Important Staph Meeting

I considered myself fairly well-versed in the fine art of obstacle course racing. After my recent Beast, I was pleased that for the most part I had emerged unscathed. Oh, some weird sore turned up in the corner of my mouth. Must be a cold sore or something.

Oh, now both of my lips are becoming tremendously dry. The corner of my mouth feels like hell, in particular, and is raw and cracked. This doesn't look like a cold sore, but what else could it be?

Oh god, it hurts. There is literally not enough Vaseline in the world to calm my mouth. The other corner of my mouth has become cracked now. I can't open my mouth more than half inch without serious pain. I might need to go to the doctor. If this is a cold sore, it is bad, and I might need some kind of anti-viral medication or balm.

Here I am at the doctor. She takes a look and says it doesn't look like a cold sore because there is no actual blister, it's just raw and cracked. She asks if I've had any scabbing and I said I had some skin-colored "gumminess" crop up overnight. Diagnosis: a staph infection, a.k.a impetigo. It is far more common in (gross, dirty) children and extremely contagious. Good thing I haven't been making out with anyone or sharing eating utensils. I was sent home with an $18 tube of antibiotic ointment and instructions to apply it 3 times daily for a week.

I did as I was told, plus some extra-credit Googling. Turns out staph infections are extremely common from OCRs. Getting small cuts and abrasions (from barbed wire, rocks, wood, thorns, etc) and being submerged in muddy water is a recipe for all kinds of ailments. And staph infections, although they will eventually probably go away on their own (after 3-4 weeks), should always be treated because they are so contagious. And you will need to throw away your Chapsticks and wash your pillowcases and towels really well.

After 2 days of antibiotic cream, my lips are feeling somewhat better. They are still cracked in the corners, but the pain is lessened and my entire mouth is not painfully dry anymore. Lesson learned: always go to the doctor if your gut tells you to. You don't want to screw around with your health.

(Other common OCR ailments: gastroenteritis, pinkeye, and poison ivy. If you think you may have any of these, be careful, because they are highly contagious and spreadable to others and other parts of your own body.)

Race Recap: Terrain Race Oshkosh

Terrain Race 9/22/18 Oshkosh, WI

Weather: 40 degrees and sunny (up to 60 degrees by noon)
Terrain: Grassy campground/parks, mostly pancake flat

Distance: 5K, about 20 obstacles

For my last OCR of my 2018 season, I chose the brand-new Terrain Race Oshkosh, which is near family so my mom was able to come spectate! Arrived about 40 minutes before my wave started, which turned out to be plenty of time. Parking was $10 and extremely close to the festival area. Check-in went quickly and I got "unlimited laps" written on my bib so I could just keep going whenever I was ready to start up again - waves were sent off every 15 minutes but I would not be required to wait for another wave start before continuing. There was no chip timing, except for the competitive waves. There was a nice area for spectators with a tent over picnic tables, which is a great touch. I took off with the first open wave of the day at 8:15 AM, knowing that I had to finish all my laps by noon or my hotel wouldn't let me shower there anymore (my goal was 3 laps).

First obstacle was a 4' wall, easy enough to get over. Then after half mile of running through grassy field, we reached a marshy ditch with water above the ankles that we had to plod through for about 1/3 mile. Fun! At least the water wasn't freezing (...spoiler alert for later). There were two small cargo nets in the ditch to step through, also. Getting back out of the ditch (twice each lap, the way it was set up you had to get out of the ditch and get back in) got tougher on laps 2 and 3 as the slope eroded. After we were finally, for real, out of the ditch and I picked long grass out of my shoes, we came across a water stop, then a tire drag that is similar to a Spartan plate drag. Pull the tire on the rope, then drag it back with a loop. This was either tough or easy depending on which tire you chose. It was here that I first saw that there were no distinctions between male and female weights, and there would not be for any of the obstacles. For most of the obstacles in the race, this would make it approximately normal Spartan-type difficulty for women and easy as hell for men.

