Miami Spartan Race 2013

Ahhhhh, Miami in the winter. Mid 80 degree temps, white sandy beaches, and turquoise blue water. Then the SPARTANS invaded South Florida turning Oleta River State Park into a wet and muddy Spartan Super complete with scantily clad women and bare chested men.

Gretchen and I flew from freezing cold Philadelphia into warm, bright and sunny Fort Lauderdale on Friday morning. Since we couldn't check in to our hotel until later that day we decided to take a quick peek at the race venue. With the usual white tents, red shirted volunteers, and Spartan Race signs everywhere, there wasn't a lot to see. We soon met up with Spartan superstars Andi Hardy and Jeffrey Bent and went to the beach by their hotel for some pre-race R&R.  After some planking, sandy headstands and slight sunburns we made our way to our own hotel for a restless night before the race. 

Morning came quickly and we met up with the usual suspects at the starting line minus a few and plus some new. Junyoung Pak, Shawn Feiok, Elliot Megquire, and David Magida were lined up elbow to elbow ready to go for the mens heat.  The Saturday race was now split into Elite men starting at 8am, followed by the Elite women at 8:20. This meant that Gretchen and I wouldn't be running together, but we were fine with that. We usually end up running together for a short time before she leaves me in the dust anyway. I think that Spartan Race split the genders for all elite races now to make the points and scoring a bit easier.

The first half of the 8+ mile race was fairly normal. Three foot walls to scramble over followed by a short water crossing. Next was a longer water crossing where we were instructed to stay waist deep. After the second water crossing there were some over under and through walls to scramble by. Next came some twisting and turning longer runs through overgrown brush where we were eventually routed towards the main road of the park and the first water stop at two miles. After the water was another decent run into the next obstacle of the monkey bars. This is where I saw the first person doing penalty burpees after slipping off the wet bars. Next we made our way to a longer water crossing in deeper water – thankfully no alligators were around. Here you had the option of swimming or pulling yourself across using buoyed ropes. I always find using the ropes requires less energy and is just as quick. Next came the longer running portion of the race. We ran through the woods on mountain bike trails that twisted and turned for a few miles. There were a few rolling mud pits thrown in the mix with a fire hose of water being sprayed at the competitors – it was definitely refreshing on a hot and humid day. There was also the cargo net climb and traverse with the middle section above the road below – could be scary for some. At the four mile mark, we encountered our second aid station. This was also the part of the race that split up some of the faster runners and confused a lot of people.

I never actually saw the fire, but from all the reports after the race, there was a portion of the course in the woods that was burning. From what I was told, some runners ran right through the area thinking this was a part of the race. Once the officials realized this was happening, the race directors had to quickly reroute any runners coming up that portion of the course which cut out at least a mile of twists and turns through the woods.  I was just a few minutes behind the faster runners in the lead and had no idea this was going on. When I got to the tractor pull (a cinderblock attached to a 4’ length of chain) I was surprised at how short a distance we had to pull it. Because this race was in Miami, the course was extremely flat – easily the flattest Spartan Race I’d ever run, so the pull did not seem very difficult. We were then directed to the sandbag carry just a few hundred meters down from the tractor pull. I realized something was wrong when I saw Shawn Feiok and Pak emerge from the woods and directed to the tractor pull behind me. There is no WAY I am faster than those guys. It wasn't until after the race that we figured out what had happened. The early runners went through the woods and the later runners were directed to a shorter course making the faster runners appear behind them once they emerged from the woods.

I kept going to the atlas carry/burpee station – a heavy stone you have to carry about 10 yards, put down and do 5 burpees then bring back to the other side. Next were the tire flips followed by the 8 foot walls and a longer stretch of running. We were directed to a bridge embankment near the entrance of the park where we traversed down a 30 foot decline using a rope (a new and pretty cool obstacle) where we had to fill a weighted bucket with water 3 times from a stream below and dump it into a trash can then dump back into the stream. After that we climbed the other side of the embankment with a rope and made our way towards the final stretch of the race and the last set of obstacles. At this point the sun was baking and I was glad to have my Geigerrig filled with water and electrolytes. The last set of obstacles was the rope climb, traverse wall, muddy stretch barbed wire crawl, slippery climb over the triangular wall and the gladiator pit. I was pretty disappointed that there was no tyrolean traverse, spear throw, or fire jump (controlled fire jump). From what I was told, Florida does not allow spears or controlled fires – bummer.

David Magida crossed the finish line first followed by Elliot Megquire. This was David’s first win in a Spartan race and I was happy for him. Unfortunately both David and Elliot were DQ’d after the race officials figured out what had happened with the fire splitting up the elite men. The elite women were not affected by the fire since the course had already been rerouted and they were all running the same distance. There was a meeting on Sunday with the Spartan officials and some of the Spartan 300 members, and it was decided that no points would be awarded for the Saturday Elite race due to the fire. The race will still count towards a Spartan trifecta (running a sprint, super, and beast in the same year), but the Elite points for the race were nullified.

