2015 Race Recap

As I sit here typing on a Wednesday night, sore and just plain tired from finally getting back to the gym after 3 weekends straight of big races, I can’t help but feel a bit sad that my very last race of 2015 is coming up October 17. It has been an epic year full of triumphs, challenges, learning experiences, and going outside my comfort zone and surprising myself. I remember when I first joined Under Armour’s What’s Beautiful and several people had a goal of running one race a month for the year and I thought that was crazy. Well, I’ll have had 12 races this year and I’m already depressed that there aren’t more.

• April 18, Tri-State NJ Spartan Beast
• May 16, Bone Frog Challenge
• June 6, Tough Mudder New England
• June 20, Boston Spartan Super
• July 4, John Carson Road Race
• July 18, Palmerton, PA Spartan Sprint
• July 25, Battlefrog 16K

• August 9, Boston Spartan Sprint
• September 13, Tri-State NJ Spartan Super
• September 19, Vermont Spartan Beast
• September 26, Tough Mudder The Great Northeast
• October 17, OCR World Championships

Conquering the Spartan Palmerton Sprint: Last year, the mountain was crazy steep, and I was just unprepared for that level sprint. It was my first 5 mile Spartan, my first ever bucket carry (a long steep one), first cargo net traverse, first big swim mid-race, and it was hot as hell that day. I was still pretty proud of my 2:30 finish time given my lack of experience. I came back this year ready to kill it. Though I felt broken at times failing things because of wet feet and hands, or just lack of luck (the spear throw), I still managed to come in at 2:05:59 and rank very well especially in gender. It was also my 38th birthday and the completion of my first of two trifectas for 2015. Can’t imagine a better way to spend a birthday!

Bone Frog Challenge: This was a first time competing in this new race series. Located in the Berkshires, the drive out there was effortless and the views were stunning. This race is owned and operated by U.S. Navy Seals, and they don’t mess around with logistics. Everything went so smoothly from the packet pick up, pre-race dinner, to race day start times. The course was so much fun, had some unique monkey bar/rope rigs, and tested everyone’s upper body strength. Even after a lot of backups at many of the obstacles (adding almost an hour to my finish time), I still came in 5th in my age group which was my second time of the year qualifying for OCR World Championships.

Running my first Elite Heat: I like to play fair, follow the rules, and do things without help, so when I earn my finishers medal, I know I really earned it. People run for all different reasons, and I understand people want to have whatever experience they see fit in the open heats, but I also see a lot of healthy, fit, and strong people just cheating things because they want a better finishing time and the bragging rights. The main argument in the OCR community around this is that if it bothers you, run elite where rules are enforced. I finally made the leap for the August 29 Boston Spartan Sprint in Barre, MA. I was scared as hell in the days leading up to it, but strangely calm the morning of. I loved the lack of lines, the clean course, being surrounded by strong confident women, and I happened to nail my first spear throw and log hop that day as well, so I was on top of the world. My goal was not to finish last, and I accomplished that. I was 29/79 women and in the 65% percent for age and overall. I know I have a lot of work to do on speed, but I was very happy feeling like I truly did earn my place in that heat.

Crushing the Killington Beast: Last year, Killington was my first Spartan Beast and my longest race ever by 5 miles. I was very proud of my 7:29 finish time considering it was also a very cold day, and the course was extra difficult because it was the Spartan Race World Championship and NBC was there covering it. I bonked at mile 15 and my left knee was bothering me on the downhills for the last mile and a half. I remember I had trouble walking for a couple of days after. This year, I was in better shape, better fueled, more prepared for the climbing, and it was a much nicer day. It’s tough to compare courses, but this year’s seemed like maybe it had more climbs, but less technical obstacles. It was about a mile shorter too and the day was warmer. Had there not been some major bottlenecks due to a lot of people heat jumping and clogging the course early in the morning, I’m sure I could have finished faster, but my 6:39 finish was good enough to improve my rankings almost 50% across the board from last year. I didn’t feel near as destroyed, I never bonked, and my knee didn’t bother me once. This was also the completion of my second Trifecta of 2015 (started and finished in a 1 month time period).

Heading to OCR World Championships: On October 17, I head to Oregonia, OH for the 2015 OCR World Championships. After qualifying back in April at the Tri-State NJ Spartan Beast and again at the Bone Frog Challenge, I decided it was something I really wanted to try. I had heard great things about it, but didn’t really look into the rules, or the difficulty, or the length. All I can say is, I realized I have so much to learn about this great sport, I am going to treat this like a learning experience, and appreciate simply earning the chance to be there.