Today was Spartan Race Miami! It was a super spartan, so that means its 8 miles and between 20-25 obstacles. I did a 5k out of last years spartan race with the Biggest Loser Run Walk. it was my first ever obstacle race, almost exactly one year ago. I remember pulling up and people who had started in earlier heats were running by, all half naked and shit, and i was SO intimidated. I even remember blogging about it and everything. the course wasnt too hard. the only obstacle out of that course i couldnt do was the rope climb. I needed assistance to climb a wall using only a rope, but i did get over it. i felt like OK, im not too bad! and it gave me the confidence to try other obstacle races. In the last year I have done the Armageddon Ambush, Warrior Dash, Superhero Scramble, and 5k Foam Fest all in preparation that one day, i would be brave and fit enough to complete one of the hardest ones- Tough Mudder or Spartan Race. Tough Mudder seems cool. But being able to call yourself a SPARTAN?! is so much cooler, in my opinion lol plus the spartan race was the first obstacle course race in the USA- so this is wha all other obstacles are modeled after. the taste of it i got the year before helped as well. Lol
i had actually signed up to volunteer getting things together for the race on friday. i had to put toilet paper in porter potties and stuff 14,000 packets, and organize all kinds of wood and building equipment and set up fences. it was a good 6 hour day, but i got to race for FREE out of it! i didnt have any appointments that day anyways, so it was perfect. since im on this tummy tuck mission i really didnt want to spend $150 on a race. plus $14 insurance. plus $10 parking. plus $5 bag check. this was the perfect solution. all we had to pay for was the insurance and we got cute little "i helped build a spartan race" tshirts.
when the race stars youre all corralled up. we had to hop a wall to get into the start zone. the dude on the mic gives a pretty serious pep talk and gets everyone jumping up and down and yelling "WE ARE SPARTAN!!" lol there are even dudes in dresses like spartans there. dudes with the spartan logo shaved into their heads. its totally worth the $20 to be a spectator lol
after a short run the first obstacle is the over, under, over under where you do exactly that. go over and under barricades with nets. hands are filled with dirt within 5 minutes lol. then after that was more running and right into the water. only about waist deep, just through a small part of the river. please keep in mind this is the same river i kayak in- with snakes and crabs and huge fish and potential gators or crocs! (its brackish, the ocean is really close) Speaking of which, we ran some more and ended up at the beach. we had to run through the water about waist deep (which i didnt know at first and someone corrected me when i was only up to my knees by yelling " youre only cheating yourself if youre not waist deep!" oh hell no! im not trying to cheat, i didnt know! lol anyways, out of the water, more running.
next was the monkey bars. not just normal, they went up and then back down. i cannot even do normal monkey bars, so burpees it was for me. good god burpees make you tired! most of the running was trail runs. it was cool because its so scenic and way funner than just running on pavement, but i have a half marathon in 3 weeks! and trail running is the fastest way to break and ankle, so i actually power walked a lot of this race. i was sweating my ass off and putting in work though so i am not upset with my "performance". todays race was definitely about finishing, not time, for me! After the monkey bars there were 7' and 8' walls to get over. There i made a friend, and im pissed i didnt even get her name or info, but she was in a grey shirt! and she helped me over the 8' and some other super high walls that required a boost. this was really cool to me because usually when i run an obstacle race some random dude becomes my homie. this was the first time it was a chick! i love the woman power! strong women lift eachother up (quite literally in this situation lol).
next was a legit swim. it wasnt actually far though, and the water was only 8' deep. i would say it was less hard than the swim at superhero scramble. the wildlife threat was much greater today though, ive seen scary things in that water! i actually had my phone on me this whole race. my mom had bought these waterproof coleman bags and i decided to test them out in the sink the other day, and they seemed airtight. so i took a risk and swam with my phone in a bag in my bra. it worked! i had a lifeproof case, but after about a year its worn out and ive been too cheap for a new one (tummy tuck lol) so i was so happy my bag worked like a charm!
lots more trail running, another 6' wall, all successful. then came the log hop. there were about 10 verticle logs, all different heights, and you had to hop from one to another without falling off. i thought i would be good at this with all my recent yoga practice and balance building so i got right on and went for it. but about 3 logs from the end, i frieken slipped and it was burpees for me! i hate burpees, but i did them proud because at least i did them rather than just skipping it (there are volunteers watching, but really, they cant keep tabs on everyone, i saw people fall and not burpee a bunch of times) .
the craziest wall we had to get over was sloped toward us at like 65 degrees. there were beams to use to climb it, but your body naturally wants to fall off because of gravity. thank god for my new friend in the grey shirt, when that beast came. i would have ended up doing burpees for SURE if she wasnt there for that one!
more trail running. then we came to the bucket brigade. that was big 10 gallon buckets and we had to fill them to a line with rocks and then go up and down and up and down all these crazy winding trails. so many people were wiping out because you can lose your footing so easy, there are so many branches, and its steep at times. fortunately, i didnt fall and i never had to stop to put my bucket down. next were some tall ass piles of dirt we had to climb up, only to crawl down the other side in water. there were quite a few of those and then it ended with a barbed wire crawl. real barbed wire. and the ground was straight up rocks. i was doing like an army crawl and the insides of my knees hurt so bad from the rocks! it was becoming more and more obvious why they make you sign a "death waiver" lol
the next obstacle was a sandbag carry. this was much lighter than the bucket, but the trail was equally steep and windy. some more running, and in the next one we had to pick up these huge cement medicine balls and carry them to a pole, and then do 5 burpees, and carry it back to the pole. good lord it was HEAVY! Up next- the tire flip. ahhh i was so excited! i always wanted to flip a tire and now i finally had a chance! i actually asked a spectator to take a video of me on my phone! lol i think i could deff have better form, but i was so excited to finally get to try it!
