go UP that, then down the other side” pointing to the next rise which was a pretty steep incline.  “Dropping here makes sense”. I told her.

She shook her head in agreement, however, I know the decision was devastating to her.  She really wanted to continue, but with the unknown injury, it was the right call.

I gave her a high five, confirmed she was going to stop one last time, and then started up the hill with Tammy and Kristin.

(Come to find out later that she broke a bone in her foot.. OUCH!)

 

“I lift things up and put them down”

One of the obstacles that I have a large amount of confidence in is the Herc Hoist, I dare say it is my best obstacle, as I can usually complete it in under 30 seconds.   This year was no exception, with several strong pulls, it became a non-obstacle for me.  I quickly checked in with the ladies to make sure they were good to go, then I told them I wanted to push on so I could support folks at they finished the barbwire crawl and headed to the bucket carry.   I knew the bucket carry, even though it would be a LOT easier than what I put them through, was going to be hard for many of them.  Getting the go ahead from the group, I pushed to the crawl and the bucket, and they told me they would sweep the last of the team to the crawl.

 

And we are rolling

The rolling mud pits were next, three pits of muddy goo that were about thigh deep and slick.  Not a huge challenge, other than just trying to stay on your feet.  Climbing out of  that, we hit the barbwire crawl.

The mud crawl for this race wasn’t overly complex.  Many of the races will but natural as well as other barriers in the crawl (irrigation tunnels, hay, etc) that force you to navigate around them.   This crawl didn’t have any of that.   I was clear from start to finish, and the barb wire was “high” so you could keep your pack on your back and roll.   Some of you might think SCORE!   Not so fast sailor.

When you have an open and high barbed wire crawl, it allows you to really push when you are under it.  If you choose to roll, (which I think is faster than the standard military crawl) you have to deal with getting very dizzy with you head spinning around and around.  The cure for this is to alternate, so you roll in one direction for 5-10 rolls, then adjust your body so you roll the other way (adjust your body).  This will combat the dizzy feeling of the rolling.  Combine this with Arizona decided to have you roll up hill… made for an interesting event.   By the time I got to the end of the crawl I was quite dizzy, and puking didn’t sound like a terrible idea.  It wasn’t the number 1 priority, however, I would not have hated it if it happened.   I pushed myself upright, and walked up to the next obstacle, the bucket carry.

5 laps of the bucket carry

As I was filling my bucket for the carry I realized two things.

1. The bucket carry was the same course as last year, just backwards
2. There was a water stop right after it

This was very similar to the race last year, however, the order of the bucket carry was reversed.   Between scoops of gravel into the bucket I spied the route, slipped by wristbands down to my hands, hefted the bucket and headed off on the course.   Remembering the course from last year I knew I could complete it quickly and then be ready to help others on the team who were dragging.  Down the road, through the canyon, up the incline, and then down the short but steep area right before dumping the bucket back in the bin.  I quickly grabbed a few red buckets (the women’s bucket) and pull them to the side so I could hand them out to the racers who would be coming up next.  I don’t remember the exact order, but I ended up doing that obstacle five times, helping Sara, April, Vicki, Debra, and Kristen with their buckets at some point during their laps.  Vicki’s reaction to me getting her to the bucket carry was classic Vicki during the race.  She had just completed the barbwire crawl and was heading up the hill to the bucket carry.  I thrust a bucket in her hands and starting telling her about how the water station was right after this obstacle and she can rest there.  She took the bucket from me and with bleary eyes looked at me.

“What do you want me to do with this?  She asked, taking the bucket from me.   “Throw up in it?”

Yep. That’s my girl.

During one of the laps Tad checked in with me to see if I needed any help, or could he push with the other group.  I told him I was good to go here – and he was off.

Finishing with Kristen on the bucket carry, we started up the last major climb of the race, where we would end up on top of the plateau with some more wall obstacles, the monkey bars, A-frame cargo net, and then back down to the festival area.  I paced Kristen up the hill.  Counting steps before we would pause for a quick breather, then off again for another 50 steps.  We were just past mile 3 and closer to the end than the start.  It was just a matter of getting everyone through the last obstacles.

