The weekend has come to make the drive up to Vermont for the Beast.
For those who are unaware, the Beast is the third longest installment of Spartan Race’s trifecta. The trifecta consists of a Sprint (3-5 miles), Super (7-9 miles), and Beast (12-15 miles) all within one calendar year.
I’ve already done my Sprint (one in Tuxedo Ridge and the other in West Point) and also completed my Super (Palmerton, PA). The Sprint in Tuxedo Ridge and the Super and Palmerton, PA both had REALLY steep hills on their mountains. So you could say it was good practice for what’s about to come for Killington, VT.
That would be true IF I had adequate training in between those races and this one.
I am pretty much going into this race RAW. I haven’t ran in like 3 weeks and even 3 weeks ago it was only 1-mile runs. Last time I ran 3 or more miles was almost 2 months ago during the Super. I had a Sprint in West Point not too long ago, maybe like 3 weeks, but I wasn’t running haha. I jogged and skipped my way through those obstacles.
So not being properly prepared for this race physically is kind of worrying me. But it’s also exciting at the same time. Like if I have trouble walking for a week or two after this race, so be it. I’m done with the racing for 2018, I would just have to be creative at work when training clients and coaching sports for the kids.
What’s exciting though is seeing what I’m capable of doing. This race is going to be a HALF MARATHON. I’d be scared to do that in the city, dreading the minor elevation points I may have to go through while traversing Manhattan and any other borough (I clearly don’t know the path of these races). But now, I have the audacity to take that same distance and put in on the path of a mountain. And if running up and down a mountain for a half marathon isn’t enough, let’s through in some obstacles that test your athletic ability and overall strength. You know, shit like carrying a bucket of gravel that may weigh 40-50 lbs for about a quarter of a mile. Or walking in a pond that’s about 3 feet deep, then climbing a 15-foot rope, to get to a dangling monkey bar set that increases and decreases in elevation.
If you’re having a difficult time picturing that monkey bar set, consider taking a pen and putting a dot on a piece of paper. Now from that dot, make three wide U’s. The finished product is what the dangling monkey bars will look like… With a bell at the end that you need to hit of course ;).
During the Super, I caught really bad cramps in my legs. Like doing something as basic as crawling under the barbed wire hurt because I couldn’t push off either leg. But from that experience, I learned that salt pills and mustard help relieve cramps. So when we get up to Vermont, I need to find a supplement shop to get salt/electrolyte pills and get packets of mustard from a fast food spot.
All in all, I’m super excited to have the opportunity to run. I’ll catch you guys up on the next post!
Stay blessed. Stay Untamed!