After our meager continental breakfast we drove over to Blue Mountain and got to the registration tent where this overeager gentleman wrote our bib numbers on our arms and forehead so they could identify us in photos to tag later.
Once we had our materials, we walked around and check out the sites.
The mountain was transformed. It was really strange to see it without snow on it, let alone with all this other stuff going on. There were tons of people there and lots of Chevelle music.
The time had come and Ryan lined up with a big group of others and waited for the start of his heat. After a dramatic speech from a shirtless guy with a Spartan helmet on, they counted down and sent the runners on their way through a cloud of annoying smoke.
I spent my time wandering around looking at merch, taking photos of people coming down the home stretch to the finish line and doing a bit of reading. I was hoping to catch Ryan but it was my turn to get in line for my race so I went over there to get ready. He finished just before I started and came to give me a good luck talk.
This is a great shot Ryan got as I jumped over the fire at the end. So much happened before this. The first part of the race is running up the mountain. There are a few small obstacles: walls to climb over, under and through, ropes to help up steep slopes, a net to crawl under, fish netting to climb up and over and a bigger wall. The steep mountain made it impossible to run or even really continue walking at times. At the top they greet you with a big bucket you have to fill with rocks then walk down part of a double diamond slope and back up. It was crazy hard and I slipped and fell at one point. And the guy made me put the few rocks I spilled back in my bucket.
Once I somehow passed that rock bucket thing, I had to climb a big wall and finally got a nice cup of water! It was so good. Then I was off and running to a pulley thing with a heavy weight I had to lift about fifty feet up and safely set it down. Not too hard. The hardest thing was running downhill in the mud. There were rocks everywhere so I wasn't about to be careless and slip. More obstacles on this side were log stumps spaced about four feet apart you had to hop from one to the next, there was a giant water slide into a lake (so much fun) into a lake I had to wade through and swim under a string of barrels, and I think the next worst feeling thing was a really long length of barbed wire under which we had to crawl in the mud. I marine crawled a bit and then rolled, getting dizzy. It was hard.
This is what I looked like at the end. Mostly from the barbed wire crawl. The last bit included a wall with little pegs you had to cross that I couldn't do so I had to do marine squats. Then there was the spear throw, which so many people were missing, including me. More marine squats. Then I got to jump the fire, climb the little wall, fight the Spartan guy and cross the finish line to collect my t-shirt, finisher medal and banana! I'm so dirty.
I went right over to the showers and got in there for about a half hour trying to get all the mud off of my body and then tried to get some out of my clothes. It wasn't happening. I donated my shoes to a charity thing they had there. They need more pressure on those showers.
I had cut my hand sliding down one of the rocky hills on the way down so I got it wrapped at the med tent after I got cleaned and changed then we headed to the beer tent to grab my free beer from Long Trail brewery. It was pretty good, but I was starving so I drank it quickly so we could get out.
We went to check our times before we left. I came in at 1:47:51 and Ryan came in at 1:54:55 so we were really close. Though I couldn't run the whole time, I think my time would have been drastically improved if I weren't waiting in line a lot of the times throughout the race on the way up mostly. Some things only a few people could do at a time so we had to queue until it was our turn. Next time I'm going to try to stay closer to the front of the pack in the beginning and get ahead.
We went to Chili's for food and, even after having some free chips and salsa before our meals got there, we devoured our dinner. That was such a good burger. I can't wait to do another race like this!
We got back and I turned right back around with Joanna and went to the Electric Factory for a show. We got there when Man Overboard was playing. They were really good from afar. I need to listen to them more. When they finished we stood around for a raffle at the back bar to try to win a poster or tickets for either a NFG or Circa Survive show. Neither of us won anything, but I asked the girl who won the Circa tickets if she wanted to sell them and she ended up just giving them to me. So nice!
We made our way up front and The Early November came out to a very excited crowd. They haven't played a show for four-ish years. They opened with "I Want to Hear You Sad" and the place didn't calm down for the rest of the night. They were amazing and played every song I could possibly want to hear.
Ace was super thankful to everyone who was there and made that abundantly clear. They didn't want to leave anymore than any of us did. They played so many great songs. It was so much fun and by far the best show I've been to in a long time. I can't name the second best right now even.
It was quite a great day and I was tired; but the good kind of tired. I got a real shower when I got home and that felt fantastic. It was nice to lie in bed too.