As we crested the hill I could see the next series of obstacles were the 7 and 8’ walls, and I caught a glimpse of Vicki going up and over the first wall.   I pushed ahead so I could be there to help the other racers from our team, reaching the 7’ wall I quickly jumped, scaled over and came down before coming back around the front to help the other racers get up and over the wall, following the same schedule for the 8’ walls.

Many new racers find the walls very intimidating.  Let be honest, climbing an 8’ wall isn’t something that most think about on an average day.  While there is some technique to it, it is mostly wrapping your brain around getting the activity completed safely.   By the way many of the team were acting, I could tell their brains were starting to freeze up as they were struggling to get on top of, then over the walls.

Newbie advice:   Listen to the veterans, even if it sounds strange.  Do what they tell you.  They will get you through the event.  Don’t try to have a conversation with them at the top of the wall as to why they are telling you to do X, Y, and Z.  The time for that was before the race when you were PRACTICING… NOW, at this point – just follow their directions and we can get you up and over quickly!

 

Let go.. Let GO.. LET GO!!

A bit farther down the course were the Spartan monkey bars, a set of very thick bars that are at alternate heights that you have to swing from in order to complete the obstacle.  I wanted to get through these quickly so I could be there to help others on the obstacle.  To practice for this, I constructed a set in the back yard to get used to the motions as well as the grip strength needed.

The monkey bar obstacle isn’t like the monkey bars that some of us had in grade school.  This structure is about 20’ wide and 15’ long, so at one time you will find 4 to 5 different racers spanning the entire width of the obstacle at one time.  It can get very crowded.  I queued up in line and slipped on my gloves as I waited for the folks in front of me to go.  The women in front of me was getting help from another male racer, who had one of her legs as support as she touched the bars on the obstacle.  I let her get about ¾ of the way through it before I started.

First bar, easy grab.

Second bar with left hand, then the right, start the swinging motion.

Third bar, a high reach – but grabbed it easily – quickly transfer to bar four..

Hey, why hasn’t she dropped from the obstacle yet?” I thought.   I could tell that her support dude wasn’t holding her legs anymore.

Quickly transferring to the high bar five (which was more of a reach that I thought it was), I was now closing in on this body that was just hanging at the bar before the bell.. not moving, just hanging there.

Bar six, then seven.. Now I am two bars from her and moving quickly in her direction.

Bar eight, she still hasn’t dropped.  LET GO LET GO!!  my brain is screaming at her.   I am moving like a 50 ton locomotive and she is a deer standing on the tracks.  Fighting my body’s inertia to move forward I swing backward and re-grab bar 7 so I don’t plow her off the bars. With my legs churning again forward I swing back to bar eight and miss with my right hand, throwing all my weight on my left hand, and I end up falling to the ground.  A second later she decided to let go and fall to the ground.

30 burpees for me.  I was seeing red and I wanted to unload a barrage of RAGE that would have left her crying curled up in the fetal position.. But, that was not to be.  I watched her prance off down the course, and I headed to do burpees.

Working on my second set of 10, I saw Christina coming over to the burpee area.

“Jay, how many do you have left?” she asked.

“Fifteen” I grunted.

“I will do them for you, you are a bigger help over on the monkey bars, and taller..” she replied.

To be honest at that point in the race I would have expended less energy doing the burpees, but I agreed and headed back over to the bars to help several of the team through the obstacle, grabbing a thigh or handful of gluteus maximus to help support the racers on the course.

Getting everyone through we headed to the A frame cargo net, where several members had to face their fear of heights as they climbed up and over the 20’ at the peak high triangle made of webbing.  I could tell a few were having mental struggles with this one, and I focused my attention on them with coaching from the ground.   Seeing the last racer step off, we started moving down the hill to the last 10 obstacles before the finish, all located in the festival area with plenty of spectators as well as finished racers sitting in the stands watching the spectacle unfold.

Stairway to Spartan

Coming around the top of the mesa and heading down into the festival area we passed the mile 4 sign.  We were almost done.   I could smell the burning wood of the fire, hear the music from the speakers playing in the festival area.  We were close.  Just 10 more obstacles and we would be finished.  Let’s start knocking them out.

I ran down to the slip wall to help Tad get Vicki started on the obstacle.  Once she was up over the first few wooden slats above the wall, we looked back to see who was next.  Not seeing anyone, we looked at each other and quickly scaled up and over the obstacle.  Jumping down the other side we ran back around to help others get started with the wall and then up to the wooden slats. At this point, time was starting to drag on, as our slower racers were starting to slow down after 4 miles of Spartan racing.  At the same time, my faster racers were getting tired with all of the help they were providing.  I had to shift my coaching mentality into high gear and start verbalizing praise to everyone to keep the spirits high.

