Spartan Las Vegas Super and Sprint, March 15-16, 2025

 

I was both horrified and happy to learn that Spartan won't be doing dunk walls this year, or have water on course unless there is a natural body of water to use.   I mean, it's nice to finish a race and not be covered in mud with rocks in my shoes.  On the other hand, the dunk wall is pretty iconic for this race series, and I'm not sure if it will be the same without it.  I took advantage of the dry race to wear better racing shoes, and a shirt and hat in the cool morning air.

For the Saturday Super, I was chasing a second place medal for my wall, and thought I might have a chance if I just took it easy.  Evidentally I took it too easy, because I had a wonderful, ralaxed, fun race.  And I finished in 4th place in my age group.  Oops, better luck tomorrow I guess.  

On Sunday morning, I brought my game face, and went out with the fastest heat.  I raced hard, only let one woman pass me, and finished strong.  Got the spear both days!   

Somehow I ended up 2nd in my age group and accomplish my goal for the weekend.  It says a lot that 5 of the 6 top women were all in my age group....there is a core of speed that seems to be following me up the age ladder.  Now that I have the age group finishes for the year, I'll give a shot at racing Elite in my next Spartan, which will be the 50k Ultra in San Jose.  That's a new venue for me, and I hope it will be dry :)

They used a photo of my knees from last year's race to promote this year!   Lol.  

I had fallen in a shallow dunk wall and I still have the scars from it.  

Red Mountain 30k, March 1, 2025

 

This race is on home trails near our house in Ivins, Utah.  Usually it's nice to have a local race because you can sleep in.  Not this one....we had to catch a bus to the start at 5:30 in the morning.   I found a fire barrel and hugged a cup of hot chocolate while waiting for the time to go by.   It really was a beautiful day once the sun came up, perfect temperature.  

It's an uphill start and then hits singletrack after a couple of miles.  There was a string of runners a mile long, zigzagging up the desert trail.  I was getting warm but didn't want to stop and get behind slower runners, which would be hard to pass them back again for a long ways.  I rolled up my sleeves, enjoyed the cool breeze, and ran the first 1/3rd of the race before I could doff my sweater.  

The race has a lot of loops but only 1 aid station.  I felt good after the first visit, and set off on the second loop.  It's another 6 miles of singletrack bike trails.  I was wearing new shoes, a little bulkier than usual, and was tripping more than I had hoped for.  I can't really blame the shoes rather than my balance, but one of my trips landed me in the sharp bushes next to the trail.  I escaped with a lot of tiny holes in my shin, but luckily no bruises.  

Unfortunately during the fall, my only water bottle flew out of my hands, busted open, and was trickling the last of the water out as I dusted myself off.  I save a mouthful, and knew I had another 6 miles to get back to the aid station.  I saved that last sip for a long time, but it turned out ok in the end.  

At the aid station I picked up a whole coke can and a fresh refill of water.  The toughest 1/3 of the race is the last section.  It's somewhat fast, some road sections,  but the last gentle uphill seems to last forever.  I was hoping to obliterate my previous performance on this distance, but time trickled away, and I can only blame tripping and falling for about an extra minute!  lol.

In the end, I was 4 minutes faster than 2 years ago, so I can't complain.   Conditions were similar, I'm 2 years old, and if I'm still getting faster then that is a win in my book!   I took first in my age group, had a chance to run home and shower before popping back for the podium.   

Spartan Arizona Super and Sprint, February 14th and 15th, 2024

 I see that I have back to back race entries in Spartans in Arizona.   The first and last Spartans of the year are usually in Arizona, at least for the Western USA.  It's not the worst to travel to be when it's winter everywhere else!  Plus I like racing in the desert.

The earlier 7:15 start for the Age Group was pretty chilly.   Luckily the dunk wall was at mile 4, so I had a significant amount of time to warm up as the sun finally came out.   

My friend Christi had moved up to my age group, so we raced together for about first the half of the race.  She pulled away, I missed the spear, and then I sort of lost the plot in my mind to keep my motivation high.  By the time I finished Christi was 7 minutes ahead of me and I was in 3rd.  Oh well, I like all the medals, so I was actually happy :)   The Super was 6.7 miles and I finished in 1:27.  

I had redemption on my mind the next morning and vowed to keep my head in the game.  I started later to get a little sunshine in the air before racing.  The shorter Sprint race was only 3.2 miles and the dunk wall was 2 miles in.  I was dreading it, but the adrenaline of the race made it bearable.  Barely.   I finished in 39:53 and that was good enough to get me a 1st place....actually I finished first women overall in Age Group which is unusually good for me.  

I've got a few races coming up, including a 30k trail race in St George, a Spartan near Las Vegas, and another Spartan in San Jose near Jim's mom.   I'd like to try to PR my marathon again this year, but that would require diligent training.  We will see.

 

                    

 

Spartan Arizona Trifecta Weekend, November 23-24, 2024

This weekend marks my 84th Spartan Race.  I know, 84 isn't exactly a milestone but it seems like a lot of Spartans.  Considering most of those weekend races included multiple trips through germ-infested, cow-poop laden dunk walls, it's a wonder I'm still alive to write this.  

The best news of this weekend is that there wasn't a dunk wall here at the NASCAR Phoenix Raceway.  I don't know why, but I could guess that they didn't want muddy racers in their stands?  I'm not complaining either way.  We did get a tour of all three floors of the venue, unfortunately there weren't any cars running....and we were carrying heavy sandbags while we took the tour.  Can't have everything, right?  

