How can I already be at 99 days?   This is crazy how fast the start of the Death Race is coming.  Looking back, the adventure started on June 23, 2011 – Day 357.  I have kept a log of all the workouts and adventures I have had over the past several months and it is amazing how the body can adapt to such extreme physical and mental challenges. 

When my coaches and I first started the training sessions, I was given a second WOD to do in addition to the daily WOD.  This went on for almost a month and then a third WOD was added to the regiment.  The intensity and mental anguish also tripled.  A constant mental battle was fought between my brain and my body…”you can stop.  You don’t need to do this anymore.  Just pick it back up the next day.”….. vs. ”there are others that are training harder.  Just keep moving.  You can do this.” 

I pushed through and in mid-October it was time to be tested and begin a series of intense, challenging, and exhausting training sessions.  The goal was to increase my endurance to prepare for the 30-40 hour “gruelness” of the Death Race.  I am not sure what is worse, not knowing what lies ahead or having the training session written on the board and seeing what you are going to have to do.  I thought I knew what physical and mental pain was until I had to wear a weighted jacket and move rocks for 3.5 hours.  “Goodness, what have I gotten myself into?”  “I wonder if anyone would mind if I just quit?”  Of course, at these times I always think of that damn saying that I made the mistake of reading one day and it stamped itself permanently on my brain……”Pain is only temporary but quitting lasts a lifetime!”  I came back for more the following Monday.

The daily regiment continued and in December, the next test was scheduled.  I think that beginning a training session at 5am has got to be against some existing law(s), if not….it should be.  Flying past the 3.5 hour time of the previous test, this session included brain teasers, repeated activities for several hours, and pool work.  When I finally moved the last weight and completed the last burpee, almost 8 hours had past.  When a person works out for this long, the brain and body go on vacation.  There is no arguing or disagreement.  The spirit punches the clock and moves the arms and legs up and down the street and around the gym.

We rolled into 2012 with 6-months of training under the belt.  In addition to 10 mile runs with a 40lb pack the daily WOD’s were now increased to 4-5.  Surprisingly, the mind and body were accepting of the increase and took it all in stride…..both were on the same page and working together.  This would be crucial as the 3^rd test was scheduled for early February.

The 3^rd session was started 2-hours ahead of schedule.  Thanks to everyone that was involved in the clandestine planning and superb execution to throw me out of my pre-workout prep (coffee, good breakfast, and mental acceptance of the day’s adventures).  Instead of a 7am start, I was awoken at 5am and instructed to “move it, move it……and push my truck.”  Fortunately, as stated earlier, the brain and body had, and still do, the same goal and acceptance of any future pain and exhaustion.  The 3.5 hour mark easily flew by; the 8.0 hour milestone was hardly mentioned.  The clock read 6pm when the final log was split and the last burpee was completed.  The 13-hour session was over, and I still had a smile on my face.

How and why?  A sincere and grateful thanks and appreciation for the time and commitment of my coaches at Forged Fitness.  The support and encouragement of Aimee and everyone at the gym.  Without all of you, I could not have gotten this far in my Death Race training.  Thanks to all, I will not let you down. 

-Brushy

Completed the Umstead Trail Marathon this past Saturday.  A good training event and much better experience than my first marathon.  Of course, I cannot do anything normal and had to add 20 reps of pushups or squats every 10 minutes, which was about every mile.  So in total: 26.2 miles, 260 pushups, and 260 squats in 5 hours and 15 minutes.  Great job to Aimee and Laura for running it also.  Special thanks to Sung, Nissa, and Hess for the support.

