We’ve been hearing a lot about these adventure races lately and our first thought was, “So they are like trail running but with man made obstacles?”  Adventure races seem to be really fun and challenging, which are two of our favorite words, so we thought we’d have our contributing blog writer Brian Ansley, the Great American, check one out for us.  He competed in the Spartan Race Texas this past weekend and here is what he thought:

I pulled into Rocky Hill Ranch about 10:15 this past Saturday morning and followed a path into an open field with what seemed to be hundreds of cars parked for the Spartan Race.  I have done several races in the past, including the Houston Triathlon last September; however, this was going to be my first adventure race.  I was definitely up for the challenge and excited about the course I had heard so much about.  As I was walking to the packet pick up line I heard a huge explosion go off!  Someone said, “A new heat just started!”  I hadn’t been in many races with heats, usually everyone starts at the same time.  I knew this race was more about the challenge of finishing rather than competing against other participants.  I love competing against myself, because I always win (insert “bi-winning” joke here).  After I received my packet I made it way closer to the start line so I could get a good look at the action.  There was a man dressed up in full Spartan attire pumping everybody up right before the race began.  I couldn’t wait for my heat to start!

Before I knew it, 11:30 was almost here.  I took a last minute drink of water and made my way to the starting line.  The Spartan hype man grabbed his microphone and began pumping up the crowd like Technotronic circa 1989.  Everyone in the crowd would reply to his statements with, AROOO!!!  I was ready.  Boom!  The familiar explosion that starts the race echoed through air.  Not knowing what to expect I began my first adventure race…

As I made my way down the course my first obstacle was a massive marsh area, followed by a flaming pit that I was forced to leap over; better than running straight through I suppose.  The next mile or so was nothing but soaring hills to wear down your legs for the remainder of the race.  After an extensive low crawl under barbwire, two more water crossings, and the completion of an 8 ft wall, I was nearly complete.  As I ran the last set of obstacles I sprinted to the finish line.  As I rounded the corner thinking I was in the clear I spotted a couple of massive men dressed in Spartan attire just like the hype man at the beginning of the race.  The only difference was that these guys weren’t holding microphones, they were holding padded sticks!  I tried to put my best moves I learned from American Gladiators but it didn’t work.  They both struck me with their sticks at the same time!  However, I can say I proudly crossed the finish line on both feet.  As an avid racer, I found that adventure races challenge me in a way that other events haven’t.  The combination of running and obstacles together provide a demanding, yet exciting setting for a race.

The course was easily marked throughout and there was also a sufficient amount of volunteers to guide you if you were not sure.  The obstacles were rather challenging and incredibly fun.  The organization at this race was handled very well, especially given the amount of participants.  I can honestly say I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face.  Two thumbs up for the Spartan Race!  I can definitely see more adventure races in my future.  AROOO!!!

This is the last installment of Sean Run Bum Blanton’s race recap of the Destin Beach 50k and 50 mile ultramarthon.  Will he make it?  Build up the suspense, start at the beginning with Part 1.

We passed some more race people checking our numbers and I saw one drinking a beer.  My eyes lit up.  I asked the guy if I could grab a beer.  He looked puzzled and laughed.  I told him I was serious and he tossed me an ice cold beer.  I chugged it.  Beer has never tasted so good.  I later motioned for a toss from some Frisbee players.  The guy overthrew me by 10 feet so I went into the ocean to retrieve it.  The ocean was like Andre 3000, ice cold.

The next aid station was at mile 36.  It was a restaurant that I was told we could order anything we wanted.  I had in my mind from the beginning of the race that I wanted oysters so I came into the aid station screaming, “Oysters, Oysters, I need half a dozen on the half shell!”  Apparently this wasn’t a normal request because the aid station workers were laughing at me and I had to go speak with the owner about my special order.  He said he’d have them ready when I came back around after the turn, at mile 42.

Those next 2 miles to the turn around point were tough.  I saw some ladies playing beach volleyball, baywatch style.  My jaw dropped and my head moved; then my whole body dropped.  I stepped in a hole that some kid had dug, probably attempting to reach China.  Splat.  Right in front of the girls.  Smooth.  I walked it off like nothing happened.  I made the turn, passed the girls again, and reached my oyster eating aid station.  I threw down the sweet ocean goodness in no time and took off for the final 8 miles.

I decided to cut all my food and just hammer water for the last 8 miles of the race.  I don’t recommend anyone else doing this, it’s a gamble.  With about 3 miles to go I saw a familiar face, my boy Wayne D, aka LIL WEEZY.  He was shouting, “Blanton, Blanton pick it up!”  He really got my spirits up and told me to try to catch the guy in front of me to finish 3rd.  At this point I was more concerned about conserving my body, I still had to run a road marathon in 16 hours!

