GORUCK Bataan Basic / Rugged Maniac Rockingham / Spartan Sprint Triple Header

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, April 3:

10-hour Spartan Build volunteer shift

Monday, Apr 4:

I hosted an "Intro to Rucking" clinic at the park where the Pearl Harbor Tough had been held, since it was a nice location.

I talked about ruck and sandbag options, and then we did quarter mile loops.  There was a pile of sandbags weighing 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80# for people to try out.  

Afterwards, we did a 10 min, mostly ruck-based workout.  You could scale it to be slick, or add more weight with sandbags and ruck wearing.  We did lunges, SB DLs, ruck swings, flutter kicks, and push presses, for one minute each, for two rounds.  I thought it was a decent mixture of muscle groups worked, with good scaling options.

Lastly, since GORUCK is known for its team-based events, I split them into two groups for relays, but they got to strategize a bit on which sized sandbag to use for the two movements - tosses vs sandbag bear crawls, and they worked with a buddy to go out and back.

We finished with another tradition of GORUCK events - beer at the end.  Blue Blaze Brewing was probably less than a quarter mile a way, fortunately for us!

It's awesome that such a big group came out.  I wonder if it sounded very approachable, or if the title made it sound official.  All of the Charlotte Ruck Club events are scalable to any level, but this one seemed to really appeal to people.

Wednesday, Apr 6:

JBF 30 min "Ladders" SB workout with a 40#SB and 30#R, wearing Ballistics and a v3 shorty ruck. 

Finished with 19 min of 2x(100 situps, 25 pushups) and 2x(50 4-ct flutter kicks, 50 ruck swings).

Tacked on 4.5 miles with Pokemon and the Straight Dope podcast as a recovery ruck in 1:33:32.

Thursday, Apr 7:

Joined Cabarrus Ruck Club for a history ruck.  We covered 2.5 miles in 1:06:07, including a stop in a cemetery where we saw a monument that honored Lt. Col. Samuel Iredell Parker, who at least a county is named after.  He was awarded the MoH for his acts in WWI.  When machine gun fire from a hill exploited a gap in the allies' formations, he led a group up there to storm and overtake the position.

GORUCK BATAAN BASIC CLT

This would be a very unique Basic, because it would be held at night.  It's cool that they're willing to change things up to see what sticks with people.  That gave me the opportunity to do the Basic, and still get to the elite wave of Rugged Maniac 2 hours away.  The Tough would be held during the daytime, so I'd miss that.

I was so glad to be able to do this, since Cadre DS was leading it, and he always puts on unique and quality events.  It was also the 80th anniversary.

The start point was Romare Bearden Park, and I don't like paying for parking, so I rucked 1.5 miles in to get there from free parking.

At the park, we went barefoot, like we were just chilling, and then had to respond to air raid sirens to get to the other side of the park.  We did this a couple times, as a part of admin.  One guy had left his ID in a car, which was unfortunately within retrieving distance, so he had to bear crawl to get it, or something.

Our first stop was at a Japanese restaurant.  We had to drink up, since we wouldn't be allowed to take more sips of water or eat until we were given permission to, again, the way the prisoners had to keep going despite hunger and thirst, even when they walked by potential sources of comfort.  We had to keep our water containers out, as a reminder.  We got hints that the soldiers would've tried to resist by getting what they could past the watching eyes of their captors.

We went to Pearle St. Neighborhood Park near Trader Joe's.  I never knew that a park existed there.  We did a round of the Bataan Memorial WOD.  

We learned Alpine butterfly knots and connected our rucks to it for a movement to Freedom Park.  At the park, the rucks stayed connected as we did exercises in a circle.  We took turns introducing ourselves and an exercise, and as each person took their turn, they had to recite the names of everyone who had come before.  Fortunately, I knew many of the people in the class already, and it wasn't a huge class.

After that, we learned some BJJ moves, where you grab someone's arm and twist it behind their back.  

We went up to Latta Park for more PT, and then made our way back into uptown.  We did another round of the WOD, still with rucks tied together, in front of BoA stadium.

We covered 7.2 miles in 4:31:06.

RUGGED MANIAC NC I

Before:

After:

In Between:

Still got it!  I got first place again.  Fortunately, I didn't get asked to give advice on stage, like they sometimes ask the winner to do.  I'd end up saying something dumb.

The balance beam was new for this year.

It was good to be able to go home and rest afterwards, as opposed to doing a volunteer shift.

SPARTAN SPRINT CLT

The next morning, though, it was time to race again, this time with Spartan.

This was a very interesting vehicle to park behind.  It didn't seem super new or clean, though.  I wonder what the story is behind it.  Bold choice, especially at these races... at many races where it rains, these fields become mud pits where cars get stuck.  I once had a $1000+ repair bill from it.

