Mud race promises wet and wild challenges

     I was quoted, a while back, on my thoughts on running mud runs since they seem to be so hot right now. The whole article can be seen at the link below. I have just included the part that references me.

     The obstacles are challenging, but don’t require you to be a Navy SEAL, or a real seal, for that matter. Jose Albanil is a part-time fitness trainer who finished eighth overall at the last Dirty 6 in September. Albanil said if this is your first mud run and you feel a bit intimidated, then do it with a group of friends. “Mud runs, such as the Dirty 6, are not just about running it for a fast time,” he said. “It is about finishing a different and fun course that is a challenge for any fitness level.”

http://www.examiner.com/article/mud-race-promises-wet-and-wild-challenges

Guess I have done a few races.

As long as I can remember, I have been trying to save all my bibs from my past races. Looks like I have done 67 different events. Not a bad number. I hope to increase those numbers in the near future

Spartan Trifecta 2014

I think this will be my schedule to score my Trifecta in the Spartan Races. That is running all three length races in the same year. That will score me an extra metal. In order to do that I will need to go Red, Blue then Green. Arizona for the Sprint. Florida for the Super and SoCal for the Beast. I also like the Spartan keeps track of the times and places for the races you do with them. There is a ranking.

Run for your lives SoCal Oct 2012

I heard about this race through a search for new races. It seemed so very cool and fun. I told my friends about it and they wanted to go as well. The next one I could hit would be in SoCal in Temecula in October. I had been watching all the videos I could to see what it was all about and what I might expect. Not really the same thing as experiencing it all in person though. I am glad I did.

The goal of the run was to avoid being infected by the zombies. Each participant is given a  flag football belt with 3 flags on it. You need to finish with at least one of those flags still on you to have finished and not been infected. Throughout the course you come across zones where zombies roam and their goal is to rip off all of your flags.

Walking to the staging area from the parking lot was cool and unexpected. Their were zombies walking on the trails. It was cool since they were really playing the part. In their mannerisms and all. I was talking pictures. I tried doing something similar to Austin Powers to see if I could make them laugh. one girl cracked in a few second. Another one I could not break. It was like 10 mins and many photos later but nothing. Nice.

The way the start we set up did give a feel like we were about to enter the infected and over run zombie zone. You started out in a darkened out shoot that lead into an area fenced in. There was smoke bluring the exit. I was not sure if there would be zombies already there. We were greeted but a long uphill section to the top of the mountain. In two areas it leveled out and it was an area with zombies rolling around. And the carnage could be seen as many of these zombies already had flags in their hands. Some quick foot work got me through the first two areas. In the third area I mis judged a female zombie. She moved much quicker than I had thought. I made some serious football moves but she still got one of my flags. Dang it. And that was only a few minutes into the race.

As I ran I came up with a plan of attack for the next time. That was soon to be made unusable when I came around the corner to another section. This was not an open area but part of the trail. And it had like 3 times the concentration of zombies from before. If they all put their hands out they would and could touch. How the hell was I going to make it through? As I stood there more runners came up. When we had what I thought was enough I told everyone we had to run together. To overwhelmed them with numbers. They could not get all of us that way. It was crazy but that helped me get through. Not sure how many we lost on that attempt. Feeling good I kept going only to find another such area not too far up. I was like, "come on". I did not want to wait for everyone to gather up again so I just went for it. All about speed. Just barely made it.

So far in the race the zombies were holding their character. Lost of grunts and pointing fingers. One was trying to warn us about a big cactus. All he did was point as he grunted and then would say, "Ouch". He did that 2 or 3 times and we got the message. That was cool. Later on they started talking and ganging up on the fast runners. They would say get the guy in the blue and he would get swarmed. Not fair. I found them going more and more for the fast runners. As I came through they went after me. It took me some time running around in circles by the start of the zone to find an opening to get through. I thought to myself how I could avoid this in the future. I came up with a plan. To not come sprinting around the corner to a new zone. i walked in. And I was walking with my head down with a slight limp like I was tired. This one of the areas was very long. The zombies started to walk towards me. Right before they got to me I started to sprint. They yelled out to the other to get me. But by then I was half way through. See ya sucka.

There was a point in the run where the trail came to a "Y" intersection. I wondered which way I was supposed to run and what I was missing taking one path versus another. Not sure. But as I ran on I thought that they seemed to have pushed us this way. At the next "Y" I decided to go against the grain. But by doing this I had to go through a series of zombies. It was much easier and safer to go the other way. But I soon found out that this was a shorter path. But you had to earn it. I was happy to have learned that.

