The Savage Race Georgia 2015

The  Savage Race Georgia 2015

What can I say, it was a great race. This event took place in Dallas, Georgia, a town of….well of not too much, just country and very beautiful. Rolling hills, wooded property and peaceful views are first thoughts that come to mind as I reflect on my drive to the venue.

I planned to drive in on Friday night, get a good night’s sleep, and race the next day. I ended up staying in a Hilton Garden Inn in nearby Cartersville, Georgia.

Why I chose the Pro Heat:

After two years of mud runs, I decided to sign up for the pro or competitive heat. After all, I’ve done well in most venues and decided that I did not want to wait in long lines for a chance at super obstacles as I had done in national level events like Warrior Dash and the Spartan Sprints. If you don’t mind paying the extra money, competitive heats are well worth it, as long as your fitness level is up to it.

 

The situation

After about a week of steady rain, Dallas Georgia was a soaked playground. The mud was consistently thick and most of us ended up dirty before getting to the entry gate; slippery was the word of the day.

 

Prior to the entry each racer and spectator had to complete a waiver and present it at the entry point with a photo ID. Once checked, the staff provided the race packet and information about where to go next. I got there a little early and spend some time warming up before my heat was called.

 

Savage Race started the party early. My heat started at 9 am and by 8 am the DJ was cranking the music. What fun.

 

Finally, the pro heat was called and I headed toward the corral.

The starting gate

The thing to understand about the pro heat is that everyone gets a blue wrist band. Each competitor in the pro heat is required to accomplish all obstacles and without help.  The competitor can reattempt any obstacle as many times as it takes, but if they fail to complete an obstacle, they must turn in the blue wrist band.

I was kind of nervous about being in the pro section as I didn’t want to hinder the faster runners. I am 50 years old and knew I would be slower than the champs. I settled into the pack somewhere in the middle and waited for the start. The energy was more intense for competition and less on the fun side... and I liked it. I could stay in the zone without going through the hype that I knew the other heats would go through. The MC tried to get us excited with a pep talk and some activities, but we weren’t as willing to participate as the regular heats. We were there to race.

The race

Finally, the start and I immediately regretted my decision to start in the middle of the pack. I should have started in the front to prevent being behind some very intense, but slower runners who began to walk less than a mile into the event, even before the first obstacle. Granted, the course was tough and the hills and mud were an obstacle in itself.

 

The obstacles

The first obstacle was a bottle neck. It was a smaller obstacle that  would not allow more than three at a time to pass. By the time I got there,  a short line had formed, but it moved along quickly. The lesson here is to sprint to the first obstacle and then taper off speed once through.  At that point, you’ll race unimpeded.

The rain, my gosh the rain. The trail was all uphill it seemed and about .6 miles of the entire course was grassy sure footing. Most of the race was muddy forest path. I had no such experience on slick mud and slipped and slid helplessly and in the wrong direction.

I remember commenting out loud, “I really thought I had trained for this.” After all, I run a lot of hills.

Someone overheard me and replied, “how could you train for this?”

 

I’m adding trail running to my training. When possible, I’m adding monsoon trail running.

The obstacles were very challenging, well built, and worth the visit. The ice water obstacle or Shriveled Richard was well timed. I was hot and needed to cool down anyway. I felt refreshed, but at the same time helpless as my body would not obey my commands. I climbed into the ice water and had to swim under a wall and climb out on the other side. It was really hard to do.

Ok, Savage Race is evil. They put all the fun low wall climbing, barbed wire crawling, and other easier obstacles that slowly wear you out up front. Man, my abs were screaming from rolling over wall after wall. I also carried logs as I ran part of the course.

But the second half was just wrong. There was a really long monkey bar challenge called Saw Tooth. This thing went up, then down, then up and down again over a pool of deep water. In fact, it came with its own lifeguard complete with a floatation device; seriously. I do a lot of pull ups and monkey bars in my daily training. But after running 3 and a half miles of other obstacles, I was exhausted. There’s even this other event where we did the monkey bars hanging from a single horizontal bar. Tough baby!

If not exhausted enough, I climbed tall obstacles with ropes. This included two humongous towers or walls. I climb a lot of ropes in training so I did well. But again, I was running out of steam. Savage Race strategically placed these really tough, tall, strength sapping obstacles at the end. Did I mention how evil they were? 

Some runners were not able to complete Colossus, one of the last obstacles. It is a giant warped wall with a rope dangling from the top. Again, I climb a lot of ropes, so I was prepared for it. The problem is once you make it to the top of the rope, you still have to climb unassisted over or roll your body over ledge and go to the waterslide on the other side.

And then there’s the pull the weighted cinder block uphill with a rope event. Did I mention exhausted? That was a real challenge, but pretty much the end of the race and a fine way to end it; with a burst of strength.

The DJ, MC, enthusiastic race started, staff and volunteers made this Savage Race a completely enjoyable event. I raced in honor of veterans with my Team Red White and Blue shirt and was happy that the kind folks recognized the group.

I was pleased to have won in my age group and qualified for the OCR World Championship. I've trained hard for it and documented the training in my blog. Thanks to Savage Race, Spartan Race, Warrior Dash, Moonshine Mud Run, St. Claire Scramble and all other events that prepared me for this accomplishment. 

Here are the pros and cons of running the Pro heat:

Pros:

Eligible for trophies in your age group

The obstacles are fresh

The water in the obstacles is still clean. I swam through, slid into, ran through clean water. Later heats had dirty water.

There are no long lines

You get done faster

You’re virtually alone in all the photos; no crowds

Cons:

Less of a fun camaraderie atmosphere.

Fewer publicity photos are of the pro heat. The pro heat did not make the event video either. The camera loves the teamwork type of photos.

No team work; must negotiate all obstacles with no help.

You run early and there are fewer spectators.


Most of these events are sponsored by the military. Here's how the Army works out. Great obstacle race training exercises are inside:

 

Cool monkey bar workout...