Overview:

Host:  Spartan Race

Shoes:  Brooks Pure Cadence

Venue: Rough Creek Lodge and Resort:  A beautiful resort in the Texas Hill Country that is the epitome of the Texas outdoors. Large hills, large open expanses of land, rocks, rough trails, cacti, creeks and rough beauty everywhere.

Would I do it again: Yes! Already in the plans for next year!

Rating: 12 out of 10


Once upon a time, I won an entry on Muddy J's website to the Spartan Beast! I know, I know, I am the Queen of doing a race without proper training. Go Big or Don’t Go!


If you would like to read Muddy J's review of this race just click here:  Muddy J

The week before the race I was dreading the race simply because it was supposed to be cold and I am no fan of being cold. I checked the weather app on my phone the night before and there was supposed to be a low of around 28 degrees. So when I woke up at 3:00 on race day morning I knew it was going to be a very rough day.


I explored the pile of possible clothes I set aside the night before. I put on my most comfortable black running tights that zip at the bottom for easy removal. Then, my favorite appropriately named "Beast Mode" shirt from this year’s Laughlin Adventure Race and after reading some great blogs from other athletes I picked a t-shirt to cut off at the arms to create a throw-away infinity scarf. I found some knee high socks and cut off the toe part and cut a small hole on the heel for my thumb creating some really stylish and cheap throw-away arm sleeves. Anyone that has done a winter race knows that when you start it is really cold but as soon as the sun comes up we tend to get too hot and wonder what to do with our 20 dollar arm sleeves and great running jacket. This way it is all cheap and I can just throw them away and not feel bad about it. Then I wore an old jacket and gloves on top of that.


I left my house around 3:20 AM to pick up Muddy J at his house around 3:30. When I picked him up we started the almost 4 hour drive to the race venue. On the way we tried to stop at the Bluebonnet Cafe but it was too early and they were closed. We decided to stop at a gas station along the way and find some coffee and something to eat. We lucked out at a gas station that had breakfast sandwiches, donuts and very clean bathrooms. (Yes, bathrooms are very important on race days)


After breakfast we drove to the ranch in Glenrose, TX where the race was being held. Looking out the window I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer as I could see the frost and ice on the ground. And Muddy J turns to me and says, "Uh, Red…" "There’s  F-ing snow on the ground!" I do not like to be cold. I was kind of in robot mode and trying to tamp down the building fear and dread of the cold inside me. (Little known fact about me, I passed out in the cold once when I was about 18, so when it is cold enough for me to shiver uncontrollably I start to kind of freak out.) This day was going to be a day of facing fears.


We parked the car for $10 and before we could start walking towards the race packet pickup we were already encountering another athlete that had not packed for the cold weather. Muddy J offered a long sleeved shirt to him but in the honor of a super tough race the athlete turned it down.


We got ourselves checked in along with signing our "We are very much aware that anything could happen including death and dismemberment, but we don’t hold you responsible" waivers and put on our bib numbers and awesome numbered headbands before we placed our bags in the bag check for 5$ and went to our last minute port-o-potty stop. We had an hour or more so we wandered around trying to see what we were getting ourselves into. We walked underneath some huge train/semi containers that were stacked on top of each other with a net over the top. I honestly thought it was just a cool intimidation decoration until J started comforting me about it not being that hard of an obstacle. "What?!?"


Not only were we able to see obstacles that took me back to my Basic Training Army days but we were also able to see the barbed wire over the ice encrusted mud and ice layered pool of water just before the final obstacle. And, to my dismay, Muddy J pointed and said, "Uh, Red… there’s F-ing snow on the ground!" This became a constant joke/saying for the entire rest of the race because, yes, there was snow on the ground randomly though-out the race. My only comfort at that time was overhearing random people mention that the swim portion of the race was cancelled due to the cold weather. (Little did I know that I would be sloshing through the edge of the lake and a creak later on.)

