Epic Fifth F.I.T. Challenge

November 14, 2015

The Epic Fifth F.I.T. Challenge is the last OCR I will be doing for 2015.  It was a short race, only 3.68 miles, so I was not too worried about it. It was also a small race, with only 500 participants.  I had not seriously exercised since the Killington Beast, but I was not too worried, but now that the race is over, I wish I had trained more for it.

Unboxing: Lone Wolf Adventure Game

As I mentioned in a previous post, as a kid I was a big fan of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf Adventure Gamebooks.  So it was with eager anticipation that I received my boxed copy of the Lone Wolf Adventure Game.

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf

In Junior High School I went to my school's book fair and I found Book 1 Joe Dever's Adventure Gamebook series Lone Wolf: Flight from the Dark.  I had already been a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure books, but this was a step beyond that--rather than simply making decisions, you created a character, with skills and equipment you chose at the beginning of the book, and used them throughout the story.

Wargaming Terrain: Mediterranean Villa

I recently completed a relatively large piece of gaming terrain for use in games of Bolt Action, using plaster blocks made from molds from HirstArts.

It could also be used in any 28mm wargame, including Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy or Kings of War.

Killington Spartan Beast 2015

September 19, 2015

They say that when you are in the midst of a difficult trial, there is a moment of truth in which you overcome your fears and succeed in achieving your goal (or don’t). The Killington Spartan Beast was the trial, but my moment of truth for it actually came several weeks ahead of the race.

Boston Spartan Sprint 2015

August 29, 2015

Last year at this time, prior to my first OCR, the Boston Spartan Sprint 2014 in Amesbury, I was jittery, excited, and nervous for weeks before the event. This time around, I have many more races under my belt, and the nervousness didn’t kick in until a day or two prior. I had done more difficult races already this year, I had been to the locale...there was really nothing to get worked up about. The real nervousness will kick in prior to the Beast...20 days from now.

Battlefrog New England 2015

July 25, 2015

With the hoopla leading up to this race, I was a little worried about how it would go (short version: There were questions about Battlefrog's future because it was rumored they were in financial trouble). As for difficulty, this race was less distance than the Spartan Super, and I knew the venue to be flat, so I was not too worried.

Parking was similar to the Super, but right away you could tell things were a smaller scale. Whereas the Super they had maybe 10 porta-potties at the parking area, here there was only three. There was also a line at the buses, but fortunately I didn’t have to wait too long to get on one. At the venue, Registration was extremely fast and easy. Up to the festival area, the layout seemed a little strange, and I had to cut through a merchant tent to get inside (perhaps I didn’t enter the right way, but I just followed the crowd). Bag check was smooth dropping off, but less so picking up--it did not seem very organized despite several volunteers helping out. I ended up having to find my bag myself and then point it out to the volunteer who retrieved it.  

Boston Spartan Super 2015

June 20, 2015

In the days before this race I was somewhat apprehensive--although there were to be no hills, it was the first race I would be doing entirely alone. I did most of last year’s Spartan Sprint alone, since Ben was late, and then had to rush to meet his son, perforce having to leave me behind (I told him to go on ahead), he was there with me for a short while.  Both Bonefrog and Tough Mudder I did with John et al.  There would be the New England Spahtens to run with, but without any identifying gear on, I didn’t really feel “part” of them despite running with them. Essentially, I would be running this race alone.

Tough Mudder New England 2015

June 7, 2015

After having done the Bone Frog three weeks ago, I was not nervous about the Tough Mudder.  The distance was the same, but far fewer obstacles and those didn’t seem as difficult--many were teamwork based, while others were more “mental grit” obstacles rather than physically demanding.  Ultimately, the biggest punishment was the mountain itself.

Bone Frog Challenge New England 2015

May 16, 2015

This was my second OCR.  I had originally planned on doing the Killington Spartan Sprint in 2014, but real life got in the way, and I could not manage to train so I did not feel up to it. I vowed that 2015 would be different, and so I signed up for the Bonefrog Challenge. I planned on starting 2015 with some hardcore training, but again, real life got in the way and I wasn’t able to train much until March, and then I knew what I was doing was not enough. The closer I got to the event, the more I felt that I had bitten off more than I could chew. 10+ miles, 50 obstacles, 6000’ of elevation change...this felt like it would be too much for me. I kept training as much as I could, however, and even managed two long “runs” of 10.5 and 11.5 miles on the treadmill in the month leading up to the race. I was very slow, but I could do it, and that gave me a little bit of confidence.