Mud, Ice, and a Little Shock: Savage Race 2014

I remember going to bed Friday night thinking, "why am I doing this? Who let me sign up for this?" as I prepared myself for the Savage Race the next day. Savage is a 5.6 mile run with 25 obstacles spread throughout the course. I realize that overcoming obstacles is kind of my thing as a traceuse, but I don't often encounter barbed wire, live wires, and muddy lakes that I'm required to wade through while carrying 2x4s on each shoulder. Well, not in DC I don't... my parent's house in Maine isn't too far off from this. Just kidding (kind of).

Anyways, there were a lot of extreme challenges in this race—both mental and physical—but it was a hell of a lot of fun. I went into the race with zero expectations. I just wanted to complete every obstacle to the best of my ability and have fun with my team. Mission Accomplished.

"Big Ass Cargo Net"

Six foot walls dropped into a pit of muddy water

Me in the middle making my "why am I doing this?" face...

I won't go through all 25 obstacles for you but I'll try to cover the best and the worst of them. Most of the obstacles were challenging in an awesome kind of way, but there were also obstacles that I desperately wanted to skip. I don't know who was in charge of naming these, but what part of "Colon Blow 5000" makes you want to dive right in?

Before the race, when the dirt was dirt instead of a mud lake

I made a team member go in front of me AND behind me to talk me through this one because I was terrified of getting stuck inside. This and Tazed were the only two obstacles that I paused in front of... and felt like crying beforehand. The first one because of the small dark space and the second because, well, who likes getting an electric shock? I ended up turning and rolling sideways through the wires with my hands over my eyes instead of crawling through. I only got shocked a few times but it was so disorienting rolling around, eyes closed, getting zapped by random wires all over my body.

The other serious mental challenge for me was crawling under the barbed wire (yes, it's real... we checked). Nothing like a spiky canopy to make you stay low.

Me on the bottom left with my teammates

Staring at the barbed wire hoping it doesn't cut me as I pull myself out...

I was impressed by my crawling skills on the first few barbed wire obstacles (above)... until my knees were so raw on the last one (Thanks to CB 5000) that I started dragging my entire body through the mud using my arms. I looked kind of like this with less speed:

I finally made it out from under the last barbed wire only to enter a giant pool of quicksandy mud. I don't know what's wrong with me but I am completely hopeless when mud is involved. I just can't manage to stay vertical. I figured this out early on in the race after the "Nutt Smasher." This obstacle was super easy for me (it's basically just a balance beam over water) until I got to the other side, stepped into the mud, attempted to catch myself, and then gracefully flew backwards onto my butt...

I proceeded to fall in the mud over and over again throughout the course. It's amazing that I can beast out on 8 ft. walls with no assistance...

8ft. wall climb

...I can jump over fire or into a pool of ice, but I can't manage to stay standing when the ground is slippery. Oh well, I can't be good at everything, right? Walking isn't important.

Let's get back to the part where I kicked ass. My two favorite obstacles were the "Sawtooth Bars" (monkey bars over water pictured below) and "Pipe Dreams" (see below).

Again, pre-race/pre-mud lake on either side.

Testing out the obstacle - official Savage Race photo

Both of these obstacles take some serious upper body strength so I wasn't sure how I would measure up, but I wanted to push myself. I wanted a girl to have the strength to succeed on these obstacles. No feet, no falling.

It was extremely difficult and I was worried it might be slippery but the dried mud on my hands helped me keep my grip a little bit. Sawtooth was especially hard at the peak when I had to swing up and then back down on the monkey bars. I paused a few times on both of these but I knew I could do it and I kept pushing until I made it to the other side, triumphant and proud of my accomplishment.

I think the best part of the race for me was when our team high-fived one another after each obstacle, congratulating each other on getting this far and fueling us to keep going.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. I was proud of myself for running the whole thing, making it through every obstacle, and overcoming the physical (monkey bars & pipe dreams) and mental (tazed and colon blow) challenges throughout the course. Thanks, Team Primal for an awesome experience!

Post-Race Team Photo (me in the middle #2933)