One of the interesting obstacles was looked like a maze. Zombies at the entrance and I zombies behind it. As well as I am sure there was going to be some inside. It took a bit of time to find a way in. It was pretty well guarded and I did not want to loose a flag. Found an opening and went for it. I was going to be cautious inside. I could hear lots of screaming behind me. a large group came in after me. The girls were just screaming. Their were three ways in and three ways out. The middle was just find your way through. I was telling the girls to be quiet since that would alert the end zombies which door to be at. All of a sudden the girls started to scream again. Their were zombies behind us. The passage were narrow. Body to body and I was leading. The girls would not shut up. My fears were realized right before we came out. A zombie was in front of me. I spun and bounced off the walls right past the zombie and everyone else got stuck between that one and the ones behind. See ya.

I had one gauntlet to go. The top of the hill. You could not see what was on top or how far you had to go. Blind set up. So with a few deep breathes I went for it. With every step up I could see more and more and it looked impossible. Running from side to side as I tried to shalom through all the mess of zombies on an up  hill and then on a down hill. I blew by them all with a few narrow misses. All the way down to the finish. I had made it through with two flags. So awesome. So much fun.

Tough Mudder Arizona Feb 23rd 2013

At the beginning of the race I met a guy that was running and had been parked next to me in the parking lot We were in our cars warming up. He told me he was going to run earlier than his scheduled start time and if I wanted to join them. Well there was only 5 minutes till the start so I had to say no but I would see him out there. The reason was two fold. One I have a pre-race ritual that I always do. It involves warming up, stretching out, lightening the load and getting in the zone. The other is that the MC for the Tough Mudder races is the BEST MC I have ever had at any race. And I have be doing races since the mid 90's so that does say alot. He is so inspirational and funny and just gets me fired up and ready to go. And his speech takes most of the time between waves and I did not want to miss it.

Oh man getting zapped by electricity on the Electric Eel obstacle is brutal. They had the low crawl with the wires hanging down. I mean if you grab the side of the pool getting ready to go in you can already feel light shocks. So I take a moment and go for it. Feels like the shocks are getting more intense as you go along. Now I had thrown out my back in Dec. I mean pretty bad. Right at the base of the spine. It was good enough to run today but the shocks seemed to be concentrate right on that spot. The muscle spasms were getting more and more intense there just and towards the degree that took me out. I had to get out quick. So I did what I could to hurry up. I had to lay on the ground a few seconds before I got up. WOW that hurt. But thinking about it now my back feels great. I wonder if it helped. That would be amazing. I need to get shocked more often.

As far as eating I got up at 5am and had a big peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich on wheat bread. I wanted time to digest. I also had lots of water. About an hour before the race, at 8:40am, I had two bananas and Gatorade. During the race I had about half a cup of water every time I past check points. I also had a half a banana and some gummy gel bites they had. All of that helped me for sure as far as nutrition.

Part of the experience of the race is to help others. I sure did what I could without slowing me down. Everyone I passed I would say something nice. Looking good, nice pace, keep it going, way to go, etc. I also made sure to talk to all those that were walking. I told them to keep moving if even just doing a light jog. Or to keep running just a little bit longer to the obstacle and then stop. And it got everyone moving again. Felt good about that. No matter how tired I was I would smile and be chatty.  The other big thing was that after I finished the race I grabbed my camera to take some photos. I was over at the Everest obstacle. The Go Daddy team was rolling through. Everyone made it up and over except one guys. He was sure trying. After watching him fail 6 time I moved over so I could talk to him. Talk him up. I was not going to let this guy quit. Why, because he had this obstacle, a very very short jog and then the final Electro shock therapy obstacle. He had come so far to fail now. Everyone standing around could feel his pain every time he missed. And would be cheering him on. I gave him some pointers. I fired him up. He could not let himself down or his team. On, what must have been his 9 attempt, and with the cheers of everyone around him as well as having his team up top trying to catch him, he made it. He stood up with hands in the air and absolutely everyone cheering I am sure was an amazing achievement and experience for him. He had heart. I tracked him down at the end of the race and congratulated him. He earned his orange head ban today, that is for damn sure. I gave him a fist bump and thanked me fore believing in him and helping him finish. I felt amazing about that.

