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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

death training!!!

So this past weekend was crazy.....  Tom and Spencer put together one hell of a day!!  The best part of these adventures is the adversity you face with someone.  It brings you to a place you just cant explain.  The best I can say is its very honest, spiritual, emotional, and physical.  What a day....
here is my best memory of the day......

10:30 PM Friday night I get a text.... "4:30 am my house, don't be late or there will be consequences"
We arrive at Toms house, and I get there at 4:30 on the dot.  Gear packed, food, clothes, we have to be prepared...I was happy to pack my gear and test that part out. 

We are told chose an item on a table.  Yesel took a map to Angeles National Forest and I took bug spray.  We actually used both....

We were told to get on Toms mountain bikes.  Then he handed us each an 8 lb. Sledge Hammer and told to deal with it and ride to the Santa Fe dam.  We were not used to the bikes and it was pitch black so that was the first of many challenges to come.  Yesel was able to tie down her hammer to her bike.  About a mile in she found a tie down on the street.  We picked it up and I used it to tie my hammer to the bike.  I should have just grabbed my rope in my pack, but who is thinking at 4:30am?

We got to the Dam....I was having a rough morning....we got a monster hill.  Tom told us to do 10 hill sprints.  We, including Tom did the sprints and did several of them with the hammers over head.  The total mileage was about 2.5 miles.  Just when I felt like I was all but about to check out.....BAM, Spencer shows up!  It was such an emotional uplift....this is what the race is all about...dealing with adversity.....

So we get back on our bikes and ride to the Santa Fe Dam "Beach"  There Tom and Spencer make us do sand lunges (ok, so when they turned their back, me and Yesel cheated and ran behind them, until Spencer busted us).  Then we were told to do sand side squats.  Get to the end of that beach and told to alligator crawl all the way back...damn...this was through the grossest "beach" filled with dog and duck shit!!!

We get there and Tom takes both Hammers and discuss throws them in the water.  We are told to get out there, find em.  Luckily the water was warm and we found them pretty easily.  Now once in this gross ass water at 5:30 am we are told to stay waist high and do 50 hammer strikes in the water.  We pound away and all the people fishing are about to give us a death challenge....

we get out of the water and do 50 more strikes on the beach.  Then the po-po shows up and all my "friends" bail out on me!  Hey spencer....this reminds me of Rome when your ass got left behind, or Tom help me out with the dog catcher, or yesel hey its the park ranger!!!  I tell the po-po we are lifeguards in training....

we get to the beach and tom gives us a mental challenge.  You have 2 minutes to figure out 10 of the trivia questions...thank god yesel put that Phoenix education to work, cause i think I only got one.  She got them all, so no punishment....

Back on bikes and we ride back to Toms house.  We are told to Ride to Toms house.  We get back there and are told to ride to Eaton Canyon....great another 15 miles up hill on un-familiar bikes in gross ass clothes.  We stop by the church and say a quick prayer which was great.  So we get up to Eaton Canyon Nature Center and find tom there.  With full packs we do 100 step ups and 100 squats.  Then he takes off the tires and tells us to carry the bike to Henniger Flats.  This was the toughest part for Yesel.  We all have our moments, and this one was her test.....

We reach our next stop.  Bikes go down, and we are told to hike through, hinneger to Iddle Hour - Inspiration Point - E. Mountain, to Lake street.  Up the hill we go with packs.  At some point we stop and realize we are way off the trial and a bit lost.  We have to decide if we quit and go back the way we came or march on.  All of the sudden a guy training for an ultra Marathon comes out and we ask him to point the way out.  We run with him for a bit and he takes us back to the trail.  We did an extra 5 miles out of the way but decided to march forward...... we eat a lot throughout this and had moments where you just don't feel well.  The goo gets gross, your hot and sweaty, blisters, it was tough.  We get to Echo Mountain where we given an envelope and told to open there.  So now we have gone on a 20 mile hike after all the other crap and told we need to find clues to find combinations to a lock where our bikes are chained.  Coming down the trail we find an ICA sign and on the back are our combos.  We are told to memorize, but to hell with that we have a sharpie and write it on our arms. 

By the time we reach the bottom we are something like 40-50 miles in, and 14 hours.  Sindy, Spencer, and others were worried.  Tom had a lot left to do but it was late and we were much later than anticipated.  We walked much of the hike and i think they expected us to run.  It was a crazy day that I was so proud to be a part of...also thankful for some great friends.

I didn't feel great after.  Legs, and feet were a Little banged up.  I was a little worried about the death race as I will triple that time out there.  Blisters and hurt feet, plus food will be the biggest problem.  I have realized that the support crew will be the most important part of it all.....  We went on a hike yesterday back up hinneger with Sindy, Tom, Romie, and Morgan.  It was a lot of fun, but man my toes hurt!  I was very proud of little Morgan for making it all the way up that hill!  Its great to share all this with such great people.....

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