So we all met at Moore Square. Everyone was very excited and ready to get started.  We met our cadre (instructor – Patrick), signed waivers, heard his ground rules, picked a battle buddy, and lined up in two columns with our 40lb packs. We walked for about 10 feet and Patrick instructed us to fireman’s carry our BB with packs. This is where things started to change a bit. For some reason everyone clicked their common sense button to the off position. People were running in front of cars, stopping in the middle of the street…..yes, both while carrying their BB. I actually got dropped in the street. That was the absolute last straw with our cadre. Understanding that cadre’s are active duty Special Ops guys, he exploded into a storm of yelling and cussing at all of us. He unloaded a plethora of f-bombs on us that I thought he was going to punch someone in the face. LOL. Keep in mind that this is downtown Raleigh at 10:30. A lot of people out and about. The yelling and cussing would be heard for the next 11.5 hours. The yelling and cussing created more chaos and causing us to be more stupid. LOL. For the next 3 hours, we must have done 1000 pushups, a mile of crabwalks and bear walks. During one of our breaks, he told of some of his military experiences and described what our mission was going to be tonight. We were told we were to extract a piece of equipment and a body from a hostile area and transport said items to a designated LZ. We had 3 hours to accomplish. Equipment = 800 lb log, Body = 50lb mannequin, and the team weight (30 lb fire hose). We carried that all itesm for the next 4 hours. Missed our time and were greeted with more f-bombs. He pointed out the mistakes we had made the last 4 hours and that we never worked as a team. More exercises. We finally rolled back into Moore Square 10:10AM. My shoulders and feet were so sore but I still had a smile on my face. Good experience…mentally and physically.

Morning Coffee of pushing an F150..... Really?

5:15 AM – Woken up to the sound of Jason Culbreth’s voice in the kitchen.  This is strange because I was not supposed to hear his voice until 7AM.  Are you kidding me?  LOL.   So after jumping into my gear and heading outside, I was told to throw all my other gear (mtn bike, bucket, etc) into the back of his truck on top of the wheelbarrow and rocks.  What about my coffee?  I ask.  He takes and drives off.  I follow carry my fully loaded pack (50lbs) almost a block up the road to where he has stopped.  Though the temperature is in the low 40’s, I am still trying to wake up.   I stand next to the driver’s door and he cracks the window so as not to let the heat out of the cab and says to start pushing the truck.  HUH!!  So my morning coffee……is now pushing an F150 truck a few blocks, mostly uphill.  This is going to be a very long day.

Pushing a truck, surprisingly, is not too bad once you get it going forward.  The bad part is stopping to rest and the truck begins to roll backwards.  Up two back one, up two back one, up two back three.  Damn, I am going the wrong way.  Near the end of this challenge, I was literally pushing with every muscle and appendage I had, including my head, to keep the truck moving forward and only forward.

Feel like I had 1 too many at the bar.

5:45 AM – I was now instructed to ride my mtn bike to the next destination, about 6 miles away.  Of course in NC, there is not a flat road anywhere.  You are either going up or going down….nothing in between.  I did happen to ask a silly question before Jason drove off again…..remembering that I have had zero coffee at this time…..I ask “where can I put my 50 lb. pack?”  I think I heard him laughing as he drove out of site.  So riding a bike is no problem, but riding it with 50lbs on your back makes you ride as if you have been to a few too many happy hours and are trying to make your way home while your favorite song plays in your head.  Through some near misses with cars because I can imagine that someone has trouble seeing an individual on a bike wearing a bright jacket and a backpack with a maul and bow saw sticking out of it.

It’s funny how easily you forget how much a bike seat hurts if you have not been riding in a long time.  How do people do this all the time?  Anyway, I arrived at the agreed upon destination and was given some coffee and food….finally.  And a list of 20 pictures to memorize…..oh yes, I had forgotten that I needed to train my brain.  I would be required to reiterate the photos at a later time.

8:00 AM – At the entrance of Umstead State Park, I was told to unload the wheelbarrow from the back of the truck and fill it with the rocks that were also in the back of the truck.  The wheel barrow + rocks amounted to approximately 80lbs.  Before heading into the park with my wheelbarrow and pack, I had to pay a toll…..clean a 35 lb rock 50x.  Good form is critical on this one, which was realized after 10 reps.

8:30 AM – Heading into Umstead with my wheelbarrow and backpack.  The first people passing me asked me if I was going to do some trail work?  Seriously?  The more people that passed

Me and my newest death race training friends

me, the funnier the comments got….”why are you moving rocks?”……….”you don’t see many people like you out here.”  If  you have ever been to Umstead, then you know of all the hills out there.  Going up the hills were not too bad, but going down….now that was another story.  It took every bit of strength and balance to control the load and prevent it from taking out a herd of runners and ending up in Durham.

