The day after the coupon ruck, I volunteered for the Spartan Build Crew. In the morning, our crew of 5 volunteers manually filled the following sandbags, using shovels, a scale, and a heap of sand:
- 40# x 218 bags (festival)
- 45# x 30 bags
- 30# x 20 bags
- 20# x 25 bags
- 70# x 22 bags (womens herc hoist)
- 105 x 22 bags (mens herc hoist)
All this, the day after a Coupon Ruck! The thought of the 105#ers is a bit scary, but we 2-man carried them to the scale and to the pallets, which made it manageable. We used cones to help funnel sand into the sandbags, and they needed some shaking and maneuvering to get the sand through the end of it. Imagine shaking around 30# of sand repeatedly for a few hours.
It was good fun, though. I like the manual work, as an escape from what I normally do for work.
In the afternoon, after a good lunch (I always like the lunches that Spartan provides for Build volunteers), I was content to have a less physically demanding task. I assembled the blade flags. By the time I finished that, it was the end of the work day. 8.5 hrs of good work.
The next day, I was limping because my right butt was strained, and my left rib felt bruised, and my left shoulder was strained. I felt like I had been in a car wreck. Decent sleep the next night helped me recover some, although I wasn't feeling good enough to try a workout.
Wednesday, Apr 3:
5.0 in 40:12, 8:02 ave. The run was harder than it should've felt, maybe because I ate peanuts and dried mangoes prior to the run. I was feeling good and was eager to work out today, though. Maybe it was the Vitamin B and St. John's Wort. I went for a run, since I wasn't sure I could handle a workout from GORUCK's April "Lucky 7" ruck workout challenge on that day. It had been a while since my last run, anyways.
Splits> 8:21, 8:17, 8:03, 7:50, 7:39.
SPARTAN SUPER
This was the first time that Spartan has hosted a Super-distance (6-9 mi) race in Charlotte. Sprint distance races (3-6 mi) are typically the most plentiful, and as you go up in distance, the races are harder to come across without travelling longer distances, so it's nice to have more of the longer distance races in your backyard.
Porter Farms hosts OCRs for a variety of companies, so I'm familiar with the venue, and I knew they could handle the extra distance. I'm also familiar with the cow poo, but it's part of the experience.
Now that volunteer free race codes only cover open heats, I stuck with the open heat and didn't upgrade to an age group heat. It was actually nice to not have the extra pressure. It was crowded, but I just focused on crushing the obstacles as best as I could. To be fair, it's crowded even in the Age Group heats, in the beginning.
With the 9:15 am start, there wasn't frost to contend with, so the drier-than-usual obstacles certainly helped. It was wet, since it had rained the previous day, but it wasn't bad on the hanging obstacles. I was strategic about taking advantage of dry spots.
Hay Wall, Over Walls, Rolling Mud, Dunk Wall, Hurdle, Invert Wall, Bender... no issues. Z-wall is always challenging, but if you're patient and are careful with your holds, you can get through. Herc Hoist was challenging, too, but not impossible. Barbed Wire, Tubes, Slip Wall with a half-length rope, Vert Cargo with an Irish table - a new twist on an old obstacle. I had to get help up the Irish table, but I was in the open heat, so I didn't mind.
Atlas, Sandbag, Twister. They don't normally have photographers at Atlas, so that was nice. I got through Olympus, for the second time ever in my life (the first time was suprisingly in Tahoe, the very first time I encountered it, and I've failed it a zillion times since). I think the drier course helped.
7' wall, Barbed Wire 2, Stairway to Sparta, Beater... a new obstacle for 2019... I failed on the very last bar... bummer. Oh well, at least I know I can do it. 6" wall, Multirig, Spear fail, Bucket. The bucket carry course was flat. I'm glad they've moved away from super steep bucket courses... those things are dangerous, if buckets get dropped or if people slip, so I'm glad. It's challenging enough as it is.
A-frame, Rope Climb, Monkey bars, Fire.
8.4 in 2:15:18, 16:06 ave.
COURSE SWEEP
I wanted to get in some more volunteering, and based on when I finished the race, that left Course Sweet as the only shift that I could still fit in... so another 7+ miles of work it was! I was with a team of 4 others, walking through the course, and taking down course tape, picking up trash, and picking up other course markers.
It was a great team effort. It's wonderful, when you're in a group where everyone's committed to working hard and doing their part. We worked together seamlessly to take everything down.
