RACE REPORT: Spartan Carolina DOUBLE Beast 2017

In my second year of OCR, when I was going for my first Trifecta, I thought I was crazy for doing a Beast on day 1 and a Super on day 2.  I was so sore on day 2 and wasn't sure if I could even walk that fast.  I ended up warming up ok and made it through.  Three years later, I was back at Carolina Beast weekend, this time for my first double beast.  After that first Beast/Super experience, I had thought that a Double Beast was harder than an Ultra Beast, since you'd have time to get sore.  I think I've built up obstacle endurance, though.  I made it through West Virginia, which was a Beast on day 1 immediately followed by course sweeping the whole thing again, then the Super and Sprint the next day.  Survived that!  I also did the Dopey challenge this January, with a 5K, 10K, HM, and Marathon on successive days.  So this was less daunting than it would've been a year ago.

TRAINING LEAD-UP:

Wednesday, Oct 25: 
6.0 in 51:29, 8:35 average, 2 degrees of incline.  Pretty good progressive run.  I was hoping for a long run, but this is all I managed.  Something's better than nothing.  My heart felt like it had been sprinting afterwards, even though it wasn't that fast. 

Friday, Oct 27:
45 min strength

• Crunches: 400/side
• Plank: 3 + 2 = 5 min
• 6 inches: 60s + 60s = 2 min
• Abductor/Adductor leg lifts: 95/125
• Pushups: 25 + 25 = 50
• Single Leg Squats: 50 + 65, both knees crinkle quietly
• Pillow lower leg extensions: 95
• Assorted dumbell rows
• 1 min hang 

Saturday, Oct 28:
I have so much training that I should be doing for the Iceland 24 hr. Also needed to get in a longer run before the double beast.  12.7 in 2:50:18, 13:23 average at the Whitewater Center trails.  I started off with some of the trails I do less often, to keep things fresh, then went to my stand-bys.  I listened to a Zombies Run race episode while running, which made it a little more interesting.  I didn't feel that tired afterwards, but I had gone really slow and easy.  It was a long duration run, for going less than 13 miles.

Sunday, volunteered at course build for Carolina.  Thorny, cool temps.  Wrapped a truck, registration tents, fences, and tables, start and finish tents and fences. 

Monday, Oct 30:
Intervals!  I didn't think I had the fitness to do this.  4.5 in 32:43, 7:16 average, 2 degrees of incline.   I need to get fitness back.  The second half of my year has been race-heavy, but not training heavy.  Lots of OCRs without much time pressure, so I didn't think I had much speed left.  It was actually pretty good, though!

• 1 mile warmup in 8:04
• 2 x [0.75 mi @ 9mph (5:00), 0.25 mi @ 7.5mph (2:00)]
• 2 x [0.50 mi @ 9mph (3:20), 0.25 mi @ 7.5mph (2:00)]

Thursday, Nov 2:
1 hr biking at the gym, 16.7 mi.

CAROLINA BEAST DAY 1 

I got there early, so I got a decent parking lot.  There was a walk to get to the festival, but only maybe 1/3 the distance of the walk at Conyers, GA, so not too bad.  I was in the Elite heat, but my main goals for the weekend were to 1) get more OCR endurance training, 2) beat as many obstacles as I could, and 3) not get hurt. 

Having volunteered the weekend before, I knew that the vines on the ground would be intense.  The start line emcee aptly called them Jumanji vines.  It was actually not as bad as it was during the course build.  The first part of the race went through some wilder terrain, with bumpy grass and thorny vines.  Fortunately, I had my leggings on.  Some people still go bare shinned, though, and this was a brutal course for that. 

I wore new OCR shoes, non Reebok All-terrain ones, for the first time.  After volunteering for Merrell and trying their shoes on for a day and seeing how durable they felt, and remembering the phrase I repeated so often that day, about how good they are for drainage, protection, and grip, I had to get a pair for myself.  I wore the Merrell Dexterity.  It did drain well, and my laces were much better to work and keep on than the laces that come with the All-terrains (I've had the glow in the dark ones, and the no-lace cinch ones which I ended up cutting out and replacing with real laces because they wouldn't stay in place).  I did get blisters, but it could just need my feet to get used to it. 

Overwalls, Over-under-through, Hurdles, 6 foot wall, Herc Hoist.  We got spit back out at the festival area, where we did Rolling Mud, Barbed Wire, Dunk Wall, Slip Wall, and a failed Spear Throw.  I haven't been able to repeat since West Virginia.

We went back out into the wild, where we met the Sandbag Carry, Rope Climb, Atlas carry, Bucket brigade not so bad because the terrain was mostly flat on this course, 8 foot wall, Log carry, Tyrolean traverse, Bender, Vert Cargo, 7 foot wall, Invert Wall.

I'm pretty consistent at Twister, which I've been 100% at from my second encounter with it onwards.  At this race, though, they had put pads on the handles.  Maybe the intention was to make it less slippery, because it was forecasted to be cloudy all day with a small chance of rain.  However, those things would spin and made the handles much thicker, and I made it only a third of the way before I fell.  It was frustrating.  Hopefully, those go away.

Plate drag, barbed wire through thorns... so there were barbs above and barbs below.  Glad I have arm sleeves and gloves.  Farmers carry log, MOnkey bars, Stairway to Sparta, Z-wall at mile 11.

In the final gauntlet, failed Olympus.  I have no idea how I made it through that at Tahoe.  I haven't come close since.  I wonder if I'm doing it differently.  No idea.  I got through the multirig, though, including the uphill pipe, and was told that I was only the 9th woman to make it through that obstacle successfully.  A-frame cargo, then the fire jump.

12.4 in 3:12:53, 15:33 average.  I was pretty happy with how it went, obstacle-wise.  I got my double trifecta medal after standing in line a while, showered cold, then enjoyed a beer before doing a PM volunteering shift.

CAROLINA BEAST DAY 2

The next day, I was surprisingly not sore.  I had treated the blisters the night before, and was ready for day 2.  This time, I was in the 8:30 volunteer wave, so I had 45 minutes less time to run, before my 1pm volunteer shift.  My goal was to finish as fast as I could and make it in time for the volunteer shift.  Since I was in the open heat and running just for completion, I took my time and enjoyed myself out there.  I chatted for a little bit with a volunteer who recognized me from Fayetteville.  Not too many Asian OCR girls, I suppose.  That was in the part of the course with the field that was 100% covered in fallen logs.  It was interesting. 

 
I also took a couple of minutes to soak in one of the creek crossings, to wash the mud off myself and make showering easier later.  On Day 2, the dunk wall was way muddier.  I also ran into a couple of friends from other events - G & A from HH12HR & GBC BEL.  They had done a HM the previous day, so we were all running on day 2 legs. 

The running was actually decent.  I wore my watch, which I don't normally do so that I don't destroy it with mud and the stress of walls and stuff, so that I could keep track of how I was doing on time. Despite the leisurely attitude, I finished in 3:35:53, 17:25 average.  Not bad for day 2! 

I failed the same obstacles that I failed the previous day, which is pretty good.  I'm feeling pretty good with where my obstacle endurance is.  I've improved quite a bit this year, with all the racing and the increased focus on pull-ups (and by "focus" I mean I may do 1 set of 5 once a week, but that's more than I used to do).

I finished with an hour to spare for going to the Results tent to put my name down to have a 3XT medal sent to me, since they ran out of the ones they had onsite, plus a shower.  A productive weekend!