My weekend started with an 8am wake up on Saturday. I tried to sleep in later but my mind was full of race thoughts and packing gear for the adventure ahead. We arrived at the OCR boneyard around 3:30pm and started the epic trek from the car ( at least a 1/2km or more of trail with multiple hills) FYI next time we bring tent pegs instead of 100lb of weights š£. We survive the trek and arrive at race HQ, base camp. We are immediately greeted by many friends and setup our base camp for the night. with a tent city forming and surrounded by friends. it feels like OCR summer camp. we visit and enjoy the afternoon/early evening in anticipation of the nights events.
Before the race begins we get a surprise visit from my buddy Keith, heās recovering from his 100 mile win last weekend and decides to come out to crew and volunteer all night, thanks a million buddy!
At 9:30pm the siren sounds and that means 30 minutes until Go time!! All the racers anxious with anticipation.
At 10pm the race officially begins! We head out in a mass start, over 150 people. Through the green smoke we emerge. Breaking through the crowd I settle into a nice pace and I find my race buddy for the night, Dave. The 1st lap is to be done with no obstacles but the elite guys are so fast they start lapping people and the obstacles are opened before our first lap is over. This is where Iāll experience my first propane tank carry x2. The tanks are filled with cement or something and are heavy and awkward. This loop is the penalty loop walk of shame. Itās so close to the finish line you can see it, but instead you loop back carrying your tank of shame. Damn you X rig, every DAMN time! 
The next few laps Dave and I go round and round in the dark, encouraging and helping each other through the obstacles and endless hills. After lap 5 Dave takes a break and I recruit Kevin and his buddy Mike for a lap. Now getting light out we reach Poker chip (penalty) hill just as the sun rises and we can finally see the beautiful view from the top. I spent SO much time doing this hill, a total of 13 repeats! Of course this penalty was placed immediately after X coaster, which sounds fun but itās actually a series of 5 steep hill repeats. Adding X coaster and poker chip penalty loop I did a total of 48 hill repeats ( Iām only counting the big hills here, not the sandbag hill or the Timber carry hills) then all at once the sun is up high and the race is slowly coming to a close.
I join the my friends, City Fit Shop crew for a victory lap together, laughing, cheering and helping each other through our final lap. as the horn goes off, we know that the 11th hour has finally come and we are now able to cross the finish line hand in hand. completing an amazing adventure with some of the best people I know. 
Highlights of my race: running with Dave, seeing my hubby Mike on every lap (My guy drove me to Barrhead, helped me bring all the gear in from the parking lot, volunteered for 14 hours straight with only 1 break, packed up all the gear and drove me home ā¤ļø), having my ultra buddies Keith and Dan cheering me on throughout the night from their obstacles, seeing Darcy at Base camp after every lap (what a RD), getting to play around with the air soft rifles in the promo video, finally getting the ax throw, seeing my amazingly strong best friend run ALL 6 of her laps with a 40lb sandbag and making the podium first place female sandbagger and of course the final lap with about 20 of my friends ā¤ļø
Lows: realizing early on that 10 Laps was probably not going to happen, disappointed about the jumping rope š I can climb it but didnāt want to risk an injury missing it as I hurl towards it, the long ass trek to the car afterwards and sad this is my last OCR of the year š as Iāll be shifting my focus back to Ultra marathons and trail running.
Tips for success:
1.running with a buddy can help you stay awake, teamwork on endless obstacles is awesome and appreciated.
2.Pickles after every lap is a good idea. if you donāt have pickles, yellow mustard will work.
3. Friends who run ultras are awesome. Learned some useful stuff š¤
4. stick to your fuel schedule! Bonking sucks
5. Drink water every lap.
6. Coke is yummy is the middle of a race.
7. Dancing in base camp while eating pickles at 3am is perfectly acceptable.
8. Itās okay to run and not be so competitive all the time.
9. Darcy Barrettās cargo net trick was genius, I just wish he had showed me six laps earlier.
10. Penalty laps are hard, you should have trained harder. Bu the end of the race I had completed 6 sandbag laps, 9 propane tank carries and 13 poker chip hill repeats.
Going into Black ops it was a somewhat unknown this year. I knew it was 12hrs a multilap race, with obstacles…. in the dark. Iāve been out to the boneyard before so I knew some of the obstacles out there, but in the dark what obstacles would we do? Could I stay alert and awake over night? Would it be safe? Could I survive a 12 hr obstacle race?
The base camp and surrounding obstacles were well lit and you had to wear a headlamp and flashing beacon at all times in the dark. Darcy kept the tunes pumping all night and the great company on course kept me going all night long and the fireworks were a nice touch. I survived 12 hr Black Ops and I completed 7 laps on that tough course.
Would I do it again? Heck ya in a heart beat…. well once it doesnāt hurt to lift my arms over my head anymore. Until next time much love my friends.
