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!
