2015 Spartan Sprint : Hellmecula 2.0 Continued...

The day after the Beast, I went back to run the Sprint (~5 miles) with a co-worker that is new to the Spartan races. Took my camera this time to help document her first Spartan experience!

We spent months discussing back and forth on gear and techniques for the obstacles, so it was really fun re-experiencing the first-time Spartan jitters through her. I think sheer fun is the best way to describe it.

Stopped to capture the scenic view of the race course/venue.

Sled drag.

Sandbag carry. Have to carry a weighted sandbag up and down the hill.

See the line of people on the hill? You carry the sandbag up the hill (right of the photo), around the peak of the hill, and then back down (left of the photo).

Very crowded and slippery mud pits and hills. The Sprint races tend to be more overcrowded.. lines for the obstacles, hard to run fast or pass people, esp on the steep, narrow trails. Not the best for racing for time, but definitely more so about team work and having fun on the obstacles.

A-Frame wall climb in the background.

One of my favorite obstacles cause it's easy for rock climbers, the Z-Wall traverse.

Bucket brigade. Same idea as the sandbag carry --> up and down a hill.

Spear throw. Even though Ryan has this obstacle in our yard for me to practice on, it doesn't matter. I fail this obstacle, every single time. I am 0-5.



Another failed obstacle.. the rig. I was so close, but the 2nd day of racing and my arms had no mo' strength.



At least I got the rope climb.



Nailed the fire jump pose like a boss!

2015 Spartan Beast : Hellmecula 2.0

Ryan and I ran the Spartan Beast (13 miles, 30 obstacles) again recently. Harsh conditions again this year, and the race was informally dubbed as Hellmecula 2.0. This was our make-up run from last year's cancellation race. Both of us had started to get back into training mode mid-June, but work, kids, schedules, and unexpectedness of life hindered consistent training. So even with sporadic training, we were able to manage completing another Spartan Beast, in 90+ degree temps.

I am super proud of Ryan on his finish! He placed top 3% overall out of 3,402 racers, top 5% out of all 2,243 male racers, and 6th place for his age group. I can just imagine how he would do if he REALLY trained for this race.

I did not prepare well for this race, with ~two weeks of consistent training after taking most of August rehabbing a rotator cuff injury. I went into this race with low endurance and strength and fully expected to place poorly in all categories. So, all in all, I'm happy with my results, placing in the 25% for women and 28% for my age group, but 50% for overall.

I was planning to retire from doing Spartan races, but I feel I can do better, so maybe one more Beast before I retire. I did back-to-back races again this time, running the Sprint (5 miles) on Sunday for fun with a co-worker. This weekend completed my first Spartan Trifecta for 2015.

The kids unfortunately did not get to run the kids race again because they got sick! So.. looks like our family is not quite yet done with Spartan. We'll have one more hoorah!!

Pre-race photo at entrance to the start line.

Post-race photo at the finish line.

Sandbag carry up and down a hill.

Barb wire crawl.

Fire jump finish!

Spartan Indoctrinated!

We are now a Spartan family! Yup, that's right, the kiddos ran their very first race, a Spartan Jr 0.5 mile obstacle course, and they were AWESOME. Proud parent moment! Big thanks to Ryan for making this happen.

Original plan was for both Ryan and I to race, but the latest bouts of being sick sidelined Ryan. After my race on Saturday, the kids wanted to come watch mama run on Sunday. (Yes.. I did 2 races on back-to-back consecutive days.) Ryan made the effort to bring the kids to spectate. My race time was early enough that I could finish in time before the kids race, so last-minute we gave the kiddies a choice if they also wanted to run, and they did!

Attempt at a pre-race photo... can't get all of them looking at the same time.

Pre-race stretching.

Mulling around.. waiting for the race to start..



10...9...8... ...3...2...1.. GO!!!


Run! Run! Run!


Liam & Ryan, climbing over the wall.

Emilia doing the Under-Over wall obstacle.

Liam's "barb wire" crawl.


Emilia going over haystacks.

Go! Go! Go! Yes. I am THAT mom.



Waiting for her turn at the kiddie "spear throw". Kids have a 5 burpee penalty for not hitting the target.

Emilia doing burpees in the back and Liam's "spear throw" attempt. =)


The Finish line!