Since GORUCK Games includes an OCR component, these back-to-back rucking and OCR events were a good confidence builder.  My goal wasn't speed, by this point in the weekend.  It was just completion.

This was an honor series race, so the medal was really, really cool.  Maybe the coolest one so far!

Afterwards, I volunteered at the kids' race, followed by tear-down.  

Post-race "Excitement"

As I exited the farm, though, I somehow managed to drive over a piece of rebar that was on the dirt road.  I heard it happen.  While driving, I'd hear a clanking noise.  Further into town, though, my tire pressure warning came on.  I pulled over in a random parking lot and saw something sticking out of the tire.  Air was coming out of the tire quickly.  I looked up auto repair shops on my phone.  This late in the day on Sunday, not many were open.  An AutoZone was just down the road, though, so I went there.  I bought a patch kit and borrowed a pair of pliers, but I couldn't pull the thing out.  Little did I know that the thing was like a foot long in there.

A guy coming off his shift from the Autozone helped me swap out the tire with my spare, though, out of the goodness of his heart.  That allowed me to drive home.  Fortunately, this was a CLT race, and not a "middle of nowhere" race that was hours away, so I made it home, and was able to take the car to a shop the next day to get the rebar pulled out and the hole patched.  The guys at Comptons saved the day again!

The car issues stemming from the parking situations at these races have ended up being pretty costly elements of the racing budget!  Almost makes you think twice about racing, even.  You can't predict the weather beforehand, for the mud pit scenario, unfortunately.

Asheville Spartan Super 2021

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.

Sunday, Aug 1:

The next morning, I went out to volunteer again, since the drive wasn't super long.  I signed up for my first ever shift as an elite wave obstacle referee.  I was assigned to the Spear Throw, which was nice, because I got to practice during the down-time.  This was near the end of the race, so I had a while before the racers showed up.

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!

RACE REPORT: Spartan Carolina Ultra Beast & Beast 2019

My main goals for 2019 were to complete the GORUCK Star Courses in DC and CLT in the summer, and to complete at least one HTL in the fall.  The past few months had been pretty stacked with events, building up to 2 HTLs that were 5 weeks apart.

Before I had signed up for the HTLs, I had already been planning on doing the Spartan Carolina Ultra Beast and Beast to complete 2 Trifectas and get another UB.  With the HTLs getting squeezed into the schedule, though, the Spartan races became a "nice-to-have" goal.

To get through the last half of the year, I ended up taking it one event at a time.  Just focus on getting the next one finished, and don't worry about everything else after it.  I started having to do that out of necessity, since the Spartan Race weekend in Asheville is where I started having big issues with the nerve in my left foot.  Making it through the Vietnam Light (after DNSing the Tough) felt like a big victory.  Making it through the Horse Soldier Tough in Asheville was the next big victory.  I didn't know how the Mog Mile HTL would go, but by the grace of God, everything held together.  Recovery from the first HTL was fine, so there was another mini ramp-up (unplanned, but that's how the schedule ended up working out) of a Fallujah Light, then a Veterans Day Tough, then the Hard Hitter HTL.  By the time the second HTL came around, I had extra confidence going in because the first one had went well, and I'd be doing the Hard Hitter with a fantastic group of GRTs.

After the second HTL, the rest was going to be icing on the cake.  I was open to the idea of listening to my body and being OK with skipping the Spartan races if I didn't feel up to it.  Work had been busy in the week leading up to Hard Hitter.  There were more big meetings the following week.  There were cookies and donuts, so I ate a lot of cookies and donuts in the week leading up to the Spartan races.  I normally don't eat stuff like that because it's not around.  When it does come around, I might have one or two because it's rare and it's ok to indulge a little.  But I was totally OK with indulging every day that week.  I guess I supposed that it was most important for me to get calories in the week following an HTL and leading up to an Ultra-distance OCR plus a half marathon-distance OCR.  It seemed kind of crazy in my mind to be doing another 45-ish miles of hard work just a week after already doing 50-ish miles of hard work. That's a lot of miles.

My sister happened to be in town that week for a couple of days, too, for nursing school interviews.  She arrived Thursday night.  Friday night, I took her to the Whitewater Center to see their Lights 0.5 mi trail.  I got in 2 miles of rucking in about 68 minutes, since we took in the scenery and took pictures.

The next morning, I got up at 3am or something to drive to the Tryon Equestrian Center for packet pickup, drop bucket dropoff, and my 6:45am start time.  

