Category: To Occupy my Time

It’s time for another Spartan Race. (You can also read about a prior race. I think there have been others, but I was not athletic supporting, so do not have photos.)  Matt has been training for this race with a trainer named Candice.  That’s her in the photo below.  Candice is great at making varied workouts that Matt really enjoys, plus, she is incredibly strong and fit.

At the start of the race.  Matt and Candice ended up racing with the heat of people who had been volunteering.   Here they are answering a question posed by the announcer. (I think it was something like “As a Spartan my job is to” and he instructed them to say “a-hoo, a-hoo, a-hoo”.  This answer makes no sense, but so much about this race makes no sense to me.)  The three shirtless boys on the left were fun to watch and also served as an anchor point later on.  It’s because of them I knew I hadn’t yet missed seeing Matt at one of the viewpoints.

After the start (my start line photo was not very good and is not included) I sat on a picnic table and ate my lunch.  I was delighted to find myself sitting behind this white guy with a black hoodie quoting Malcolm X about capitalism and racism.  This is not typical Spartan Race fare.  Other things I like about this photo: the two people looking for their racer while the little brother entertains himself with a tablet.  Watching out for your athlete is a big part of being an athletic supporter.

Sandwich eaten and port-a-potty visited, I settled in to wait for my athlete.  It was a very long wait.  Matt and Candice were in one of the last heats.  After the 2:00 group went, the race people started packing up the start line.

After more than two hours the athletes appeared. I passed the time by reading a few sentences/scanning the racers/reading a few sentences/scanning the racers.  Also by watching other athletic supporters.  Two people near me chatted for quite some time and then the woman said, “I wonder if we missed him?” which is a common thought among athletic supporters in these races.  After more than two hours, I was having that thought myself.

But I hadn’t missed them!  Here is Candice:

And here is Matt.  This is one of those obstacles where long legs make things more difficult.  But he did it!  As you can see by the mud, the two of them had already completed many obstacles by the time they got to me.

Climbing the rope.  The super saturated color is because I accidentally had my camera set to “poster” so the colors are very bright.

Matt doing 30 burpees because he did not successfully complete the obstacle. Candice entertains herself while she waits.  She very quickly climbed the rope. I barely had time to take a picture.

Matt climbing up.

Candice coming down.  This is one of my favorite photos.

And so the two of them continued on their way.  I wandered around planning out my next series of photos and picking my vantage point.  On the way I caught these kids wallowing in the mud.  I was greatly amused by them.

At my vantage point I could see these athletic supporters.  The man was smoking a cigarette and the woman passed the time by dancing.  Their athlete turned out to be a teenager, possibly their son. 

It was only another 45 minutes or an hour before Matt and Candice appeared again.  Here’s Matt sliding down a mud embankment.

Candice already made it under the wood wall.

Then it was up the incline and back down.

And under some barbed wire.  Matt crawled the entire way.  Again, not one of those obstacles where the long legs are an advantage.  I think women have an easier time with this anyway.  More power in the legs, lower center of gravity.  I saw quite a few men log roll through this.

Two more obstacles happened.  I did not get them on film.  But we’re nearing the end.  You can see the state of our participants by looking at the photo below.

The boulder carry involved picking up a big round “boulder”, walking it to the end, dropping it, doing five burpees, picking it back up and walking back.  For Matt, it also involved a shoe tying.  He swears he wasn’t tying it for the reason I retie my shoes (I need a rest).

Walking back with the boulder.  See his raw power!

Over the fire!

And done.

This photo sums up how the two participants completed the race.

Showing off the medals.

Post-race mud and curl in the middle of the forehead.

Then it was back into the car for the drive back to Portland.

And so our McMenamins Passport quest continues, today at Edgefield.

Our first stop:  Power Station. I’m noticing how amazingly I backlit Matt in this photo.  That was totally planned. 🙂

Next we walked up to the Distillery, where we found out the Distillery tour was beginning momentarily.  Score!  That means another experience stamp, which got Matt a $20.00 gift card.

Our tour guide (who gave me a hard time for taking his picture when he had his mouth open) told us all sorts of interesting facts about the distillery process.  I learned that whisky in the US is aged in oak barrels and most of those oak barrels are then sold to Ireland or Scotland because they reuse the barrels, because the US doesn’t.  At McMenamins, they do reuse the barrels, but not for whisky.  The law requires whisky to be aged in fresh barrels.  Instead they use them to age rum and then on down the list until eventually they become planters.

I also learned that McMenamins whisky demand is high enough that it’s one brewer’s job to make enough beer wash to make McMenamins whisky.  Below is a picture of the second still.  It can make a lot more whisky than the first one, which was in the photo above.

Look!  Whisky barrels reused!

We forgot to take some pictures outside of a few locations, so here we pick up at Jerry’s Ice House, which had some great tucked-away tables hidden inside.

My favorite sign of spring was coming into bloom.

The winery tasting room.

And then we had to find the artwork in the hotel that matched this description.

Check!

Current prizes:

I went for the opener.  Matt went for the chocolate drops in the decorative tin.

The view from the front porch.  I still have the plan to vacation here, hike in the Columbia River Gorge during the morning, soak in the soaking pools every day, hang out on the porch all afternoon and eat a good dinner every night.

Front porch self-portrait.

A failed attempt to look stern and grumpy.