Next was a bag carry (not really a sandbag, but long like one) up and down a big landfill hill. It was so steep on the downslope and had such long grass that it was much easier to sit and slide down, so that's what everyone did. The bag maybe weighed 30 lb and was easy to carry. After a short run we hit this traverse wall that is hard to describe, but I will try. There are three tilted panels with rock holds for the feet, kind of like Olympus panels but you have tiny, super slippery rock holds to step on, and various grips for the hands (there was a small vertical pole on the first panel, a short rope with a loop on the second panel, and a larger rock hold on the last panel). At the final panel you had to reach out and boing a door stopper, which was a fun little bell alternative. But it was what was BETWEEN these three panels that made it interesting - a balance beam, and a series of high stationary pegs (maybe 10 pegs or so, about a foot apart) that you needed to move across using your grip strength. Depending on which side of the structure you were on, you'd experience either the pegs first or the balance beam first. On my first round I did the side with the balance beam first, which was a mistake because it meant I was leading the pegs on my non-dominant hand. It was hard. On rounds 2 and 3 I did pegs first so I could lead with my right hand, and that made a good difference. I traversed the pegs by reaching my hands so there was a peg between them, then moving my left hand to that center peg, then moving my right hand over another peg, etc. It was a great challenge because I am 1) not used to moving laterally with my grip strength at all and 2) not used to reaching that far laterally with my grip. It took me about a minute, maybe 75 seconds, to get across the pegs each time. You have to get your body swinging straight sideways, which isn't easy with the transitions off the tilted panels. This was just a fantastic obstacle. Definitely the hardest obstacle in any OCR I've done that I've been able to clear. And I cleared it all three times!

Shortly after that was a tire flip - 2 times out, then 2 times back. The tire was about 200 lb and easy to flip. A short run later we got to a 6' wall, which was very "walkable" so I was able to use the "grab the top, step up the feet, hook the ankle - calf - knee on the top, and sit on it" technique to great effect. I highly recommend this technique for women or for anyone with upper-body issues. I was still trying to take it easy on my shoulder since my rotator cuff was a little angry from a pre-Beast back problem. After the wall was a water stop next to an obstacle wherein we hit a regular car tire with a sledgehammer out about 25 feet and back. It was a fun way to let out aggression. On my first lap I yelled out "take THAT, Donald Trump!" and the college-age volunteers appreciated my sense of humor, at least. They remembered me on laps 2 and 3!

Another run through a field to a short rope climb. The ropes had knots at the bottoms that were about a foot off the ground, making it a bit tricky. I had to mount the rope by standing on the knot, then hold myself up on the rope to set my S-hook. But once I did, I only needed one scoot to reach the blessedly low bell. Next was a concrete block drag, with a 70-lb (or so) block attached to a chain that we had to drag about 50 feet. It wasn't hard, but the blocks tore up the ground so each subsequent loop was a bit choppier.

Next up was Tarzan Swing, which was four ropes with random knots that we were supposed to swing through. I attempted this on the first lap, got to the second rope, and got stuck. This seemed to be the universal experience among participants. I think the ropes were honestly just too far apart. You needed a massive swing to be able to get to the next rope, and you had to be pretty non-secure on the rope to reach for the next one. A bit of a design flaw, in my opinion. I skipped this obstacle completely on laps 2 and 3 because the line became too long. A major problem with this obstacle is that people don't just quickly fail it and move on, they swing there trying to get the next rope for several minutes. With only 4 lanes, this causes a log jam.

After that disaster was a steep A-frame cargo net, and the steepness caused far more apex panic among my competitors than I see at Spartan races, but it was fine for me, anyway. The wall after that, though...I call it Giant Scary Wall. I don't know the actual name of it. It is about 15' high and has an easy ladder up one side, and you have to transition over the top to find a flat wall with 2x4s nailed to the side of it to make really narrow ledges to get down. But luckily, there is a rope to hold onto! But you have to already be getting down the wall to grab the rope! If I hadn't had my Salomon shoes on, I wouldn't have had the tread to feel even a bit secure on the small ledges. And I'm lucky I have really long legs so that I could get down to the second board and grab the rope as I was mounting the flat wall, instead of after I'd mounted it. It was scary all three times I did it. It was one of those obstacles I encounter from time to time where I think it's just not safe whatsoever (like Bender, which is in my humble opinion the worst obstacle ever). I'd say Giant Scary Wall had the greatest number of mid-obstacle NOPEs of the day, that I saw.