Not as many costumes I saw this year. I did like the where is waldo group. One of the cool ones was what looked to be like a Crocodile Hunter look. And he had this huge stuffed crocodile around his neck. He ran it the whole way with it. Pretty fun.

Love the location. I sure hope they do not change it. The Mesa Arizona proving grounds. Plenty of space for everything. Parking very close by. Sweet. Lots of area and mixed terrain. They do not have to clean it up just leave it with what ever happened over the year since we were last there and have us run over it.Only thing that would be nicer would be to have more natural water hazards. Guess i will have to do the SoCal one for that. Or maybe Florida.

The best part of it all was that I managed to complete the race with no cramping. The first two must have been too much or not the right nutrition that had me locking up with about 3 miles to go. This time no. So I did something right. Must have been running about 5 days a week for 45 minutes for the 3 weeks before the race. Thanks to my little man/coach/running buddy for being there for me. For rolling in the stroller and keeping dadda company while he trained. I got to exercise and still bond with my son. I can not tell you how amazing that was.

So I started at 8:40am. I got out in front and no other person from my group passed me. In fact no one passed me. I passed many many people. Even caught up to the 8:20 and 8:00 waves. I found a couple I talked to in the morning. They were a bit upset I caught them when they had a 20 minute head start. I finished at 10:35am. So that is 1 hour and 55 minutes. Now, if I remember correctly, I finished about 2 hours and 20 mins last year. Wow.

Official Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z17cd_Lgl2o

See you next year. 


My Second Tough Mudder:
http://mudsweatpride.blogspot.com/2013/03/tough-mudder-socal-1-feb-2012.html

Spartan Sprint Elite Feb 9th 2013

     I placed 83 Overall, 66 in my Elite Group, and 8 in my age group. That is not too bad. There is a lot of room for improvement. I always try to beat my time from a previous year so this is my bench mark for the next one.
     I was very excited to be competing in this race. I was lucky to purchase this as a Groupon many months ago. I do have to say that I highly recommend signing up with places like Groupon and Living Social, and other group buy site. There have been more and more races showing up on these sites since they have become so incredibly popular. So not only do you get to try one of these fun races but you also are able to do it at a saving.
     The weather was surprising. It has been warm but for some reason this particular weekend was a little chilly in Arizona. It was nothing I could not handle though. There was even some talk of rain. Man that would rock. I would love to do one of these races with a full on down pour going one. Well that did not happen but someday I hope for it.