I closed a mile gap into 400m gap with 800m left to go in the race, but decided to slow it down and ease into the finish, I was here to complete the race, not race it.  I moved off of the hard sand onto the soft sand to finish line where I was greeted with a sweet custom finishers medal.  Final time:  8 hours, 32 minutes in 4th place overall!

I pounded some food and treated myself to an amazing post race massage.  I now stood in the wake of determination.  Or rather the wake of 50 miles, 3 beers, 6 oysters on the half shell, and a whole heck of a lot of fun.  Sun kissed and forever changed.  Humbled, yet happy.  I had found one hell of a good time and I will definitely be back again for more fun in the sun, only next year I’m going to make sure I don’t forget my sunblock!

Now you’ve read about it, watch it.  The book is always better than the movie…

This is a continued race recap Sean Run Bum Blanton’s Destin Beach 50k and 50 mile ultramarthon:

Check our Part 1 if you missed it.

When the sun was rising and pushing me forward I was at mile 10.  I was in about 13th or 14th place and all of a sudden a guy comes rocking past me going the other way.  I said, “Hey, great job man, keep it up!”  He had his head down and was in the zone.  Too far in the zone to respond.  As I grew closer to the turn around I saw more runners coming the other way.  My smile elicited high fives.  The bond you share with people on ultramarthons is almost as epic as the race itself.  It was like we were all in the same Platoon, fighting the same way, enduring the same hardships together.

At the turn around I could see the the high rise hotels at Destin Beach way away.  They looked close but I knew from earlier in the race, objects appear closer than they really are!  I thought it must be 15 or 20 miles away.  Then I thought for a second, no, it was exactly 25 miles away!  The exact distance I still had to run!  The sight made my stomach sink.  Like opening the mail box expecting to see your new iPod but instead you see a jury duty summons.

I was running the same 15 miles now I had just covered; however, everything looked different because it was daylight.  Running through Grayton Beach I encountered what appeared to be “THE RED TIDE.”  Thank god I thought.  Being the terrible fisherman that I am, the fish would to flock to me and boom, free sushi!  Well, not so much.  It was just where the swamp water cut its path through the dunes and sand as it makes its escape to the ocean.  Brackish water its called.  The mix of fresh and salt water.  See, you learn something everyday.  Frankly though, it looked like blood.  Like some one had stabbed the earth and she was bleeding.  There were about 5 of these along the course.  I saw other runners tip toeing and trying to not get their feet wet.  I pushed right through them, not breaking stride; not only was I too tired to expend energy running around them, but my neoprene socks were working like a charm!

As I was chowing down on some Chia Chargers around mile 25, a guy passed me running with his dog.  No way!  Well, I guess the dog does have 4 legs to run on.  It didn’t matter though, I went from walk to Chuck Norris speed in the blink of an eye.  That’s right, faster than you can say delta force!  I paced off this guy for about 2 miles before he turned around.  I guess he wasn’t part of the race…

Less than a mile away from the resort I could see the tents at the start/finish.  I hurdled a dead jellyfish and downed the last of my water.  I was in 5th place.  I had a huge smile on my face and said to the race director, “Man, this is a great race.  I love it!”  He laughed and said tell me that again in 20 miles.  I laughed and got a nice picture taken.  I took off but soon realized I had forgotten my drop bag of goodies.  Oops!  I lost about 2 minutes going back to get it.  But worse yet, I forgot to put on my sunblock!  If you’ve ever seen me before you know that I’m part albino, part Irish.

I took off screaming and running with new confidence.  I had finished 30 miles and I hadn’t even started to tap the tank.  People along the beach just looked on most likely wondering, “What the hell is this pale weirdo doing?  Oh, he must be drunk.  Oh well.  Honey, shield the kids’ eyes.”  The first 30 miles were secluded beaches, the last 20 miles I was face to face with people enjoying the beach.  If I wasn’t a run bum, I’d be a beach bum.  The next 8 miles would be spent running with some good buddies I met, the couple from Vermont, Serena Wilcox and Patrick, I believe….Read Part 3.

This is an entry from my friend Sean who owns RunBum.com.  He calls himself Run Bum because that’s what he does.  He travels the world, bumming lodging, food, and race entries in exotic locales.  His latest expedition took him to exotic Destin Beach, Florida to run the Destin 50 Beach Ultra.  Here’s what he had to say:

As a runner who loves to run as many races as I can and who loves adventure and new challenges, I stood under the full moon that reflected across the water onto the beach.  It was just moments before the Destin Beach 50 Mile Ultra Marathon and I was about to encounter a race like no other I had run before, 50 miles of sand.  The race had caught my eye months ago.  It sounded like hell, and it sounded like something I wanted to be a part of.  That’s what being a Run Bum is all about, I find delight in the unknown.  Where my comfort zone ends is where I have found the most joy in my life.

