October 8, 2013
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Leaving, Part 1
In retrospect, bringing my Bluetooth keyboard would make this iPhone blogging thing infinitely easier. Oh well.
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I think I'll do this next bit of life by day to keep track of everything. Heck, I've always been an outline guy. No reason I should stop now.Friday. October 4th:
I honestly thought that I'd be heading up to Atlanta to spend the night before the race. But, when I checked my race time, it was 11:40, so I decided just to drive up early on Saturday. I also thought I'd be doing laundry before I left, but I got a call around 4:30 from Solt's boy, Jacob, asking me if I wanted to go to "Zak Pack," which in 3 year old language means Zaxby's. I had literally just eaten, but I decided to go anyway. It's been hard knowing I'm leaving some good relationship behind. It totally slipped my mind that I'd be leaving this 3 year old as well.My relationship with Solt is one thing that I regret not investing more into. He's not a believer, and that's part of the reason I wanted to spend time with him in the first place. Yes, the tabletop war games are fun, but getting to know him was always the first priority. In all honesty, I wasn't as intentional as I could have been, and I makes me sad to leave it where it is. It just feels incomplete, but I'll still the last week I work to get some kind of resolution... Long story short, I went out with him, his wife, and son to Zaxbys's. Then we ate frozen yogurt, and then we played this StarWars X-wing game. I probably got home around 9:00 pm, so it was a relatively full day. I realized that Mr. Hurley's cabin probably had a washer/drier, so I just made a mental note to load up my hamper before I left in the morning.
Saturday, October 5th:
I left the house a little later than I wanted to. 11:40 race time - one hour for parking and warm up - 2.5 hours of travel time = 8:00. I left about 5 after 8:00, and there was an accident on I-85 north of Lagrange. Luckily, I overestimated on travel time, so I got there right at 10:30. The race was at a horse ranch, but driving around to the parking area, I could tell this was no where near as big as the Spartan or Mudder. I'd say maybe 2 or 3000 people as opposed to the 8 or 10.000 at the others. In fact, I think 1:00 may have been the last. The other races had them going til 6 or 7 with manicurist lamps after 8.Anyway, the rest was pretty familiar. I enjoyed this venue a lot. It was just more scenic than the other two. I found out that the race was only 6.2 miles, which was a nice surprise considering I showed up prepared to run 8. Overall, the course felt like a shorter Tough Mudder. The obstacles were similar to that, with a few exceptions. First exception was an obstacle called "Sawtooth." I'll add a link to it later, but monkey bars on steroids. Another exception was "Tazer." In the Tough Mudder version, and based on the spacing of the leads, you could run through with a minor hope of not getting bit by electricity. This one, you had to crawl through and the spacing of the leads provided no hope of getting by. I got zapped once in the middle of my back, which then jumped up into the base of my neck. Not too bad, but not fun. The last major exception was the "Colossus." It was a huge quarter pipe , taller than the Mudder one, it you had to pull yourself up with a rope. The only issue was that the previous obstacle was a muddy one. So everyone that climbed up got the rope all wet and muddy. Maintaining a grip was not easy even with the knots.
I finished at about 1.5 hours, which wasn't bad. 15 minute per mile average. I'm not sure how I feel about saying this, but I enjoyed this race more than the last. It might have been the distance or maybe just the venue, but I felt challenged without feeling completely beat up. The downhills weren't hard mountain rock, so my feet didn't hurt as bad after the race. The mud was thick, but not super gritty so crawling through it didn't wreck my knees.
Afterward, I grabbed my beer, paid for a sandwich and chips, and last propped myself up and a tree near the lake. It was great weather, and honestly a great place to run. They had a live cover band going the whole time, and they pretty good. I enjoyed the whole atmosphere more.
The only thing that bugged me about the entire event in general was the promotion. "The race built to kick your ass," was the motto. Some of the obstacles' names had sexual overtones. I understand this is an adult event, but they also had a mini course for kids, and I just felt like it was a little much.