Nine more to go I kept thinking as I worked with the team getting folks up on to the Stairway to Sparta, with every racer who stood on my thigh and shoulder I was counting down what was left.   We were close, just had to keep everyone safe and moving.

When the last racer was up on the obstacle, I ran around and went right to the atlas carry, grabbing the stone, standing, carrying it the distance, dropping it off, snapping out 5 quick burpees, picking the stone back up, walking back, and dropping it back into the divot / stone place holder with a large thud.

Spear Throw

I wanted to compete that obstacle as well as spear throw quickly so I could get to the Cliff multi bar and do my burpees before I started helping others on the obstacle.  Moving from the Atlas carry I headed right to the spear throw and jumped from line to line about 4 times until I found a station that I liked.  This one the string looked short and no one was hitting on it.  That one the bales looked brand new and “tight”, as I witnessed a fella throw the spear and have it hit and then bounce OUT of the bale.  The next one had 15 or so knots in the rope, all taking up valuable inches on the rope.  The last one looked good, but still, the rope was a bit shorter than I would have liked.  As I waited my turn I could see several members of the team in the burpee area knocking out burpees.  Many had missed, and they were paying the penalty.   The person in front of me through the spear over the top of the bale, and obvious miss, and headed to the burpee zone.  Following the steps that I had several dozen times last year, I pulled the back, untangled any major tangles, laid the rope on the far side of the fence, found my stance, grip, and right arm position.  I reached back and put a bit more zip on the throw that I usually do as I wanted to make sure the arc of the throw was not going to interfere with the shorter tether line.

I let it fly… and it stuck true.  About 6” off center of the top bale.   Boom.  1 for 1 in 2016 with the spear throw.  I fist pumped a few times and headed to the Cliff multi bars and obstacle that I had yet to complete in 2015, not from lack of trying, but due to how it was setup.

(This year about 5 members of the team stuck the spear throw. I was quite excited to hear this!)

 

Cliff multi bar

In 2015 Spartan Race dropped the height of the monkey bars and rig setup from 9′ to 7′.  This was done as a way to reduce injuries, as too many people were falling off these obstacles and landing on their back, head, or in an awkward position that resulted in sprained or broken ankles.. (Remember, you did sign a waiver!)  When they reduced the height from 9′ to 7′, the injury rate went down 40%.  That was great news for the racers as well as Spartan Race as a whole – however, it created a new completion issue for racers over 6’3″… you feet hit the ground when swinging on the obstacles – which results in a obstacle failure and thirty burpees.   So, when you see those racers on TV with these massive hip swings, whipping their lower legs for momentum, picture them kicking the ground in “mind whip”.  That is what it is like if you are a tall Spartan racer on these obstacles, unless you really engage your core to lift your legs “up” while you try to swing.

Needless to say, I don’t have the strength, yet, to make this happen.  However, the rig in AZ was a combination of a straight pipe, rings, rope  and the cowbell, to which I made it about 1/2 way though, transitioning on several of the rings before my grip gave out.. and off to burpees I went.

 

Z-Wall

The Z-wall took a while to get everyone through due to how tired everyone was.  I could see it, they were spent – and the thought of having to hang and stand on short 2×4″ blocks, was not going to happen alone, so there was a lot of support.  Hands of waists, hands on legs, hands on feet, hands on rear ends.. hands everywhere.

But we managed to get everyone through the event.  From there we jogged over to a slack line that everyone scampered over with support from fellow racers offering a shoulder or an arm to grab a hold of to steady ourselves.

After getting everyone through the slack line, the race was almost over, you could see the fire and smell the smoke!

Tunnel?

I think a last minute addition to the race were these short plastic tunnels that we had to crawl through.  Not overly difficult, just more time on the hands and knees – moving forward through these things.  They were maybe about 50′ long, which I know was taxing to some on the team, having to get back down on the ground again to crawl on somewhat uncomfortable terrain.  One more obstacle down, three to go!

After that was Vicki’s nemesis, the Slip wall, and this one was tall.