My game plan for this race was to run a smart race and really save myself for the marathon I was going to run the next day.  I also put on some neoprene socks, no telling what running in the sand for 50 miles would do.  I also knew that I wanted to run close to the water where the sand was the hardest.  Another fear was the extreme slant of the beach.  The beach we were running on has about 50 feet of soft sand and then hits a big slope down to the waters edge for any where from 2-8 feet depending on the tide.

It was 5 am when the race started.  Surrounded by darkness that was illuminated by the moon, I started running.  I started my easy jog and then walk from the get go.  I knew I wasn’t in shape to run 50 miles non stop that day.  I didn’t have to use my headlamp because the moon was so bright.  About 20 people took off in front of me and another 20 behind me.  I was amazed by the sheer beautify of the race.  Here’s what my camera captured that morning:

I was surrounded by ocean and sand; massive dunes lined the shore, not houses. I would run toward scattering crabs, shine my light toward movement just a couple of feet ahead to see a group of birds scatter out of the ocean. It was like an explosion of nature. I was running directly at the sunrise, but the moon was still shinning bright enough to give you a sunburn. It was almost like they were competing, but we all knew the sun would eventually win this battle.  The air was a perfect temperature, 60 degrees with a light breeze. The air had a hint of ocean saltiness. It was the prefect moment to be running…Read Part 2!

I came across this article about Joseph Tame, 33, who completed an “online” marathon in Tokyo last week.  He ran the race in 6 hours and 28 minutes.  The first thing I thought was, “He could have probably run the race in 6 hours without all that junk strapped to him.”  He had 4 iPhones in his contraption:  1 pointed at his face, 1 at the pavement in front of him, another using the GPS feature so people could track his progress, and a 4th for typing out tweets.  Oh, and there was an iPad on his back displaying his tweets, seems only natural.  He said, “It’s citizen broadcasting.  Can we take live sports events coverage to the next level?”  He had 3,000 people following his progress at one point so apparently there is some demand for this type of media, but were people really watching his race or his gimmick.  Joseph was also wearing bright pink plastic toy windmills on his helmet and pink bunnies on his sneakers which had nothing to with the run or his broadcast.  So I began to think, is there a market for this?  Do people want to watch races?  Are competitive runners willing to strap on gadgets so we can watch what they see and feel during a race?  We know Joseph said he won’t do it again, that 10 pounds of gear was too much for him!  Good idea dropping the equipment, maybe you can finish under the 6 hour mark next time.

I recently met a very good ultra runner who takes video of his races and shares them online.  He said, “I usually finish in the top 10 but I’m never going to win a race, those guys are on a whole other level, so I figure it doesn’t hurt me too much if I stop and pull out the camera for a bit.”  I see his point, I’m in the same boat, I’m never going to win a race, but I still want to try to get 2nd or 3rd.  If I stopped to pull my camera out it would really slow down my efforts.  If I’m unwilling to do it I assume most competitive runners feel the same way.  In addition, do people really like to watch a video of a race?  I assume there is a reason why there are as many races televised as bowling tournaments.  I know a lot of runners like to share their race recaps on blogs and other places online, but do other people like to read them who don’t have any relation to the runner?  Dailymile.com has been able to bridge this gap by combining “friendships” with running feats, but does anyone ever search for a race recap?  My experience has been no; that’s why I stopped writing race recaps. However, I have found that people want information about races, it’s just usually before buying a race entry, but not after the race.  Oh yeah, and they don’t care that I got tired at mile 5, so I ate one gel, then I stepped in some mud…

I mean, I’m a 21st century digital boy, but I hate trail running with any unnecessary gear strapped on.  I don’t trail run with an iPod, iPhone, shirt ( if temp above freezing), or even water belt (if under 20 mile run).  However, I do run with a GPS watch so I can make up my path as I run.  I guess that’s the point, I trail run to be free to roam where I want to and get away from my digital life.  I run to clear my mind and don’t want an iPod blasting noise into my head.  I trail run to get away from my cell phone.  My voicemail message actually used to say, “I’m probably on a run right now…” because 90% of the time that was true.  Running was the only time I was away from it!  Trail Running is about connecting with nature and the enviroment and I find it difficult to do so if I’m connected to anything else at the time.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like tweeting while running!

Overall, I would watch elite runners if they were to broadcast themselves running a race, but I understand why they wouldn’t want to strap a camera to their head.  I definitely have no interest in watching someone trudge along at a 14 minute mile pace for 26.2 miles and think many other runners would agree with me.  Maybe we could get some cameras mounted in trees or something, until then I guess we’ll just have to watch more bowling…