Training for Spartan Races and the 2103 Spartan Events

There are levels to everything.  You can do just enough to get by.  You can even just look like you're doing enough while putting no effort at all.  Many people kick it up a notch and really make an effort to be ready for these races.  Inevitable you have those few...those rare individuals that are so driven that they take this training to the extreme.  Then of course you have me.  When I first signed up for the 2011 Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, NY, I did set up a workout routine.  I mean, I had every intention of being as competitive as possible that race.  Looking back on it now, I would have been better off doing "wax on....wax off" every day considering how much those workouts helped.  After that race though, things got serious!  I wasn't expecting anything spectacular...never considered being truly competitive...but I just wanted to put on a better show than last time.  I realize that's not exactly setting the bar very high, but you have to start somewhere.

In the months prior to the 2012 Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, most of my training was done at Eisenhower Park.  A local park with one of those fitness trails and exercise stations every so often.  Turns out, that those layouts area a pretty decent facsimile for a Spartan race.  A lot of running with some obstacles (stations) mixed in.  Of course these stations were about as close to the Spartan obstacles as juggling tennis balls is to juggling chainsaws....but let's not quibble.  Even though the race was brutal...and well documented in a previous post...I did manage to improve my splits by around 5 minutes a mile.  Ok, so I had massive room for improvement from 2011 but still...better is not worse!

However, eventually Fall comes, and for me it just got tougher and tougher to get some training in before dark...when the park closes.  Eventually the training would have stopped altogether.  Since I had to move soon after the 2012 race, I also ended up exactly no where near another decent park!  As fate would have it, a friend mentioned a nearby Planet Fitness.  Now, joining a gym wasn't quite in my budget, so I thought.  But I figured, at least go take a look...so I did a drive by.  Well...not immediately...first I went to the wrong place and ended up at some late night health clinic.  In the end though, I did manage to find it.  Actually, it amazed me that I hadn't seen it before...I mean I drive around the area all the time.  This place must have been 15,000 square feet...of windows! Ok...so you get to train with a few thousand friends.  But it turns out they had exactly what I needed.  Needless to say, I didn't actually have the best training plan in mind...but we'll talk about that next time.

Meanwhile, I've declared 2013 the year of the Spartan Beast.  Yes...you heard it here first!  This year I plan to run several Spartan races eventually culminating in the Vermont Beast next September.  Assuming of course that I'm not impaled, drowned, shredded by barbed wire or otherwise incapacitated along the way.  February will start the madness with a Super Spartan race in Miami.  I mean, I've done so well so far, why not try a race that's over twice as long and in the brutal heat (compared to New York in February).  Surviving this race, I'll be giving a shot at the April Citifield run here in NY, another stab at Tuxedo in June, then a sprint in Pennsylvania...maybe a couple more...spirit and budget willing!  Aroooo!!

The BattleFrog Miami...and my first non-Spartan race

This post should have been done weeks months ago.  But just as the post comes months after the race, the decision leading up to this race goes back months before race day.  While I was working in the Doral, FL area, I stopped at a Taco Bell for lunch.  I noticed a couple of guys decked out in BattleFrog gear so I introduced myself...and wanted to know more about it.  I'd seen some Facebook news about them and it sounded like a race I would like to do.  Well, it turned out to be two of the founders (Mike and Don I believe....but don't hold me to that...please).  So we spoke for a bit....and I was sold on doing the next Miami event.  May have actually promised to do it...and I didn't really want to break even a promise like that to a Seal.

That Miami event happened to be the February race and the opening event for 2015.  Now, I should have known right off that things weren't going to go quite as planned.  Not only did I mistakenly take a roundabout route to the race, but after taking 3 photos at the venue my phone was dead! (full disclosure - I knew my battery was going and naturally I waited until it did go to replace it).

So....now to the race!  First, let me say, I loved the course!!  It began raining while we were still in the corral...a few minutes before the start...and kept raining for the next couple of hours.  So a course that was expected to include a lot of water obstacles ended up being virtually continuous water for most of the day.  And you need to understand, I'm not the faster racer by any stretch of the imagination.  It's more the relentless effort that's my style.  So a slick course was definitely not my friend.  Having only run Spartan races up to this point, there were a number of different...and several more difficult...obstacles to deal with.  All in all, it was an extremely challenging course, which made all the preparation worthwhile and completion of the race more satisfying.

I had expected any number of water obstacles, but what surprised me were the number of climbing obstacles.  Those are always a challenge for me...partly because of my size, and partly because I'm just a bit too old for this kind of shit!  The added challenge on one of these was that at the very top, you had to climb through a relatively small (read: tiny) opening to get to the other side of the wall.  Being smaller (and less wide) would definitely have been an advantage there. [editor's note: I found out much later in the year that you go over the top, not thru it!]  Of course, after all the brutalization they could dish out over 15K, they had the "down and up" monkey bars leading into the final ramp climb.  And if (when) you fail the monkey bars, it's right into the water trap which makes the ramp climb all but impossible.  Although I did give it my best shot, a slip at the top sent me slamming onto the ramp, then sliding down with a jarring stop into the dirt and sand at the bottom.

Ok, now to the shortcomings.  When you walked in from the parking lot there were no signs directing you to the festival area/start line.  So people...including me...wandered back and forth a bit just trying to get in.  The sign in and baggage check went well.  But the backups that plagued the first part of the race began right at the starting corral.  I had noticed when signing up that they had a number of heats starting at the same time.  There were 5K and 15K heats going off "together".  I'd thought there might be two start lines, but it turned out that everyone was going out the same chute!  Apparently the heats were too large also and we had to split up on our own to go out. 

Unfortunately, the delays and bottlenecks didn't end there.  Within a quarter mile or so, we hit the swimming obstacle.  The way they had the rescue/aid set up, every time a person had to be helped (helped...not rescued) the entire obstacle came to a dead stop for a few minutes.  The next bottleneck occurred about another half mile in, at the cargo net climb.  Just not enough space for more than 2 or 3 at a time and there are always people who are going to be slow on these.  At that point, anyone thinking of going for time had to give up on the idea completely. 