Slip Wall

I knew the slip wall was going to be tough for a lot of the team due to the upper body strength that was going to be needed in order to complete it, and that had long left most of them due to the amount of burpees that they had done to this point.  I knew my best position to help would be to get up on the top of the wall and coach from there, where I could grab hands, arms and legs to get them to the top.

While this wall was dry, without a moat to run through before climbing it, it felt like it was a bit steeper that normal.  You can be the judge based upon the picture below.

 

Vicki,  who had a mental block on this obstacle charged right up the side of the obstacle, feet and hands moving the whole to right until she got to me.  She was making great headway of the wall, and within a step of two of the end, where you have to transition from one side to the other, she started to freeze up a bit.  I reached back over the wall, grabbing her leg and pulling it over the wall.  From there, she hooked, and rolled over the top!  Obstacle complete!  Soon after Sara, Becca, Debra, Wendi, and others were following suit, pulling themselves up the wall and then helping with the transition, Tad on one end of the wall myself on the other.

 

Looking back at everyone coming over the wall, I thought I had seen everyone… and we were pushing towards the final two obstacles, the dunk wall and fire jump.   Then Leslie grabbed me and asked.. “Where is Tammy?”

Looking around, I didn’t see her, so I headed back up to the slip wall with Elaine in order to see if we could see her on the other side of the obstacle.  Looking back, she was just coming out of the tunnels, and deviating towards the shade.   At this point, we were over 5 hours into this race and I really wanted it over.  I was sore, tired and wanted to be off the course.   From the top of the wall I called her over slapping my hand on the top of the obstacle, urging her over.  However, Tammy had shade on the mind as she was exhausted, this race was a tough one for her.   I looked at Elaine and told her to “follow me” and we jumped off the back of the wall and ran around the side.   Tammy was sitting at a bench 100 yards from the finish.  I knew she had some fear of the slip wall, based upon her introduction to it in my backyard.  I knew if we waited for her to be “ready” it was going to be a while.  Looking back I could see tad and Sara looking back to me with this “What is going on?” face.  I called them back, and they jogged back to the bench.

Tammy, “Let’s end this” I said.

“I need a minute”… she replied.

“Ok, Tad, Sara, Elaine, Leslie.. give me 5 burpees each.” I barked.   They all looked at me and knew what the plan was – we were going to team burpee this one for Tammy, so we could continue on.

I dropped and threw in some, and before I knew it 30 burpees were done.

“Ok, Tammy, let’s go.. let’s end this thing.. we did the burpees, let’s finish this thing!  We can ALL rest at the end!”

Not sitting for nearly the time she wanted, (I knew she was still gassed, but with only a dunk wall and a fire jump, I knew she could do them), she thew on her pack and started moving to the end.

 

“Off we go!” I shouted – and we started moving forward again for the last two obstacles.

The dunk wall quickly completed,

and we jumped the fire.

 

Arizona Sprint 2016 was over!
Look at all the newly minted Spartans!

Spartan Race’s tag line is:  “You will know at the finish line..”  I think everyone here has a better understanding of exactly what that means.    I am so proud of the team.

 

Body image and acceptance

A lot of OCR racers talk about the community of OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) and how accepting of others they are of EVERYONE in the community.  At any given Spartan race you will find folks with 8 percent body fat up to and including 38 percent.  Different sizes, heights, sexes, abilities, with one common bond.  We are ALL suffering together.  We are all dealing with elevated heart rates, mud in places where it should not be, sore muscles and difficult obstacles.   That is the common bond.   Yes, the faster racers pass by the slower racers (it IS a race after all!) However, many times during a race you can always hear someone asking “Dude, you OK?” when addressing a racer that is pulled off to the side of the course.

I have seen folks in full run mode, stop pull over, fish some things out of their pack, offer aid to racer on the ground, then keep going down the course with nothing expected in return.  I have seen other racers pull off the side and forget their own “race” to stay with and help someone in need, regardless of the size or physical conditioning of the racer in question.   They have built a community of like-minded folks who truly enjoy being around each other.   This mutual understanding of suffering together is what continues to draw me to OCR racing.   This common connection – that we are all in this together – regardless if you are the first to finish or the last.  Now, it isn’t all skittles and rainbows, it IS a RACE after all.  However, more often than not, if you need help, you just have to ask.