Another run through a field followed by what I will call Mud O-U-T. The basics: get into knee-deep, frigid water; climb over a small wood bridge; crawl under another small wood bridge through the knee-deep water; get out of water and climb over dirt pile; get back into waist-deep water; crawl through plastic tubes with water in them; get out into chest-deep water; climb out of the pit up a rapidly-eroding mud wall. The water was cold, you guys. It was maybe 60 degrees or so. People were screaming like a killer clown was chasing them. Keep in mind that I describe the water as chest-deep and I'm nearly 6 feet tall. Shorter women and children were screwed. The key for this obstacle is to not screech like a banshee and just try to have a positive mindset about the cold water. At least I wouldn't need an ice bath after this!

Unfortunately the next obstacle was poorly (or brilliantly?) planted: an elaborate multi-rig. Balls, bar grips, long poles, and rock holds all awaited our extremely wet, muddy hands. Even if I had the grip strength to do multi-rigs (I generally don't), the grips were soaking wet and muddy from prior attempts, and our hands were soaking wet (I had the foresight to wash off my hands in the frigid water after I'd climbed out of the mud, but most people didn't). This was an instant fail on all three rounds. But I tried!

Next was a big scary set of up and down monkey bars over a 4' deep swimming pool. On my first lap I heard participants saying that some of the bars spin a little bit. It was then I realized I would be taking another frigid bath very soon. Fortunately I was not nervous about it because I was still wet from Mud O-U-T! I got to the third bar and dropped in. It was definitely cold. On lap 2 I fell on the first bar because it was wet, and on lap 3 the line was SO LONG that I skipped the entire damn thing, felt bad about it, and did 15 random burpees by the obstacle exit while people looked at me like "that crazy lady knows that isn't required, right?" But the line was about 100 people long (NO JOKE) and would have taken 20-30 minutes or more to wait in (NO JOKE). It was not feasible, and it was not okay. They really should plan this out better. Or at least have a volunteer controlling traffic so that people were going through efficiently. Most folks didn't even start going until the other person was at the end (or in the water, most likely), and all 5 lanes were not being used most of the time.

The last obstacle was a big balance/cargo net rig. There was a balance beam ramp made with a 4x4 up about 4 feet to a big rectangular pit with a cargo net that we had to crawl across, then slide down a pole at the far side to get down and cross the nearby finish line. On lap 1 I couldn't get up the balance beam, on lap 2 I went straight for the ladder instead, and on lap 3 I tried the balance beam again and made it! The cargo net was easy - some folks rolled but I am not a fan, plus you could only roll for a bit, then you had to get back up the other side of the dip. I kept to the edge and used the edge of the net as a hand-hold while I walked across. Easy peasy. One thing I didn't like was on lap 2 some idiot kids ran out from the festival area onto the obstacle and were climbing on it while their equally-idiotic parents watched. No. Just no. This should have immediately been squashed.

After finishing lap 1 I got a medal, t-shirt, and water. That was the only thing available, water. On subsequent laps I got a pin for each lap I'd done, which I could put on my medal ribbon. Between laps I ate one Nutter Butter, had a bit of water, and went back out there. Don't take too much time between laps! The hype man was kind enough to solicit applause for me on each lap. "She is starting her THIRD LAP, make some noise!" I appreciated it! After the race it was an easy exit, although I could not hose down my shoes like I wanted to because the hose available was not functional. Dang. I also noticed that the change tents, which I thankfully did not need to utilize, had so many gaps in them that there was essentially zero privacy. Horrifying. But I wish I'd had more time, I would have been able to do at least one more lap, maybe 2. I felt really fit from a great season of racing and was having lots of fun!

