TD 52 - The Race For Tomorrow

as i stated in the last post, i took friday off...  my body felt great the morning of the race and i felt a little soreness in my lower back.  nonetheless, that soreness didn't hinder my performance and i was able to run up and down camelback mountain without fear of risking injury.  i'm labeling this a training day because i conducted the race with AM and TT (even though he's not an official 4TWC member, he has trained with us before).  we were in the 4th heat (last) at 11:30am , so we got to watch everyone go.  i'm thankful i went skydiving last weekend, because my nerves did not play a factor at all when it was our turn to bat.

so basically the format was split into two parts: (1) "the pit" and (2) a 7 mile run.  before you entered the pit, race officials went over scoring the first part and how the actual running course was.  when i gathered a better SA of what the run was really going to be like, i thought it best to slightly hold back in the pit.  read on & you'll see why...

the pit consisted of 4 stations.  you had a 90sec prep time to get to your first station.  mine went as such:
(1) kettlebell swings (50lbs)
30sec recovery
(2) burpees
30sec recovery
(3) thrusters (75lbs)
30sec recovery
(4) box jumps

here is a vid of the first heat ever conducted in the history of the CMC:

my total score was 102.  AM's score was 106! and TT's score was 112!  i felt that i conducted the exercises at a challenging pace, but i definitely wasn't taxed for the run (thank God).  we then had 3 minutes to recover, then conducted a 7 mile run through camelback mountain:

to be honest, the up-mountain was unforgiving.  we were barely able to get a jog on the incline.  we were expecting to negotiate the run and obstacles in less than 90 minutes (from what i remember, i believe the fastest time ended up being 1hour and 23 minutes)... that was wishful thinking.  we didn't receive our official times yet, but i estimate it took us about 130 minutes possibly a little less.  when we get the race results, i will be sure to share.

anyway, i'll have to say that the run portion was way harder than toughmudder tri-state last year.  in englishtown, it took about less than 3 hours to complete 12-13 miles... so you do the math... i was really surprised and definitely plan on doing another CMC when it returns to the east coast!  i'm going to have to incorporate heavier squats and more hills to train for a course similar to camelback!  a truly humbling experience and when we crossed that finished line, we definitely felt that we earned our t-shirts haha.

the finish line. 

me & AM. we started together. we finished together.

we hung out for a beer, i bought the Murph Hero WOD t-shirt, then rushed back to nj to drop TT off and make it to my friends' wedding reception:

congrats Carrie & Joe!

life is a beautiful thing.

all in all, saturday was another lesson that emphasized to always keep striving to get better.  it showed me that when you settle and think that you're in shape, are you really?  i'm glad for kicks in the pants like these; for opportunities to learn more about myself and to share the experience with like-minded individuals who understand hard work and welcome challenges... i believe in these people and because of them, i believe in our country.  that's basically the short of what went down on 9-10-11.

get involved w/or donate to the Wounded Warrior Project

cheers,

-DV _ level ^ fitness