Review: Savage Race -Dade City FL 2013
of that, I trained for a few months prior to the race
Written on: October 25, 2013 Lisa Thornton
and was expecting to blow through this course. As I
plunged into the icy waters of the first obstacle, “The
On October 19th, I woke up a simple girl
Shriveled Richard”, I realized this was a race that was
anticipating her chance to see what she’s made of.
not going to let me simply participate. I would have
After two hours, more than six miles of constant
to master myself if I wanted to conquer the course.
running through challenging terrain, crawling
under barbed wire, swimming through murky lakes,
climbing over nine foot walls and trekking through
knee deep mud, I walked away a Savage.
The atmosphere of the race was uplifting,
I ran with a team of four other athletes, a fairly
small team compared to most, but I sure was
thankful for them. Where I was lacking, my team
carried me and where I was strong, I carried them. I
climbed onto my teams shoulders to tower over the
encouraging and enthusiastic from beginning to
“8 Foot Walls” and paved the way through the “Mud
end. Lining up for the start, our wave began jumping
N’ Guts”. Even participants we passed along the
and chanting to an electrifying song. Honestly, I was
course were yelling out encouragement.
so excited I can’t even remember what was playing.
Participants were laughing and cheering on each
other in the calm before the storm.
With over 15,000 participants, this race
stampeded at a fast pace. As I approached each
obstacle, so did an entire wave of runners. There was
Being an athlete, lifeguard
and college club swimmer,
29
no time for second guessing; I took a deep breath
and persevered. When I reached the “Colossus”,
I thought I was already in
I sprinted forward, grabbed the rope and pulled
pretty good shape. On top
myself to the top of the ramp.