more running. and up came my FAVORITE obstacle. there was a big weight at the end of a rope, which was on a pulley WAYYY up in the air. we had to take the other end of the rope and pull the weight all the way up and then bring it down slowly, if you drop it, you do burpees. no burpees for me! i loved that challenge. i had my ass in the sand and my feet against a barricade and pulled like hell. i put the lax rope between my knees and gripped like crazy. i definitely felt like i was on the biggest loser or survivor during that obstacle lol.
some running on normal pavement for once, and we came upon the bridge! basically a huge ass ladder to climb and then climb over the top and back down the other side. atleast like 50+ feet up. the cars and buses were driving under the bridge while youre trying not to miss a step and fall through the top lol
at this point we were pretty close to the end. and the energy from the festival and all the spectators was there. when i ran up to the spear throw, Drake's "Trophies" was blasting and that trumpet seemed like appropriate music to listen to while trying to literally throw a spear at a hay stack scarecrow lol i missed. dammit, burpees. lol
next up, the rope climb. never been able to do this, and i didnt honestly expect to be able to since i havent really been practicing. i have been working upper body, but i hear its not all about upper body. the day i volunteered a lady was showing me how to wrap the rope around your leg so you can use your lower body. i was trying it today, but i still didnt get it, and more god damn burpees. with an entire crowd watching lol oh well, burpee loud, burpee proud :-P
almost done! next up, mud barbed wire crawl! the entire fence is just filled with spectators and theyre all screaming and yelling and saying "lower your butt!" "almost there!!" lol, its pretty awesome. i am pretty good at the army crawl, although i would love to learn the roll technique. that wouldve been MUCH better when the barbed wire was over the damn rocks! lol after the mud wire crawl we come to a wall completely covered in mud with just a rope to get you over it. i did this successfully at armageddon ambush on my birthday last year, but i had to have a dude legit pushing my ass over, and another dude at the top puling me up. this time, even though it was covered in inches of slimey mud, i made it up!! i didnt even have to take the volunteers hand at the top!! VICTORY! lol i crawled down the other side, and ran to the finish!! where we were greeted with MEDALS, bananas and people waiting to peel them for us because we were so nasty lol, water, and cliff bars.
when i finally finished i really wanted to cry. i just felt so overwhelmed and proud of myself! it was only 8 miles, and i didnt even run the whole thing, so why on earth was i feeling more proud than when i ran a damn half marathon? i think its because, i never wanted to run. ive never been able to run, but i didnt necessarily care that much, i had no desire to run until i had started losing weight. but prior to deciding to get fit, i didnt feel like i was missing out on not being able to run. Now obstacle courses, are completely different. when i first moved down to florida one of the models i was working with (and still work with, actually)was an obstacle runner and when she was posting about tough mudder i thought " that looks SO FUN", knowing damn well i was not physically capeable of doing it. i felt like i WAS missing out on that. i WANTED to mud run, and couldnt. and now, I am a Spartan!
after the race i headed over to the biggest loser tent to say hello to all my friends who were running with the biggest loser run walk series. i knew my friend Tory and her husband would be there, but i actually didnt know that Monica (one of my friends from IG that ran the biggest loser 5k with our team) was going to be there too! plus of course, Dan Evans was there! His mom wasnt though, she was missed! I also got to meet this guy Chris Davis. He used to be about 700lbs and has lost 390!!! He was at the spartan race last year too, i had blogged about him being up on stage and stuff. this year, i actually got to meet him and talk with him! what an inspiration! he ran 17 obstacle races last year!! He brought his old pants and i was able to fit in his pants WITH HIM and we had LOTS of room to spare. i think we couldve fit another person in there if we tried! He travels all around the country just inspiring people to do exactly what he did, what i did, what were all trying to do- get control of our health and conquer our fears!!
It was so cool because the group of people that were hanging out in the biggest loser area started adding up how many pounds we had lost, then we realized- we had lost a combined EXACT 1000lbs!!! UNBELIEVABLE! The 1000lb Club! So frieken cool! and what are the chances it would be EXACTLY 1000?! Talk about the universe putting us all exactly where we needed to be that very moment! I have a book called When God Winks- I deff think this was a god wink and i feel so content that where i am is EXACTLY where i am supposed to be because of it!
A few of the ladies and I went over to the water and got in and rinsed all the mud off of us. there were so many spartans in the water, the water that looked pretty and clear before was now completely brown lol it was gross. i couldnt believe i was in that water though, i am scared of fresh water in florida, gators!!! and there i was, just treading around without a care. no one had a care. im sure no one has a care on the days there are gator attacks in this state though, too lol.
before my next mud run ( im not currently signed up for one) i need two things- practice climbing a rope so i can at least get half way up before im forced to burpee- and a Go Pro! one of those cameras you can wear and videotape your race. theyre so damn cool!! and i NEEEEED ONE! ive been saying it for a long time, but i am serious. its a need lol. if anyone would like to donate one to me feel free to email [email protected] for my PO BOX lol
tonight is the teen mom 2 season finale, thats my guilty pleasure lol im about to put an Annies Organic Pizza with Daiya cheese in the oven, and indulge for the evening. then food plan will be back on track for tomorrow! i gave 3 weeks till half marathon and a month till my birthday and i wanna be looking and feeling my best for both! :-D