This year, I brought some friends! Michelle and her daughter Emily, Karen and her son Micah, and Jim and I all did the Sprint on Saturday. I set off first, with the goal of finishing my Age Group lap so that I could run again in an hour with everyone else. Karen was next off in her age group. She would hurt her hand and wrist part way through the race, and end up doing burpees for what should have been some easier obstacles....she did 220 burpees by the time she finished, and she was beat up. But, she still won her age group! This was one her second Spartan, the first being a Beast some years ago. She was very happy to limp up to the podium to get her 1st place medal!But I didn't know any of this yet, as I set off on lap one. The course took us out to the Virgin River, which was still flooded from recent rains and snow, although the high water line was another three feet higher still! We didn't actually go into the river (good call Spartan) and skirting the edge of it got us enough mud and water without being swept downstream in a flood. Much muddier than last year (I heard that the Hurricane Heat participants last night earned their coins by digging the Atlas Balls out of the floodplain where they had gotten buried). We didn't do the Atlas ball carry, needless to say!
The route was backward from last year, thank goodness, the dunk wall was near the end. The hills were too, stacked up with the bucket carry and the rope climb. I almost slid back down the rope, but gritted my teeth and got to the top. No burpees and a bloody knee. 46 minutes for 3.7 miles.
Sprint Round 2
A quick stop at registration and I had my second timing chip and headband, so I found Jim, Emily, Michelle, and Micah. We set off with the next wave of Open racers and suddenly I was in a race again but not racing. It was kinda fun! Jim and Michelle took off ahead with some extra energy, but Emily, Micah and I stayed together for the whole race. This was their first Spartan Sprint and they seemed to be really enjoying it. I enjoyed watching them do burpees a few times for missing the spear and the rope climb, but otherwise they were great on the obstacles.
Jim, Karen, Tom, and Michelle were cheering us on at the finish, and we shared stories and war wounds. Karen had the best by far, sheesh! Michelle had that look in her eye like she had just gotten the Spartan bug too. She's already signed up for her next race, in the Age Group this time! Everyone stuck around to watch Karen get her first place finish, and I ended up 2nd so I was happy with that.
Spartan Super
On Sunday, Jim, Sylvia and I raced the Super. It was about 8.5 miles, and turned out to be a very runnable course. Sylvia had raced Elite with me last year on this course, but wanted to do it for fun this time. This was still only her second Spartan race. She floated around the course, chatted with me before the rope climb, did 120 burpees, and seemed to be in no hurry at all....yet still beat my time by 13 seconds! She's a world class runner who will compete in the Olympic Marathon Trials this time next year. I keep saying she could be a very Elite Spartan competitor if she really wants to be...Jim finished looking beat after back to back races, but was happy to get the spear and climb the rope and keep running through to the end. His first race was this one last year, and I thought that might be his last! But he really likes them now, and also likes finishing 1st or 2nd in his age group most of the time.
I was second again, by just a few seconds this time, but mostly happy that this was my 4th race in a row with no burpees. I might forget how to do them! Oh, but no, Crossfit training sessions will always have me do more....
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