Running as a Family

I have a pretty great OCR “framily” that I run with and hang out with before and after a race and we always have fun. But I also have a really amazing FAMILY and I've always wanted to share my love of OCR with them. I am the proud mom of 16-year-old twin sons and they each have done one Spartan Stadium Sprint with me but the three of us had never been at one together. And even though my husband is a huge supporter of my hobby he had only ever come to watch me once at Civilian Military Combine because I was being interviewed for their television show. Racing is such a big part of my life and so are they and I really wanted to bring it all together. I wanted the boys to have a little friendly competition and it meant a lot to me to have my husband really get a sense of what I experience at these races and what better time and place to do it then my last Spartan of the season in the home of the 2018 World Series Champions? So off to Boston we all headed for the  Sprint at Fenway.

It seems like the weather at the last 5 races I've done has been terrible and of course, late fall in Massachusetts did not disappoint. It was cold and it was rainy. After walking around for a bit and saying hi all of my racing friends (I'll admit I loved showing my family how many people I knew!) we made our way to the starting corral. Thank goodness I made it over that first wall myself because I would have been really embarrassed if I didn't after telling my husband what a badass I am. I and the boys did the Aroo…Aroo..Aroo thing and then we started running upstairs, lots and lots of stairs. Being the crazy mother hen I am I was so afraid of my boys slipping  I must have told them 100 times not to go too fast but they are 16-year-old boys and of course, they weren't going to listen to mom. Jack ran ahead of us immediately and I and Joey were together until the first wall where he got right over and I struggled. He looked back for me but I waved him on, it was sweet of him to want to wait for me but I wanted him to push himself. Here's a quick little back story on Jack. Over the past year and a half, he's lost 50 lbs , taken up weightlifting and adopted a healthy lifestyle. Back in August he developed a bilateral pulmonary embolism and spent 10 days in the hospital. He was supposed to do the West Point Spartan Sprint but he goes out of the hospital the day before and was not medically cleared. He was upset. I was upset for him. Neither of us did it. Fenway meant a lot to him. And it meant a lot to me and his dad to see him do this.

The rain started coming down harder and I was really feeling bad for my husband standing out there so I tried to run faster than I normally would and I stopped to take fewer pictures. In other words, I hustled! Joseph and I kept passing each other but I never saw Jack. I was really disappointed because I wanted to see him do the obstacles. Later on, when I asked him how he did he said he got over the walls with no problem. I was so happy my husband got video of him climbing the rope. Just last year he couldn't get up at all and this year he made it look easy. Joey got part of the way up and did his burpees and my husband texted me during the race and said..”hey I saw you just walk right by that rope”! He was right and he caught me, I can't climb it and so I always just go straight to the penalty area. When I ran Fenway with Joseph two years ago we stuck together so I did all of the men's obstacles with him. But since I was pretty much on my own this time the only men's obstacle I did was the Herc Hoist. They both said the double water jug carry was tough because the handles were awkward but they did it!

Athlinks put the distance at 4 miles but I think that must be wrong. This felt much shorter to me than any other stadium race I have ever done. But I am still super proud of our times. Jack finished in 49 minutes, Joseph finished in 56 minutes and I had my best time ever with a 59-minute finish. Of course, the boys teased me about finishing faster than me because I do this all the time but I told them to cut me a little slack because they are 25 years younger than me!  When I saw the smile on my husbands face when we were all finished I could see how proud he was of all of us and that meant the world to me. To have him there to support us and have him wait for us and take video of us made this one of my most meaningful races to date.

I overheard a lot of people talking and it came to my attention that there were a lot of “newbies” there.  Stadium races are a great way to get your feet wet in the OCR world. There is no mud, no water, and much less stress. Instead of heavy bucket carries up steep mountains we jump rope and do push-ups. It's also a nice change of pace for those of us who are used to having our bodies beat up at other races. If you have kids and are looking for something fun to do with them I highly recommend looking for a race like this in your area. It's a fun way to spend family time while doing something healthy! This also offered us the opportunity to try a lot of neat new products.  There were more sponsors here then I have ever seen.  We received samples of Arizona Iced tea Energy Shots, Kodiak Cakes (a favorite in my house), Gone Rogue Protein Chips, Persil laundry detergent, and Bob's Red Mill Protein Powder. I left Boston with arms full of goodies, a new medal for my rack and a heart full of love. Not bad for a rainy Saturday in November.

See you on the course…….

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