Redeemed!

I did it. Not that I didn't think I could, but it's official and felt great. I completed the South Carolina Spartan Beast this past Saturday - a 13.2 mile race in the middle of nowhere'sville South Carolina, giving me a trifecta of Spartan races for the year (completion of a Sprint, Super and Beast in one year). This was my 5th Spartan race for the 2012 race season - The PA Sprint, Virginia Super, NJ Super, and the Killington Beast. After the Vermont debacle 3 weeks ago, this really was redemption. And to top it all off, I did it on my 39th birthday followed by my 12 year anniversary on Sunday to my beautiful wife Gretchen.

The weekend started on Friday with a long 10+ hour drive from PA to South Carolina with my buddy Jason Moss and friend Heather Powell. Gretchen flew down with another friend of ours who is a flight attendant and had a buddy pass, then meeting us at the hotel. The 8am elite start on Saturday morning came quickly and we were off. The air was pretty chilly, but after a mile or so I was sweating as usual. I really loved this course. The up and down hills were short but steep, the terrain and obstacles were fast but challenging. Thinking back on it, I could have completed it faster, but I always think that after a race. The barbed wire crawls were pretty brutal - up hill and long. I did mess up on the traverse wall (a first for me) and had to do 30 burpees. It was pretty slick and freshly painted. The tyrollean traverse went well this time after having experienced it in two other races. All in all a great day. The photo above is very meaningful as well because it's the first time in all of my Spartan races that I nailed the spear throw. Not having to do 30 burpees at the end of the race was a welcome birthday present. Then it was over and time for the looooong 10+ hour ride home. Always a let down when its all done after thinking and prepping for a race for so long. It was great to see so many amazing people who travel from all over to compete in these races. Like a welcoming family. I'm still feeling the high from the weekend and look forward to seeing the action photos from Nuvision in a few days. Next up....Boston Fenway Sprint or Texas Beast?

 

Rock Solid Mud Run

Since Gretchen and I had so much fun at the Spartan Race last month, we decided to do another mud run - The Rock Solid Mud Run in Englishtown, NJ. This one was not as intense as the Spartan, but it was definitely a fun 5 mile course with 30+ military grade obstacles. I found the running on the course to be easier than the Spartan since this was flat and the Spartan was up a mountain, but some of the obstacles were pretty tough. Starting out you had to swim/wade through a lake three times after jumping off of a 20' platform or sliding down a steep slide (which Gretchen chose). We recorded the run with my GoPro Hero video camera and took turns wearing it. It was definitely a good time and I'd do it again. Here a fun video I put together using music that Gretchen insisted on :) Enjoy and please comment!

PA Spartan Sprint - 1st Place

Well, we did it - and Gretchen took an AMAZING 1st place! I am seriously so proud of her. Gretchen is the runner of the family - I am not. When we decided to do "The Spartan," she said she would stay with me throughout the race. Yeah, that went out the window about 15 minutes in when one of the workers told her she was the 2nd place woman at that time. She took off - I don't blame her at all and I didn't want to hold her back. We were both very impressed with the course. I was pretty nervous since they upped the distance from 3 miles to 4.8 miles, but we both did well. Gretchen finished in 1 hour and 17 minutes and I finished in 1 hour and 33 minutes. Not too bad...Gretchen came home with a bad ass gladiator sword as the first place trophy and she may get to compete in another Spartan race in Texas for a $10k prize. It was a very good day. Here is the video of Gretchen getting her "trophy."


***UPDATE***
This is the actual video of the Spartan Race in PA posted yesterday on Spartan.tv:
Pa Spartan Sprint

Spartan Race

Gretchen and I are doing this Spartan race at Blue Mountain on September 10th. 4 miles of unknown obstacles...It looks awesome! Who's in!??