10:00 AM – I arrived at the stopping point and loaded the rocks and wheelbarrow back into the truck.  FYI: Pushing a load of rocks is much easier than pushing an Ford F150.  Any day!!  Just to test my memory, I was asked to name 7/20 of the pictures I had seen earlier.  On the 7^th picture, I say pie and it’s actually a cake…..details smetails…..this cost me 30 burpees in a row.  I was now instructed to saw 5 2” blocks off of a nearby fallen tree.  Sawing with a bow saw is a lot easier said than done…the trick is to maintain a straight cut or you risk the chance of breaking the blade.  Mental note, buy a spare blade.  Fortunately, I made it through this task without losing the blade.  I now am the proud owner of 5 very nicely cut coasters.

11:30AM – I was given my pack, my 5-gal bucket, my wooden coasters, and my bike – minus the front tire and told to go on a hike.  Instructions and descriptions that were given at this time vary but the goal was still achieved.  Over the next 5 hours, I hiked all over Umstead park carrying a 50 lb pack, a mtn bike, and a 5-gal bucket with my wooden coasters.  Met some interesting people and received more interesting questions/comments…..”are you okay?”  “did you wreck?”  “you know you are missing your front tire?”  During this time, I did take a break and had a quick lunch.  My first experience with an MRE, Meal Ready to Eat.  Today’s menu: meatloaf , a tube of peanut

Here I am hiking with a part of my bike.

butter, and a very dry m&m cookie.  Though it did not look like meatloaf, smell like meatloaf, or taste like meatloaf, it was all the food l had and it was gooooood.  A person worth mentioning at this time, is the hiker that sat down with me while I was eating lunch.  I would say that Jim was in his late 70′s but had just gotten back from travelling to NZ and while there did some skydiving and bungy jumping.  We traded stories on NZ and my current adventure, the Death Race.  He was very excited to hear the story and then told me one of his memorable moments in life.  At 6 years of age, he was living in Honolulu with his family on Dec. 7 1941.  He tells me that him and his brother walk over a hill from his home and can see Pearl Harbor.  He recalls seeing a Japanese plane fly no more than 20′ above him and seeing the pilots face.  He says he can clearly remember the explosion of the USS Arizona and feeling the shockwaves hit him.  Amazing experience and story!!  He shook my hand and said he check out the Death Race on his computer to learn more about.  Wished me luck, and he hiked on.  I packed up my gear and continued my trek.

Hiking this long with this much gear will definitely begin to wear on a person’s body and mind.  If you ask me, I will tell what I thought I saw but I would rather not write it here for the fear of being committed involuntarily.

One thing I love to do is cut wood.

4:30 PM – I meet back up with everyone and we head off for my last task of the day.  My favorite…..wood splitting.  We arrive at a person’s house which has more downed logs and stumps in their front yard than a forest.  WOW!!  Some of the stumps are the size of a volvo.  I plan to leave those for last.  I split wood for the next 1.5 hours and have a nice stack at the end of the day.  My final task is….drum roll please……what are the 20 photos I was required to memorize.  I get 19/20.  Not good enough.  I am given a number by the owners of the house, 79.  I am told to do 79 burpees.  I complete 79 in a row with a big smile.  The day is over.  A good training day and I am sure it will be considered an easy one when the next one arrives.

Here is my video application for the Unbreakable reality show.  Thanks so much to Tony, Barbara, Susan, and Aimee for helping me put this together.

Brushy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StVZpCxAWog 

Oh yes, the hills of Umstead.  A running we will go:

Completed - 14 miles

Can’t run 10 miles in Umstead without a 30lb pack.  And stopping every 10 minutes to do 10 pushups. 

You ask why?  I say…..I just don’t know.

10-mile trail run….completed in 1:33:40.

Started off great in the first 7 miles and then started to trip and fall the next three.  I looked like I had been attacked by wild squirrels.

