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Thursday, November 23, 2017

RACE REPORT: Bonefrog Charlotte - Tier 1

2 WEEK TRAINING LEAD-UP:

Thursday, Nov 9:
5.0 in 40:15, 8:03 ave, 2 degrees of incline.  I went for a progressive run, because I need some faster paced stuff, less slogging.  I've been doing lots of  OCR "racing" (in quotes because I'm not necessarily going hard, since I'm more focused on obstacle completion and endurance during those, vs. when I'm training for road races) and recovering from all of those races this half of the year.    I want to start gaining some speed again.

Saturday and Sunday, volunteered at Build for Bonefrog.

Day 1, built the Kraken, Swingers Club, Rope Climb, and a little bit of Chopper.



Day 2, I was joined by Bev, and we built Mike & Murph, Mouse Holes, Reverse Slant Wall, Dirty Name, Cliffhanger, and some Slip Wall.





Tuesday, Nov 14:
6.0 in 48:36, 8:06 ave, 2 degrees of incline.  Getting past a cold and an emotional day at work.  A hard effort run, even though it wasn't that fast.  

That was all, workout-wise... only 1 run per week!

BONEFROG TIER 1

I was able to sign up for the Tier 1 race, as a result of volunteering for two days.  The Tier 1 is their 8-ish mile Challenge course, immediately followed by their 4-ish mile Sprint course.  About half of the course overlaps.  

Parking was pretty easy, and the festival area is simple.  Porta potties, merch, a couple of vendors, reg + bag drop, and the starting area.   The premier obstacle, Black Ops (an uphill monkey bars) is at the finish, so people can watch easily.  A number of other obstacles weren't far off, either.


An elite heat went off at 8:30am, followed by a couple packs of volunteer waves.  I decided not to upgrade to the elite heat, since I wasn't sure I'd manage the mandatory obstacle completion on everything.  This would be my first Bonefrog, so I wanted to get a first taste of the obstacles before committing to an Elite heat.


The Tier 1 heat set out at 8:45am.  It was good that I didn't do the Elite heat, since I would've lost my band at the first obstacle, Rolling Thunder, which is like hurdles, except the hurdles are covered in tires.  The width and height of it makes it really hard for shorter people to get over.  I got help getting over, after a few tries on my own.

Next, a 6-ish foot wall.  After that, the Challenge and Sprint courses split off.  Challenge went through a low crawl, then a ring swing but instead of rings it was ropes with tubes, but the tubes wouldn't stay on the bottom, so you ended up using the rope loop anyway.  A little tricky to control and time, since you had to get your hand in the little rope loop instead of a big, clutch-able plastic ring, but doable.    

Next, another obstacle of that style, except it was cylinders on ropes.  The best strategy is to grab right above the cylinder.  I had to try twice to get that one, because the first time, I missed the third grab, and it's hard to keep going straight once the pendulum starts getting out of control.  I'm short, so I had to climb on the truss to get onto the first set of ropes.

Next, Krakken, then the tarzan swing, then some running through forest.  Next, the Cliffhanger (Battlefrog had this, and it's similar to Spartan's Bender, except with ladder rungs all the way to the bottom, which makes it a little easier... no toes to bar to start it off).  2nd phase wall, a grenade toss into a bucket that I tried like 10x before I got it (I think most had to try about that many times).   Some more running, followed by Viking Tables, which is like an Irish table.  I've heard of it but don't think I've ever encountered it.  I was happy to get through it, treating it kind of like a wall climb.  Another low crawl, then a place where the names of 31 Heroes were listed, and you did a burpee for each of them, in their memory.   

After that, the challenge course merged back into the sprint course. there was a memorial wall where you can write the name of someone you wish to commemorate, who is no longer with us.  Then, Brute Force carry, not too bad.  Same weight for men and women.  Ran through a field, then did the slip wall (they call it the Siege Wall).


This was followed by a Normandy Jack low crawl, then a balance beam that was quite challenging because it swayed, but was cdoable with patience.  Frogman was a river run, lots of waist-deep mud and creek.  Then, there was an 8-ish foot wall that I had no chance of getting with my poor vertical leap, so I did the 25 squat penalty.  Next, Mouse holes, Mike, and Murph.

After that, Get a Grip, which was like 2 sets of inverted arch monkey bars after an initial rope climb.  Fun and challenging.  Another low crawl, then rope climb, tire drag, reverse slant wall.  Then, Dirty Name (sternum checker)... I got up the first one, but I do feel like the second one is up higher... couldn't do it... tried twice.  So I did the 25 pushup penalty.

 
We finished off the Challenge course with Black Ops.

Then, I started the sprint lap.  This lap jumped from obstacle 2 to obstacle 15.  It felt crazy bypassing all of that... a good crazy.  I ran into Bev at the Brute Force carry.  Then, I ran into Bertha at Frogman.  It's fun running into friends on course.



I failed the same obstacles on the Sprint lap, as I did on the Challenge lap: Dirty Name, Rolling Thunder, Phase 3 wall... all the stuff that favors the tall.

I was excited to get through the arm stuff, though.  Chopper was challenging.  I ended up hanging quite a while on the first lap, because it spins the way it wants, and sometimes, you're on the wrong side of the spinning, and you have to make some moves to have a chance at reaching the next spinner.

Here's round 2 at Get a Grip:


Black ops was the finish again.  A great way to finish.  I've seen Bonefrog racers post this iconic picture on Facebook in the past, so I was glad to finally get a chance to do the obstacle, too!


Afterwards, I showered off.  Fortunately, we only got muddy up to our waist, so it wasn't too bad.  I hit their nice merch tent, then headed home.  It wasn't a big hanging out atmosphere afterwards.  I'd say that this event was more focused on the race itself, and in particular, the obstacles.  Not a racey race, since there were lines at a few of the obstacles, but an obstacle-centric one.  It was nice to try out some new, creative obstacles, and experience Bonefrog.


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