Spartan Weekend is Over

My friends are crazy. Like run a 15 mile obstacle course race in the cold pouring rain crazy. Or in my trainer’s case, a 30 mile obstacle course race in the cold pouring rain.

But they’re my friends so they totally went back to “run” the shorter 4ish mile obstacle course race with me the next day. Also they had to go back because they were completing their Trifecta and this was their final race for that. The rain stopped and the sun was shining, but my god the mud that rain had produced. I’m no stranger to mud, I’ve run a handful of other mud runs/obstacle course races but I have never seen anything like this. I honestly don’t know how I didn’t lose my shoes in this thick quicksand like mud.

When the ladies returned to our Airbnb from their cold rainy Beast on Saturday (where I had hot dinner and hot coffee waiting for them because I’m a good friend too), they immediately told me they were concerned about my bum ankle in the mud. I think they were giving me an opportunity to defer my race to Spring and I kinda wanted to do just that, but I also just wanted to get my first Spartan over with… so I said “ok, so we’ll just take it nice and slow?” to which they all replied “oh yeah, there’s not gonna be any running tomorrow”

So. The mud. All the mud. Mud hills that required just sitting down and sliding. There are definitely bruises on my butt. Mud hills that I had to crawl UP on my hands and knees. Thick ass mud that I can’t believe I didn’t lose my shoes in. Mud that pulled on and twisted my ankle every possibly way. My girls kept their promise that we wouldn’t be running because for the most part any normal person just couldn’t run in this mud. Some seasoned Spartans are saying that this was the most brutal course they’ve ever been through. And don’t think for a second that the fact that it had stopped raining on Sunday made it “easy” because this mud was still bullshit. I just didn’t lose feeling in my hands like everyone that ran in the rain on Saturday.

So we trudged through the mud, climbed some walls (and by that I mean the girls shoved my ass over some walls), climbed some cargo nets that were unreasonably high, carried heavy shit, did a couple burpees, and laughed through “4ish” miles. You know, because if I’m laughing I can’t cry. Except maybe I teared up a little at the finish line. But I had on sunglasses so maybe no one knew that until just now. And maybe I’m tearing up a little bit reliving it in my head to write this, but I did something fucking hard and it deserves a little emotion. This is not something I ever would’ve imagined pushing myself through, but maybe with like some actual training I’d do this again. I’m still not sure who I’ve become over the last 3 years.

I got this cool new bling and a race shirt that actually fits, so that’s pretty awesome.

My friends are crazy. But they’re badasses. And maybe I’m a tiny bit badass too. They all said they’re retired from Spartan racing after this weekend, but I don’t believe them. Because badass women like to do stupid stuff for fun.