Up to that climb, the 5K and 15K courses were running together (most likely the reason for the delays...along with the timing of the heats).  Once past the cargo net climb though, the courses parted and allowed whatever pace you could handle....which for me is generally SLOW (although I like to think of it as methodical). 

The rest of the race was pretty much free of bottlenecks...and tough as hell by the way!    I even got to do a version of the Braveheart speech on the monkey bars to a guy I had been keeping pace with the last couple of miles to the finish.  Even though he didn't make the full distance either, I'm sure he was glad he tried.  I know how agonizing it can be to go home that night knowing you didn't give something your best shot because it looked too tough.

With all the little snafus in the beginning of the race, the biggest surprise for me though was at the finish.  There was no more beer!!!??  No...I'm not kidding!!  One of my favorite parts of the race has always been to have that beer and grab a bite to eat while hanging at the festival and watching racers still finishing.  Not only that, but the festival was all but closed.  So....no beer....no food....and nothing else there to drink either.  Very...very disappointing to say the least. 

I realize that the rain was not the ideal situation but really....not only did many people pay a nice entry fee to race, but for many this would be one of the few races (maybe the only race) they would run.  They deserved a much better event than this ended up being.  The surprising thing to me...allowing for the fact that it was their first event of 2015...is that these guys are known for taking care of the details. Specially since this was opening up in their hometown.

In the end, course-wise, I definitely would like another shot at a BattleFrog.  I know they'll be back here to close out the 2015 season.  I'm fairly certain they'll have the kinks worked out by then too.  I'm just not so sure I want to bet my money on it....again.  If I do though, I'll make sure next time to BYOB and a BBQ!...just in case...

Spartan Race - Method Behind the "Madness"?

Sometimes, things really aren't quite what they seem to be.  And the more you consider it, the more you come to realize, there may be real genius behind it!

A couple of weeks ago I read a post about the Spartan Race Vermont Beast (Relentless Forward Commotion) and it got me thinking.  (Well, a lot of things get me thinking...but I digress!)  Every obstacle race, Spartan race in particular because of the dreaded burpee penalty, is subject to racers cheating or, in their minds, simply skipping the brutal parts.  And no, I'm not talking about the elite racers here at all.  That's a whole different story...with no shortage of posts, FB rants and drama.  When you're racing for money the rules are the rules....period. The fact is though, that Spartan Race has been having to deal with two diametrically opposed markets for a few years now.  After all, in the end it's a business and you have to keep your customers happy....all your customers!

Vt Beast 2013 gps map courtesy of Paul Jones

In the first group, you have the serious non-elite racers looking for the next challenge.  They may be running a few races a year (and if they show up for the Vermont beast, multiple races is all but guaranteed!) and they're paying too much money to be running a course that "I've already done.......twice!".  Personally, I almost skipped the Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo this year for that very reason.  (Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo.....Round 4.....Expecting the Unexpected).  I mean, how many times can you get a thrill proving yourself on the same mountain?  If you don't change up the course and make it a bit more challenging for these racers they'll find something else to do.

On the other hand, the casual weekend fun-racers don't want or need to do 30 or 6o burpees for any reason.  They came out to have fun, do some serious physical activity and go home with the shirt, the medal and the experience of running a Spartan race.  So skipping burpees or obstacles that are too difficult lets that weekend racer enjoy the course without the pain and suffering that most old-school racers got into this for in the first place.

Of course, for the racing purists, cheating is cheating.  But then again who cares?  What's the difference, if there's no money on the line?  The only real impact I guess is on the rankings.  Someone who skips the tough stuff and wimps out on the burpees (ok, so I'm a bit old-school!) will almost certainly have a better time than those who did them.  And that does get reflected in those daily race rankings.  Well, good luck figuring that one out.  There's always a way to deal with any issue but the question becomes, is it worth it?  Fact is, the racers who skip the burpees are probably only running one race a year anyway, so their times won't do anything but mess up the finishing places for that day.

So in the end, what we may actually be left with is a brilliant move by Spartan Race (or possibly a "New Coke formula" stroke of luck...who knows?).  But by not enforcing the rules they are, in a way, meeting somewhere in the middle.  Serious racers can do all the obstacles, the penalties and know that they've truly completed a tough course.  At the same time, the casual racer can have some fun and feel a sense of accomplishment without having to endure the STFU punishment typically associated with a race.  Can't help feeling like this is a win-win...and the old-schoolers will have to get passed the fact that some people are just not that into "embracing the suck"!

For those interested, here are my thoughts on what Spartan Race was thinking by building such a brutal Vermont course in 2013 (Vermont Beast - 2013 - And Who Were They Building This Course For Anyway?!).  Now, I'm off to the Everglades for some relaxing photography work.

Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo.....Round 4.....Expecting the Unexpected

The fact is, this course may have been the best I've personally experienced...as far as the balance between running and obstacles go.  In 2013 I ran a number of races and one of the typical complaints from racers was the long sections of uphill climbing (running for some maybe!).  The 2014 Tuxedo course, while still holding on to the typical uphill challenges, was broken up nicely with obstacles.  Sometimes a single obstacle, but more often with small groups.

One thing that surprised me this year was the course map!  I couldn't believe it when I saw/heard some racers looking it over and talking about it.  Then I saw the map up on the kiosk.  It was all I could do not to peek.  I like the element of surprise and uncertainty on these courses.  You never know what's ahead or where!  Another pleasant surprise, although I had forgotten about it at race time, was the condition of the course.  Fortunately there was no rain that day, but this would be the fourth racing day out here and I wasn't sure if the course would suffer from that.  The fact that it never came to mind is all that needs to be said!