I was thankful that the Spartan Race company places small versions of some of the obstacles you will face randomly around the start line for you to practice and get confidence from. They had the wall of fame (which we signed) that you can climb, the rock-climbing-like wood block wall to cross, little fires to jump over, and a pull-up bar. I watched people practicing and stored the techniques that worked for future reference. Muddy J was showing off his expertise at these obstacles and randomly high-fiving other Vibram wearing athletes with his foot. J has a way of calming the masses with humor that I grew very thankful for throughout the day. We went to the body marking station and marked our numbers on each other's faces and then found a small fire with other athletes trying to warm our fingers and toes so they will be functional for the race. As it got closer to our 9:45 time the sun continued to rise and warm the air. I was slowly warming up and thanking God for the sun starting to melt some of the frozen mud, which was turning very slippery and sticky, and I started stripping layers of my disposable clothing. I tossed my jacked and gloves into the trash and felt good to go with my scarf and arm sleeves as long as we stood in the sunlight.

 I watched other girls and guys trying to climb over the wall to get into the start-line shoot with people trying to help them and tried to figure out how to gracefully get myself over it when everyone was watching. (I am not graceful, LOL) And J, picks this time to point out that he will probably have to put his hand on my ass to help me over stuff. I said, "I know. Just try not to enjoy it too much." Luckily, I had J there to give me his hands to stand on to get up and over the wall. I remember being slightly mortified that my shoes were making his hands soo muddy but, Hey, that is his name right? And I was soon to find out that mud was the least of my problems.

As we stood hopping and stretching in the shoot, we started small conversations with the people around us. There was a couple there that had just had a baby and they were using this race to kick-start their training back together. (soo cool) A large muscled guy was near J and he asked J if this was his first race and J proudly shows his Windcrest 5K shirt to the man. I roll my eyes because I know in the back of my head that J is about to put this poor muscle-bound man to shame and tell the man that , "Yeah, in the last 24 hours barefoot and hauling a cart full of children! Shut up J!" J just shrugs and smiles. The DJ/announcer started into a perfect rendition of the Sparta Warrior speech from the movie 300 with symbolic smoke streaming into the sky behind him. The speech alone had my heart pumping and gave me goose bumps for the adventure I was about to begin. I looked at all of the athletes around me and made a decision to flip the emotion-fear/action-do-what-I-need-to-do switch inside myself to Beast Mode and started running.

I am terrible at getting caught up in the momentum of a race. I love the sense of running with the pack and hate when I am the one to drag people back. I am not fast but I am unstoppable. But I am getting better at trying to pace myself and not burn out too early. The first obstacle was close to the start. Over a wall, under another wall, and through another wall. " I made it! I did it! I can do this!" I'm always watching people in front of me to see what technique they use. Muddy J was just in front of me and was having fun, he did the through wall twice and the second time he did it loud and excited. The people around me laughed and roared their agreement.

After that we continued along the path before us with a group of the people we started with. I've trained with J before and when there was a puddle in front of us that others were running around I turned to him and said, "Go ahead, you know you want to." That was all he needed and he sped up and jumped right into the middle of it getting everyone around him wet. As we kept going I could hear people behind us jumping into it also. It reminded me of my own children and how at times I have had to teach my kids how to have fun. It made me smile. Then J turns to me and grabs my face with his muddy wet hands and tells me I am his Bestest Best Friend.... ugh...LOL

The Spartan Race people placed small A-frame wooden ladders over all of the barbed wire fences. I confused this with an obstacle, until I got to the next obstacle and realized that something that small could never be part of the real race. We ran up a muddy slope and looked down into the pit of my fear. There were repeating 8 foot tall hills of mud (moguls) with waist deep pools of ice cold water in between each one. J does his usual crazy plunge into danger and yips at the coldness of the water before he climbs up the othe side of the mud pit. I stood there for a moment watching the other athletes and listening to them scream and yell about the cold water. I am always slightly worried about breaking an ankle because I have soo many races scheduled and have broken toes, so I slide down the muddy slope as carefully as I can and slide right into an icebath! It was soo cold! At first it feels like needles and then everything goes numb and starts aching a deep painful ache! I climbed out as fast as my numb legs could and waved at J to go on so I could get it over with as fast as possible. When we were done I felt like my legs were noodles. J saw my face and said we had to run. So, run we did, and warmed back up pretty quickly.

