It was a "Beast" of a Super.
I think that the Spartan race course designers get a big kick out of what they set up for us. This years Super was more difficult than last fall's
Seattle Beast. This was not only my perception but others that had done both races agreed.
Spartan Super's are 8 to 10 miles long with 24 - 29 obstacles. You can read my last years Seattle Super report
HERE, both last year and this year they had the distance and the amount of obstacles at the higher end of the range. My husband joined me again on this adventure. He was also registered to do the Sprint the next day. So a back to back weekend for him.
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| Getting ready for our day |
The obstacles this year were (I think most of these are in order, it becomes a blur after awhile):
5' wall (before the start)
Hurdle
Over under through
7' wall
River walk
Barbwire
(I couldn't find any official photos of my husband in the barbwire photo collection).
Vertical cargo
When we got to the back side of the course there was a lot of deep water walking, thick deep mud, rocks and downed trees to climb over and under (none of this is in the obstacle list).
2 - 5' walls,
We were told these were "no assist" walls meaning 30 burpee penalty if you can't do it. Usually unless you are in the Elite division you can help others over the walls, so this was new information on these particular walls. I have difficulty with walls. I've only managed to get over the before the start wall once, so I wasn't thrilled to see that they had added another potential burpee maker. I tried several attempts but couldn't do it until my husband said, why don't you take off your Camelbak hydration pack and see if that helps. Wow, I got over them both. Needless to say that my pack is coming "off" at the start from now on before I attempt "that" wall. It's pretty demoralizing when you begin the race and you can't even get over the "before the start" wall. I've got some awesome bruises on my stomach, arms and upper legs from trying to make an unmovable object move. I banged into them pretty good. Ha Ha! I really need to practice my jumping "up" skills.
Stairway to Sparta
Double Sand bag (literally a bag of sand tied at the top),
This year they had a treat for us we had 2 sandbags to carry for an incredibly long distance. Someone told my husband that if you put them on your shoulder and raised your arms up and put your hands on your head it would help keep the sandbags in position so they wouldn't slide off of your shoulders or tire your hands for gripping obstacles later on the course. What a great tip. I later heard that the weight of each sandbag for the double sandbag carry was 30 pounds (60 total) for the women and 40 pounds (80 total) for the men. I felt sooo light after I put mine down.
Inverted wave wall (a new obstacle with aluminum bars)
This one terrified me, I took one look at it and went right over to the burpee zone.
Z wall (or bouldering traverse wall)
We went up and down a muddy, rocky hill to and from the Z wall.
Monkey Bars
Spear throw
Rope Climb
Olympus wall
A frame cargo
Sandbag carry
The sandbag used to be a fairly light stuffed pancake looking bag, now they've stepped it up to kind of a heavy tube shaped bag as you can see in the photos below.
Bucket Brigade,
This was by far the hardest bucket carry I have done in a Spartan race to date. I heard from others on the course that only the
World Championships course in Tahoe had a harder bucket carry than we had for this years Super. That made me feel a little better. It was extremely long, and the ground was muddy. I would take about 20 steps put it down figure out a different way to grip it then start again, repeating till I got to the top of the hill to the gravel dump area. I thought of life as I was frustrated with myself that I found it so difficult. This is what came to me as I was trudging along: When life's circumstances are long, hard and seemingly never ending, take a break (it's O.K.) re-group (re-adjust) your body and spirit (& grip), Keep going. Don't let it break you and as you are going along and you see others carrying their heavy burden rest awhile with them. Offer encouragement that they too can continue on.
By the time I got to the top my outlook was better and I was smiling again.
Inverted wall (wood)
Rolling mud
Dunk wall
Slip wall
Atlas carry with mandatory 5 burpees
Water filled tube flip
Tire flip,
I was particularly proud of myself on this one. When I first tried to lift it it wouldn't budge. We were supposed to flip it one way and then back again. I tried a few more times and then I got it up one one knee and from there I could switch my hand position to push it, Back again and I was done. Yay! I heard that the women's tire flip was 200 pounds.
Twister (a new obstacle, like the multi rig but the handles turn as you go)
Low water crawl under bungee cords
Hercules Hoist
Multi rig
Fire jump
Our stats for the day:
Burpees, we shared them. I did 165, my husband did 235.
His 2 day total burpee count was 420 yikes!
Garmin stats:
10.7 miles
total ascent - 2792 feet
total descent - 2933 feet
I was 5th out of 7 in my age group.
I was a little disappointed in myself for this race, I'd gained back almost 20 of the pounds I'd lost last year. That's alot of extra weight to carry over the obstacles, but I'm still proud of me and how I did on such a grueling course.
Next stop Montana: Another back to back weekend for my husband. A
Beast on Saturday and then
Sprint with me on Sunday.
As they say.....
