― Kilian Jornet, Córrer o Morir
ATLAS Temecula Sprint recap - Feb 2014
It's easy to get caught up in the "winning" part of racing and forget that our journey is more about what we can prove to ourselves - what limits we can overcome. At the Atlas race last weekend, our teammate was devastated as she crossed the finish line because she felt like she had failed our team. I hope she remembers that our results are not always indicative of our effort. She had done an amazing job, and had struggled where others had struggled. Finishing with our head held high, knowing we did our best, is so much more important than a medal around our neck or a place on the podium. She had given what she had that day. I hope she knows that makes her a winner in my book.It was quite an incredible experience this weekend. The prize money and team competition of the Atlas Race had brought out many of the top OCR competitors - The starting line was brimming with talent on both the men and women's side.
Pictured here - April Luu, Chikorita De Lego, Irene call, Maggie Thorne, Ella Kociuba, Tiffanie Novakavich, Rose Wetzel. Lauren Ho, Amelia Boone, Cassidy Watton, TyAnn Clark, Kk Stewart
And the guys - Chad Trammel, Matt Murphy, Hobie Call, Hunter Mcintyre, Max King, Cody Moat, Brakken Kraker, and many more!
Team Spartan knew we had our work cut out for us, and that we were going to have to each pull our weight in order to pull this off. The talent seemed to be evenly distributed between the teams, which was going to make for an interesting and unpredictable finish.
I woke up surprisingly refreshed (thank you April for the Tylenol pm:)) and ready to go. At the race location, the sun was coming up and starting to warm up the morning in the beautiful Vail Lake Resort. There weren't many obstacles to view from the festival area, but it was packed with things that are great to have post race - a massage tent, food, a free bag check. There were many friends and familiar faces there who are quickly becoming like family to me.
At this race, there was money for top teams, as well as for individuals. I really wanted to do well in both, especially since my last races were less than stellar. There were a couple aspects of my racing I was planning on tweaking, and was going to risk it to hopefully come away higher on the podium.
I had originally done the Atlas Race in Oregon and was very impressed with their organizers Lance and Scott, as well as the course. They had some refreshing new obstacles that had made the race last Nov really fun and challenging.
My husband, Jim, said that he knew I was going to have a good race - apparently he can tell these things. Maybe I was more relaxed? In better shape?
After our sendoff, the pace was set (fast!) by KK, Rose, and April. But I hung back slightly, preferring to speed up more gradually. Most people die off.
This time I was rooting for April to be up with me instead of behind me since she was on my team. That was a little weird.
The first obstacle was a spider web type thing with bungees that you have to weed your way through. We all decided to go under. I was right behind Ella, and got a nice bungee smack in the face as her foot struggled free of one. That was nice.
Next we had a nice climb up the hill. Thankfully I had prepared for these and was able to run the whole thing. By the time we had scaled a couple walls at the top, I was snugly behind Rose.
At around 2 miles, we were back at the bottom flipping tires - a lot! 20 times or so? But it gave us a chance to see where everyone was. Close. Amelia was just slightly behind me, and I finished not long after Rose.
We went over more hills and cargos (yay, I had finally learned to roll down them) and were back at the festival area. It was now Rose, me, Lauren, and then Amelia.
The intensity of the hills thus far had really pushed us, but we then had to struggle through burpee broad jumps - ugh.
At this point, we were all struggling. 2 miles left to go, it seemed like I just needed to hang on behind rose and then out-kick her through obstacles at the end. I was able to stay ahead of Lauren and was gaining on rose. Until...
The Game Changer
The podium may have looked drastically different if this one obstacle hadn't been included. We arrived at a 60 lb sandbag carry that was to proceed straight up a rather steep hill. Visions of Killington flashed through my head as we attempted the painfully slow ascent. Fortunately my "slow" was faster than Rose's and I ended up passing her halfway up. We crested the top just in time to see that we weren't actually at the top yet! So we pressed on. As I started to descend the other side (with my lungs in my throat) I notice that there is no noise behind me (I didn't want to look) and I tried to go faster down the hill. It was sandy and slippery and took everything I could to stay upright. The thought that I could possibly pull off a win creeped into my head and I was elated!
Until I saw Amelia Boone shuffle by me.
She looked effortless carrying that sandbag, and I just couldn't keep up. We got to the bottom, and still were required to carry the bag with us, dropping it only to go over walls. The entire carry lasted a mile, and I was about a minute behind Amelia before we got to drop it. As I dropped my sandbag, I saw April Luu coming in with hers! She had come out of nowhere into 3rd place. Our team had a great shot at winning!.
With .70 left to go I took off, willing my pace to drop below 6 min. I could see Amelia, but didn't think I'd have enough time to get her. The finish had a nice combination of obstacles. The barbed wire crawl was separated into lanes so that no one could roll and had to crawl. There were several walls, tubes to crawl through, and mud to run through. I finished strong over the last 8 ft wall.
I was disappointed that after all my effort, first place had evaded me, but was also ecstatic that I had just beat some athletes that I had yet to beat this season I came in 50 sec after Amelia in 2nd place.
April was able to hold her position and amazing come back in 3rd place. Our team score depended on a 3rd member of our team, and so we anxiously awaited either Jenny or Chikorita's appearance. We got nervous as all 3 members of the other 2 top teams finished before we saw our girls. When we spotted Jenny Tobin, but decided to go out and give her a some "light encouragement" - She needed a good time for us to take first. We yelled at her in more ways than one over the final portion of her race. I'm sure she wanted to kill us, but I'm sure it helped:)
At the end of the day, we had done it! We squeaked by into first place!The sandbag carry had changed things up dramatically, and had destroyed many. I was happy that I had kept up with the runners, but could also hang with the tough girls.
TEAM SPARTAN - Jenny Tobin, April Luu, TyAnn Clark, Chikorita De Lego.
“Winning isn't about finishing in first place. It isn't about beating the others. It is about overcoming yourself. Overcoming your body, your limitations, and your fears. Winning means surpassing yourself and turning your dreams into reality.”
― Kilian Jornet, Córrer o Morir
Great write up Ty.
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