Soon we came to the log hop. (I decided that the Spartan people LOVE to torture you with an obstacle that takes balance and leg strength right after freezing all of your muscles.) A group of lines of logs (more like branches) standing straight up out of the ground with a few of them pretty far apart were in front of me. You were supposed to make it from one end to the other or have to do 30 burpees. I got onto the first two and there was an older man, racing with his son, not far in front of me that lost his balance and started to fall straight backwards nearly hitting his head on a log in the row next to us. I suddenly realized that the waiver we signed at the beginning is quite real and this man nearly broke his neck. I didn't make it across the wide gap and went to start my 30-burpees. J is much better at burpees and I was very thankful when he let me know that it was allowed for him to do some of mine for me.

We continued on towards a large hill/small mountain and started climbing the rocky and muddy trails up and up, then down, then up, then down, this was the never ending hill and the trail was very technical, icy, muddy and wrought with more Spartan challenges. First obstacle on this hill was carrying sand bags up to the top and back down for the next person, then not long after we had to fill large buckets with small pebbles up to the top of a piece of tape and carry the bucket to the top of the hill and back down. Most of the people were carrying the bucket as far up the hill as possible before slamming it down, catching their breath, then picking it up and going further until you were done. The buckets were very heavy and all of the handles were broken off as we passed piles of small rocks that were obviously spilled by people trying to drag their buckets back down the hill. The Spartan people were explaining that if you spilled any of your rocks or if the rocks settled below the tape inside the bucket you would have to do the obstacle over again. I looked in my bucket and saw the rocks very close to being below the tape so I dumped my bucket of rocks in the bin as fast as I could so that the person couldn't tell me to do it again. That was really hard!

At this point in the race I went into what I consider, post pregnancy memory loss syndrome, I can't seem to remember specific timeline details but I do remember snippits and details along the way. I was determined to at least attempt all of the obstacles. That determination faded slightly as the hours stretched on and the hunger and thirst took over. I think there were times along the way where I was just trudging along and mentally checking out. So from here on out I will try and describe random events along the way.

Monkey bars - The monkey bars in theory should have been easy enough. I can usually do those just fine. But, these monkey bars weren't in a straight line. Some were higher and some were lower. I tried but couldn't get to the higher ones....so burpees it was.

Rope climb - a long rope with knots placed randomly in it and you have to hit a cowbell at the top. Again, something that I tought "No problem" before getting to it. But this was somewhere after the sand bags and heavy buckets. My arms were fatigued and the rope was slippery muddy from people's feet. I tried and barely got myself off of the ground before realizing that I didn't have the upper body strength. Muddy J did it with no problem and as I walked to the side to do my burpees J gave me another gift by letting me know that if you are on a team and someone is willing then they can do the obstacle twice so that the other person doesn't have to do the burpees. Soo, he gleefully looks at me and says, "May I?" I giggle and say, "Of course." Thus saving me from further burpees.

Walking your pet rock - somewhere along the never ending mount dome we were handed a chain that was attached to a cement block and told to walk it to the other side of the trail. The trail was not flat and went along a creek bed with tree roots and rocks. Everyone was joking and naming their rocks and dragging it along slowly as we had to lift it up over roots and rocks. J finished his rock-walk and comes running up to me asking very nicely, "May I walk your rock?" to which I saw, "Yes, Please." There was a guy behind me who laughed at our cute banter but whose mouth dropped open as the crazy barefoot guy takes off running at high speed pulling a cement block while singing. I couldn't contain my laughter. J really does make racing fun. And I don't know how many times over the long long day that I heard people say, "Dude, are you ok? How far back did you lose your shoes?" at which point J would tap his vibrams on his belt and say, "Oh, they're right here." the other racers were making comments like, "A true Spartan" or "That's crazy". And J would just smile and leave them in his dust.

Cement block on a pulley - There were cement blocks attached to a rope that ran up to a swing-set looking metal A frame. We had to pull on the rope until the block reached the top and then let it back down. This wasn't too hard for me. And a couple of girls copied my technique. I would pull on the rope and then stand on the part on the ground, then pull some more and stand on it again. This way the block would always stay up. It worked really well.

Barbed wire mud pits - there were three separate mud pits with barbed wire over us. People were rolling on their sides through it and also people low-crawling under it. It wasn't soo bad but I did get snagged on the wire a few times and under the mud there were rocks and sticks that I think added to the many random bruises I ended up with.