Post-race outfit --> Emilia tried the muddy water obstacle but did not like the freezing waters. We did not bring a change of clothing for her, so she had to sport a fashionable towel look.

Connie's Super and Sprint Summary Recap:

For the 9+ mile Super, the conditions were completely opposite from the last time I did this. There was severe winds blowing sand and dust, making it hard to see and breathe.

(photo curtesy from random facebooker in the Spartan group)

(video curtesy from random facebooker in the Spartan group)

The obstacles felt harder this time around, with a few more upper body centric ones. Even the traverse wall was a challenge. Here's a view of the Z-traverse wall with people doing the 30 burpees penalty for failing it.. And in the background is the bucket carry. One fills their bucket with small rocks and have to carry it up and down the hill in the further back.

My Super time was pretty dismal.. 4:16 (~90%). Grandmas and grandpas beat my time. However, I did go into it with no training (haven't ran more than 2-3 easy miles since last October) and lingering muscle strains. But, I did it anyways. It was more a mental game as I was not confident about any obstacles that require dynamic movement with the possibility of jumping or falling (aka rehash of the ACL injury). I failed 5 obstacles (monkey bars, Spear Throw, Thermophalea, Z-Wall, and Tarzan Swing), so that meant I spent a lot of time doing 150 burpees!

Okay, so the Super results were not good and very humbling. I was tempted to postpone the Sprint the next day, but I decided to Spartan it up! I already knew what to expect, and I had the extra motivation to finish faster so I could make it in time to watch the kiddos. The first 0.5 to 1 mile was hard running on tired legs, but surprisingly, the body learns and adapts. After the first mile, I felt great. I knew what to expect and it felt comfortable. I ran the course faster, did the obstacles faster, felt more confident. I did take assistance on the monkey bars, so less burpees there, but I added burpees by choosing to burpee out of doing the bucket carry because that obstacle aggravates my low back muscle strain. Z-Wall was not an issue this time. Still failed the Spear throw and Tarzan Swing, so did a total of 90 burpees. My time was 1:51 which places me in the 20-30% for age/female/overall categories. Much better results.

We achieved 4 medals, 2 from the kiddies for the Spartan Jr race, and 2 from mama... these medals were definitely 100% earned!

Super proud of the kiddos and Ryan! And motivated to train again! I do not recommend running these races without training, but it is doable. I just can't walk for the next few days... =P

2014 Holiday Edition: The Year's Highlights

2014 was a year of typical daily life, but filled with lots of kiddie shenanigans. The kids are at a great age where it doesn't matter where we are or what we do, they can find fun and laughter in just about anything with their wild imaginations. (Something we can learn from them!) It is good since we didn't really go much anywhere or do much anything! =) The consistency of routine helped make life manageable between juggling our work loads, Connie's intensive PT/rehab, and the kids' schedules. We still have our challenges, especially with time management, but it was a great year where being routine was monumental in slowing down the hectic feel of life with kids and allowed for all of us to have both, individual and family growth.

Liam transitioned from being a toddler to a little boy. He said good-bye to his toddler days, moving out of his crib and into a big-boy bed. Growing up is hard to do at times, and he had to part ways with the binkie. Preschool turned out to be an easy transition, despite his initial hesitation. The hustle and bustle of all the kids at school can be overwhelming, but luckily Liam has an independent nature like his parents, and he does not mind doing his own thing. Just like dad, Liam loves any kind of motorized vehicle as they bonded watching motorcycle races at Laguna Seca and checking out mini-motos.

Emilia has always had a natural big sis tendency towards Liam, but this year, she realized he makes a great partner in crime. The two combined have become the "Double Trouble", scheming up imaginary adventures to share together. They fight as hard and as much as they play wild together. In fact, the parental units are thinking of sending them to jujitsu so they learn to "wrestle out" their arguments. Emilia is a veteran at school now, showing Liam the ropes. She loves going to school and has a group of close girl friends. She loves princesses, as do the rest of her gal pals, but we also project our influences, so she and Liam are fans of Ninja Warrior, especially Kacy Cantazaro. They play obstacle games and run races together, and many times Emilia will do them in her princess dresses.

