Well, I hurt my back a few weeks before this race, and then I was chasing the dog around and pulled a groin the day before I was supposed to drive down. You know me. I went anyway. I tried not to limp walking into town from my hotel room the evening before to find dinner!
Big Bear is one of the harder venues I've raced at. I'm pretty sure that we did nothing but hike straight up the ski hill and then run/fall back down, over and over again. I did the Trifecta weekend, the Beast on Saturday was 11.5 miles with 5000 feet of climbing, the Super/Sprint on Sunday were 6.5 and 4 miles with 3000 and 2000 feet of climbing, respectively.
The weather was perfect and sunny and dry, a bit warm, and I was happy to get the Olympus wall both times! However I was 0 for 3 on the spear....the obstacle was set on a sidehill and I missed it downslope by a hair. So did everyone else! My friend Andrea really pushed me on the Beast, it took all I had to pull away from her later in the race, and I ended up finishing 1st by at least 5 minutes ahead of the next few women. The last obstacle was the bucket carry, but I was so happy to be dripping wet from the dunk wall that nothing mattered. I could have stayed in that muddy water for a lot longer, trying to cool down a little.
I had the passing thought on Sunday to do the Trail race as well as the Trifecta, it would have added another 6 miles of running to the weekend. As fate would have it, I was late getting in line for the same day ticket for the Trail, and ran out of time. Ooops. I'm sure it would have done me no good to add more miles of hills for my groin and back.
Anyway, Sunday morning was the Nationals race, and there were a few women who hadn't raced the day before. I finished out of the medals, and after washing the mud out of my shoes from another cooling but disgusting dunk wall, I found a nice chair in the shade and waited for the Sprint. At least the races get shorter as the weekend goes on. Trying it the other way around might not be as fun. Not that the sprint felt short by the time I was throwing myself through the dunk wall for the 3rd time. This time the sky was cloudy and it almost felt a little cool.
It was mostly fun to catch up with some Spartan friends and compare race notes and see where we would see each other again this year. Next up, the heat of Utah in July for an Ultra. I'll have to pack a cooler full of ice for that one!
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