Tractor Tire Pull - A tractor tire attached to a rope that was attached to a stake. You had to leave the tire flat on the ground and drag it out as far as the rope would allow and then going back and sitting on the ground and pulling the tire back to the start point with the rope. Not too bad for me either. I seem to do okay with things I can use leverage for.

Tractor Tire Flip - Flipping a tire as a team or individual from one flagged stake to another and back, J and I did this one together and it was still heavy LOL

Cement block carry - Picking up a cement block and then carrying it from one pole to the other and back.

One rope bridge pond crossing - I was exhausted by this point, and so were the people around us because everyone was very silent while waiting their turn, but there was a large pond that had ropes going across it with a bell in the middle. You had to make it to the bell to complete this obstacle. Some people were using the lie on top of it and balance with a leg down (which I should have done) and some were hanging upside down and pulling themselves across. Most fell into the pond at one point or the other. I tried the hang upside down method and felt like I was doing pretty well until I was getting fatigued and looked back to see how close to the bell I was. I was nowhere near the bell. That was my mistake. I soon lost strength and let myself fall into the freezing cold water. I went all the way under and have never felt that cold that fast. I stood up in the water and had to really work to take in the first full breath. I worked my way up and out of the pond and tried to make my way around to J and tried to get my feeling back into my body.

Inverted wall climb - A 8 or 9 foot wall with 2x4s crossing it at different points that is leaning towards you. I did try this one and even had like 4 people putting thier hands on my butt and legs trying to get me over but I could not finish this one. I was soo thirsty and hungry and worn out. I was getting a little dizzy and the obstacle director gave me a bottle of water to drink. I shared it with J and felt the dizziness fade. So we continued on. 

Another Log hop - by this time people were really learning to work together to get through obstacles. J walked up beside me and leant me his shoulder to hold onto as I hopped from one log to another. My ankle was hurting from a time when I slipped in some mud while running and when I would place my full weight on a log I was wobbling. A random guy walked up on my other side and leant me his shoulder also. I completed the obstacle with awesome help.

Spear throw - Large men made of hay were set up and we were given spears to throw at them. If the spear stuck you didn't have to do burpees. Mine didn't stick and I joined the throngs of burpee sufferers and started mine. It is not fun to do burpees in mud and cacti. I couldn't find a spot that didn't hurt and had to shut out the pain and just do it.

Rubber Band Trail - They gave you a rubber band to put around your ankles and you were supposed to hop through a trail, over some trees they laid across the trail, across a creek-bed and under some ropes to accomplish this one. I ended up waddling through this one because of my ankle and man could I feel it in my bum and legs! This would be a decent workout anytime. I was scared of hopping over the trees so I sat on them and swung my legs over and stood up on the other side. I had this mental image of me trying and falling flat on my face. J of course takes off hopping and singing, "Little bunny foo foo hopping through the forest" putting us all to shame as usual, LOL.

Memorization - somewhere along mount doom there was a large bilboard that had instructions and numbers. You were to use the last two or first two numbers of your big number and memorize your number. Mine was Echo 575-7443. Yes, weeks later and I still remember it. This bit of memorization was a mental crutch during some of the difficult obstacles after it. As good fortune would have it a fellow athlete had a pen and we all borrowed it to write our numbers somewhere on us. We then climbed up the rest of the steep trail and at the top people were resting and J turns around and starts into his rendition of the Lion King presentation of the baby Lion yell. You never know what this crazy guy is going to do. Everyone around us was laughing.