Gretchen and I reran the race on Sunday and the course was definitely longer by at least 1.5 miles. Both of our times on Sunday were approximately 20 minutes longer than the day before. Gretchen took an impressive 4th place on Sunday. All in all, I am glad we raced in Miami, but compared to a lot of the Spartan races around the country this seemed somewhat lacking. 

Burpees - My Nemesis

No, I don't. I hate burpees. I find them to be incredibly exhausting but an incredible full body exercise. Which is why I'm determined to become better at them. I found these incredible videos on gymnasticswod.com by Coach Carl Paoli which help to breakdown the burpee into positions and movements which will in theory make it more efficient to do them. I'll let you know if it worked. This guy is really good.

Burpee Skill Transfer Pt.1

Details at GymnasticsWOD

Burpee Skill Transfer Pt.2

Details at GymnasticsWOD

Burpee Skill Transfer Pt.3

Details at GymnasticsWOD

Burpee Skill Transfer Pt.4

Details at GymnasticsWOD

Burpee Skill Transfer Pt.5

Details at GymnasticsWOD

Burpee Skill Transfer Pt.6

Details at GymnasticsWOD

Bad Boyz of Obstacle Racing

Spartan Race released a "Girls of Spartan Race" calendar at the end of last year for the 2013 season. I was asked by Kevin "Mudman" LaPlatney (owner of CrossFit Platoon and incredible obstacle racer), if I'd be interested in posing in a spoof-style men's calendar. How could I say no?! After nagging Gretchen for a couple of days to take the photo, she finally relented. I wore part of my Spartan Halloween costume, grabbed her 1st place sword and climbed the rope in our yard for the photo-op. I tried to make it quick before the neighbors started asking questions. I probably would have had a little more fun with it if I did it again - some of the guys in the calendar had a LOT of fun with it. Good stuff. Here is the press release and the images from the calendar. The full "Bad Boyz of OCR" calendar can be downloaded here.

Press Release
January 13, 2012
From: The Unholy Trio of OCR
A few weeks ago Spartan Race released their Spartan Chicks calendar. It was well received but their was a clamoring that could be heard from every corner of North America. "When can we see some hot men in Obstacle Course Racing situations?" Thanks to the magic of the Facebook messaging, The Unholy Trio of OCR (Kevin "Mudman" LaPlatney", Damion from Mudrunfun, and Matt B. Davis) answered the call quickly. They reached out to every hunky man they could find and 14 brave souls put their humility aside and posed for this calendar.

We hope you spend the year enjoying the views as you use this calendar to keep track of all of your training and racing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bullet Wrestling Tournament

Loooong tournament this past Saturday. It was held round robin style - Michael had 4 matches and did awesome taking a 3rd place. The first match was very close and he just won by getting back points on the kid in the last few seconds. His next match he lost by points to the kid who took 1st place. His 3rd match he pinned his opponent, and in the final bout he lost by a couple of points to the 2nd place finisher. These were his first matches of the season, and he's still a bit rusty - putting his head down, and some other moves that need improvement, but I'm glad to see him out there giving it his all and I am very proud of him.Videos below:

Texas Beast - Conquered!

My 6th and final Spartan Race for the 2012 season is now complete and it was an incredible way to end the year. My only regret from the race is that my wife Gretchen wasn't there to share it with me. This was the first race that I've run without her by my side - one of us had to stay home with the kiddos and the dogs and Gretchen urged me to go.

After running the PA Sprint, VA Super, NJ Super, VT Beast, and the Carolina Beast, the Texas Spartan Beast was definitely a challenging one. It ended up being 13.5 miles total and the Texan terrain at the Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose Texas was utilized to it's fullest extent by the sadistic Spartan Race course director Mike Morris. The race started off on some very sharp, dusty and rocky cactus filled soil. The one "hill" on the course grounds was used over and over and over again for the first 7 miles of the race. Up and down the steep hill was the theme for the first half of the race -  both the bucket and sandbag carries took place at the steepest areas. The obstacles were the usual medley - cargo nets, rope climbs, 6-8' walls, barbed wire, atlas carry (with mandatory burpees) and even a 100+ yard swim across a 25' deep lake. After the swim at around mile 9 came the dreaded tyrollean-traverse - a taught rope between two high points that you must climb across. This dreaded obstacle causes burns on the chests of people that choose to take the "above" route, and lots of falls for those who go under. I hung underneath with my calves crossed and pulled myself hand over hand until I could ring the bell. With my forearms burning and that obstacle complete, the rest of the course seemed pretty straight forward.

Tire flips, running, more walls to jump over, more barbed wire to crawl under and the traditional end of the race obstacles - traverse wall, spear throw (I nailed it), soapy wall with rope and the gladiators. I made it through them all with no penalty burpees (a first for me) and my official time was 3 hours 4 minutes. For me that was great. I honestly wanted to do the race again the following day, but my flight home was scheduled a bit too early. All in all it was a fantastic race - I got to hang out with some great Spartan friends and complete another Beast. Bring on 2013!