Update: Spartan Races + Injury

I’ve been MIA again for a little over a week. This was not my intention at all. I planned on getting back from the Spartan Beast & Sprint giddy with excitement and ready to share the experience here on the blog. But, sometimes life doesn’t go as planned.

First, the good news:

1. The SoCal Spartan Beast was an amazing experience again. I’m glad Jason and I finished strong, albeit exhausted!

2. We both finished the Spartan Sprint and because the event had been rescheduled from September, we got both the 2014 and the 2015 medals. Woohoo, I finally got my Spartan Trifecta for 2014!

And now, the bad news:

Jason hurt himself on the last obstacle. It was a Tarzan swing type thing, where you had to swing from one end to the other without touching the water trench that was in the middle. Sadly, Jason’s foot hit the edge of the trench and fell into the water. He knew he was hurt pretty badly and got help getting out of the water. Meanwhile, I was on the side doing my burpee penalty. I didn’t even attempt that obstacle! I saw him limping towards the finish line, but assumed it was a leg cramp. Once I crossed the finish line, I saw that he was hurt and he immediately called for medic. That is of course, once that finisher medal was around his neck! True Spartan. At the medic tent I could see his ankle was super swollen and after they bandaged his ankle and put ice on it, we got a ride to our car and were told to go to the hospital. I had about 5 minutes to run to bag check for our stuff, grab our finisher tshirts, and on Jason’s insistence, I purchased the Trifecta holder I was waiting to buy after the race. Once I got back to the medic tent, Jason was already in the van that was taking us and a few other injured Spartans back to our cars.

We knew getting him to the hotel room would be difficult, so we stopped at Wal-Mart and I bought him some crutches. Thank goodness for elevators! We made it to our room and decided to not rush home, but rather keep the foot iced, elevated, and give him ibuprofen. Throughout the entire ordeal Jason remained calm and said he wasn’t in much pain. The next morning, we checked out and arrived to Vegas a little before noon. We went straight to the urgent care and after getting his xray, it was confirmed his ankle was fractured and we got a referral to see a podiatrist the next morning. At the appointment, we learned his injury and fracture was pretty bad and had to have surgery. Surgery was scheduled for Thursday morning. I’m relieved to say that surgery went well and he’s healing now. We’re doing everything we can to keep him comfortable, but of course he isn’t able to move much and he needs to keep his leg elevated, so he isn’t always feeling great. But, the doctor is sure he’ll make a speedy recovery! Not sure he’ll be doing another Spartan race anytime soon, but we’ll see 😉

Big thanks to all our family and friends for the visits, phone calls, texts, and messages on facebook and instagram! We appreciate it so much.

So, that’s where I’ve been since Sunday, playing nurse and taking care of the Mr. I’ll be blogging the race recaps later this week, though. Hoping to be getting back to some sort of routine here soon. Not just with blogging, but with work, home life, and nutrition and workouts!

Wine Tasting | Temecula, CA

What do you do when your Spartan Sprint Race gets canceled in Temecula? You go wine tasting, of course! At least, that’s what we chose to do and it was a ton of fun. Not as much fun as running a Spartan Race, but a very close second 😉

Jason and I started our day off with a yummy breakfast at E.A.T. Marketplace in downtown Temecula. I was very excited to finally get to try it out. I’d been following them on Instagram and swooning over their yummy organic, locally raised foods. I especially loved that they offer Paleo-friendly options! We met up with our teammates after breakfast and since we were all still bummed out – them about not being able to race at all that weekend and me about not getting my trifecta like I planned -we drowned our sorrows in wine tasting!

We started at the hubs and mine’s favorite winery in Temecula, Wiens Family Cellars. They did not disappoint and we even became wine club members (again!). Our next stop was Lorimar Winery, which we had not visited before. The grounds were so pretty and the tasting was a ton of fun there too! At this point, we all agreed some food was needed so we made our way to Ponte Winery‘s restaurant and ate al fesco & enjoyed fun conversation and a beautiful view! Of course, we couldn’t leave without trying some of their wines too 🙂

Forgive the blurry picture, our wine pourer maybe had a few herself behind the counter ;) J/K hubs had the camera set on manual focus- FAIL! — Forgive the blurry picture, our wine pourer maybe had a few herself behind the counter 😉 J/K hubs had the camera set on manual focus- FAIL!

