2015 Race Season Blurb

This is the first Saturday in a long time that I'm not running a race (that's not due to injury). The epic 2015 race season officially came to a close at FIT Challenge last Saturday, and I've spend the last week in denial that its really over. I accomplished so many things this year that I thought impossible. I've run 15 #racelocal events, taking 3rd place in points (based on speed per race), 4 Spartan races, earning my trifecta after taking on the 13.5 mile Killington Beast, then adding on Rugged Maniac got me to 20 OCR races this year. I also completed both the Cape Cod Ragnar AND Ragnar trail, which earned me my farthest road running distance of 9 miles. My obstacle completion rate from Blizzard Blast to now has quadrupled, and my ability to actually RUN these races has improved 10 fold. I'm amazed at what my body has handled, injuries and beyond. Best about all of this, I have found an AMAZING group of people through this crazy habit of mine in the New England Spahtens. I've grown wonderful friendships I hope to keep for a life time. Thank you particularly to Beth and Paul for creating the #racelocal series, as well as to Danielle and Norman for helping me start this crazy train of races back in April with giving me a way to do both BoldrDash and Rock the Gauntlet in one weekend. Also, to every single one of you who has been my battle buddy, a side line supporter, or the bestest giver of hugs (I'm looking at you, Kevin), you are absolutely amazing. Seriously. I'd spend hours naming you all off!! And of course, I have to thank my hubby for dealing with all of my crazy shenanigans, supporting my passion, and allowing me for taking on this adventure! Now, once this shoulder heals fully, I have plenty of stuff to work on to make my 2016 race year, my best year yet!!

Epic Fifth Challenge/FIT Fall

I absolutely LOVE this event. It is truly hard for me to give an unbiased review of this event as I love the people who put it on, and the ABSURDLY close distance to my house, that I was out there with them building/taping the course twice in the week leading up to the event. I wanted to give my free time to make this event amazing. That being said, here we go:

Location: Diamond Hill Park, Cumberland RI. Easy enough to get to from either I295 or I495. And maybe 10 minutes from my house. Convenient!! Plus, there is an AMAZING ice cream shop across the street. I’m so familiar with the area, that I didn’t notice the lack of signage pointing towards the parking entrance. A sign at the 121/114 intersection, and perhaps one on the far field entrance would be an easy fix. Nit-pick, but hey, I’m going for honest.

Venue/Festival: Parking was $10 (but I had the hubby drop me off, and we had no problem pulling in so he could drop me by the team area). NES was allocated a HUGE area right off the festival where we could spread out and put up our pop-ups and drop our gear. Multi-lappers had their own special pop-up/gear drop area, so they could make quick pit-stops between laps. The start/finish lines were right next to each other, and super easy to find. Bathrooms did have running water! However, they really needed a good cleaning (but that’s on the town of Cumberland). There were a few vendors, including wreckbag. The hard part about a growing local race is keeping vendors (especially when the weather doesn’t sound PERFECT). It has been a bit of a problem of vendors backing out last minute, for him, HOWEVER, this has never bothered me. It was a wonderful intimate festival, to be honest.

Course/Obstacles: Balls to the wall this is hands down the hardest 5k I’ve run all year. Probably ever. And I mean this with as much gushing and glowing happiness as I can muster. Again, I know, biased, but I truly believe this course brings the best of obstacle racing (sans mud, and I don’t miss it). The terrain is difficult (the grade on some of those climbs will shock you to know how short the “hill” is compared to other steep climbs you’ve taken on), but if you’re a good trail runner, gives you plenty of places to run. The obstacles range from cute/easy to frustratingly difficult, however doable by any with a want to do themn(even if you need a little help). The Destroyer was an amazing addition to this field, and I cannot wait to attempt it, unassisted, in April after the shoulder heals. Robb and I argued over the rig’s difficulty, but almost everyone I talked to loved the challenge it presented. It was the only obstacle I couldn’t complete (not agreeing to the help offered) due to the shoulder not willing to take the transition from the monkey bars to the straight bar. I did get help with the destroyer and the floating wall (because of the injury). I know that when we come back in April, Robb will have found a badder use of that “hill” and him and Aaron will have thought up new devious obstacles for us to take on. I. Cannot. Wait.