This was another of those times though, when I didn't decide to run until it was almost too late.  But in the end, this is where it all began for me.  My first race!  I've run every Spartan race there since then.  So not only was it a tradition for me...but it was also the best opportunity I had of judging my performance.  Even though I knew no two Spartan races were the same (2012 Spartan Race at Tuxedo, NY - What the Brochure Won't Tell You!), it was still the only way to see how effective my training has been.

And you know, I never realized it before, but Spartan Race reminds me of Disney in a way.  Every time you go, there's something new!  This race had a few new obstacles and a few changes to some old standards.  There were two in particular that stood out this race.  The Monkey Net...which was tougher than it had to be, as I heard from others after the race too, because the net at the peak was tied a bit tight to the frame so you couldn't quite grab it.  And there was no benefit to finishing it, since everyone ended up in the water anyway (at the time I went, burpees had been discontinued I guess...so no penalty for falling off).  The other was the whatever-you-call-it-wall, where you had a solid wall about 4 feet up from the bottom of the water and you had to pull yourself up by hand until you could get a foothold.  THAT was a tough one....and oh...by the way...I liked it!

Naturally, there were many of the old obstacles there too.  They had a number of "carries" (sandbag and log) and the stone drag.  One big change on these was the length.  None of them were really in the category of brutal this year...and no, I'm not complaining!  They also had the Atlas Carry.  Now THAT was a tough one.  Between the weight of that thing and the way you had to pick it up, it was certainly up there as one of the toughest obstacles.  I heard people talking afterwards, some saying the weights were as high as 80lb for the women and 125lb for the men.  Yeah...well...that just tells how hard they "thought" it was. 

Of course there was the net climb, the monkey bars and the inverted wall.  They also had the herc hoist, which for some reason keeps giving me leg cramps lately.  Even with hydrating and GU packs...when I can swallow them that is...no easy task between water stops.  And what is it with the spear throw??!!  That used to be a given for me but another of those that have been trouble lately...burpees suck (although I've found them great for increasing endurance).  On the bright side, I rang the bell on the rope climb this race!!  Something I haven't done in a while.  And I finally realized that a good part of failing this obstacle was the fear of falling because I didn't believe I could make it.  Obstacle racing has always been about mental toughness, and once I started thinking more confidently about the climb, I was able to get past that hurdle.

Last, but not least, the barbed wire crawl.  Not as long as some, but this crawl is always on an uphill grade...which never makes it easy.  This year it seemed to be kept a bit drier than usual.  Made the crawl a lot less slick (a good thing), but it also seemed to make the small rocks grate more on the skin (not so much).  A good trade though.  So overall, I was very satisfied with the course and the experience this year...and pleased with my performance.  No, it wasn't noteworthy in the overall scheme...just in my own ongoing attempts at improvement every race.  Pleased....but not satisfied....always training just a bit harder for the next race...whenever, and wherever, that may be!

****************

A link to the report on the 2013 Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo:

Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo 2013...the battle continues...

Obstacle Course Racing on TV...well, it's a start!

At the Spartan Championship Race in Vermont last September, one of the highlights was the filming of the event for television.  And NBC Sports was there...filming away.  This was a major development in the sport.  For anyone that has been following Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) for a while, one of the key elements to stepping up the game is attracting a fan base.  And a key element of attracting a fan base is that you have to have a means of covering the event.  I was very interested in seeing how this played out.  Obviously it wasn't going to be live coverage of this race...but it was a start!

Last April I was talking about the future of OCR [see The present and future of Obstacle Course Racing (Part1) and The present and future of Obstacle Course Racing - Part Deux)] and a major shortcoming of the race is that virtually no one could see it.  At that time, there were few obstacles visible to spectators.  However, the vast majority of the race was out of sight.  Makes it tough to root for your racer when you have no idea where they are...or where anyone else is for that matter.

With TV filming then, would that help promote the sport and provide some race coverage ideas for the future?  I know I was excited to see the final product.  I saw this as an opportunity for people to see what these races were really all about.  Up to now, anytime they showed a race it seemed to be the same few obstacles popping up.  Spartan Race seemed to be excited initially too.  But for some reason the showing was postponed until a later date.  Five or six weeks later in fact.  Well, that happens I'm sure.  What surprised me though, as the new release date approached, was that Spartan Race did not seem to be promoting the show quite as emphatically as it had immediately after the race.  And for anyone who follows Spartan Race...that was odd.  Very odd!!

One reason for this may have been a change in their marketing staff.  But as important as this must have been to them, someone at Spartan Race would have noticed it wasn't being blasted around the Internet!  Another reason is more likely though.  It seems reasonable that Spartan Race had a chance to see the final product before release.  And I can't imagine they were particularly thrilled with it.  Not that it was a poor job by any means.  Just disappointing.  At the very least it wasn't able to bring across the grueling, mind-numbing nature of this course in particular or any excitement about the race itself!  Of course I wouldn't know how to go about doing this either...but I'm not a TV producer.  I saw the same exact format used on one of those "survivor" type races and, I'm sorry to say, it was dull.  Dull....dull....dull!  And these races are not dull!  Brutal...torturous...painful...inspiring...fulfilling...but not dull!!  No race should come across like that...ever.

So, there's still some work to do on this.  A lot of work apparently!  OCR is a new and exciting sport and only needs the right person to bring it across on screen.  The Super Bowl has nothing to fear....yet.  On a positive note though, there appears to be change happening in OCR.  Another step in the maturing of OCR perhaps.  More on that thought in the next post!

 

The VT Spartan Beast......and just who ARE they building these race courses for?

Much has been said lately concerning the future of Obstacle Course Racing (OCR). There's talk about a professional circuit.  Even talk about a potential Olympic sport.  In my last post, which was on my experience at the VT Spartan Beast last month, I left off with the question of what that race might mean to this vision of the OCR future.

Much has also been said about what needs to happen to get to that next plateau.  Right now the races are primarily made up of casual participants who do one or two races a year and don't really know much about the sport outside their own experience.  I think most observers accept that to move to the next level, it's going to take fans.  Somebody has to want to watch this stuff!  People are going to have to develop a serious interest in the elite/professional racers.  They're also going to need a way to see the races in real time.  Believe me, seeing a Facebook post that says they started, then another that tells you they finished...and who won...is not particularly exciting.