Pros:

-Obstacles. They were diverse and for the most part well-designed. I appreciated the balance between strength, grip, power, and climbing obstacles.
-Terrain. After doing some insanely difficult races this year, it was nice to see straight-forward flat fast grassy terrain.
-Organized. They keep it simple, but it all ran very smoothly from what I could see.

Cons:

-Some obstacles were either nearly impossible, physics-wise, or dangerous.
-Zero photographers that I saw. Photos are a listed perk, so this was disappointing. Maybe I just didn't see them? On any of my three laps?
-Nothing but water at the finish. Would have liked some kind of calories or electrolytes. Fortunately I brought my own. If you do Terrain Race, bring your own nutrition!
-Pre-race communication was terrible. They had a "virtual event page" that had ZERO actual information on it. Also I would have liked to see a map, even at the race itself.

Race Grade: B. Bare bones, but a fast, flat course and some great obstacles.

Dreams vs Goals

The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan.

This is a thought that occurred to me during my long post-Beast drive home. (Another thought: "I'm glad I bought all these John Mulaney CDs before this trip.")

As a personal trainer, I hear a lot of dreams. People who want to lose 50 pounds. People who think running a marathon sounds cool. People who want to "get in shape." Or "look good naked." The problem isn't the dreaming for these folks. The problem is the follow-through, the discipline to buckle down and *work toward* that end result.

Dreams are essentially useless until you are ready to turn them into goals. Goals are dreams that have formulated a plan. A goal takes the dream and erects a little ladder so you can reach it. But you have to step up that ladder or you won't get there. This is why I hate vague ideas like "I want to lose 50 pounds." That is a terrible goal. What would it take to lose 50 pounds? THAT should be your goal. It's much easier to build a ladder when you have something tangible to lean it against.

A year ago I turned a dream (Spartan Trifecta) into a goal. I enacted the plan. I achieved the goal. Now what? They say our goals should always scare us a little, which I agree with, but you don't want a goal to be impossible. So my next goal will be achievable: a Spartan Trifecta in one month. That month being June 2019. I'm even signed up for it already! Chicago Super, Ohio Beast, Minnesota Sprint. And hopefully I'll be able to do another Trifecta later in the summer and fall.

My dream, for one day, is the Spartan Ultra. I'm not ready to turn out a plan for that yet, and I'm not sure what it will take to turn that dream into a goal. In the meantime, I will continue to set goals for myself that will lead me confidently(ish) in the direction of my dreams.

This Is Your Brain On Endurance Events

During any endurance event, my brain becomes a room with dozens of doors. I wander around the room and open them at random. Sometimes I slam them shut immediately, sometimes I linger for a while. The Beast was such a crazy, diverse experience that my doors led to...interesting places.

Mile 1: Sensory Deprivation Tank. Ooh, thank god, I need it to escape all this mud! Let's hang out here and forget where we are. Let the body go on autopilot.

Mile 2: Infirmary. How's the hamstring? Screwed? Alllllrighty then! Put a virtual bandaid on it and get back out there, chief.

Mile 3: YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGHoh shit I don't like that room at all. *slam*

Mile 4: Infirmary. How's the wrist? Screwed? Allllllllllllrighty then. No bandaid allowed, just get rocks in the wound and get back out there, boss.

Mile 5: Sensory Deprivation Tank. Ahhhh, so nice. Let these sand dunes work themselves out. I'll just float here.

Mile 6: YOU DON'T BELONG HERE, LADY. YOU WILL DO TEN SETS OF BURPEES BY THE END OF THIS RACE. YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, STAND AT THE DOORWAY AND TAKE IT. WALLOW IN IT

Mile 7: Discotheque! I like big butts and I cannot lie / you other brothers can't deny... (repeat entire song 12 times in a row)

Mile 8: YOU ARE AMAZING! Oh, I like this one. Let's hang out here for a full mile!

Mile 9: Torture chamber. Dammit, where's the sensory deprivation tank when you need it? So many heavy and wet things, all of them sand-covered.

Mile 10: YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. This room again? Shit.

