This race re-cap encompasses a couple of events as well as the history leading up to the big weekend.
After Coach Bob was invited by Clif to participate in the Spartan event in Tahoe in the fall, he returned to eNRG performance excited to share this great adventure with the members and coaches. The email came out on October 25, 2015 with the subject “It’s Spartan Time.” What did this mean for me - not one but two races spread over a weekend in May. One Super distance with the coaches followed by the Sprint Distance the following day with the membership and teens. It sounded like an exciting adventure and most of the members and coaches jumped on board. On October 31st, I pulled the trigger and signed up for both races. A pit in my stomach with the fear of the unknown. Somehow, the IRONMAN that I committed to for September 2016 now seemed less intimidating as at least there I knew what to expect. I added the Spartan Races to my TrainingPeaks account and the countdown to the race began. It seemed a long way away.
Fast forward a bit. The eNRG fit classes (typically routine heavy lifting) slowly transformed into Ultimate eNRG with 8 minute challenges that pushed us to new limits and a new class called S.O.S. (it stands for Strength, Obstacles and Speed - not HELP...by the way! - although there were plenty of times that we were crying for help!) Push-Ups became the new normal and not just a few 100-250 in any given session and the burpee bell arrived and we burpee’d - a lot! We carried buckets full of gravel and each other all over the grounds. We bear crawled and crab walked. We pushed and pulled and dragged and tugged and jumped and balanced. We saw new levels of creativity out of Coach Bob and watched as we grew stronger day by day.
We were lucky to have the opportunity to participate in a local Spartan sponsored workout. Spartan brings in SPX certified coaches, takes over a parking lot and puts on a 2 hour workout - yes we went the entire two hours - to help prep you for the big day. Team eNRG arrived in force and pushed our way through. Happy for all the craziness we had been through with Coach Bob as it was definitely challenging but we all walked away having completed it and feeling strong.
About two weeks out from race day, reality kicked in. It’s here. No turning back now. The pit in my stomach grew bigger. I had just finished reading Joe De Sena’s Book - Spartan Up! - where he discussed the full history of the race and the why. It was an excellent book, by the way, and a great mindset check. This Type A personality does not handle the fear of the unknown well and Spartan Feeds on that. The course on Saturday would be somewhere between 8 and 10 miles and 20-29 obstacles. Sunday was supposed to be in the range of 3-5 miles and 20-25 obstacles. My last 70.3 had course distance variations that were less than about 3% of the total distance and that made me crazy. A two mile variance and 9 obstacles..really?!? The next challenge was attempting to determine what to wear - things you didn’t care about destroying, that would not get caught on things, keep you warm, but not too hot and protect you from the “environmental conditions” as Coach Bob calls them.
Race morning arrived. The radio said it was 45 degrees and cloudy. Not quite the 60-70s they had forecasted earlier in the week. Coach Bob and I headed into the Chatfield Gravel Ponds in wetsuits and neoprene caps for a quick open water swim with the Teens before heading off to the race - a nice shock to the system (water temp - high 50’s, air low 40’s - awesome…) which I am sure somehow prepared us for the day ahead. We headed off to Ft Carson about 10:00. We arrived to wind and cold - I started contemplating if my final clothing choice had been the right one. No time or alternatives now. It’s race time. We did some warm ups and headed to the start.
The ritual of the start was really fun. Climb the wall to get to the start line. Being on a military base, they had Army toys at the start that they rev’d up and showed off. The announcer told us about our journey ahead - had us chant our AROO’s three times, repeat that “I am a Spartan” and we were off.
We headed out to the top of the Bluff. The course started out with a steep downhill, followed by a steep uphill and another steep downhill. Think we are going to learn these bluffs better than we know. We were up and over the first wall with a quick team effort - burpee free and on our way. We reached the sandbell carry. Women’s bells in one tub, Men’s in the other. It was light (thanks Coach Bob!) - carried it up and around the bluff, back down and dropped it off. I was shocked to see people struggling as they worked through this obstacle as we had done this so many times it seemed like a gift. Headed back to the bluffs still clear of burpees. We continued to make forward progress for the most part running between obstacles. The RuckSack Carry and Plate Drag were mastered and we headed back up the side of the bluff to the Ropes. I didn’t make it - time for Burpees. Quickly followed by another set in the multi-rig obstacle. Happy to be out of that and headed back down the hill. Thankfully my teammates were nice enough to share the love on the burpees.
Back in the bottom of the valley again - more walls to scale but we were getting pretty quick at those. The atlas carry was definitely heavy but successfully mastered by all. We headed to the bucket brigade. The bucket filled past the holes and we were headed up and down a very steep hill. People were slipping, buckets were dumping and it definitely presented a challenge. My biggest fear was someone slipping above me coming down that would take us all out. Definitely happy to be done with that. Back up a steep section of the bluff and flattened out at the top with some distance to cover before the next obstacle.
