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Spartan Super Race Report & New House!

November 28, 2017 By Vanessa Vila Leave a Comment

This is going to be a big ol’ catching-up-on-the blog kinda post.

It’s been a crazy busy fall for us, as we bought a new home (yay!) and are in the process of selling our old home (whew… so. much. work.  HUGE shoutout to my hard-working hubby for all the carrying/packing/lifting/painting/setting up/hanging up/organizing/etc!).  Seriously, Javi made it all possible.  Thank you, my love.

Here’s a few pics of the new house, from my photo shoot last weekend with the boys:

In the meantime, I have completely ignored the blog as I worked on other things.  I hate that it’s the first thing to go, but… it just is.  It didn’t help that I didn’t have any great races this fall (until the Thanksgiving day Turkey Strut), so that also didn’t motivate me to blog about them.


After a lousy performance at the triathlon (being sick did not help!), I then trained for about a month for the Fayetteville Spartan Super in late September.

The short story–I felt good for about 1 mile.  I finally made it up the rope! Whoohoooo! And then I started feeling like I had to use the bathroom… which I did in the woodline… and didn’t feel better at all.  I felt worse.  WTH?!?!?

I did not make it across the super slippery bars, btw.  And that sandbag carry was a *%$! (not as bad as the bucket carry, mind you, but a suckfest nonetheless!)

So I did the old run/walk (with waaaaaaaaay more walking than running) for over six miles.  UGH.  I figured out I was dehydrated, and that gave me the dreaded GI distress.

A few days prior I worked in the hot sun during a volunteer activity at work, and I don’t think I recovered properly afterwards.  So lesson learned–yet again 🙁  The worse part was I signed up for the Elite heat, and I was actually pretty fit.  I think I could have come in mid-pack, but…  I came in second to last… LOL not dead last!  Check out my yucky mud face:

I failed six obstacles, which meant 30 burpees each x 6 = 180 burpees.  In the hot sun.  Pretty brutal.  I was proud of myself for not giving up, because I most certainly wanted to.  I also didn’t throw as much of a “self-pity party” as I have previously, meaning I didn’t beat myself up for not hydrating properly.  It took almost 3 hours, but I made it.

I will say that SO many of the other Spartans were super motivating (“come on, you got this!”) so that helped me not give up.

Spartan F7

I don’t know if I’m going to do more Spartans.  I’m considering it, but I might just focus on running in 2018.  Still working on my goals, and deciding.

Next up are my Army 10 Miler race report and a few more!

What’s next on deck for you?  Has your fall been insanely busy too?  I’d love to hear from you 🙂

Filed Under: Family, Photography, Running, Spartan, Travel

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