Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Super Spartan Race 2011 Recap!

Aren't you all lucky ducks? 2 recaps in a row!?! What is this craziness!?



The day didn't start as early as I had imagined. Thankfully, Joann lives pretty darn close to Rawhide (this cute western town with a steakhouse, but it's twice as big as Pinnacle Peak/Trail Dust Town for you Tucson townies). So we woke up a little later than usual (I sleeping in).


We got to Rawhide and wandered through the town to the start line/to find the group Joann signed up with. We walked past one of the obstacles. It was a wall with little planks of wood nailed on to it. Very intimidating. I was only a little worried at that point. Then, we walked past a dry wash with stacks of Duraflame lined up neatly. I asked Joann what the Duraflame was for. And then...oh. 


We finally found our group, put our stuff in a car and got pumped. Joann and I wrote our numbers on each others arms. We walked around to see some free samples we could score. I grabbed a free 5 Hour Energy for later. 


Then we saw this wall. We joined in and wrote our names on it.

Then, it was time to start the race! I made a poor decision and downed the 5 Hour Energy before our wave was about to start. So. Freaking. Gross. I had this cough medicine taste in my mouth for quite awhile.

People started to move. Then some broke into a run and then there was smoke. Everywhere. Apparently, being a Spartan means you have to run though a cloud of smoke. And I'm not talking bearable smoke here. It was so hard to breathe. I already have a lot of trouble with cigarette smoke. This was awful.

Here, we think, is Joann and I. She found this on a website covering the race. You can sort of see my orange shirt, black pants, maybe? And Joann is to my left? Tell me what you think. Anyway, this was the smoke. 


Next, we ran over some hay steps. Not too bad, I'm thinking. But after we rounded a building we saw more smoke. Uh-oh. We rounded the corner and realized we're going to jump the fire NOW! Holy Crap!

That was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. Seriously. That fire looks small. But when you face it head on, it's a HUGE WALL OF FIRE. For a split second, I told myself I couldn't do it. But then realized the men with the fire hoses wouldn't let me catch fire and die. 

We jumped, survived, then almost was knocked over by the intense pressure of the hoses. We ran though a tunnel, and along a path for a while. I was doing good, until I saw the water. As in "river" water (man made).

It was a big man made river! It felt like it took forever to cross it. And it was cold. The cold knocked it out of me. My shoes were weighing me down. So were my shorts. Good thing I told Joann not to wear pants this morning, I was thinking. Finally, we made it across, but we had to walk because the cold was so shocking. Finally, we got our groove back...for a little while. Then we saw we have to cross the river again.

We ran for awhile on a small desert trail. People were starting to break up and it gave us a little more room to run. I really like when that happens. :) Got some water (finally). Seriously. If it's one thing this race needed more of, it was water. You know, to drink. Not to swim through, there was enough of that.  I may have to suggest that. I know, I know, it's not very Spartan of me...

From that, we did some more crazy stuff.
We ran though a very small tarp covered river, through tunnels, and then crawled though a mud pit with barbed wire. Fun. NOT. Look at my face. It tells all. That was not nice mud either. It was rough, rocky, hard, not fun mud! I'm pretty sure I got a mud burn. 


After that, we climbed some walls, jumped through tires, and pulled some cinder blocks. Yup. Sure did. Just before that we had the option of solving a 4-square Rubik's cube or 30 push-ups. Guess who did the push-ups as soon as she heard she had to solve that hellacious thing. ME. I will not deny it. 

We ran some more, almost died of thirst. We had to climb a very tall wall. Painful. Ran some more. Almost died of thirst...again. Finally, we neared the little town of Rawhide. We had to cross the cold, little river again (but this time it felt amazing!) and climb a slippery wall. I think this obstacle is where I got an ugly bruise on my leg.
Yay! Finally a battle scar. Can you believe I have never gotten a bruise, scratch, black toenail, etc from a race? But now. It's all changing. I'm actually proud of myself. 

We got to Rawride, ran though the town, reached the walls we had to climb across (if you fall you have to do 30 burpees!). So tired at this point. Then we had to throw a spear at a target. But I missed so I did 50 push-ups. Yay push-ups. We had one more mud pit to cross and we were done! Of course, we had to get past the gladiators first. 