Now it was time for some new walls and cargo nets. From high on the ridge you could see the barb wire crawl - holy cow it looked really long… We kept working our way through. A few hours in now, some of us started to have challenges with cramping. The only nutrition offered on the course so far had been water. Definitely not IRONMAN aid stations! We pressed on - getting through nearly all of the obstacles burpee free. We arrived at the barb wire crawl - and it was longer in person than it looked from above. It had to have been at least halfway around a track with a small hill to get up and down in the middle. I put my body down flat at one point and wondered if anyone would mind if I caught a quick nap. Next stop, the mud… I managed to lose my footing immediately and was all in. Three pits and submerge under the wall. Out the back side feeling like the muppets with all the mud stuck to my eyebrows.
I missed the slippery wall climb so added some burpees for the crew. Onto another wall and the spear throw - which came close but yet so far. Finally up the last hill. We were cold now from the mud and damp clothes. I got to the A Frame Cargo and mindset said we’re done. Scared of heights and not liking the looks of this one. I told Jonathan that I was scared of heights and not thinking I could do it. He stepped up and said we are going one step at a time together and that he would get me over. And he did. It was not nearly as bad as I had expected but I never would have tried without his encouragement. Missed the monkey bars so a few final burpees before the five of us joined hands and jumped the fire to the finish. - 3:45 - We were all freezing so we didn’t stick around long - ran to the car, changed clothes and headed home.
My Facebook post Saturday evening post race was this:
How we spent our day today! A new challenge, new learning and an awesome experience. #TeameNRG rocked it! Thanks for taking me out of my comfort zone again Coach Bob!!
Sunday morning arrived. I was a bit bruised and battered from Saturday and definitely sunburned. Overall, I felt ok. Legs a bit stiff from scaling up and down the bluffs but felt pretty decent. Not sure whose idea it was to do this two days in a row but we were off again. It felt good to get moving.
Abby Lynn raced the kids race when we arrived. It was cold and windy and the kids course had the mud pit as the second obstacle so she had a big taste of the cold early on. We saw her face as she slipped into the mud puddle and wondered if she would ever forgive us for signing her up. She pressed on and made it through the whole course. They scaled the bluffs up and down twice, had several walls, cargo nets, balancing, carrying and crawling obstacles. She ran nearly the whole way between obstacles even with the rugged terrain. A true Spartan to stick with it and a proud Mom to see her finish and push as hard as she did.
Onto round two - the Sprint distance. We had 20 people from eNRG - really fun to see the team come together. We got everyone up and over the wall to the start and stood waiting as the announcer made the speech, we chanted our ARUUs and stated that “I am a Spartan,” and we were off. We had decided on groups for the most part before we took off. I was with a group of 7 and we headed out.
We practiced our ski turns as we worked our way down the first steep slope and many times again throughout the day. It was helpful to have been through the course yesterday and I offered tips as we arrived at obstacles. It was fun working our way down the hills where you couldn’t see everyone hearing the team call out “eNRG” - like Marco Polo. We celebrated as we completed obstacles with “eNRG” and “burpee free!”
The ropes was our first burpee encounter - Eric cleared the rope but the rest of us didn’t. Let the burpees begin. That was 180 there… Onto the Rig - the staff was not allowing any assistance so add another 210. Time to go back down the hill. Never been so happy to take on a hill…
We continued through the obstacles with great success and truly saw the strength of our team. Our methods for getting over the walls improved to a science and teamwork was going in full force. No slip and slides on the bucket carry - we were all doing great!
We arrived at the barb wire crawl - sadly it did not get any shorter overnight. I learned quickly that I had some bruises from Saturday and this must have been their origin so had to modify my technique some. Once again pondered the nap but was too busy laughing at the conversations going on around me. Some of the teammates opted to roll which ended in a problem a bit from the end. We recovered from the delay with a nice wet bath in the mud pits and were on our way. I nearly lost my contacts this time around and it was definitely hard to get out of the pit when you can’t see. Not sure who pulled me out but definitely glad they did. Those pictures from the professional photographer will be priceless. More burpees with the slippery wall. We headed to the 10 ft wall and had just about the whole crew over when Mike arrived - there to help us finish up!
Burpees at the spear throw and then we headed up the hill. The rest of the eNRG family was standing on top of the hill cheering down to us. Great fun! Everyone got up and over the cargo frame (some in similar minds as I was on Saturday but we all did it!!) Onto the monkey bars which meant burpees. As we finished up, Barb and I danced to the music of the DJ. The announcer talked about the great attitudes of the final finishers still dancing and smiling at the finish.
We joined hands, jumped the fire and celebrated our finish. - 4:04. - We took our official finisher photos, grabbed our finisher shirts and scattered ways to get warm, dry clothes and head home.
The seven of us stuck together all day. We all faced challenging moments but everyone stayed positive and worked together the whole time. It was an awesome display of friendship, teamwork and milestones.
We all heard we were crazy to do this and maybe we are, but Team eNRG will return to Spartan - bigger, stronger and ready for the next obstacle!
