Yesterday, on January 31, 2016, I took my family down to Vail Lake in Temecula for our first family Spartan Race. I had signed up myself and my 2 kids for this race about a month ago or so. ( my wife is a Yogi and not into these types of things)
A few days before the Spartan race, I could see on the weather app on my phone that it was showing 100% chance of rain and for the temperature to drop about 20 degrees. Turns out the weather man was right. And it was strange that the day before and the day after (today) are totally clear.
Anyway, it turned out to be the coldest, muddiest, windiest, rainy day you could have. It was about 50 degrees out and pouring rain. The wind was blowing so hard through the canyons that rain was horizontal. The combination made for very uncomfortable conditions.
They say a picture says a thousand words. Here is the before and after photos.
Per the Spartan website, the race was to be between 3 and 5 miles and with 25 or so obstacles. While on the course, we spoke to a few people who have done spartan races in the past and I guess the joke is that the mileage is always over 5 miles for the Sprint and that they just try to get new people by saying it is 3 miles. Got me!
What made the course so hard is the rain which then turned the dirt to mud. I think I spent as much time sliding down the hills as I did trying to claw myself up on all fours.
Here is a picture of my son on the rings and you can see the mud is just crazy.
The short story is that I did not train enough for this race. I am so sore this morning while i write this, it is crazy. I know I will be more sore tomorrow most likely and should have worn a long sleeve shirt to work because I have so many scratches and bruises on my arms it looks terrible.
I am just glad that my kids did not have a bad attitude about the experience. Even though they were freezing and shivering for almost 3 hours, they said they would do it again. I just kept telling them while we were on the course that this build character and most likely we will never have to experience these extreme conditions again.
Well, one could hope.
Tim