 

Swag/Awards: The green bicep/wreckbag medal was absolutely perfect. I have no idea how Robb will top this one for April. I know there was some miscommunication regarding medals taken and these fell short at the end of the day, which is regrettable, as I loved them, however, everyone went home with a medal, just an old style one. The t-shirt is actually really nice, a good color and quality, however, I’ll continue my gripe that the small people are forgotten and this shirt is still too big on me and looks silly. If women’s style is too much hassle (I totally get it, I do!), can we PLEASE add XS?! The awards for this race were pretty stellar! There were typical place awards, but also multi-lap awards for everyone who completed 3+ laps. They were super neat wood “trophies” with an old FIT medal on them and they looked awesome.

Overall: I recommend this race to everyone. I know it is not easy. I’ve heard non-race friends take on this as their first OCR in the past and hate the hills. But seriously, this race is the heart of OCR. Its what it should be. Run really fast with mandatory obstacle completion. Run as many laps as you can. Run for time, run for fun. Walk the whole thing and try something new! Robb, Aaron, and Scott were all over that course all day Saturday. Checking on everything they could and offering encouragement. These guys run all the other races and do what they can to give you an amazing experience and it shows. Add that the course is incredibly spectator friendly and there’s a kids course, its really an event for the whole family. You can even bring your dog to the park (just don’t ask Robb to pet him/her…). If you like OCR, this race is for you.

Spartan Fenway 2015

Venue: Super cool. Racing through Fenway is something very very few races could ever offer. You get access to the locker room, duggout, field, and all of the seating areas. Also, RUNNING WATER. Funny how you don’t need it as much at this race.

Parking: Boston is notoriously expensive for parking. Heck, Fenway is absurdly expensive for Spartan to put this race on (hence the lowest price of $100+ dollars to run a 2-2.5 mile race), so Spartan opts out of arranging parking for this event. Get to the event however you can/want. I personally found an amazing deal on the Landsdowne Street Parking garage for $11.50, which is actually cheaper than taking the train, and turned out to be incredibly less of a hassle than it’d have been to save a few measly dollars to drive up to the green line (since the red line has a mid-line shuttle due to construction) and park and ride the T in. I had no problems getting in and no problems parking.

Swag: The usual finishers T and medal. The medal was venue specific (super cool), but the same as last years (but I didn’t care as I missed last years race, however some people wouldn’t like having the same medal with a new lanyard). There was also the usual finisher’s line bananas, a smaller version of their typical builders bar, and a recovery drink (not muscle milk this time). I can say that I’m over the top excited that an XS finishers shirt has been added mid year! Its nice not to swim in my finishers shirt and it means I’ll actually wear it!

Registration/Vendors: Registration was outside of the park, across the street from Gate B. I had no problem finding or getting through it, as usual. Spartan really shines here. Once you crossed the street, all the vendors were lined up along the private street. There were plenty of challenges and such around. The only bad thing about this was that your bag was checked going into the stadium after entering the street, so it didn’t feel as though you could easily go back outside without the hassle of having to get checked through security again to re-enter. Logistically, it was the only thing that made sense, but was still off-setting to me.

Course: This was my first stadium Spartan. I expected it to be relatively easy compared to the outdoor events, and generally it was. The course was short, 2-2.5 miles. It made GREAT use of the stadium, allowing runners to get into the locker room, the duggout, run around the warning track, etc. Photo opportunities were everywhere, and not discouraged! I was not a huge fan, of the use of more PT exercises. Ball slams, jump ropes, etc.; I do those at the gym to train, but I like climbing up and over things at races. Those really skinny targets placed on the Spartan wooden men needed to go. Missed the spear throw by inches! The inconsistency of these guys throughout their races is maddening. This was also the only place in the race where there was bottlenecking, and as usual, a few lanes were open due to bent tips or severely curved spears. Their new concept on the Z wall (they cut out the middle), was really neat, however, the traverse was much harder than usual, and the space missing the middle allowed for people to put a foot on the top of the lower wall, which kind of defeated the point of it.

Overall, though, I think they did really well with the space they had. Its really fun, and the most beginner friendly Spartan race you’ll find.