It also seems to make sense that the current racers and their friends/families are the most likely place to start recruiting fans.  So what you need to do is to get people excited about racing, outside of their own race.  Excited about the courses and about the sport of OCR in general.  But what happens if you turn off these racers?  What happens if their own experience is not up to expectations?  It seems that the last thing you need is to send a once enthusiastic racer home with a negative experience.  There is nothing like a satisfied racer to spread the word to family, friends and colleagues.

So what does this have to do with the VT Spartan Beast?  Having the dubious distinction of being on that course longer than almost anyone else, I heard a lot of conversations and comments from racers.  The name of the sport is Obstacle Course Racing...with the emphasis on Obstacle.  Introducing long climbs into most of the races became the norm for Spartan Race.  But only lately had the climbs begun to overshadow the obstacles.  I heard these comments about the Super Spartan in NJ and the Sprint in PA.  I know that what attracted me to the sport in the first place was the fact that it was all about obstacles...not running.  But this race didn't have the feel of an obstacle course race...the climbs were overly long and detracted from the "enjoyment" of the competition. Many racers said they would never run a Beast again. Well, I can understand that sentiment...from several different perspectives, but I've never heard people saying that before, on any Spartan course. 

Then the question that comes to mind for me is "if the casual racer is not thrilled, who exactly were they building that course for?" Obviously Spartan Race always tries to outdo themselves to build the toughest, most challenging course anyone has run. No doubt many of the elite racers, who are in unbelievable condition, found the course tough as well. Tough to them though means slower, not impossible. But if your goal is to provide a positive racing experience for as many people as possible, then this is not doing it.  And losing potential supporters/fans is certainly not going to bring you closer to the goals of expanding the sport...let alone becoming an Olympic sport.  You have to keep focused on, and understand, why people race and compete and what they are looking for.  Because if the racers aren't satisfied and they aren't coming back, you'll never build a substantial fan base.

The fact is, what typical racers are looking for is different from what the hard core Spartan racer and Spartan Race itself seems to want from a race course?  What the typical racers want are obstacles...not tortuous climbing.  That's what they were sold in the early races and why many have continued to race.  A difficult course is great...as long as the obstacles were the main focus of the course.  If people want to do endless running they would do marathons or cross country.  Of course maybe that's just me.  Time will tell though I suppose.

The Spartan Vermont Beast and the Fulfillment of a Goal

"I guess this will teach me to be more careful about what I promise."  At the end of the classic mini-series Lonesome Dove, Tommy Lee Jones' character makes this statement, after completing a grueling trek to bury his friend and fulfill his dying wish.  Well...I suppose I should learn a lesson in setting wild and unrealistic goals about taking on races where I can't possibly understand the effort required.

Last January I set the goal of training for and running a number of Spartan Races during the year.  In hindsight, I don't think the goal was as unrealistic as I make it sound.  But an illness/injury (I'm still not sure which) at the Amesbury build kept me from any serious training leading up to the race and meant that I probably should have passed on both the NJ Super and the VT Beast.  However, the phrases "a promise is a promise" and "stupid is as stupid does" come to mind, to quote Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, so maybe I never really had a choice.

When the rains came later in the afternoon that day, after 7 or 8 hours out on the course...then the dark...then the cold, it really pushed me very close to just walking off the course.  I could feel my core temperature dropping and this has always been a major concern for me about any cold weather race.  Ironically, the "smoke" coming off me and floating up through my headlight as night fell later on, actually gave me hope.  I felt that as long as I was generating body heat, that somehow I would be fine.

On every course though, there always seems to be one obstacle that epitomizes the fact that these races are as much mental as physical.  In Vermont, that obstacle was the last pancake sandbag carry...truly a mind-numbing event for me at that stage of the race.  It was at the twelve and a half mile point.  Up to then, the only thing that kept me going was the fact that it would soon be over.  I could see the lights of the festival area and it seemed that a quick left turn and a short downhill and it would finally be done.  But just where the turn should have been was a row of crates.  A row of crates filled with sandbags.  I could feel my heart literally crushing when I realized this.  By this time it was dark...so you couldn't even see where the turn was up the hill (and of course it was UP the hill...which turned out to be a 3/4 of a mile loop!).  Not only that, but the cutoff time was approaching, and since I didn't know the time, I was greatly concerned about being pulled off the course after all this effort!  Oh, and during some short rests on the uphill carry, I noticed that it was sleeting....yes, there was a misty, fine sleet falling to make this just a perfect ending.

To say this course was hard is to say that Einstein was pretty smart.  And even that sarcasm doesn't even begin to describe it.  There were barbed wire crawls, three of them actually, if you don't count the one at the slippery wall.  There were four "carrying" obstacles, including a 60 lb sausage shaped sand bag (did they really call that a log carry?), the aforementioned pancake carry, a gravel carry and a 60+ lb concrete cylinder carry.  Of course there were expected obstacles: a couple of inverted walls, the rope climb, the Hercules lift, spear throw, log hop, 4'/6'/7'/8' walls,  rope and wall traverses.  But there were also some new ones: a few culvert crawls, a rope ladder climb out of the water to a "Tarzan" rope swing and oh, a memorization obstacle.  Yes, you had to memorize a word and number to repeat back hours later on the course (hours for me anyway) or, you guessed it, burpees!