Holy hell!  Is it really 3:45 in the AM?! This should be against the law.  It is definitely cruel and unusual punishment.  Fortunately, the rain had moved on as I was loading my pack into the car and the temperature was in the upper 40’s….not too bad.  The contents of my pack were as follows:  6 solid bricks (and when I say solid, I mean solid….no holes in these bricks), a 1L bottle of water, a bottle of whole milk/protein powder mix, and an assortment of food…..the total contents brought the weight close to 50lbs.  I met Jason, whom I shall refer to as Satan himself, at 5AM to begin today’s training. 

I was given 5 minutes to make notes/diagram a Lego example, which included a house (w/windows and a door), horses, and trees.   With pen and paper in hand, the time quickly counted down, I made what I thought were excellent reminder messages and footnotes on my paper.  But how much detail can you capture at 5AM.  Seriously?!!  Time over, I placed the paper in my pack and was instructed not to lose it. 

I was instructed to take my pack and a sledgehammer for a 3-mile run….more like a jog/shuffle on a designated path, which I would have to reiterate the path/street names at a later time…..much later.  And I was only given 33 minutes to complete this challenge.  Seriously?!  Running around at 5AM is not too bad because there are no cars or other runners, which was good because I am sure the police would have been notified that there was some fool running around Raleigh carrying a sledgehammer and a camouflaged backpack.  The first few minutes were not too bad but that good feeling did not last as the weight of the pack begin to settle in.  I realized that driving these same roads, a person does not get a true appreciation of the terrain……and by true appreciation I mean that every road was a giant hill both ways. Seriously?!!  I made it back to the gym with 5 minutes to spare.  “ Way to go!!” 

Upon arrival, a 25# rock was waiting for me…..with instructions to clean the rock overhead…..200 times.  Fortunately, I was allowed to set my pack off to the side.  Obviously, Jason had not had enough coffee this morning and/or had a weak moment….no complaining from me.  The next challenge I was faced with pvc pipes across plyo-boxes, of course at different heights.  I was instructed to step over the higher pvc pipe and crawl under the lower pvc pipe……with pack and sledgehammer……100 times.  After 10 reps, I quickly realized that this was going to be one of those mind squeezes.  The kind that put doubt in your head and make you wonder why in the world I am doing this.  Mixed with bouts of nausea and sleepiness, I finished this task after about 45 minutes…..Seriously?!

After I finished up, Jason began to fill up two military ammo canisters with water…approximate weight 10-15 lbs each.  I was instructed to carry my pack, sledgehammer, and both ammo boxes to a pool that was 1.5 miles away.  Of course, it was about 8AM and the morning traffic was picking up on the streets.  Oh the strange looks I knew I was going to get.

Upon arrival at the pool, I was met with more curious looks and a 25# plate.  I was instructed to walk the length of the pool 20x while carrying the plate overhead.  Of course the depth of the pool had the water just above my mouth, so I had to keep my head at an angle and try not to swallow any more water than necessary.  Still feeling good after the pool session, I went outside with wet clothes and pack.  Wow!!  I quickly realized that my gear is not the best for cold weather training….mental note:  GET COLD WEATHER GEAR!!!  Fortunately Jason had a few extra layers in the trunk of his car that he let me borrow.  He also had two 25lb plates to exchange for the ammunition boxes.  So at this point my pack weighed almost 50lbs and I was carrying an additional 50lbs.  It’s going to be a slow walk back to the gym.  The plates really tested my grip and were placed on the ground more and more during the 40 minute walk back to the gym. 

After getting back to the gym, I was allowed to remove the pack and drop the weights…….I have never felt so light.  After a bite to eat, I was instructed to reconstruct the Lego house I had seen 6 hours ago.  I quickly realized that the cheat sheet I drew was not detailed enough and the legend I developed was painfully confusing.  I think I was either drunk or completely asleep when I was looking at the Lego demonstration.  Needless to say, I failed this task and would owe the Puzzle Master, 75 burpees.

Another brain teaser puzzle waited.  Weights and brain teasers are not a good combination.  To make this long story short…..I completed this task but exceeded the allotted time…….therefore I owed the Puzzle Master an additional 25 burpees. 

At 7 hours and 40 minutes since the start of the training session, I completed the 100 burpees. 

I can hear a bed calling my name.