Pros and Cons specific to this Spartan Sprint Race in AZ 2013

     Now I know if there was a way to avoid this, the race directors would do so. But one of the things I really hate about races is having to ride the bus to the start. I do not want to get stuck in long lines and show up late to the start. I do not want to wait to get a ride back to my car.  I do not like not being able to walk to my car to get my camera so I can come back and take photos as well as enjoy the race longer. Some places are close enough where you could walk. This really does rely heavily on the location and what is available to be used as parking. Now I want to make sure to state that I would much rather have a lot of these locations stay as is and ride the bus then have the race moved to a site that was not as exciting so I could park close.
     With that being said I was not excited with the bus to race start set up. This was the furthest I have ever had to ride a bus. It was like 15 minutes and I am being serious here. And to top it off, the bus driver was unaware of where she was going. Seriously??? Someone dropped the ball. Not to mention they were filling one bus at a time and we had to wait for all of them to move up before they would load the next one. It took too long for me and I was in the first heat. I can’t imagine how it was later in the day when the bulk of the masses were arriving. Many of the new runners are not aware of the possible delays and did not allow themselves enough time to arrive. This would have congested some of the later heats. My suggestion is that they need to be filling 3 buses at a time, let them all head out and move all the buses forward to do it again.
     I did not realize that the race would start and go right to a single track situation only a few hundred yards out. I am sure this was specific to our site. And most of the race would be like this. It created a slower pace that affected my time for sure. Oh well I was rolling with it.
     The obstacles were pretty good. Nothing I thought was too hard. As long as you did not rush it and were nice and smooth through it you could do it. And I did not want to fall off because in Spartan races you are penalized 30 Burpees. That can be significant if you miss them all in a 15 obstacle race. The rope climb was tricky since it was wet. And I was not able to do the spear throw which I got penalized for. I will have to practice that one. Please please please Spartan Race directors make sure to add in more MUD! I love the mud and will play in it all day. I was a little too clean at the end of the race. This is just my personal preference. I want to finish the race unrecognizable. =D
     I was not happy with one of the obstacles. Here you had to carry a heavy stone over a bit and do 5 Burpees and carry it back. They had a few lanes in which to do this. The one I was at no one would bring a stone back. So I was there a few minutes waiting. I was getting annoyed. I was not going to move on without completing this course. My suggestion is mark the lanes so participants have to go out and come back to same spot. And have more than one stone on each lane. You will need a little more room here but well worth it. I can bet this was a pinch point for the race.
     Anyone that knows me knows I hate things that make me go round and round. I mean I get dizzy so easily. The last obstacle was an army crawl under barbed wire. But since you are in shorts and the sand here in AZ is so rocky I realized early on would be best handled by. This section happened to be a very long way. So I was spinning for what seemed like forever. I thought I was so going to yak.
     The final obstacle was two gladiators with weapons. I did want to just try and see if I could take them out by going right at them instead of just taking the hits. Unfortunately, not too long ago, I threw out my back pretty good. I am still trying to recover from it. I did not want to hurt myself again and set back my recovery. That was not going to be worth it for me. I have a 6 year old son to keep up with. Hopefully on my next race I can handle business.
     Thanks Spartan for not telling me that you switched the length of the race from 3.2 to 4.7 miles. I was wondering how few obstacles there was when I had gotten to mile 3. How would they get all those other obstacles in with only .2 miles left to go. That was too funny.
     The location was amazing. This was a major pro to the race for me. Living in a desert it still amazes me how beautiful it can be. I do have to say the views were beautiful during the run. Lots of greenery was coming up from the rains we have had. I took in as much as I could. I have to remember to come and hike here again sometime. It was held at the McDowell Regional Park. But then it did dawned on me. I was the first heat comprising of 200 participants and there would be many more such heats in the two days that would be tearing this nice area up. That did not sound good.
     Overall thoughts. A great race. It is a manageable length race that challenges athletes of all fitness levels. I would recommend this Spartan Sprint to anyone looking to get into the obstacle race. I look forward to trying Spartan’s other length races. I already have my schedule set up for racing all three lengths in the same year to score my Trifecta and earning myself a fourth metal.

Rugged Maniac 11/17/12

      I found myself running another short mud obstacle course called the Rugged Maniac at Thunderbird Raceway in Phoenix Arizona. I was in the first group to go at 9:15am. I got ready to run and always like to be upfront, close to the start line. I saw this girl jumping around looking like she was warming up. But she had on old school canvas type high tops, jeans and a long sleeve grey hoodie with lots of stuff written on it. So I had to ask what the names were about. Her name was Hailey and she told me they represented the names of soldiers that were off fighting in Iraq. She was running for all of them. Some 40 or 50 of them. She personally knew 4 of them but some how it got around that she was doing this and the list grew. I have to give her props knowing she took the time to write each and every name. Then it became clear she was moving around because she was very nervous. Thinking she would not be able to do it. So me being me I tried to calm her down a bit and give her some words of encouragement. To just take it at an easy pace and enjoy it. This is all for fun and to benefit a good cause and now for all the names she had. Well the race started and I tore it up like I usually do. I still had some energy left so I decided to go back and find Hailey. I found her about half way back. I figured she was rolling with the weight of all these names the least I could do was keep her company the rest of the way. She was freaking out pretty good. She does not run so this 3 mile was working her over. And she was freezing from the water. So I talked to her throughout the rest of the run. We ran when she could and slowed it down for a walk when she had to breathe a bit. I was also helping her get over some tricky obstacles. Mostly through words of encouragement and or tips on how to orient herself to make the best assault on the obstacle. We made it through. She was very happy to have finished. I gave her a high five and told her she did an AMAZING job and did every single name on her shirt proud. Even got the photo guy to take some shots of her for her facebook page. She plans on doing more runs like this for the soldiers so I am sure I will run into her again.  
     My good deed for the day. Felt GREAT about it. Of course after that I ran back, yet again, about half way to find the huge water slide I thought was fun. I ended up going down it 21 times. I would run back up and go again and again. Each time trying to do something different or silly on the way down. I would have done more but the material on the slide was starting to burn through and I knew I would be having marks and pain later. I had a good size group of spectators watching and laughing and enjoying my play time. Always making people laugh. This is no surprise to anyone that knows me. And I even got a few people to join in with me. But no where as many times as I did.