SoCal Spartan Race 2011

Saturday was my last mud run of the year - the Spartan Race.  And boy was it cold.  November is always a gamble whether it will be warm or not.  I lost.  It was 45 when my friend Luke and I started the race at 8AM.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at just how quickly I warmed up, however, since I was wearing shorts and a T-Shirt instead of my normal long running pants and sweatshirt like I wore when I went running this morning.

And they started us right off with cold water.  It had to be just a matter of yards into the race, and we went through a double dip of waste deep water.  But then it was up and running up hill.

Let me tell you, the hills were steep and there were lots of them.  Even this guy who normally runs up a hill found them long and tiring.

The obstacles were varied and fun.  They had monkey bars.  They had walls to climb over.  But they also had walls you had to roll under or go through.  At one point, they had buckets of concrete you had to pull up a pully system.  And there was a wall with small hand holds you had to try to cross.

Of course, what I didn't like was if you failed any of these things, you had to do 30 burpees.  Maybe it was just the fact that I'm used to trying something and moving on if you don't do it.  Maybe it's the fact that I can't do most things like that.  But I think I did about 10 burpees over the course of the race and moved on instead of the 120 I would have had to do for the things I didn't do.

And then there was my spill.  Maybe half a mile into the race, I completely lost controll going down a very steep hill.  Yes, I should have taken it slower.  Yes, I am fully aware it is my own fault.  I was proud of myself because I made it around several people on the course and I made it basically to the bottom before I crashed.  But boy did I land hard.  My leg is still all scraped up.  At least it doesn't hurt any more when I transition from standing to sitting.  Heck, it was hurting no matter what I did Saturday night.  Right now, it is just tender when I touch it.

Actually, this wasn't a mud run in the traditional sense.  The only real mud they had us crawling through was water over dirt under 18 inch barb wire.  And yet I think that's the muddiest I've gotten without actually trying at a mud run.  That barb wire when on forever.  I would have much preferred half the length twice along the course.  I actually stopped about 2/3 of the way through and walked the rest.  Even then, it took me a good 20 minutes to get as far as I did.

After ward, I got to meet Carrie, who I've only known from the internet to date.  That was fun.

So, the only race I have on the calendar right now is Tough Mudder in July.  Of course, I think there will be several more between now and then because that is a long ways off.  And I want to keep my running up so when I need to start hard core training for that race, I won't die.