Mile 11: Sensory Deprivation Tank. More autopilot required in the deep sand and steep hills. Oh, look, a photographer. *makes Fonzie "AYYYYY" pose*

Mile 12: YOU DON'T BELONG HERE, LADY. YOU COULDN'T DO TWISTER IF YOUR CHILD'S LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. YOU'LL PROBABLY FAIL THE SPEAR THROW TOO BECAUSE YOU ARE A LOSER AND A JOKEokay that room is just super duper mean.

Mile 12.5: Discotheque! (puts on Mousse T record) I'm horny! Horny horny horny! / SOOO horny! I'm horny horny horny! (repeat out loud to yourself 25 times with the same enthusiasm on each chorus)

Mile 13: Heaven In The Movies. One hit spear and the angels were singing and the birds were chirping. In real life, the rain is falling and I am covered in sticky pebbles and muddy blood.

The key to endurance training and racing is to slam the doors on those bad rooms as quickly as possible, and leave the good rooms wide open. And when all else fails, get a good bop stuck in your head. I recommend Horny Horny Horny. Look it up on YouTube.

Race Recap: Spartan Beast Chicago

Spartan Beast Chicago 9/8/18 Attica, IN

Weather: 60 degrees and raining

Terrain: ATV park - 80% gravelly sand, 20% muddy forest/streams

Distance: 13+ miles, 30 obstacles

This is it. My A-race for the year. The A-race of my LIFE. I did the Spartan Obstacle Specialist training on Friday and was very pleased, not only with the training itself (which was fantastic! I got such good practice and advice!) but with the preview of the course. It rained all throughout the training, which was another sort of preview. I was happy to see that the course's high volume of wet sand was fairly easy to navigate and that this race wouldn't be Chicago Super 2.0 with deep mud throughout. Feeling confident!

Showed up Saturday morning bright and early to find dark, cold, and rainy weather. I was in the first Open wave at 8:45 AM. Parking was fairly smooth and I had a pleasant 5-minute walk to the festival. Check-in had a bit of a line but went very quickly once I got to the front of it. I had decided to wear my jacket because the "real feel" was in the mid-50s and I was legitimately concerned about hypothermia. I really wish I'd brought a better light long-sleeve with me. Despite being tech fabric, my jacket gained a couple pounds when soaked. Lesson learned. Checked my bag (which I stowed inside my own garbage bag from home! Never check your bag on a rainy day without one!) and got into the corral where everyone was in great spirits. Off we go!

Well, the first mile of the course took us through some real mud. I was having Chicago Super flashbacks and I felt terrible for telling all the nice people on The Internet that the course had almost no mud. There were also tons of rocks, puddles, and streams to trip us up. Eek. First obstacle was a 6' wall that I barely managed to get over by myself, using a technique I learned in my SOS training because I hurt my back a couple weeks ago (now THAT was a terrifying couple of weeks pre-race). We came out of the muddy woods near the start line for obstacles 2 and 3, Olympus and monkey bars. Of course, I immediately failed both of them. Two sets of burpees. I did every set of burpees unmodified because I did NOT want an asterisk by this finish. This is the Beast, dammit. (Spoiler alert: I did a lot of burpees.) Also I got hot, so I took my jacket off.

The fourth obstacle, Hurdles, was roped off with caution tape so we weren't allowed to do it. Apparently it was structurally unsound, constructed in the middle of a sand pit. We moseyed over to the vertical cargo net, which is generally a total gimme obstacle, but this one was very stretched and loose netting. People struggled a bit, and the struggle was real. After getting back down I realized I had somehow pulled my left hamstring right above the knee. I tried to jog but every step with that left leg hurt. Walking felt fine, but running didn't. SHIT. It was only 1.5 miles into the race and I am a lot of things, but I'm not stupid, so...the plan became to walk the entire Beast. Fortunately I am a well-trained and conditioned walker and I wasn't limping. The situation could be worse.

