Last night we arrived back home after traveling to Seattle for the weekend to participate in the Seattle Spartan Race, located just north of Seattle in Snohomish, WA.
This is my second Spartan Race and it was just as fun as my first Spartan Sprint Race in San Jose.
This Spartan Super course was 8 miles and had 25 obstacles. A week prior to the race, I was closely watching the weather and it was looking good for a few days. A few days before the race, the inevitable rain showed up in the forecast, which would throw some new fun challenges in the mix. Cold rain, in 40 degree weather? Let’s do it!
When we arrived to the venue, we parked in a massive (muddy) field and fell in line with all the other cars. I showed up about 45 minutes before my race. They advise to be there 2 hours ahead of time, but I think that’s too much. Perhaps they want you to get in early and spend more money. My start time was at 10am. My Spartan Sprint race last month was at 2pm and I quickly learned that going earlier is definitely the way to go. That way the lines don’t get too backed-up at the obstacles which hurts your time.
Every one jumped over the initiation wall and piled up to do the starting chants before it was go-time. About 100 feet in front of us was a massive, muddy hill with a steep ascent to start the race. And we’re off….
The first couple of miles had sections where you were running in mud that came up mid calf and the part where you get completely submerged under water. It was freezing cold outside!
All of the obstacles where you had to hang on metal was 90% impossible. There were people stacked on the sideline doing burpees and cheering on those who got past the first bar or two. Everyone’s hands slipped right off the muddy metal instantly. If I knew better, I probably would have wore gloves with grips on them. There was about 4 of these type of obstacles and I ended up doing burpees on all of them. During the Spartan Sprint in San Jose (why was dry and sunny), I flew through these same obstacles. It definitely adds another element with the wet & mud!
I had a pretty beat up IT band from a hard 7 mile run that I did a couple days prior. I was limping and very close to calling off the race. But we were already in Seattle and my two daughters (ages 11 & 13 at the time) were also running the kids race. So it was time to go into the pain cave and make it happen.
Overall, I was happy with my results. Looking forward to moving into the top 10 as I improve in these races.
As if the extreme cold and wetness wasn’t enough, we ended up getting stuck in the muddy field in our rental. We had people trying to push us with a car, multiple people trying to physically push the car out, and nothing. We ended up paying $160 to have “Dicks Towing” drive out to give us a hand. The tow truck managed to pull us out of the muddy hole we created, but got the tow truck stuck. Shortly after, the amount of people getting stuck started to pile up. The only people who were able to get out of there had 4 wheel drive, so keep that in mind when you are renting a car for this race!
Now, it’s time to move on to The Beast! I’m loving these OCR races so far and having a lot of fun with them. It’s crazy to see how much of a cult following this organization has and how massive it is. People travel from all over to go to these things.