[2013 VT Beast gps course map-photo credit, Paul Jones]

And then there were the climbs!!  I can't even remember how many there were.  Three or four for sure, depending on whether you count those that went along wooded trails or were part of the sand carries.  And sometimes it was hard to tell when there were back to back climbs or level interludes on one long climb.  This, more than anything else, really got me thinking during the race about the similarity to what I thought a Death Race would be like.  I had always wondered about taking one on someday, but honestly, the thing that "scares" me the most is exactly this.  A mindless, never ending task that has no purpose other than to wear on your willpower.  Don't get me wrong, the "desire" to finish any of these races is often more important than the physical skills you bring to the table.  However, I didn't come here for a Death Race...I came here for an incredibly demanding obstacle course race.  So running (and I use the term very loosely) and climbing endlessly up and down the mountains was really not what I signed up for.  I went hours, and what seemed like miles sometimes, between obstacles.

Eventually though, after more time on the course than just about anyone else, I finally crossed the finish.  All I could think about at that point was eating, checking with someone about my timing chip (which I thought had stopped working during the race) and eating (did I mention that already??!).  I also wanted to just change, get all my stuff and lay down!  Unfortunately, although I did get my Beast finish medal and tee, apparently there were tons of people finishing their Trifecta at this race, so I didn't get my Trifecta medal and tee [before I could finally finish my posts here, I did receive everything...just as Spartan Race promised].  Not world ending of course, but after so much preparation and training this year, so much effort in all these races, it would have been nice to see the symbols of that accomplishment I'd worked so hard for.

More importantly though, I walked away from that last race with a much different feeling than I'd had before.  I don't know if that was because this race was the last...the culmination of all the training and racing for this year.  Or because I had somehow changed my perception of racing.  It's hard to tell...even after weeks of contemplation, during which time I moved to Florida to start up my real estate business here.  So maybe after things get settled I'll be looking at next year and feel differently.  Time will tell.  But one thing I continued to reflect on was the design of the course in VT.  It made me really wonder who they had built this for.  Because I knew it wasn't for the casual racer like me.  And if not, then where are they going?  That thought will be the topic of the second part of my post VT Beast report.  Hope you will take the time to read it!


[The VT Spartan Beast......and just who ARE they building these race courses for?]

The NJ Super Spartan....the VT Spartan Beast....and then....

 

The Super...the Beast...and then???!!!...   Well, before I start worrying about "and then...", I better keep focused on that Beast this Saturday.  Back in January of this year, I declared this the "Year of the Beast".  My intentions then were to run a series of races and train enough to start...and finish...the Spartan Beast in Vermont.  At that point this race was so far in the future and I supposed an unrealistic goal.  It's hard to believe though,  that I'm just a few days from not only achieving this goal, but fulfilling my Spartan Trifecta and (through some undiscovered fault in their ranking methodology no doubt) placing very near the top of my age group in the 2013 points race.  Man...it's a long way from some tough talk last winter.

One of the big tests...in fact, the biggest one in my mind, was always going to be the NJ Super Spartan.  It was going to be my first and only Super on hilly terrain...and this coming only two weeks before the Beast.  To have any chance at completing the Beast, I knew I would have to have a decent performance at the Super.  Decent for me, of course [read: finish!].  The morning of the Super arrived and I was up around 4am.  Little sleep the night before and hobbling around on two bad feet...courtesy of what exactly, I haven't quite figured out.  I had never bailed on a race yet, but I decided that there was no way I could drive 2+ hours and then run that race.  So I made one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make.  I was going to skip the race.

The more I thought though, the more I realized that it wasn't just the Super I was giving up on.  Not running the Super meant I would be going into the Beast with absolutely no idea of where my performance level was.  Not counting the Miami Super (heat does NOT make up for flat), I hadn't run more than 4-5 miles on this sort of terrain.  I knew I wouldn't be comfortable tripling the distance...and in all likelihood, that would mean passing on the Beast as well.  Seriously, giving things a shot is one thing, but skipping work and spending time and money on a crazy idea made no sense at all.  Somewhere though, in the next 30 minutes, I realized I had to try (see Yoda on "trying").  In a way, the whole season was riding on this.  All the effort for the entire year...all the hours of training...not to mention all my big talk...was geared toward the Beast...and the Super was the key.

So off I went.  Bad wheels and all.  I hobbled to the venue shuttle bus...hobbled through registration and all the way to the starting line.  And just under 4 hours later...somehow...I managed to cross that finish line.  Only people who have experienced this can truly know the feeling.  When you complete something that you really, deep down in your heart, didn't believe was possible.  And this was no easy course by any stretch.  It had all the usual obstacles, plus a couple of my personal favorites [yes, that's seething with sarcasm if you missed it!] that pop up here and there.  But I think the most unusual thing for me was something that I came to take for granted...and that is probably the biggest mistake to make.  Every Spartan race I'd done had a long, steep climb right off the start (leave out the steep for Miami).  After that, the climbs tended to be much shorter and interlaced with obstacles and downhills.  So when I hit this tortuous, never-ending climb midway through, I had to tip my hat to Spartan Race...in between the gasps and curses of course.

So, having only just now booked a hotel for it, I've resigned myself to the fact that I really am going to tackle this Spartan Beast.  It's the only race that I won't be driving back and forth the same day.  First, it's just too far away to realistically drive to on race day.  Second, I can't even imagine trying to drive 5-6 hours back after the race...whether I finish or not.  No...even driving the next day will likely be a challenge.  So Norm Koch is getting the Beast ready for me...and I am doing what I can to be ready for the Beast.  What comes after isn't even a thought any more.  The only thing that's important right now is being prepared.  It will be the longest, toughest race course I've ever been on...maybe tougher than any course there is, except the ultra-beast.  Certainly it will be more than just the climax to an incredible year of racing, it will also be the test of will I've been waiting to face.  And they'll be filming this??!!  Yes, I can honestly say...bring it on...I'm ready...ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille!!

 

The Summer of 2013...and why I haven't been blogging...or training...

Since my last blog on the Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo, the summer took a turn for the incredibly busy.  Between then and now: I've run two Spartan races; helped build the course at another; driven my daughter and my grandkids back and forth from Florida; been sick twice; and went on some great outings with my kids and grandkids...including an epic trip into Manhattan.  Oh...and in between I did just a bit of real estate work and prepared to move again.  Unfortunately, this left very little training time in there!  Other than that, it was just a typical summer.  Ironically, my first trip to a NY beach will probably be this Wednesday (although I will admit to a trip to South Beach...the price of the Florida drive...as always!)