O-U-T was next and went smoothly, as did the A-frame cargo net (which I already knew from SOS was another loose net). The barbed wire crawl through muddy puddles was the best barbed wire crawl I've ever done. At least I had butt clearance with the higher wires. Unfortunately the wire caught the bottle in my Camelbak and punched a hole in it, but it still held MOST of the water inside. We passed the mile 3 mark and I realized I was already counting down how many miles were left - never a good sign. Next was a 7' wall that I got over in SOS training, but I needed a boost today. My back issue felt alright but I didn't have great shoulder mobility and I didn't want to press my luck on tall walls. On the next wall, which was a 9' behemoth, I got my boost and made it to the top, but then coming back down I hit my wrist awkwardly and landed pretty abruptly. Thankfully my lower body was totally fine, but my right wrist was bleeding and felt swollen right away. I washed the sand out of it at the luckily-nearby next water stop, and fortunately it stopped actively bleeding immediately but I definitely banged my timing chip against my inner wrist and bruised myself, scraping the plastic bracelet holding it against my skin. Ouch. And this will NOT be clean for hours.

At the top of a gravelly sand dune was the multi-rig, which I got nowhere on. I did ask the photographer to take a picture of me swinging on the first ring and he was kind enough to oblige. A+ service! 

Serving you Failure Eleganza

Third set of burpees. There was a woman doing single-arm squat thrusts with her other arm in a cast. There are some bad ass folks at these events. We went back down the sand dune (let me just say, most of these sand dunes were deep, loose sand. Way churned up since Friday's SOS, eeeek) and found the Atlas carry, which I did without too many issues. After the mile 4 marker was an 8' wall where I got a lovely boost, then a sandbag carry with a small bag (but still heavy) through the sand dune. It was fairly brutal, not gonna lie. It was long, on tough terrain, and the bag wasn't a nice long bag so it was harder to carry. Normally heavy carries are my jam, too.

At the top of another dune stood Bender. I had a really bad feeling about it even as I was approaching. I got a boost up to the first bar and tried to stand up. NOPE. NOPE. I did NOT feel safe. The metal bars mixed with the rain and the sand were so slick I felt like I could fall off at any second, from a not-insignificant height. I had to ask a very kind man to help get me down ("safety first!" he said, bless that man) and I did my fourth set of 30 burpees with the other folks who didn't feel like dying today. 

Another nice long walk to Tyrolean Traverse, which we'd also covered in SOS training but I got nowhere during that because the water on the rope was blinding my face whenever I grabbed the damn thing. This time the rope was less drippy and I tried to just go without thinking about how far I'd gone or how much farther was left. Unfortunately I had to hear the guy next to me tell his friend how far along HE was, so it blew that plan! I made it about 75% through, then my left foot started cramping up. I tried to stretch it while keeping it on the rope, but my calf wouldn't let me. Again, I'm no fool, I'm not out here trying to screw myself out of a finish at the halfway point, so I let go. Thirty burpees for the fifth time. But this time I did them on a door-sized piece of wood that was near the burpee pit. So comfortable! I will take whatever comfort I can get after 5 sets of burpees, dammit. Then was a plate drag, which was easy despite being uphill in sand. I love being huge. :)

Mile 8 marker, then the Z-Walls, which we'd also seen at SOS. One of the tips we'd gotten is to do some recon and see which lane has good blocks that are nicely positioned, so I already knew I wanted the left side of the middle lane. Went through it slowly but surely and rang the bell with a very patient guy waiting right behind me on my lane! He was very nice about it. I really didn't want to do burpees by the Z-Walls, this was a brand new adventure in terrain with a sloppy Wet Clay everywhere. Somewhere around here I started to feel cold so I put my jacket back on. Long walk to Stairway to Sparta, which I got a boost onto (by a VERY strong man who just literally picked up my thighs and lifted me straight up like I didn't weigh over 160 lb with wet gear on! Kudos, sir!) and easily got up over. High structures are a breeze in this weather and sand when they're made of WOOD. Not metal. Bender. *cough*

Just past mile 9 was the bucket carry. The weight was fine. The terrain was rough. I was one of the few people I saw who did NOT take a rest on this obstacle. I knew if I stopped I might never get going. Having sandy hands and buckets hurt the grip a bit even though I turned it upside down, too. It was a long bucket carry and I was glad when it was over. 