Thankfully, I got past them without being knocked over and finished! 
Not sure about my time yet, but when I do find out I will update. 

We both got our medals, and used our meal ticket to get our burgers and beer/soda. LOVE that we get food after. Every race should do that. No matter the distance. 

You can check out some awesome photos of my sister from this race HERE. (her blog)

Hope you enjoyed it! I loved the challenging aspects of this race. It really pushed me to try harder and go farther.  I also liked the fact we were in a team because yes, it was cheaper but I liked meeting the other people who ran as well. They had some good stories. And runners are usually awesome people. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have so many things to tell you about! I got new shoes, new medals, a new bike, new races in my future and I met a new group of people that I was welcomed into and would love to  get involved with! I'm so excited! You should be too. Also because I'm sort of close to my 100th post. That probably means a giveaway!! Get ready, it's approaching. :) 

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Ragnar Relay Del Sol 2011 Recap!

Wow, sorry for that wait! I have been studying my butt off for midterms and now I'm done!!! Spring Break has come and gone, the Wildcats are in the sweet 16, and life is good. :) So I finally got a chance to sit down and do this!

Also, I have been sort of embarrassed by the lack of photos I took for this race. It was so crazy! I wasn't sure what to expect and how to time things and so on and so on. Excuses, excuses. I know. So, I stole a lot of photos from my teammates facebook pages. I hope it's enough for this recap. Also, I did bring my video camera but I didn't really get anything good. I can't really explain why but I guess I was in this weird, sleep deprived, adrenaline fueled state the entire 33 hours. If you've done a Ragnar before, you may understand what I'm saying. If not, you better get out there and do one cause it's definitely an experience you won't ever forget. 
Since I took so long to do this recap, there may be some details I'm missing. But you'll get the general idea...

Alrighty! The recap! Sorry about the photos, facebook has this weird thing now where they won't let you save the photos. I had to screen capture mostly everything!


 I want to start by saying my team was freaking awesome! Most of us were strangers but by the end we became very close! We plan to do this next year, maybe even do Ragnar in Las Vegas in August. We had a blast! It was the perfect group of people. I'm on the right. And yes, it was cold. 




Here I am starting off the race (in the orange shirt and blue hat)! I was runner #1 and I had a blast starting it off! The elevation was not fun however. I needed my inhaler before I even hit the halfway mark. Didn't help I was wearing compression socks and it was uphill! UGH. But it was challenging and fun. :)  



The scenery was beautiful on my first run! Wickenburg may be in the middle of nowhere, but at least it's a pretty place to be. 


The rest of the way was crazy! I'll admit I have to work on my photo taking skills for next year because I missed a lot.
The following photos are a mix between what I took and what I got from my teammates:

Decorating Van 1.


Exchange 3. 

Casey supporting Lori on one of her legs.

Kendra coming into an exchange.

Kevin's Ragnar face. 

Exchange 6!


Sleeping at a high school before Van 1 starts the 2nd set of legs. 

Kevin during one of his legs. 

Kevin and Clancy acting silly. Must be the lack of sleep....or not...

Guy during one of his legs. 

Waiting for Christine to come in. 

Waiting to start my 2nd leg!

Laura getting pumped up for her night run. 

Christine being super reflective. 

Exchange 12!


After my last leg! I came in during the sunrise. It was so pretty! :)

Meeting some biggest losers at an exchange. 

Finally, we made it to the beer garden!! ...I mean, the finish line...

Waiting (in the beer garden of course) for Christine to get closer to the finish line.  

Here she comes!!! Our last runner, Christine, comes running into the finish. So we all join her...
We all run to the finish! 



WE FINISHED!

Place- 265th
Finishing time- 32:57:47

Sorry for the short and sweet recap, but I think I like it that way. Leaves more to the imagination! :)
My goal for next year to have a better plan for capturing photos so that my recap won't be all over the place. Also, it's hard to do a recap when you're sleepy. 

Hope you all enjoyed it! My team plans to do the Del Sol relay again next year. We may even consider the Las Vegas one coming up, but that hasn't been decided yet. I'll have to do another post with the metal, it's pretty sweet. :) 

And, my sister and I ran in the Super Spartan Race in Chandler last Saturday, so you'll get another recap shortly! 

HAPPY RUNNING! 

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