Race Recap: Spartan Sprint Busch Stadium

Spartan Sprint Busch Stadium 8/11/18 St Louis, MO

Weather: 90, humid and sunny

Terrain: MLB stadium - concrete and stairs galore

Distance: 4 miles, 23 obstacles

As a result of the Spartan Minnesota Disaster of 2018, I had a free race code and used it to sign up for a second lap of the Busch Stadium sprint (which I was already doing, but it was convenient for my schedule). Drove down to St. Louis and stayed the night near the airport, then got up bright and early on Saturday and made the easy drive into downtown. Found a $2.75 parking lot a block southwest of the stadium. At the registration tent I asked politely if I could have an earlier start time for my first lap (I was supposed to start at 10:45, with second lap at 11:30), and she gave me a 9:45 wristband immediately. Sweet. High security for the stadium so my bag was searched and I went through a metal detector. No issues! At this race there were a lot of extra employees milling around, so it was easy to ask for directions or to take pictures. I made sure I could check my bag once and have access to it between races without having to pay again to recheck it. Good to know!

Before the race I ate some Pringles and got some free samples of Persil while walking around and seeing what was visible. There was a finishing gauntlet around the field, and the A-frame cargo was right by the start corral, along with a few other obstacles on different levels. I liked the openness of the different levels. Seemed like it would have good airflow, at least, and on a hot day (high of 90 degrees) that would be critical. Got in the start corral and they sent us off in waves of 15 people every minute. The hype man told us that 15 was, in fact, the magic number: we would be doing 15 reps at the rep obstacles, and 15 burpees if we failed (unique to stadium events – usual penalty is 30).

The race started up a ramp which had a bunch of paracord strung across to make a low crawl. While last year at Lambeau I had squatted under each one, this time I could do a more-efficient bear crawl all the way up (about 200 feet). At the top of the ramp was a bound-feet heavy jump rope with, you guessed it, 15 reps. I did a double-hop on this and immediately regretted it. Hopping twice wastes more energy. But my main goal going into this race was to not make the same mistakes on lap 2 that I made on lap 1, so I socked that nugget away for later. Same with the stairs sections, which were plentiful, and you can assume safely in this recap that there were stairs between EVERY obstacle. I made sure to learn the best way through each section so I didn’t have to do extra steps up and down.

Once we got up onto the top deck (which had upper deck seating above it, so it wasn’t the tippy-top of the stadium), we did Rolling Epic, with feet on a scooter and we walk on hands. I’d been practicing this so it was easy. Scooters cost $12 on Amazon. CAVEAT HERE: some of the order of the obstacles is a bit fuzzy in my brain, so please do not take the sequence too literally. There are a few obstacles I can’t place in my head. Next up was the 7’ wall, which I’d always needed help with before. This time I tried a new technique – I stepped back about 5 feet and got a two-step running start at the wall, kicked up on it with my foot while grabbing the top, and got my ribcage over the top so that I could leverage my leg up there and straddle it. It worked! Huzzah! My right forearm had a bit of road rash but who cares? I was so proud that I conquered the 7’ wall totally solo.

After going down many stairs, we (meaning us racers – I did the race by myself) reached the jerry cans, which were 4 or 5 gallon jugs of water. Men had to carry two, and women had to carry one. This basically made it a farmer’s carry for men and a bucket carry for women. Carrying a WET bucket, at any rate. It was easy for me because heavy carries are well within my wheelhouse. Right after that we went up a set of stairs and were in the thick of it at the A-frame cargo! 

There are dozens of people directly underneath my crotch.

Easy climb over, smile for the photographer, and back down to the Assault Airbike, which is one of those bikes you see on NFL sidelines with a big fan on the front and a computer that counted down 10 calories burned. The fan felt amazing as I went hard and burned my 10 calories in about a minute. It felt so easy.

Then was the 8’ wall. I thought hell, let me give this a shot, if I could get 7’ I might be able to do it. Took my same running start and kick off the wall, and this time I used my momentum to walk my feet up the wall after I grabbed the top. Once I was hanging off the top with my feet flat on the wall, I did a fancy maneuver where I pushed out with my legs and wrenched my arms up to get a forearm on top of the wall, and from there I wrestled my ribcage on top and got up there! I was on cloud 9. Holy crap. I’d conquered an 8’ wall all by myself. What an adrenaline rush!

Turns out an adrenaline rush on top of a quick 10-calorie bike are not a good combo for the next section of stairs, which was an interior stairwell (i.e., no air conditioning or breeze) up about 5 stories. I almost died. Once I got to the top I had to breathe heavily for a minute before I could continue. Lesson learned for lap 2: go slower on that stupid bike! Fortunately all we had to do on the top deck this time was a Z wall, which went well, then go back down a ton of stairs, this time with paracord on parts of it (low crawl 2). Lots of people bear-crawled backwards but I did the slower “scoot on your butt” technique because I wanted the mental boost of having short “rests” of sitting. Once at the bottom we did a Herc hoist. Give me a challenge, Spartan.

Spoiler alert: the Spartan gods were laughing their asses off when I went up the ramps to the next obstacle – the multi-rig. There were 5 rings and two baseballs before the bell. My hands, like everything else on my body, were soaked with sweat. I fell reaching the second ring. As I did my 15 burpees, I realized EVERYONE was falling. Like, literally everyone. Even the ripped rock-climber dude who made it to the first baseball. Everyone was falling on the first or second ring. It was definitely the burpee-maker for the day. We were all so sweaty and there was nothing to dry our hands on.