This bucket might as well be GLUED to my hands.

But then we climbed a steep dune and did the Herc Hoist, which was another heavy obstacle that was affected by sand! At this point between all the sand and the burpees on rocks/gravel/sand, my hands felt like hamburger meat. After mile 10 we had a second barbed wire crawl (a bit tougher than the first but still not terrible), followed by rolling mud (with no water) and dunk wall (with DEEP water). The dunk wall went about 15" under the surface of the water. It was intense. I just held my nose with one hand and the bottom of the wall with the other and threw myself underneath it. At this point I was glad I'd put my jacket back on, because some protection is better than none.

Walked past the gawking, excited spectators to easily do the inverted wall, then I attempted the rope climb, which I'd also learned how to do at SOS. Sadly, today my hands basically went numb and stopped working when I was about 75% of the way up. Dang. Time for the 6th set of burpees! I wised up and did them with my hands in a puddle for rock protection, plus I pulled my jacket sleeves down to cover most of them. Went down another sand dune to the slip wall, which was very easy and in the middle of a giant-puddle-filled valley near the parking lots. It was a really long walk (with a random photographer in the middle of it, nice) past the 11-mile marker to the second sandbag carry, which was way more pleasant than the first one because it had the long sandbags that are easy to sling over the shoulder. The terrain was the same loose sand, though. At this point I was really thanking god that my ankles were strong and that I wasn't getting leg cramps like everyone else. Seriously. If you are susceptible to leg cramps, you might want to avoid this venue like the plague.

Long walk past mile 12 (I gave away a Nutter Butter to a very excited man) to the finishing gauntlet. Twister. My archnemesis. I of course immediately failed and began my 7th set of burpees, which were, frankly, getting a bit tiring at this point (YA THINK?). And I knew the last real obstacle was spear throw, which I never hit, so I was bracing myself for a bad finish. Walked up the hill and around the corner. Saw the festival. Saw the finish line. Saw the spearmen. I went to the second station which had the spear laying on the ground, never a good omen. Got it into position just as I'd practiced at SOS when I threw the thing about 30 times (and stuck it 3 times, for a whopping 90% failure rate). Three deep breaths. Throw. And a perfect stick. I YELPED. I SCREAMED. The people coming up to the spear stations let out a mighty cheer. It was an out of body experience. I'd missed every spear throw in every Spartan race I'd ever done. I'd only ever stuck three spears in practice, when there was zero pressure. But I hit this one right when it really counted. I would not have to do an 8th set of burpees today. With that stuck spear, I became a Beast finisher. Sixteen months of training, over 30 pounds of body fat lost, several pounds of muscle gained, proving myself TO myself that I could do obstacle races. In one stuck spear.

I ran (hamstring be damned, my adrenaline was riding so high I didn't feel it now) over the fire and across the finish line in 6 hours and 10 minutes. Yes, I cried. It was the race of my life, comparable only to my 46-minute-PR marathon in Chicago in 2012. Got my FitAid and my checked bag, enjoyed the cold wash area (which was actually WARM water, which felt freaking amazing), bought a venue t-shirt, and hit the road for leftover pasta and the hotel hot tub.

GLORY! GLORY! GLORY!

Pros:

-Course. The obstacles were nicely spaced and, between the hills and the sand, the terrain was so uniquely challenging and awesome.

-People. From volunteers to participants, just an awesome camaraderie.

-Challenge. This was just such a huge challenge, and I love it. I felt like a Navy Seal with all the "wet and sandy" we had. Going through such a challenging race is a great way to learn new techniques and tricks.

Cons:

-I would have liked at least one more photo spot.

-Weather. Obviously this cannot be controlled, but the active rain really put a damper (LOL puns) on the grip obstacles!

-Body Armor, where are you? You are delicious. FitAid is fine but I was craving that Body Armor.

Race Grade: A. Another great, tough event.