Since there's been so much going on, I won't try to detail the entire race this time around.  The first race I ran after Tuxedo was the Spartan Sprint in Palmerton, PA.  Although this would be my 6th race, it would be my first non-stadium race other than Tuxedo.  Well, not counting Miami...although that was the longer Spartan Super and the temperature was a factor there, the lack of any serious elevation change made it a much easier race for me overall.  Anyway, the PA course was everything I had expected...and a bit more.  The initial hill climb was typical of all Spartan races...brutal.  Add to that the sandbag carry over the last part of the climb and you are bordering on genius...in terms of pure torture anyway. 

Unfortunately for me, about 20 yards into that sandbag carry, I got a back spasm.  Yes....the word "sucks" comes quickly to mind...along with several others.  I knew immediately that this was a result of my modified (read: ignored) training schedule all summer.  So there I was.  Moving about ten baby steps at a time up this slope, and all the time thinking that I've still got 90% of the course to go still...assuming of course that I can even make it up this hill.  All I could think of was what would Tom Hanks do?  NO....not in Forrest Gump, the one where's there's no crying..."There's no crying in OCR!"  So, the short of it is, I didn't drive two hours plus to crawl off that damn mountain and limp home.  Although I had a few spots where it was still difficult, I did manage to finish.  Even though I think the first climb was tougher at PA, overall I still feel that Tuxedo was more challenging over the entire course.  I admit, I'm biased about that...Tuxedo was my first OCR race and will forever be that which all else is measured.  And no, the word "easier" does NOT even enter the conversation! 

Although I did manage to get some formal training sessions in during the early summer, there were some informal ones.  Like the trip into Manhattan.  During that marathon day I would take every opportunity to run up any stairs...usually at the subway stops.  And of course always carrying the pack and stroller.  One particular climb comes to mind, when I challenged my 4 year old grandson to a race...me up the stairs and him up the escalator with my daughter.  It was only after throwing down the gauntlet that I looked up to see five...very...long...flights of stairs.  Again, words like "oh, shit" came to mind very quickly.  Yes, I did it...and yes, I needed oxygen at the top...but at least I made it a race.

We also had another chance for some sprint training that evening.  After taking the train back to Long Island, we were down at street level and heading toward the van.  I issued another challenge (yeah...I know, but learning lessons is often lost on me).  I shouted, for my grand daughters, that "first one to the car gets to drive home!".  Obviously I was watching them like a hawk...this was NOT a race I would let them win...they'd have me in court on breach of a verbal contract or something!  Well, they never made a move.  The words hadn't finished coming off my lips though, when junior (aka my grandson) took off like a cruise missile toward the car...running back and forth off the curb towards his first chance to drive!!  And here we go again...trying to beat a four year old, still carrying the pack and stroller and at the same time, trying not to run him over in his unintentional serpentining.  Now THAT was fun!


So, as of this writing I've already run the Spartan Super in NJ.  That story will have to wait until my next time.  Meanwhile, nursing the continuing ailments, I'm readying myself for the final goal of this year...the Spartan Championship Beast in VT on Sept 21st.  While I still have a healthy respect for it, I no longer fear it.  After the NJ race I'm confident that I can finish!  Exactly how or in what shape?...who knows.  In preparation for this, I have adopted the following as my official song for the Beast.

With it or on it...those are the only choices for this race!

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Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo 2013...the battle continues...

Hard to believe it's only been a week since the race.  This has become an annual event for me now, having started my racing "career" at the first Tuxedo run in 2011.  The irresistible urge to once again challenge Spartan Race to do their best to beat me off that mountain.  True to form, they designed a brutal course to punish you right out of the gate.  And once again, the gods were with them.  Not only was it a scorching day, but they even managed to get an air quality alert...I mean really?!?...running is tough enough for me without any intervention from nature! 

I really should have suspected something from that very first race anyway.  Have you ever seen anything pleasant happen in a movie when there's a sleepy little country town in the opening scene?  No...me neither.  Maybe I should watch different movies.  But I digress....

So...there are several things I've learned to count on in any Spartan race: the opening run is intended to kill the weak; the rest of the course is intended to finish the job; expect it to be worse than you imagined.  Last Saturday was certainly the most intense opening run I've seen in my short Spartan life.  Worse even then Citi Field, which I thought was truly a work of tortuous art.  I don't know if they have the mileage on that climb, but it just seemed to go on forever.  There were a couple of rogue obstacles thrown in, but pretty much it was a long, slow uphill climb.  By the way, I heard from someone I ran into on the course that, as hard as the course was on paper, apparently it was actually laid out to be even tougher.  Whomever was really to blame for that, for the first time since I started racing, I really wondered if I could make it to the end...physically...would I have enough, regardless of the how bad I wanted it.  And somewhere along the way is when it hit me...what the hell was I thinking signing up for the Tri-State Super in NJ...or the Beast in Vermont!!!?  I must have been completely delusional to think I'd ever be able to finish either one of those.  Well, that was before I finished though.

As far as the obstacles go, I think my favorite this time around was the sandbag carry.  Picking a favorite though was pretty tough.  There were several that could have claimed that honor...   the traverse wall (which I was able to do just fine at Citi Field and the practice wall)....the rope climb (which I missed for the first time ever...just no juice left at that point I guess)...or probably the runner up, the (much too) inclined wall after the barbed wire crawl (guess it would have helped if I'd realized there were no intermediate boards where I was climbing in the middle...duh!!!).  And honestly, I just about shit myself when I saw that dreaded pole walk was back again.  I thought for sure the insurance company had banned it...I mean isn't bad karma to impale people?  But in the end, I had to pick the sandbag carry.  Just a gruelling uphill carry after so long on the course and starting off through a bog at the bottom.  I guess it's also a good time to make my apologies to my sandbag.  For slamming it down so many times and mumbling rude, nasty and unprovoked vulgarities at it throughout....I mean, it's only a sandbag after all...just doing it's job.

