Saturday, July 31:
I signed up for the Asheville Spartan Super with SB. I haven't been running much, so I wasn't looking for a fast time. I mainly wanted to do it and have fun, so it was a great opportunity to do the race with a first-time Spartan racer. She's done at least one OCR before, but it had been a while, and Spartan just has a different vibe. They do a good job with the festival area and atmosphere, and it adds to the excitement of the event.
Tryon is one of the more fun venues, because they hold equestrian events there. You can see the horse jumps and other obstacles on course, so it's unique. Last year for the Beast, we got to wade through a shallow man-made pond that had large objects that made it feel like a miniature golf course. The land and grass is pristine, too, because it's made for fancy horse events.
As we approached each obstacle, I'd give SB tips on how to navigate the obstacle. What made me go from a struggling racer to one who could do well was discovering techniques that allowed someone with limited upper body strength and height to succeed. I didn't necessarily gain any strength. I just figured out the tricks. You still need some strength... grip strength, and some pull-up strength, but nothing crazy.
Hurdles are a matter of getting as much of your weight forward past the upper part of the bar as possible, and then letting the center of gravity do the rest, after you get a good push up.
On the inverted wall, get a good simultaneous kick as you pull yourself up, get your forearm over the edge, and then get a leg over to finish it.
We had previously tackled rope climbs at Pete's. It's about hanging long enough to get your feet clamped around the rope, and then you can just squat up. Try to use 90% leg power, and only 10% arm power.
For water crossings, try to keep your hands dry by lifting them up and even clenching fists to prevent incidental splashes from getting your hands wet.
With walls including Stairway to Sparta, get a good jump, maybe an upward kick up, grab, and then most importantly, try to get an ankle up. Once that's hooked over the wall, you can use your strong leg muscles to pull the leg back and your body up.
On monkey-bar style obstacles like Twister, Multig, Beater or changing elevation monkey bars, you don't have to keep L-shaped arms. You can keep your arms straight and build up momentum with your legs to go the required distances between bars.
Olympus is one that I am rarely able to complete. Maybe there's more technique for me to discover.
On The Box, if you can get a foot on one of the knots, it can be like a little rock climbing hold to help you get over. This one is challenging.
Herc Hoist is where you can get leverage from your squatting muscles if you put a leg on the fence and pull with your core and arms while you push with your squatting leg.
Sandbag Carries, Atlas Carries, and Bucket Carries have become nothing burgers to me, since I've started doing GORUCK events with heavier coupons for much longer distances.
Z-walls are a matter of patience to get good holds rather than rushing it and potentially slipping on the muddy and sometimes rounded cornered pieces of wood. Throw your hips as far forward as possible, like you would while rock climbing, so that your arms have less pulling to do. Let your legs hold you up as vertically as possible, to put minimal stress on your arms.
On Barbed Wire Crawls, rolling is faster and less taxing than army crawling. You get dizzy, but you can mitigate that by trying to keep your face pointed forward as often as possible, like a ballerina does while spinning.
For Rolling Mud, there's no sense in trying to keep your hands dry, because you meet the Dunk Wall at the end anyways. If you get a good jump into the water and get some distance, that is less for you to wade through.
On the Slip Wall, look for dry spots for your feet to use as you walk up. Get a good run as you approach, so that you can get as high as possible with your feet alone, without the use of arms.
On cargo nets, if you're tired, you can use the chicken wing approach and grip with your elbow pit instead of your hands.
The Spear Throw is generally a no-go for me. I still need to work on that one.
Helix is similar to the Z-wall, in that patience, and knowing how to shift your weight effectively, help.
SB did awesome, and crushed most of the obstacles as if she had been doing this for years. The monkey bar style ones were tough for her, but the rest were good. This "other side of racing", getting to enjoy it with a friend, and help someone through their first time, and share knowledge from my own experience with a sport that I love, was really rewarding and fun.
After the event, I volunteered at Herc Hoist on course, followed by Rope Climb and MultiRig Tear-down. The Herc Hoist was at the top of a hill, so I got to enjoy some great views as I shouted the instructions to the racers making their way up to the obstacle. Women on the red bags, men on the black bags. Don't drop the bag at the top, or else you'll do burpees.
To my delight, 5 different friends from the rucking world came through the obstacle while I was manning it. It was fun to be able to cheer them on, say hello, and take pictures.
The other referee for that obstacle volunteers and refs a lot, and he showed me a technique that ended up working well for me, at least fresh. I hit it maybe 30% of the time, which is up from like 3% of the time.
When I got home, I did the APFT to kick off PATHFINDER Class 029. I did 46 pushups (45 is the minimum to get a score of 100 for my AG and gender), 81 situps (min 76 for the 100), and a 14:02 run (minimum 15:54). It was 83 degrees, so that wasn't bad for a warm day after racing and volunteering. I did a 2 mile strict ruck with 30# in the v3 Rucker wearing Ballistics afterwards, in 26:48.
It was a great weekend!
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