Killington Beast

     With Amesbury complete I now know where I am in my training for the Beast at Killington.  It was clear that I was not even close to ready.  There are about 5 weeks of good training days left.  We continue our trips to Dave at Train 180, 2 days a week.  I can't stress how awesome this was.  He had us going all out each and every session.  We signed up for the Beast special and were not disappointed.  Every session served a purpose to prepare for the next session, but most importantly it was related to something we might see at Killington.  I could feel myself getting better.  I remember saying after each session "I feel great next session is going to feel easier."  I was wrong.  Some how the next session I was completely spent at the end of the workout.  I told Dave I don't know how he does it but just when I feel I have caught up to the workout's intensity you crank it up on me.  This is what we asked for and it was working.  I have been in programs before and dreaded going not because it was hard but because it was boring.  At no time did I dread driving up to Nashua,  I looked forward to every workout.  He made it fun, different, but most importantly affective.

     The Beast weekend is upon us.  We leave work early and had to Killington Vermont.  It was a long drive for a Spartan race, but as we will learn later not our longest.  As we approached the mountain the excitement grew and the nerves started to tense up.  We drove to the start line, and checked out some of the obstacles before heading to the hotel and checking in.  Once checked in we drove to our room.  It was a little ways down the road from the main hotel in a set of townhouse style buildings.  We had a bedroom, kitchen, dinning room, and living room area.  It wasn't huge by no means but decent size and cozy.  This was perfect for our team pre-race dinner.  As you see Guns & Hoses travel in packs.  We had a decent group of us running on Saturday and a nice cheering section that came to show their support.  So we prepared the kitchen and cooked some Pasta, now when I say we I mean my fiancé.  Everyone brought something to the meal it was quite the spread.  After a good meal and good conversation it was time to sleep.

   Sleep was hard to come by.  I felt like a kid on Christmas eve.  I don't know how or when but my eyes eventually closed and my mind let me sleep.  Morning came very quick,  we woke up and I looked outside toward the mountain and I could see a helicopter and also a lot of fog about halfway up the mountain.  We packed the night before so all we had to do was some last minute checks and a quick protein filled breakfast.  We had a 1030 start time which was good for the sleeping in a bit but not good for allowing a lot of time to complete.  We headed towards the mountain and met up with the team.  Camel packs filled with water, snacks, gu, a headlamp, and a change of clothes if we get to wet and cold.

   We made our way to the starting line it was our turn to go.  It started with a small down hill run then you turned the corner and headed up the mountain, the first of about 5 climbs up the mountain.  We were making good time, just under 30 minute miles, as we took on each mile and obstacle as the came our way.  I was a little surprised to see the bucket brigade so early but thought this is good although it will take a lot out of my grip strength it's still early I can recover as we run.  We were approaching the swim and tarzan swing.  I was looking forward to this obstacle it was different and well looked like a lot of fun.  Unfortunately due to someone chip not checking them in at that obstacle they had to shut it down and search for him.  Luckily it was just a malfunction and he was found when his chip checked him in at the next spot, but it was too late for us at this point we had been diverted around it.  At this time we started another climb up the mountain.  We still were going very strong conquering every mile and defeating every obstacle in our way.  My earlier relief to get the bucket brigade over with turned out to be a false sense of hope.  We encountered a second bucket brigade, well played Spartan.  Everything was going great we were making another climb up the mountain.  We had slowed down a bit, and were all a bit soar but at this time we were more than halfway done.  At one point we entered the woods and were descending down the mountain, which was turning out to be just as hard as the climbing.  The path was small and steep.  A couple of us got stuck behind some people which ended up splitting half of us from the team at the worst time.  It was generally darker in the wooded area so we had no idea what we were coming out to.  Headlamps had been on for about an hour now and we emerged from the woods to find it pitch black out.  This was kind of a downer day light was gone and we still had a few miles to go.  We pushed on with our smaller group hoping the other group was pushing on as well.  We made it to the second sandbag carry which was the hardest sandbag carry ever.  This late in the game most of our strength spent legs tired and soar this was a practically vertical climb with a sandbag up and back down.  We made it through it was approaching 9 pm and getting close to the time where people would be pulled off the course.  We worked to hard on this course to be pulled on account of time. 

     With not a lot left in the tank we picked up our pace and made it to the cut off spot with time to spare.  We were going to be able to finish the race.  I can't say exactly how far we had left to go but it felt like a million miles.  We made our way to the last half mile and a bunch of obstacles.  We made quick work of these obstacles and started the last little climb to put us running down the mountain jumping over the flames and collecting our medals.  It took us 10 and a half hours to complete this course.  The other half of Guns & Hoses was there at the finish line and so was our cheering squad.

     I would not have been able to complete that without Train 180's help.  I also know that I could have done a lot better if I didn't wait so long to train.