SPARTAN CAROLINA ULTRA BEAST 

This was the second year that Carolina was getting an Ultra Beast.  The closest one used to be in Ohio, so I was sad to miss it last year, and was excited to get to do a local one this year.  My other two Ultra Beasts have been in Lake Tahoe in 2016 and in Iceland in 2017 (24 hr format).  

The venue this year was new, and it was awesome.  The previous year's event had been in Spartanburg at USC Upstate.  The Equestrian Center was about the same distance away, but it was beautiful there.  They have hills and well-groomed trails and beautifully decorated places to ride horses.  

The weather was going to make tough conditions for obstacle course racing, though.  It wasn't terribly cold, but it was drizzling rain all day.  Wet obstacles are very difficult to manage, mostly for the ones that are monkey bar-style.  Parking wasn't too far away from the festival area, which was good.  I picked up my packet at around 5:15am, dropped off my 5 gallon bucket in the transition area, and waited around.  I ran into some Spartan friends in the tent who were doing the Beast both days.

I decided to go with a long sleeve tech tee, 2 buffs for warmth, a visor for rain protection, and the mandatory ultra pinnie that distinguishes UBers from Beast racers.  I think I was in the second of three open wave heats, with my start time of 6:45am.  I waited under a tent to get protection from the rain.  I stayed close to the ground as I stretched, because it was slightly warmer close to the ground, with less exposure to wind.  The stretching helped to keep me loose and warm, too.

I had three pieces of food in my pocket, one for every 4-ish miles.  Some kind of carb-based bar, some more protein-based bar, and beef jerky.  I held that in a knockoff Spi-belt.  

Finally, it was about time to start.  You want an early time in an Ultra Beast because people start at different times, but the cutoff times for various checkpoints and the final course closure are the same for everyone.  There's a decent-sized DNF rate, maybe 30-60% DNFs depending on the venue / conditions / year.  It helps to have as much time as you can get.  I think some people jump into the UB because it seems like a logical progression from the Beast, but it is double the distance.  Back-to-back events on Sat/Sun, and stuff like marathons are a better next step.  You have to keep moving to make the time hacks.  No stopping, no long transition time, and you have to have at least a somewhat reasonable pace.

One benefit of starting later is that by the time I got to start, it was light enough to not need a headlamp, even with the rainy clouds.  We headed off into some steep up-and-down terrain on a rocky mountain side, then on muddy grassy hills.  The first mile was like that.  It was slow moving, but that was the most technical part of the course.  The rest of the course is much more runnable, for the most part.  The course was two laps of a ~15 mile course... the Beast course plus an extra section that the Ultra runners had to do.

First Group of Obstacles: Hay Wall, 7' Wall, Pipe Lair, Overwalls, Monkey Bars (failed both times), Low Crawl, Rope Climb, Tyrolean Traverse, Twister (failed both times, and had to do a what felt like 0.5 mi penalty loop, which you don't want to have to do when you're already planning to have to run 30 miles), Bender (switch grip helps on the wet obstacle).

This was the first time I was trying a Spartan Race with my Garmin Fenix 5S Plus with Sapphire Glass.  Fenix 3 and beyond models are recommended for this kind of racing, because it can stand all of the abuse.  I was tracking my pace, trying to figure out what I'd need to maintain to make the time hacks.  I'm not always the best at doing math in my head during endurance events.  I remember realizing at about mile 4 in the course that 7am + 4 hours = 11am, not 1pm.  It was such a relief to figure that out.  

Second Group of Obstacles: Armer, Beater (failed both times), Z-wall (did it despite the conditions!) through mile 8, Irish Tables, Hurdles, Stairway to Sparta (on lap 1, I ran into a Facebook friend from my Horizon Ruck Training program class!  He recognized me, probably from all the selfies that I post there, and helped me get up the wall), Barbed Wire, 6' Wall, Atlas Carry, Rolling Mud / Barbed Wire / Dunk Wall (only had to do this 1X because they closed this section for the second loop... maybe from the cold?). 

In the last few miles of the first lap, I was breathing hard and out very audibly, as a way to help me stay warm.  I don't know if you've tried it before.  It seems counter-intuitive that breathing out forcefully and audibly would make you warmer, because it seems like you're expelling warm air from your body, and taking in even more cold air than usual when you're breathing at that frequency and with that kind of volume.  But it seems to work for me and for Wim Hof.  I haven't studied his breathing methods or anything, but I've heard a little bit about it, and it reminds me of that.  I wasn't so cold that I was fearing hypothermia, but it was uncomfortable, and I was looking forward to putting on my rain jacket for extra warmth when I got back to the transition area.