Back to the top deck for the spear throw, which I of course failed. Sandbag carry afterward went well, though – lots of stairs, and at the top of the upper deck there was a photographer who said my smiling and waving photo was “gorgeous!” Always good to hear! Stairs, stairs, stairs, then back to the top deck for ball slams (woman balls were 20 lb, man balls were 30) and an Atlas carry (which felt like maybe 50 lb or so). During the Atlas carry burpees we heard the men’s top 3 elite announced on the loudspeaker, to which I exclaimed “Ryan Kent is SO. FINE.” to the ladies near me and they very loudly agreed. Down many stairs under the paracord for low crawl #3.

This time we were in the basement of the stadium and I got all excited, singing “going behiiiiind the sceeeeenes! Behind the scenes at Cardinals stadiuuuuuum!” We weaved through hallways that had random couches and arcade video games in them, then turned a corner into the Cardinals locker room, which was blessedly air conditioned and had overhead fans. It felt like Heaven in the movies. Even though we had to do hand-release pushups, it was one of the single greatest minutes of my life, in that deliciously cold locker room. I’d been feeling pretty run down and it gave me such a boost. Thanks, Ghost of Mark McGwire! (I know he is not dead.)

We ended up coming out by the dugout and onto the field, or rather the red sand/clay stuff that surrounds the field. Keep off the fake grass! We looped around to the hurdles, which were four 4’ walls, which I hopped over easily and smiled again for a photo. Next were box jumps, and the women’s platforms were about 15” high (men’s 18-21”) so it was easy enough for a tall gal. Lots of other people were doing step-ups and that appeared to be “legal.” After the box jumps we kept going around the field to two 6’ walls in a row. I used my 7’ wall technique and it worked twice! Woop! I’m getting good at this crap! Unfortunately I didn’t have such luck on the rope climb. The ropes were fairly narrow and I could not get a good foot lock. Burpees in the red clay/sand/dirt! Dammit, now I’m filthy. At a STADIUM race.

Went through the Gauntlet of punching bags and across the finish line and got my medal, which I was pleased to see was gold. Most race medals are boring silver. There was also a photographer taking pictures AFTER the finish, with the nice stadium and Gateway Arch and skyline in the background. Nice touch! 

One and done! Only not done yet.

We had to walk up stairs to get to the exit. In the next 25 minutes, I ate a hot banana (not a pleasant experience), drank a bunch of water, got my finisher shirt, got my checked bag, changed out of my blue crop top into my pink crop top (I wanted to color-code my laps), changed my headband bib, put on my new chip, took some Tums, drank a juice box, rechecked my bag, went to the bathroom, and got to the start corral right in time for my 11:30 lap. The start corral was way less crowded, and the rest of the stadium would be too. Looks like most folks wanted to get their race done before the heat got too oppressive.

My main goal for lap 2 was to finish only a few minutes slower (maximum) than my first lap. I also wanted to learn from the mistakes I’d made on the first lap. And frankly, I wanted to stay semi-hydrated, because it felt like a losing battle. I only did one hop per rep on the jump rope. I took 2 minutes on the assault bike instead of 1 minute. When I knew the multi-rig was coming up, I tried to dry my hands as best I could by waving them around and blowing on them as I was ascending the ramps. I was also a bit dehydrated so I wasn’t sweating quite as profusely. This time I managed to make it to the last ring before I was too sweaty to continue. It was among the best I’d seen ANYONE do so I was thrilled!

Sandbaggin' it.

I didn’t feel quite as tired on the second lap. Maybe my pacing was better, or I was getting acclimated to the stairs or the heat, or I just knew that delightful air conditioned locker room was coming up again, but I felt like I had a good deal of “get up and go.” I realized around the locker room that I was likely to have fairly even splits from my first lap to my second. 

Every second counts!

The finishing gauntlet of obstacles around the field went about the same as the first, except that this time I made it about 1/3^rd way up the rope before I could not lock in anymore. More burpees on the red sandy stuff! I crossed the finish line SIX SECONDS slower than my first lap. Excellent! This time I skipped the hot banana, traded my Clif bar to the dude at the State Farm booth for some sunglasses, cleaned myself up as best I could and changed my shirt (I should have changed everything, I reeked of sweat), then walked back to my car with my medals clanging like Michael Phelps.

I bet Simone Biles feels like this all the time.

Pros:

-Great course/venue. Obstacles were very well-spaced and had great diversity. Gorgeous and clean facility.

-Organization. This was one of the smoothest events ever. Perhaps having it at a stadium helped.

-Medals. Gold instead of silver? Love. And I love the venue-specific ribbon. Spartan changed this year to have more specific medals for different kinds of races, and it's a GREAT change.

Cons:

-No FitAid or BodyArmour at the end. It would have been really nice to have a *cold* beverage (the water was lukewarm the entire race).

Race Grade:  A. With cold water it would have been an A+. If I nitpick I could come up with only a couple issues (maybe the multi-rig could be earlier so we weren't as sweaty?), but they are really nothing. This race was GREAT.