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Jumping over a fire never sounded like a better idea than it did at the end of the New Jersey Beast.
This past Sunday, May 1, I ran the Spartan Beast in Vernon, NJ. I will admit I was a bit shocked that I finished. This was not my first race, but it was the most difficult so far. Prior to 2015, I had never heard of OCR(obstacle course racing). My close friend asked me if I'd like to do a Spartan race with her and she told me a little about what it was, and of course I took to YouTube to see what it was all about. I was instantly intrigued, and somewhat intimidated at the same time. If you don't already know, I have Erb's Palsy in my right shoulder/arm from birth, making something like a Spartan Race seem near impossible. It looked like it would be extremely fun, and it was definitely something new for me to try, so I told her I was in! The moment I jumped over that fire and crossed the finish line at the Tristate Sprint at Tuxedo, I knew I wanted to do more Spartan races. The OCR bug had struck!
Anyway, back to my experience at the NJ Beast! Hills, hills, and more hills! Steep climbs are very common for many of the North East US Spartan races, especially the Beasts. It was an extremely difficult course, specifically on Sunday due to the weather. It rained nearly the entire day making the already technical terrain even more treacherous, and the temperature was only in the low to mid 40's(F) causing a lot of DNFs due to hypothermia.
I totally thought about tapping out at mile 11 because my legs were cramping up and I had strained my left thigh adductor muscle somewhere around mile 6 and my right ankle was beginning to hurt a bit, the cold damp weather was also causing pain in my Erb's arm. But with some encouragement from my best friend who was racing with me, I was able to press on. There was NO way I was leaving that venue without my medal and finisher shirt! I definitely had to STFU! (Spartan the F*k Up!)
I still can't believe the number of people I saw out on the course who were under prepared for the terrain and weather(i.e. incorrect foot wear, no shirts, wearing shorts, no headlamps.) In my opinion, you should dress for the weather and bring enough supplies with you in your pack, even if you think you won't need it, especially a head lamp for a Beast. It's better to have it and not need it, than to not have it and need it. I originally was not going to bring the long sleeved shirt seen in the photo below, but decided to throw it in my bag last minute and am so glad I did. I know for a fact had I not been wearing it I would not have made it to the end and probably would have had to DNF for hypothermia. I'm also glad I was wearing gloves, even though they were finger-less.
They were extremely helpful for the log carry(photo below), bucket brigade, barbed wire crawl, farmers carry and keeping my hands a bit warm.
I can't wait to do more Spartan races. I aim to work more on upper body strength to be able to do more obstacles on my own, and to complete future races in less time. Maybe I will see you on the course!