 

Then there were the easier-than-expected obstacles.  The reverse inclined wall was one (although, as I was joking with the volunteers, I slipped coming out of the mud pit and almost face planted into the back of it...didn't everybody??!).  The barbed wire crawl wasn't as bad as I anticipated either...but definitely more challenging with the berms they put in...I guess they want more crawling and less rolling.

 

Like every race though, there's always at least one obstacle that you just know you can't do.  Then somehow, in the midst of sheer exhaustion, you manage to succeed.  In this race, it was the high walls for me.  Although I've learned some fairly unorthodox ways of getting over these, the last few races I used the side blocks to get over the 7' and 8' walls...all except the first one of course...you have to beat at least one of them.  But Saturday, they told us those steps were off limits for the men.   Interesting!  Even with all the training I'd been doing specifically for this obstacle, the course had taken it's toll and I just couldn't get enough lift to muscle up on those.  But somehow, I did manage to get just high enough to find my way over both...and I've got the bruises to prove it too!  I still remember the people behind urging me on and the groan from the crowd when it looked like I wouldn't get over at first...then the shouts when I managed to pull myself up finally.  Most people just wouldn't understand the feeling of accomplishment from such a simple feat...but I guarantee Spartan racers will know exactly what I mean.

 

The organization was much better this year too.  Another given about Spartan race is that they improve every time.  At least they try to....though setting off a smoke bomb every 15 minutes in front of the med tent might be one thing they might want to change next time.  So...next year's race will be different...it will be harder...and like they said before the race Saturday, there will be something you haven't seen before.  And next year they will see me...again.  Because as long as I can run, I will never let them beat me off that mountain! 

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A link to the report on the 2012 Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo:
 

2012 Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo, NY - what the brochure won't tell you!

 

Spartan Sprint at Citi Field - April 2013

When the Citi Field Race was announced I knew immediately that I was going to run it.  Whether I ever ran another stadium event, I just had to do this first one.  Besides the opportunity itself, I wanted to know what a stadium race was like...and not just from reading what someone else thought about it.  In the end, I'm very glad I did!

 

I have to admit, when I got there and sat down in the stands to watch some of the race, I really wasn't feeling it....maybe it was the cold!!  There have been mixed reviews about the race, like this one in Obstacle Race Magazine...(Obstacle Racing Magazine/Heather Gannoe - Spartan Citi Field 4.13.13: A Mixed Review).  I think that those who were disappointed were more likely the hard-core mud racers (like myself, I admit) who really weren't prepared for this "clean" course.  As a matter of fact though, I did take some of the warning track clay and rub it into my shirt...but that's just me I guess...one way or another, I was getting my "mud".

 

One thing I knew going in was that there would be stairs...a lot of stairs!  They also made great use of the ramps...which I also feared.  True to Spartan Race, they come at you hard right from the start.  The first obstacle was a series of ramps from the first level up to the top of the stadium.  Of course, just running up a ramp is too easy...so they strung rubber cords across virtually the entire length.  Some you had to high-step over, some you had to go under and a few series where you had to alternate between them.  Not surprisingly, that was brutal for me.  Seems no matter what I try to anticipate, they make it worse.  And I suppose these stadium races also lend themselves particularly well to some unique obstacles too.  Like the "Hobie Hop", where you have to climb up a number of flights of stairs with a giant rubber band wrapped around your ankles.  Yes...it feels (and looks) as stupid as it sounds...but that is one tough climb!...which is all that counts in these races.

 

This course was also packed with obstacles.  I guess what they couldn't do in mud and barbed wire, they would make up in sheer quantity.  The typical obstacles were there like the rope climb, wall traverse, sandbag carry, cargo net and spear throw.  The Hercules lift was there too, but they seem to have found a frictionless rope to use...which you can't seem to actually hold on to...clever!  Naturally, there were also a number of walls to climb over, under and through.  They had a water jug carry too (of course it was up and down stairs...you have to ask??!)  This probably replaced the tire carry...watching tires careening down the rows of seats and ramps might have been a sight to see, but I doubt the Citi Field management would have seen the fun in that. 

 

There were new obstacles too...which seemed to be right out of gym, or maybe Crossfit, training (I'm not really sure since I've never been in either one).  One of the first ones I ran across was the Ball Slam.  No...really!!...you lift a 20lb semi-deflated ball over your head and slam it down in front of you...twenty times.  Then they had the giant jump rope...about 3 inches thick and weighing who-knows-how-much...try fifty of those suckers.  I'm only too glad that there were no videos of that little fiasco.  Just one more time I would have been thoroughly out-performed by an eight year old.  And I suppose the 5 gallon concrete block carry with burpees, that I first saw in Miami, was just too much fun to leave off the list.  Another interesting change were the monkey bars...although they weren't quite traditional.  I did manage to do them...however, since there was no one there in front of me that I could watch, and no one offered any explanation, there is every reason to believe that I may have invented a whole new way of traversing them!  One challenge, which I'm going to fail to mention, is the "box jump" on the home stretch by the visitor's dugout.  I will leave it as an independent assignment for the reader to determine how wonderfully this one must have gone, to be left out completely!

 

The thing about this event, was that the race was only a part of it.  Even with some long delays at the traverse wall and spear throw....not to mention (and I didn't) the rowing obstacle...the course was challenging, surprising and enjoyable.  Besides that though, it was also a spectacle and a festival, in a way that none of the other races can be.  There will be those that never grow to love these...or even like them...but if you can let go of the need for the mud and barbed wire for a day, you'll find a great way to share the racing experience with family and friends.

 

 

[For more on the state of obstacle racing and the evolution of stadium races see (The tale of two races or is it three?)]