We were rewarded with some great views and getting to work with a staff member named Woody, who is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He truly cares about people, and giving them a meaningful and great experience, whether they're racing or volunteering.
I'm glad that my body held up during the volunteering session.
SPARTAN SPRINT
Day 2... I was in the 9:15am volunteer wave again. I was scheduled to do the GORUCK Bataan Light at 1am, and I had planned to pick up food for an HTL participant prior to the Light, so I had to hustle.
I got to meet my CLT Star Course teammate SP for the first time before the race. She happened to be doing the Super/Sprint/Light combo, too. It was nice having her on course, too, since it pushed me to work harder.
I failed Herc, Spear, and Rope. They took away the Irish Table for the Sprint, so that wasn't an issue. Normally, the Rope isn't an issue, but it was slippery and at the end, so I took the burpees. I barely rinsed off, wanting to get back into town for the Light. I did run into my HS Soccer Teammate, though, who I haven't seen in like 10 years... she was volunteering. It was awesome seeing her.
Went to Bojangles to pick up some Chicken Biscuits. I was a bit messy and out of place going in there, but it was starting to rain a bit, so everyone was a little bit messy.
3.5 mi in 1:16:45, 21:56 ave.
GORUCK BATAAN LIGHT
I changed out of wet, muddy clothes, into fresh clothes, once I was at the start point and no longer under big time pressure. I didn't have a whole lot of time, though, so I gave out some Chicken Biscuits, scarfed down my own, and hastily geared up. My HTL friend was still going strong.... looking tired, but still in the fight, which was awesome to see.
At the gear inspection, I couldn't find my ID and cash in my ruck immediately, and fortunately, the Cadre moved on without looking for everything in my bag. I did have it and found it like 10s later, but I had a bit of a panicy moment for a little while there.
We had a big group, so we split up into 2 teams. We started the event by honoring Cadre Rooney, who had passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. We did the Rooney WOD, which consisted of a 400m run, and 5 sets of [75 mt climbers, 75 squats, 100m run, 75 flutter kicks, 75 overhead claps], 400m run. The Cadre did "it pays to be a winner", to incentivize the two teams. The winning team would gift the losing team with an extra sandbag. We had to start over at one point after mixing up the sequence, but we recovered. We took turns leading the counts.
Cadre Cleve, who I've heard of, was the second Cadre. He brought a drone and took shots. My friend KD was there with her adorable kids shadowing, too. It was so cute to see those future GRTs running around with us and guarding their own eggs from Cadre Fagan.
Our team was awesome, so we won. Each team got a healthy batch of coupons, though, so there was fun all around. I like Fagan's philosophy of bringing lots of coupons so that nobody hides and everyone contributes. It can be easy, especially if you doubt yourself, to shirk from the tough stuff. So it's nice when you're forced to push yourself. You discover that you can do more and do better than you though. Fagan's strategy prevents people from being robbed of the opportunity to learn from the event, by people discounting what they're capable of and therefore not discovering their potential.
We set off for some park. The two teams started off going the same way, but our team decided to split off after a couple of blocks, so that we weren't competing for the same limited sidewalk space. We hauled it and ended up making it to the destination, first.
At Latta Park, team members shared stories of people who were part of the Bataan Death March. Then, the Cadre shared GORUCK's overview of the historical event. Since we got there first, we might've given another coupon to the other team. I was feeling bad for them. They walked further and had more to contend with. Each team had gotten an even split of newbies and experienced GRTs. It's always a learning experience.
Since the Rooney WOD took a longer than usual percentage of the event, the next destination was the start point. We carried stuff back. During the event, I was on poles with ammo cans the most, followed by a single small ammo can, followed by an 60-80# sandbag. I think people normally exaggerate the weight of the sandbag by about 20#, haha. I don't know, though. I don't have a scale. But I have my suspicions.
At the end, we got patched, Fagan handed out some Cadre patches, and then the HTLers got patched. I got to meet some GRTs who I haven't met before. They traveled some distance to be here. It's cool to meet GRTs from around the country. Despite living in very different places, we all share a common spirit.
The HTLers were great. Despite having already done 24 + 12 hours of intense work, they didn't shy away from putting in as much effort as all of the fresh Light people during the event. Their bolts were well-deserved.
Amazingly, my Fagan egg survived its ~5 mi journey in the back pocket of my trail running shorts, even when I had forgotten about it during story time when I was sitting down and stuff. Time for another celebration omelette.
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