Spartan Fayetteville Ultra 2024

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, Apr 28:

Flow - Day 27 - Speak & Day 26 - Open Yoga with Adriene

Monday, Apr 29:

HDT 13.3.2 (ARMS) in 43:59 for the PT portion, plus 10:10 for a nose breathed 1 mile run in GORUCK Rough Runners to remember how to run again, at 150bpm.

Wednesday, May 1:

The start of Class 040 of PATHFINDER...

I did the APFT with 53/40 pushups, 87/76 situps, and a 15:02/17:00 run in the Adidas Adios Boost in 82*F.  Afterwards, I did a 2 mile ruck with 30# in the Altra Torin Plush with sluggish legs, with a GPS that was in Ultratrac mode and underestimating mileage.

Thursday, May 2:

Flow - Day 5 - Represent & Day 14 - Welcome Yoga with Adriene

SPARTAN FAYETTEVILLE ULTRA

My previous Spartan Ultras were at Tahoe in 2016, Iceland in 2017, and Carolina in 2019, so it's been a while.  I haven't done as many OCRs since focusing more on rucking events.  I still enjoy them, though.  

I don't remember why I signed up for this.  I guess I just wanted to get back into it and do something different and fill my calendar, since there aren't as many GORUCK events these days.  The bright side is that I get to do more side activities like OCRs again.  

I barely run these days, but I should have some endurance from rucking.  

I happened to be interested in trying Zone 2 run training, so I'd try to nose breathe for this event, as much as I could.  At the very least, it would help me avoid going out too fast.

I struggled with the 8"wall at first, but then I figured out that I needed to approach it from the right side and get the ledge with my outer right foot, instead of the inner right foot.

I tried but failed Olympus, and I failed the Spear Throw.  Everything else, I passed.

In the first half, the only time I didn't nose breathe was for about 100yd after the slip wall.  I had forgotten about it, but while mouth breathing, my heart started pounding, which made me realize what I was doing.  I started nose breathing, and immediately, my body felt more relaxed again, and the effort felt low again, even though I was probably getting the same amount of air and going the same pace as before.  Crazy!

I felt pretty good in the first lap, and even told myself that I could pick up the pace in the second half.  

In the transition area, I wanted to be as quick as possible.  No point in lingering.  

I did grab a fried chicken patty to eat on the run before I left.  That was not easy to chew and swallow.  It probably didn't digest super well, either, but I wanted calories and salt and protein at the time, and wanted to make sure that I stayed fueled up.  I was still eating the chicken when I got to the first real obstacles.  I stuck half of the patty in my mouth as I climbed over the wall.  

I ran into Jonathan running his Beast while I was still eating the chicken, too.  Now that Beast runners were out, there was more traffic, but people are good about sharing the course and letting Ultra runners through when needed, not that I was going that fast.

I did start to fade about halfway through the second lap.  I had been watching my HR throughout the event.  I'd check it every couple of minutes, to try to learn what different HRs feel like intuitively.  My HR did decrease in the second half, even as it got warmer.  I was slowing.  I did remember to nose breathe the whole time during the second lap (aside from the obstacles, of course).  It just felt easier on my body that way.

I failed the same obstacles this time - spear and Olympus.  The penalties were runs... both were not thing.

It was good to finish.  I figured out some time during the second lap that I was nowhere close to the top of the female division, but maybe I still had a chance at an Age Group award.  I did sign up for Competitive for this event, hoping for the best.  I did end up getting 2nd in AG!  It had been a dream of mine to get some kind of podium at a Spartan Race, ever since I figured out how to do more of the obstacles successfully.

I can't believe that my very old shoes are still usable, 10-ish years later.  They've had holes in them for a long time, but on the bright side, that makes them even better at draining.  I've thought about throwing them out quite a few times in the past, especially after races like OCRWC 2018 in London when I had to consider whether it was worth it to fly back across the Atlantic with them, but I've still kept them.

The watch said 37.5 miles, but it's probably less than that... the GPS jumped a couple of times.  The shoes still covered a lot of mileage, though.

The next day, I volunteered for full day at registration.  They always try new things to be more efficient.  It's cool to see the evolution of Spartan's SOPs over time.  Bag check has changed dramatically and is much less labor-intensive now.  You just go in and drop your bucket wherever you want... they just care that you check out by showing a matching wristband at the end when you leave.

It's always cool meeting the fellow volunteers.

My toes got smashed from the running.  I think that could've been why I was struggling during the second lap, looking back.  Nothing was burning muscularly... my body just didn't want to run at fast.  Subconsciously, it could've been the toes not wanting to get hammered so much.  

The toenails would blacken in the coming days.  A few months later, the left toenail would come off completely, with a new half toenail growing beneath it, haha.