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!   

Las Vegas Spartan Super/Sprint 16-17 Mar 2024

The weather in Las Vegas is usually not going to be cold and rainy.    The desert has been extra cold and wet this year, so surprise!   It was 43 degrees and raining at the start of the Super.  

My first Spartan of the year made me realize that my lack of rock climbing has taken a toll on my grip strength.  Especially when everything is cold, wet, and dripping with fresh raindrops.   I made it across the monkey bars by a hair, but then fell off the rings, olympus, and beater...basically all the overhead obstacles.   

The dunk wall was in the first mile of the 7 mile course on Saturday morning.  So I became cold and wet to match the weather.  I never did warm my hands up, and shivered until I got back to the hotel and a hot shower.   

I finished 2nd in my Age group, though, and came back to get my medal.  The rain was over and the day turned out almost not cold.  High praise, I know.   The rain had flooded out a little bit of the merchandise tent, too.   Outdoor events much be really annoying...I've seen Spartan deal with heat, dust, high winds, rain, and floods quite often.   They usually make it work.  

Sunday morning was a much nicer day, but still really chilly...I went out with the Elites (because why not, I qualified) in the first heat of the day.  Best news at the start gate was that the dunk wall was broken.   At mile 1 I saw for myself a half full dunk wall.   Nice.  Except when I jumped into it, the water was more shallow than I realized, and I tripped and got all wet anyway.  Oops.  An even bigger oops was that I skinned both knees and my hand on the sharp rocks under the water.  

My bloody knees were a photographers dream for the last 3 miles of the race and I could wring blood out of my socks when I finished.   Ouch.  I limped a little and just got the obstacles done before the soreness of my wrist started to set in.   Still finished second!

No photos of my race or the bloody knees...I know they are out there but...Spartan put race photos behind a paywall this year.  I didn't feel like paying $39.99 for photos of myself.   The shared photos of the course are better anyway :)  

My spring plans are a Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon in May,  a Spartan Ultra in June, and whatever else pops up on the schedule that sounds fun!      

In the meantime, I now have a nutrition office open in South Jordan, Utah, as well as zoom visits.  I use an Oligoscan and an extensive Health History to target missing micronutrietnts for better energy, health, and longevity.   Check me out at www.vigeohealth.net!