Bucket-O-Rocks X2 - as we wrapped around the mount doom we came to the bucket of rocks carry again. I thought this meant we were done with the mount doom but, no, this was the second bucket carry. And we were told that this was not a burpee-out obstacle. No matter what we had to carry the bucket. This was defeating for many people. The bucket was soo heavy and J told me not to worry that he would come back and help me. But, I was determined to get the bucket up the hill as far as I could before J got back to me. As I was hefting my bucket about a foot at a time before having to set it back down, there was a guy that went past me and he was telling me, "Don't give up, keep going and I will take mine up and come back to help you." I told him that my friend was coming back for me. Another lady had set her's down and looked at me and said, "Why are we doing this?" I replied, "I know and we chose to do it." I continued moving my bucket up the hill until J got to me and asked me if he could carry my bucket. I said yes and followed him up the path. At the top the guy that said he would come help me was there sitting on his bucket gathering his strength. He looked at me and said, "See, you did it!" I pointed at J and said, "That's my friend." J was running, no not running, prancing past the man at full speed. The man looked at him and said, "He's barefoot!" in utter astonishment. On the way down the hill I started to feel guilty that I was taking the easy way out. There was a girl who had spilled her rocks and was crying as she scooped them back into her bucket. I helped her scoop hers back in. Then there was another girl struggling with her bucket and I reached out and held the bottom of her bucket until we got down the trail and could pour it back out.

One of the hardest obstacles of all was the mental obstacle. No one wore garmins or carried phones so we had no way of tracking ourselves or knowing how far we have come or how far we still had to go. Approximately 6 to 8 miles in there was a mile marker that said "Mile 4". "What?!? No Way!!! We've had to come further than that already!" After that the Spartan Support group started to tell us random mileage. At one aide station someone said we had 8 miles to go and after that someone else tried to tell us we still had 11 miles to go, then 3miles etc... After a while you didn't want to hear it anymore. It was just a never ending race. Everyone was soo tired. Most of the people were trudging as I was. Looking down at their next step and walking in silence. J was trying to cheer everyone up. He was making jokes and the ability to laugh had left me. There were only small sarcastic please shut up humoring laughs coming out of me. There were only 4 water stations in the 16 plus miles that we did and I was thirsty and hungry. My stomache was rumbling. I had no idea past the position of the sun how far we had come. And the shadows were growing long. The only comfort I had at that point while feeling like a slow, weak failure was looking around and seeing guys and girls that we had started with still near us and trudging just as sadly as I was. J cracked through my shell of mental shutdown with random totally in-appropriate jokes that made me laugh, he was jogging beside me at one point and scooped up a handful of mud and started shaping it while singing. He turned this glob of mud into a small head with bulging eyes and held it out and made it talk to me. This is the kind of total randomness that he uses to keep you going. And I was very very thankful as there were times during the second half of the race that I felt like quitting.

High Net Crossing - There was a set of stacked containers that had a ladder up each side. We climbed up one side and waited our turn to cross over the netting with the ground far below us. I start crawling across the net which was not too hard because I kept my eye to the next place I would put my hand. But, of course, this man in a gladiator suit was underneath us yelling up at us that it is easier for people to link arms and walk across together. This man was making me angry because I kept looking back down instead of where I was going across. For an instant I had a mental image of spitting down at him to get him to shut up. (Sorry friends, I can get kind of grumpy after hours and hours of this kind of stuff)

For about 10 minutes as we were walking we could hear the announcer talking and we could tell we were getting closer to the end, which got me excited to be almost done. The high Net Crossing was back near the beginning and I could see where the finish line was. I climbed down the other side and followed the path that was leading away from the finish line. WTF! I thought we were done! Nope! More Spartan mind games. So again....I trudged on....thinking to myself that I don't know how much more I can take. Tired, grumpy, ankle hurting.

We keep going, and I am ready to go D O N E so I start jogging, half limping, walking etc... to get to the end. The trails get harder and more interesting. We are litterally climbing up and down steep climbs. At one point going up a very muddy slippery slope I start to fall and put my hand down to catch myself right onto a cactus. I lift my hand to look at it and have to stand there for a few minutes to pull out as many of the thorns as I could before continuing to climb. After that I was trying to go down a steep super muddy slope and begin to slide. I reached out and grabbed a tree to stop my fall not noticing until it was too late that the tree had thorns. I had a bleeding gouge in my finger. I took off my T-shirt/infinity scarf and wrapped it around my hand to keep the mud out of the gouge. At one point we are forced to slodge through a creek up to our knees for about 200 meters. J looks up at me and said, "Red, look, there's F-ing snow!" Ugh! LOL! We climb out of the creek bed which is soo hard when you are fatigued and can't feel your legs and a man says that we only have about 3 miles to go. We both grumble at him and he says, "Hey, I don't work for the company, I'm waiting for my wife." I turn to him and tell him thank you very very much.