Connie, 2014 was a year of recovery, with a main focus on ACL rehab with a goal of running the Spartan Beast around the 1 year post-ACL surgery mark. Obsessive personality is a positive attribute in this area as it fueled the discipline needed to consistently do physical therapy rehab on top of strength and endurance training. Life was defined only by 3 aspects - juggling time with kids & Ryan, work, and multitude of gym memberships. Knee has recovered, but the injury left imbalances that indirectly causes other minor injuries. All in all though, improvements are made. Maybe 2015 will be the injury-free year!

Ryan maintains being the rock of the family - helping Liam, Emilia, or Connie with whatever comes up. There is always a list of home improvement projects to do, with priorities that jump up due to circumstances, like setting up obstacles for Connie to practice on pre-race and hopefully not injure anything else, or when the raccoons came to terrorize the backyard... Ryan was set on a mission to deter them (in a safe way) from hanging around - setting up motion sensing automatic sprinkler and metal tree guards to prevent them climbing up. There were nights he would go on stake-outs for raccoons and try to scare them off. Ryan is non-stop in keeping our home organized and our lives organized. This year he manages to fit rock climbing in regularly, and we are slowly making it a new family routine.

2014 was consistent busy-ness that helped to form good foundation of solid habits for all of us. One of the traits of highly successful people is that they develop good habits - make their beds, clean up right away, make lists/plans for their day/week/month/year and work on it regularly, becoming a habit of progress. Working out became like brushing one's teeth... just do it without thinking. The kids naturally gravitate towards organization and clean up.. as much as kids can. =) All in all, we are very grateful for the year we have had in 2014. We sympathize with friends and family that we have seen go through hardships this year and those that will be continuing hardships. Keep pushing forward, one step, one day at a time.

Wishing you happiness and laughter all the days in 2015!

Recap : Spartan "Beast From Hell"

Now that this is all said and done and all the forums are buzzing with "what happened when", we know the full extent of the race we ran in. Ryan and I were the lucky ones (or unlucky ones... depending on the perspective) to have had an early start time and opportunity to run the full course under full heat conditions.

A summary update from the race director:

This race quadrupled the number of casualties, or DNFs (Did-Not-Finish), than the hardest Spartan race course in Wintergreen, and has been labeled as the "Beast From Hell". Not so much in the course itself, but mainly because of the heat. There were a total of 6.5K Beast racers that day with only 800 full finishers (including Ryan). Everyone else was either cut short (including me..11 out of 12 miles) or DNFs (people that pull themselves out of the race for various reasons.. medical, etc.)

Elevation map, bottom left corner, green line is the Beast.

Ryan and I had different strategies going into the race. Ryan knew the temps would only get hotter the longer we were out there on the course. His plan was to go fast and get to mile 8 ASAP. From the course map, mile 8 looked like it was in the trees and foliage which meant shade. My strategy was to go conservative. Consistent, slow stride on steep uphills or difficult terrain, and run all the easy stuff - flats, not-so-steep downhills/uphills. At every 2-3 miles, I would make sure to drink water, eat a GU/snack, and drink a couple packets of mustard.

Ryan and I at the back of the pack for the start of our 9:15a heat. Temps were around upper 80s/low 90s now. I'll lose sight of him in like 30 seconds after this.

The trail starts off with a warm-up hill. It took a bit of zooming in to find, but Ryan is all the way at the top of this hill already. The backside of this hill flattens, has a nice view of the lake, and then continue to go uphill around a bend. The first two miles were not easy with a significant steep hill in Mile 1 which were already sidelining people. I kept a consistent pace and really couldn't go faster since the trail often were single track, goat trails packed with people.

Then there is a steep drop down a billy goat trail, and then back to an even steeper hill climb up on the left side. We're still only halfway to Mile 1.

Between Mile 1-2, we get a little bit of flatter trail running along some of the hilly ridges, as well as more hills to climb up, then down, then up, and then down again (notice the tiny people running down on the other ridge in the photo below.)

At mile 2, I was already feeling the the difficulty of the terrain and heat. I stuck with my strategy though and kept with a conservative approach... water, food, mustard. I stopped two times, mile 4 and mile 7, to intake extra food, apply sunblock, and socialize (also passed out mustard packets). =) The strategy worked out great as I really had no issues and maintained energy for the whole course.