This was definitely our motto for the day!

Flor, how was that mediterranean wrap?!!? LOL

Our last winery visit was Mount Palomar. This of course, was after a lovely nap and freshening up for dinner afterwards. We spent a long time in their cozy tasting room and were starving when done, so we made our way to a yummy Italian restaurant, Trattoria Toscana. Thanks To Yelp for all the great reviews, this place was delish and the perfect way to end the day!

Not Paleo. Not Sorry. So worth the indulgence! Homemade pasta & pasta sauces! Mmmmm

So, yea we totally made the best of a not-so-good-kinda-crappy situation and we’ve got lots of wine to prove it! It’s not a Spartan Trifecta medal, but that will come soon too, I’m sure of it 🙂

How I Feel about the SoCal Spartan Sprint being Postponed

After completing the Spartan Beast in Temecula on Saturday 9/13, I was ready to complete the Spartan Sprint the next day. I had been training hard and was feeling good about leaving the shortest distance race for last. On our way to the hotel room to freshen up after the Beast, we met up with our teammates who had driven from Las Vegas to Temecula to complete the Sprint with us on Sunday. We were all excited and ready to run together the next day and then that night we received this email:

The disappointment I felt from reading that email is beyond words. Reading it now makes me ill. I was so ready to have my trifecta medal. I planned an entire trip around it. Like I wrote in my blog post before I left, I sacrificed so much to be there and to come back incomplete was just a huge let down. I’ve seen images of Spartan racers running in the rain and in the snow, I never imaged they would cancel a race because it was too hot, especially because they have this posted on their website:

I honestly believe Spartan Race did their due diligence before & during the race. We received emails from Spartan before the race with warnings about the heat and giving straight-forward advice on how to prepare for it. I heeded the warnings. I prepared. I hydrated the week before the race. I took electrolytes, a hydration pack, and waterproof sunblock. My husband wore a wide rimmed hat and carried a hydration pack too as a spectator. He carried coconut water for us, too. Was it hot? Yes. But, in my opinion, it was bearable with preparation. Those who didn’t prepare paid the consequences. They weren’t able to complete the race, they became sick or injured. Do I feel for them? Of course I do. I do not wish anyone pain or defeat. I know it was tough, but the Spartan races, especially the Beast, are designed to be tough, right?

Obviously, I wish they hadn’t postponed the race until January. The goal of a trifecta is to race all 3 distances within a calendar year. Running the Sprint in January isn’t an option. I’ve worked too hard for this to not complete it now. I’m working on getting to run the Spartan Sprint in Malibu in December. But I’m still sad. Not only am I sad for myself, I am sad for my teammates who traveled 5 hours to be there and left empty handed. I’m sad for the friends I made along the course of the Beast, who like me were prepared to come back the next day and earn that Trifecta medal. I’m sad for the folks I met while training at Camp Rhino who were all excited and worked so hard to complete their first obstacle race.

We haven’t heard anything else from Spartan except that we’ve been automatically registered to a new Sprint event they’ve added for January 18, 2015 at the same location, Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA. This will be the weekend before their already scheduled events the following weekend there. The email was sent Sept. 14 and said more details to follow, but we haven’t received any new info yet. I’ll assume they will accommodate transfers without charging transfer fees as they must know not everyone will be available that date. I’m waiting anxiously to see what other, if any, compensation they provide their athletes. In the meantime, I’ll keep training!

– Has a race you’ve registered for and trained for been canceled before? I’d love to hear how you dealt with it and how the event company handled it!

One piece missing...will I get to complete my trifecta in 2014?!? — One piece missing…will I get to complete my trifecta in 2014?!?