I flew down here for this race because I really wanted some sunshine.  And because I didn't have a 1st place Age Group Medal for the year yet.   I'd actually won 1st at an earlier race, but placed on the Elite podium, too, so I was displaced out of the Age Group awards, and there was a blank space in my medal wall.  I know, I'm the only person I know who would complain about that.   I'm OCD about my medal wall.  

This is one of the flattest races I attend, although we did take a bunch of trips up and down a little tiny hill behind the Raceway, and ran up and down some sandy, dry desert washes.   The small area is mostly parking lot and camping for the Raceway, and it took a lot of waggles to fit 13 miles into this race!  At one point I felt I might be in an endless loop of sandy washes, but then would pop out again on a different obstacle so it was just a mental game.  

I felt pretty good, ran easy, and won my Age Group by 32 minutes.   Job done.   I have no memory of running this beast 2 years ago, but when I looked at the results I had done it in exactly the same time as before, 2:24!   I think weather conditions were really similar too.  

I did have blister trouble...my shoes were meant for trails and not concrete and hard sand.  Without a dunk wall, I could have worn my road running shoes and been even faster.  Oops.  

The Sprint was right after the Beast, so I limped around it at a fast walk, to save my legs for the race tomorrow, and kill some time waiting for the awards.  

On the Sunday Super (10k), since I had accomplished all my goals for the weekend, I started in the first heat and was eligible for the Elite awards.  I had two friends around me and we made a hell of a race out of it.  I don't think I've ever tried that hard before.  I lost them both at the start while I waited for my blister pain to fade a little, then caught them doing burpees from missing the spear throw.  For a few minutes I got ahead of them, then we were neck and neck for a while.   Kate passed me and got a minute on me, and Christi was just close enough behind me that I couldn't take a second to rest.  We finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th within a minute or two of each other.  It was nice to hear my name announced at the finish line.  

Unfortunately the rules hadn't been clear and a couple of women had started later than us, yet their times still counted in the Elite.  Imagine Kipchoge starting 15 minutes later than the field in the Chicago marathon and then claiming he won it.   Oh well.   We were all bumped off the podium and, since we were all different age groups, we all got first in our respective podiums.  

Here's my loot for the weekend, which got me an extra scan at airport security...these medals are heavy!

Spartan Ultra and Trifecta Weekend, Colorado Springs, June 15-16, 2024

Alternatively titled: 

6000 homeless people descended onto Fort Carson this weekend.  They wandered aimlessly through the cactus for hours, bathed in muddy water, ate all the bananas, napped in any shade they could find, and ran off with all the hardware.  

I remember the cactus and the sticky mud from a race here back in 2018. I needed an Ultra course for 2024, and this one was the right time, so why not?  Plus it wasn't a mountain course so I thought

it might be faster than usual.  Ha ha.   Jokes on me.  

Ft. Carson in the middle of June is a hot, dry desert.   There are ravines/gulches about 200 feet high, which the race director managed to turn into 6000 feet of climbing (!) over 30 miles.   How is that even possible?  

Jim declined to race here this year and that wasn't a bad decision on his part.  My Ultra started at 6 am on Saturday and by 8 am it was already hot.  I had been through the dunk wall already and was coated in a special kind of mud that doubles pretty well as sunblock, too, it's so thick.   The course was fairly runnable, if power hiking up rocky hillsides is considered running!  I managed to avoid getting any cactus spines in my hands this time, by creatively avoiding them on the barbed wire crawl.  

The special feature on this Ultra was an extra-long sand bag carry.   We picked it up, carried it for a while, drug it under barbed wire with us, carried it for a while, added it to the plate drag, then did the barbed wire again in reverse.  I think it was over a solid mile that we carried the sand bag, which for women weighed 40 pounds and I think 60 for men.  

Cactus!!!

My focus for this race was on my breathing. I've been training with Ed Harrold to breath only through my nose while exercising. There's a lot of benefits to this, including less evaporation of water, parasympathetic nervous system response, calmness, and focus. I managed to carry my nasal breathing patterns through the whole race, and that felt really good. The second half specifically felt like I was really in the flow of it, even as my body was overheating and my pace had to slow down.  Learn more here https://www.edharrold.com/

By 10 am it was 80 degrees already when I got into transition. 4 hours to do 17 miles seemed decent for the terrain (and the 1 mile sandbag carry!).   The second loop, shorter at 13 miles, would take me another 4 hours. I stuffed some bags of ice into the front and back of my bra, in my hat, my pockets and carried one in my hand. The evaporation kept me cool for a while, and the melted ice helped wash my face off after getting through the second dunk wall.  I had hope it would be cool and refreshing, but it was just muddy. When I opened my eyes after popping out of the water I couldn't see anything.   And my white leader's jersey was now brown.

My calves cramped up a little bit on some obstacles.  Definitely a failure on my part take get in extra magnesium the last few weeks...I've been distracted.    Otherwise my shoes and race plan held up well.  Final time was 8:05, good enough to get me on the elite podium for the first time in my Spartan career! 

The best part of a trifecta is that the races keep getting shorter. Significantly shorter if you start with an Ultra!  I did the Super in the morning and finished 3rd in my age group...my legs didn't really want to run much.   Then I napped in the shade, sharing a space with an 83 year old grandma who was out to see her grandson racing.   She was more agile than I was by then, lol.   At 12 I started my last Sprint race, which was just an open race with no competitive heat.  So I took my phone along and instead of doing the obstacles, I got to take pictures of other people doing the obstacles.  It was a fun switch.   When Jim picked me up after I finished it was 98 degrees.  Time to head back into the mountains and get out of the heat!