Race Review – 2019 San Antonio Super
Favorite Venue, Hard Race
“Clothes make the man” is an ancient quote that we’ve all heard and probably believe to some degree. Spartan would argue that it should say “Craft Sportswear clothes make the man.” Sponsorship jokes aside, if clothes can (in some circumstances) make a man, can a venue make a race?
My first race of 2019 was a Super, my first ever, near San Antonio—Boerne, to be exact. It’s about a four-and-a-half hour drive from suburban Dallas, and Sara had agreed to go with me. We left early enough to drive into Boerne for dinner at Cypress Grille. I’m not the most knowledgable on racing/fitness nutrition, so I can tell you that this place had the best homemade cookies/ice cream I’ve ever had. The steaks were perfectly cooked, yes. Our appetizers delicious, sure. But, the ice cream. The ice cream…
But I digress.
This was the first time doing a distance besides the Sprint, so I was nervous (maybe it was all the ice cream in my belly?). I’d never been a distance runner, even in high school, so 8 miles was going to set a personal record…assuming I finished.
The venue at Don Strange Ranch was amazing—very close to the Interstate, lots of elevation changes (at least for Texas) to give great running and obstacle views. I’m still bummed that I didn’t have my phone with me to capture the “hills” and “valleys” I could see from the top of Stairway to Sparta. In the first mile we ran through an old tunnel—I was already breathing hard, but wondering what it had been used for and where it had led distracted me from the pain.
The best part about the course though, was that there was very little mud. There were the usual creeks to run and walk through but nothing excessive. I hate getting dirty (yeah, I’m in the wrong activity), so that was a huge bonus for me.
I’d never run a race alone before, so I was very apprehensive about what that would be like. I often find it difficult to push myself to keep going when I have a workout partner, how easy would it be to get distracted and/or quit when it’s just me out there?
It wasn’t horrible, but for someone who hates being alone it was similar to an extra obstacle. At least there’s not a burpee penalty for that one.
…because there definitely were for others.
Here’s how I stacked up against failable obstacles (needing help counts as a fail in my quest to run clean):
- Vertical Cargo = no
- At the end of 2019, I’m still trying to figure out which muscles I need to strengthen to be 5’7” and get up on the table without falling flat on my back in front of everyone
- Stairway to Sparta = no
- Twister = no
- Olympus = no
- Beater = yes
- First time seeing this obstacle, and the time I spent watching YouTubes paid off and made me look way smoother than I actually was
- Multi-rig = yes
- It was rings/horizontal bar/rings, but I was still so pumped to do a grip obstacle that had killed me in the previous races…and of course it wasn’t part of the gauntlet so no one saw. Alas.
- Rope = no
- Spear = no
- Hercules Hoist = yes
- Monkey bars = no
- I was really pissed to fail this one because it was the last thing before the fire jump and after getting the rig, I thought I had a chance to show off for Sara. Instead, she got to see my crappy burpee form.
Cardio
Not great. There were definitely long stretches of walking—and not just in the technical parts of the trail. But it was the longest I’d ever run/walked in my life, so I was happy to finish. To me, this was a proof of concept that I could do more than a Sprint.
Conclusion:
No matter how you feel about haberdashery and character, the venue is what I think of most when I look back on this race. I’d already be signed up in 2020 if it was in the same spot. I didn’t die, and completed a “bucket list” obstacle. All in all, not a horrible way to spend three hours (look, I said my cardio sucked).
Suburban Spartan 