 

Miami Super Spartan - 2013

Until the Miami Super Spartan, the only Spartan races I had ever run, in fact the only obstacle races I had ever run, were the Spartan Sprints at Tuxedo NY.  I had read from one of the top Spartan racers that the Tuxedo course (3.5-4 miles) was just as hard as a Tough Mudder (appx 10 miles) and harder than the Miami Super (appx 8 miles).  Nevertheless, I had never run that kind of distance and I found the thought of doing it very intimidating.  But if you're going to avoid challenges because you might fail, you can never expect to experience the thrill of achieving something you thought was impossible!  My first time was Tuxedo and I just want to keep finding ways to have that feeling again.

 

So, once more, I prepared to face down the doubts and fears you have when going up against an unknown challenge.  In general I knew the biggest hurdle (no pun intended) was going to be the distance and heat.  I'd lived in Miami for 14 years so I knew very well that the heat, even in February, would be grueling for us northeners.  Even on the shorter Tuxedo course, muscle cramps were a factor.  So I took some steps to try to limit the damage.  Besides a training program that included a lot more running, I also took along a Camelbak and some "packs of GU"...(which I'll leave as a homework assignment for you to find out what that is).  I also knew that I needed to work on my upper body strength.  The rope climb, the Hercules lift and a few other dainties are unforgiving if you don't have the strength.

 

Of course the one consistent factor about the Spartan races is that you never really know what to expect.  The spear throw was AWOL...and I think I had that one down!  The rope climb was off dry land for once...I liked that!  Someone somewhere decided that lifting and carrying a concrete cylinder the size of a 5 gallon bucket 20 feet, then doing some burpees was fun...oh, and bring it back over here when you're done...please.  And how many walls were there on that course??!!  I can remember 12 but I'd swear there were more than that.  Who knows...maybe I climbed a few twice...it was a long, hot day out there.  Maybe the biggest surprise...hills!  Well, they wouldn't be called hills in most parts of the country.  But knowing that the highest point in the everglades is 3 feet above sea level, I was absolutely shocked to find climbs throughout the course of 15-20 feet.

 

Another experiment no doubt, was the placement of 4 of the obstacles in a row at the end of the run.  I'm sure this was to give the spectators a chance to see more of the actual race.  Not a bad intention, but for the racers, having to do the rope climb, wall traverse, mud crawl and "slippery incline" one after another was a bit much.

 

The funny thing is though, when I finished, I wasn't dead!  I had fully expected to be.  Before I left NY, I had carefully bequeathed all my office paraphernalia to my teammates...knowing full well what awaited in Miami (and I think they were surprised and disappointed too, when I returned to reclaim my stuff!).  I told my daughter, who lives in Miami, that whatever we were going to do, needed to be done before the race, because I planned to be horizontal from the finish until my plane trip back.  I honestly don't know how much to credit my training (and GU...thanks Janice!) or the fact that the elevation changes were minimal compared to NY, but I actually felt a bit disappointed.  I know, it sounds strange...but somehow, not being brutalized and beaten to a pulp by the course left me feeling like I missed out on something!  So I guess maybe I reached another level.  I've got Citifield coming up in around 2 weeks, so we'll see how that goes.  Overall though, I have to say I'm still enjoying this sport and feel like there's greater potential yet untapped.  Time will tell.  One last thing...I finished Tuxedo in around 2:39.  I finished Miami in around 2:52.  That means I finished the extra four miles at an average pace of 3 minutes, 15 seconds!  Hey, do the math!!...I'm just saying....

 

I would be remiss if I didn't thank my daughter Dawn and her husband Brian for the airport rides, the rides to the race and for putting me up (or is it putting up with me...maybe both) for the days I was there...and to the grandkids for...well...just for being themselves.  Until next time....

Spartan Race WOD's aka "Workout Of the Day"...what they don't tell you

One of the basic assumptions that these WOD's seem to make is that you have, at hand, a fully equipped gym alongside a running track with a hill just outside the door.  I guess it's also assumed that you have a field where you can do all sorts of imaginative exercises which may include old tires, large rocks and tree parts.  I haven't seen any yet that involved wrestling wild animals or carrying domestic ones...but I'm sure that's just an oversight and will be addressed at some point soon.

Well....I belong to a gym...just an ordinary, regular gym.  So that pretty much puts most of the WOD's out of any practical reach.  I do however, read them on a daily basis.  And much to my surprise, along came a WOD that I could not only do at my gym, but was only 5 lines long!!  What was even more surprising was the fact that it looked pretty easy.  Now, anyone familiar with Spartan Race knows, if it looks too easy...watch out!  Since I've written about these guys before (see 2012 Spartan Race at Tuxedo NY ) I really should have known better.  I suppose we all know where this one's going!

So...WOD in hand...I trotted off to the gym one day, intent on doing my first WOD.  This was an exciting day!  Knowing how difficult most of these are, and knowing that there were people out there doing them regularly, I felt like I was on the threshold of some exclusive and elusive society.

Now, it took a bit of innovating but I worked out a way to do this oh-so-simple WOD.  Of course it wouldn't be perfect.  There would be an unavoidable, relatively small time lag between exercises.  Overall though, it would be close enough to get the feel of really doing one.  They also have a rating system for these.  Each one is rated up to 5 in the areas of strength, endurance and speed.  So I did one rotation through the WOD exercises!  And the first thing that hit me was, "how the hell could something this short be so freaking hard??!!"  For Spartan athletes these ratings were fine I guess.  For me, they better put them in dog years!  20 minutes later, it was done...and I was done!  It was my first one...but hopefully not my last.  Unfortunately, a gym is just not the ideal place for these...which is probably a big reason I'm still alive!!

Just a final note about one of the people that creates these "things", Dr Jeff [aka Dr. Jeff Godin].  For those who like the science of exercise, he writes some of the most technically interesting articles.  I credit him with my breakthrough performance in longer distance running endurance....all due to one of his posts on the "long slow run".  Aroo Doc...keep 'em coming...even if I can only manage a few.