There were a few obstacles passed up to this point which I didn't take pictures of.. Over-Unders-Over-Under and Over-Under-Throughs. (Listed in map.)

Here is the Atlas Carry, a Spartan classic. The womens weight ball felt very doable.. maybe 45-50 pounds? You had to carry it to the opposite flag, drop it and do 5 burpees, and then carry it back. The initial lift off the ground was the hardest part because it was awkward to grasp.

Back up a hill somewhere. Lost count as to which mile this is now.

Then back down a single track billy goat trail.

Tractor tire flip - 4x. They had various weights, though I picked the smaller one and found it quite easy.

Cargo net up and across.

So far, all obstacles up to here have been easy. These Log Hurdles looked like they would be easy, but turned out not. The logs did give Ryan some battle scars, and I required help in reaching the logs.

Log Hurdles.



Inverted Wall. Rock climbing techniques made climbing over any of the wall obstacles easy. (6/7/8 feet walls and this inverted wall) Most people use their arms to either mantle or chicken-wing their bodies over the wall. I use a leg-hook technique which uses less arms and more core and leg. Much easier.



Lattice Bridge.

Mile 7 and on, I came across people that were cramping bad on the side. By this time, it was probably at max temps..according to the race director..116-118 in the sun, and there were a lot of people sidelined. Most people were walking, not running.

Traverse Wall. Rock climbing techniques rule! No problemo.

A very wicked hill climb right before mile 9. The steepest hill I encountered on the course, and with soft sand easy to slip on.

The top of the hill was scenic. You can see the staging Start/Finish area below, on the left of the photo. And see the hills behind and to the left of my head? Those were the hills we were running in from Mile 1-4.

The last hill took a young guy out. I found him on the side of the trail gripping his leg in pain. So I stopped to help him out, gave him a couple of my mustard packets and a GU. I have full faith in the mustard packets, and he said he would be okay and I went on my merry way. Little did he or I know, but the Mile 9 aid station was just a downhill away.

And Mile 9 trail marker.

I was starting to feel tired around mile 9. Ate an extra mustard packet and snacked on pepitas and cranberries, and continued on.

Somehow Mile 10 disappeared, and I was well on my way to Mile 11. Little did I know, they had cut off mile 10 part of the trail due to a rattlesnake. Rumor has it that someone was bitten. Again, hearsay. No confirmation. Ryan says Mile 10 had the worst hill of the course. I am bummed I missed it! Seriously.

Sandbag carry.

At mile 11, my energy came back. It was the realization that the finish was near...Phase 4 out of The Five Phases of SUCK. A gal that I ran past commented to me "How is it that you can keep running?". I was thinking, "The end is near. How is it that you're not running?" Haha! Mile 11 was a flat run along the lake and then to the "fun" obstacles finale.

We had to crawl through portions of the muddy lake and, just like fireworks, there were a bunch of obstacles grouped together at the end - spear throw, barb wire crawl, Hercules Hoist, Rope Climb, Fire jump, etc.

Barb wire crawl.

Rope Climb.

And lastly.. the famous fire jump.

Ryan finished all 12.1 miles in 4:04, placing 3rd in his age group for the Full Open course. I finished 11.1 miles in 5:22, placing 50% for my age group. All in all, it was a satisfying race given the conditions. I'm not too thrill about my race time, but then again, I knew I was going about it conservatively.

I was so happy at finishing! But later I found out that I did not complete the full course and that I had missed mile 10 from closure due to a rattlesnake. I did complete the shorten course and received a medal, but my race would not be eligible for a Beast recognition.

While Ryan and I had the opportunity to race all or most of the course, there were so many heat related medical issues going on (516), rattlesnake bites, even two cardiac arrests (hearsay), Spartan decided to call off the races mid way through. Only 800 people were able to complete the full course. The rest of the racers were cut off at different points for various reasons.. 11 miles, 10 miles, and less than 9 miles. Spartan has decided to hold a repeat/make-up Beast race January of next year. So... I get to do this again and aim for a better time! But Ryan doesn't... =( He would have had a much better time too, but his legs cramped at Mile 10, which slowed him down significantly. (He does not believe the magic mustard packets!) He did make it to mile 8 in under 2 hours! Either way, I am proud of him placing 3rd in his age group!