Around the corner we come to a large lake. My first though is NOOOO I Don't want to swim!! Then I realize that, no swimming, we just have to walk around the edge of the lake up to our hips to the other side. My ankle was soo sore at that point and I was slipping on rocks on the bottom and twisting it further. Halfway through the lake I had to hobble out and walk around the lower water portion.

After that we saw some people standing with clipboards and people doing burpees. We immediatly remembered the memorization and gave the people our numbers and got to pass with no burpees! Whew!

Soon after that we got to the final obstacles. By that time I knew there was no way I would be able to climb the knotted rope. So, I stood and watched J climb to the top and flip himself to hit the bell at the top with his foot. He was a scant millimeter away from the bell and slipped and fell all the way into the water at the bottom dousing himself in freezing muddy water. He goes under and it takes a scary moment before he climbs out shaking with a fierce look of disbelief and anger. I look at him with concerned understanding and tell him, "Do it again for me, and I'll go around and do your burpees, there's no way I can do it." He silently nods at me and I walk around in the slick mud and start doing burpees on the other side. I see him with determination in his eye go back into the freezing water and I stop my burpees and hold my breath as he starts to climb. It is obviously a little more difficult this time but he Does It! He makes it to the top! And then he stops to yell at someone below because....there was no bell at the top of this rope. The bell had broken off. The man below tells him, "No, there is the bell." He is pointing across at another rope which I can tell is Not the right bell. Jason looks at the man angrily and then throws himself up, with the last of his energy, to hit the bell and plummet down once again into the water far below him. He climbs out and waves at me to come on and finish.

We climb under one more barbed wire bed and into a small water filled ditch before trying to go up the leaning wall with the rope hanging down it. I grab the rope and start walking myself up the slope. It is very slippery and I get to the top but I can't let go of the rope to grab the top and pull myself up to climb over. A guy on the other side that had helped me before grabs my forearm and pulls so I can grab the top. But, I start to slip again and lose my footing. The guy yells at another guy that reaches over and grabs my other arm and they pull me up until the top is under my armpits. Now I try to swing my leg over and someone grabs it and I climb over. I thank the guys and start down the other side before realizing that J is still on the other side. I start climbing up again to help him over and then there he is coming over the top.

We start running for the fire, and leap over. J clears it and I barely step into it on the far side. All there is left is the men with the pugil sticks. I push my way through and I'M DONE!!!!!! I see J and he holds his hand out and I hug him. He puts the medal over my head. I never would have completed it without him. He kept me going when I was weary, he helped me when I could struggle no longer, and he showed compassion for other athletes all along the way. There were random strangers holding out hands to each other. Struggling for each other. Suffering for each other. And people pushing themselves further than they ever thought they could. Many times along the way I said aloud that I would never do something like this again. But, at the end, the experiences were ones I will never forget. It was ugly, crazy, awful and beautiful. I was walking up to people that helped me along the way and full body hugging them as if they saved my life or were long lost lovers. I couldn't help m

I fell in love with a race.

I have gone through Army Basic training and understand that the goal is to break you down and build you back up stronger over the 10 weeks you are there. This one day and one race did the same for me. I was forced to look at myself and all of my weaknesses and strengths. I found things in myself that I need to work on. Upper body strength for sure and keeping an optimistic attitude in the midst of failure and discomfort. And I found things in myself that I love. Determination, being able to be weak in front of others and a renewed ability to accept help and to give it in return when I feel like I have nothing left.

I'll be back in 2014 better than ever.

Until we meet again, Spartan Beast.

Rogue Red


Belinda Colombo
12/31/2013 04:26:47 am

I enjoyed reading this blog! I can't wait to join u on a spartan one day!

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Carolyn Clary O'Brien
5/7/2014 03:41:53 am

Perfect description! I was no where ready for that length of a race or physical & mental trauma (haha), but in glad I did it. I said never again, but I find myself chewing my nails in anticipation of next Saturday. :-)

Reply



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    I am Red. I am a race addict and obssessed with all things running, cycling, triathlon, trails, obstacles, and mud. Forever looking for a way to push myself harder and further. I dream of inspiring my two children to push themselves towards their dreams. I am blessed with a husband who understands and supports my dreams and obssessions.

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