There was a set of very steep uphills and downhills.  You had to go up and down very carefully.  Spartan likes to cut routes straight through terrain, intentionally finding the steepest possible ways.  It makes the segments of the terrain obstacles almost unto themselves.  I'm not a fan of that, since I like running, and I approach technical terrain cautiously, but it's part of the course.  

Third Group of Obstacles: Sandbag Carry, Herc Hoist (surprised that I could do it, even with the rain making the sandbags on the other side of the pulley heavier), Spear (failed both times... can't throw it far enough), Vert Cargo (got help up the Irish Table portion), Helix, Inverted Wall, Multi-rig (failed both times), Slip Wall.

At the transition, the best practice is to minimize the time spent there.  My first priority was to change into a dry new long sleeve shirt and put on the rain jacket.  I opened my bucket only to realize that my clothes inside were all wet.  Nothing seemed to have spilled.  The cap of the 5-gallon bucket wasn't snapped on all the way, but I would've expected the insides to stay dry anyways.  It's a mystery.  Oh well... I'd get wet again soon anyways, so I put on the shirt.  At least it wasn't dirty like the one I was already wearing.  The fact that it was wet made it colder than a dry one would've been, but I'd warm up again soon enough.  I wasn't tempted to linger in the transition area because it was cold and I wanted to get moving again.  I saw a ton of people there who seemed to be taking their time.  They had a fire pit there, which was a nice option, but I'm guessing that it does more harm than good for most, because at best, you think you're getting warm, but you're staying in transition longer than you should.  Worst case, you stay there and it feels toasty, and when you move away from it, you are less inclined to go for a second lap because the rest of the world is cold.  

I ate a couple of cookies and cheese.  I replaced the food that I had eaten on course.  I grabbed the headlamp, which you are required to have if you are on the course past 5pm.  

The course is always more chewed up later in the day, especially in bad weather.  Slopes become mud slides.  Many runners' feet from the later waves of Beast Runners and all the UBers have trampled the course and made it even slicker.

I passed and failed the same set of obstacles on both laps.  I slowed down a lot in the second half.  The last portion of the course feels very long.  You're back near the festival area, but there are still many obstacles and miles of running to do in that area.  I think I might've still been running-ish, but probably near a walking pace.

One good thing was that as I was getting to that obscenely steep hill portion near mile 10, the hill portion got closed for safety reasons.  I heard that someone broke their leg or something.  It was getting dark, and it was really muddy that late in the day.  It was near dark by then.  It didn't remove much distance... maybe half a mile.  It sped things up a lot to skip that portion that you'd otherwise have to carefully slide down crab-walk style, though.  

There were still many obstacles to go, but at least you felt like you were near the end now.  I didn't end up needing to use my headlamp because though it was dark, there were enough lights in the festival area obstacles to not need the headlamp.  

I finished with the last two obstacles of the a-frame cargo net and the fire jump, got my bucket, and then got in line to pick up my belt buckle.  They don't hand it out at the finish line like they do with normal race distance medals, since they need to verify that you did both laps by looking up your chip data.

28.8 miles in 10:47, 22:29 average.  5,433 feet of elevation gain.

I drove back home.  I spent a few hours with my sister, who would leave the next morning.  I was still debating whether I'd go back out for the Beast the next day.  I decided to go for it, because I love how comfortable this year's finisher's shirts are, and I wanted that 2X Trifecta, and I already had a volunteer code for it.

SPARTAN CAROLINA BEAST

I used race-day registration with a volunteer code, so I got to run in the volunteer heat.  The 8:30-ish start time gave me plenty of time to finish, without a big rush.  I was totally OK with the idea of walking the whole thing.  About 0.5 mi in, though, some friends came up from behind, so I ended up running/walking with them until about the 9 mile mark.  They were the ones who had done the Beast and had seen me before the race the day before.  It was fun running with them, since I normally don't get to do that and go my own pace.  

It was sunny and a little warmer.  The lack of rain meant that obstacles that I had failed the previous day were doable (although some, like Spear, Olympus, the Box, Great Wall, I still either failed or got help on, since some are tough period, but especially after this many miles of OCR).

About 9 miles in, I could no longer keep up with them.  The last few miles had been a struggle.  They were still going strong, and running was hard for me, so I let them go ahead, and I walked the rest of the way.  I hope to be as tough as them one day, because they wore me out.  They are almost 20 years older than me!  

I was hoping that the dunk wall would still be closed, but it was open.  The dunk wall is what makes you the muddiest, since it's full-immersion in thick soupy mud by the second half of day 1 and beyond on the course.  It made the multi-rig too hard for me to do, too, since muddy hands make holding onto rings difficult.  

It was slow, but I finished.  14-ish miles in 6:38:49, 28:29 average.