Picking up from last time –
I mentioned earlier, there was only one instance of a racer who wasn’t that patient, overly-nice Spartan I saw everywhere else. It was during the barbed wire crawl.
The barbed wire crawl was pretty crowded. We were all going pretty slowly. I didn’t care much, but there was a woman behind me who kept yelling at us all to hurry up. There were people in front of me. So, I couldn’t go much faster since I was practically already on top of them.
Then, I don’t know how it happened, but before we got to the end, the crowd sort of parted in front of me, leaving me space to go however quickly I wanted. And that was when the woman really kicked it into high gear.
In the stress of the moment, I started focusing on speed, and letting go of some of that deliberate, slow cautiousness. And the back of my pants got caught on a piece of barbed wire above me. At which point the woman screamed “stay low!”
Okay, lady. Look. You’re already rushing me. Now you’re backseat-crawling me? Get out of my butt, please. I’m doing everything I can here. Somehow some space has magically appeared in front of/beside me. So, if you’re really in that much of a hurry, can you please just go around me?
We end up making it out of there. I think she’s going to make a total run for it, as I’m assuming she must be after a fast time with all her stress of wanting to quickly make it through the barbed wire crawl. And yet…!
Once we get out, she just stands up and takes her good ol’ sweet time. I start heading to the next thing and never see her again.
If you’re trying to break a personal best or something, okay. But you’re rushing people just so you can get out and stand there? What kind of sense does that make?
The only other thing I can imagine is that she was wanting to get out because she was in some kind of pain. I did hear her say something about her hips bothering her while we were down there. When people are in pain, they’re not always thinking of others, or about manners, or anything like that. They’re just thinking, “How can I get out of pain?”
So, even though I was miffed in the moment, I will try to just understand that she had pain, and I will try to patiently feel sympathy instead of only worrying about things from my point of view. Yes, I was rushed. But ultimately, it was a few moments of stress, and while my pants got snagged, I did not. So, I hope your hip is okay, stranger.
And while we’re talking about racers who aren’t the best, let’s talk about the moments where I wasn’t the best in the next installment.