Good Morning and salutations! I hope this blog finds you well in an ever increasing trying times of the world we are living in. What’s it going to be this week? Giant spikes in Covid? Reverting back to Zero on the levels of each state? Or maybe you’ll just get a hang nail that will stop you from running this week. Who knows…but thank you so much for taking a read of this blog and the rest of my blogs on this page.
Today’s blog is a little different. Today, I want to write about a Facebook group I was invited into from my friend Bill and a little about their website battlemiles.com. Yes, these are virtual races. Yes, there is running in these virtual races. Yes, there is cool swag. I will get to all that, I wanted to start by going through the main reason I am writing about a Battle Miles…the people.
If you’ve read my blog you will know I am a people loving person. The thing that has drawn me to races like Spartan race, Savage Race, and the Dirty German (in Philadelphia), are the people that are putting on the races. Battle Miles is a group of virtual races that push you, if you are an Ultra Runner, a Spartan, or a Rucker, you really need to check this out. Don’t get this twisted though, just because you’ve done some rucking or some running, you will have a hard time going through these races as I did.
A little about the Site and Races from my perspective:
I started Battle Miles kind of blindly. My friend Bill had been pushing me to do one of their virtual races in the beginning of quarantine and I just pushed it off and continued running and lifting. As the months progressed along, stupidly, I thought I could keep training the way I am and be ready for the races that were to come. Weeks turned into months and all of my races were canceled or pushed to October and then promptly canceled. Trips were canceled, a getaway for my wife and I to Disney…Alaskan cruise, canceled. Depression set in and I needed a new outlet to get some of my energy out. Once again, enter Bill…pushing ever so slightly to “try it!”
March, April, May…I started to look through the site and just kinda had the same thoughts you may have had, ahh this is just another virtual race. I ordered the hardest one at the time “The Death Race,” I thought I’ve run these distances before and with a giant chip on my shoulder started to run the race. In my head, “I got this race, I’ll get first or second, I’m a fast runner, I do this!” After going through the workout that comes with the miles I promptly stopped running at mile 15 and felt like I was going to die…not like in a bad way, but my heart was coming out of chest, a wide smile on my face as I laid in the dirt on the trail. This was not what I thought. This was so much more! I GOT HOOKED.
Fourth of July came with a free race from the company The 4th of July Ruck. I traveled up to Bill’s house and we decided to do the ruck and run. I donned my Ruck and we were off for four miles of rucking and burpees. I’ve been rucking a lot through this summer, so again I had ideas of doing awesome! Mile one and two was easy, the burpees hit hard the second time. 2 miles and 20 burpees doesn’t sound tough, but it hits differently. We got finished the run and it took about an hour. It was hot, I’ve not tried running with 20bs on my back for some time so I felt the movement of the bag and my head felt concussed from my weight hitting it…LOL. When we finished I decided we should do the second run on more of a fun way and not run and burpee…because I didn’t want to do more burpees, no one says they want more burpees, unless your sadistic.
The next day I felt invigorated to do the 4 mile and 40 burpees without weight. I floored it, sprinting the first and second mile with only 10 burpees between then. Dropped for the second set and felt a brick hit me. I was moving fast, heart rate at 170-180, pace was 6:40. The second set of burpees felt tough. It was a free race so I thought I could pull it back a little bit, finished up with what I thought was a respectable time. I lost third by 30 seconds. Even in this defeat for a free patch, I felt something bubble inside. I wanted to make the winners board. Yeah, it was a virtual race, but they post online all the time with winners…winners get extra incentives. In the fourth of July, top 3 got patches….my 30 seconds failed me and for that I felt the competitive bug again. I bought the race bundle and have been working through each race now. My training has come with the purpose to make it onto the Battle Miles Facebook page of winners. The training is very specific, very much like how you would train for a Spartan race. You want to make sure you are working on the muscles that will get you there and get you faster.
The biggest thing I find endearing of the Battle Miles group is the company and people on the Facebook page. I’m a poster…I post a lot on my page and on similar running pages about the hell I just put myself through. Battle Miles is a little different. The people that respond or that also post are going through some of the same hell you are going through. There aren’t any “Stop posting about running,” or even “God that sounds awful.” The people on the page respond with, “Nice, get it!” or “I’m gonna have to try that!” I know this may sound small to some of you, but that comradely is huge for me. It pushes me to get to their levels of work. To go along with it, the creators of Battlemiles.com also put out messages for new races they are creating, people who have done incredible things, and winners. You’ll find that many virtual races out there right now just send you shit and that’s the end. Battle miles has a site you can follow the winners and leader boards, they post on your feeds as well, telling you badass job or keep it up. It makes me want to push to be there.
Just the other day I saw someone finished “One,” a ridiculous 1 mile run with 20lbs on your back and an 80lb sandbag…then 100 burpees with the weight…he looks thrashed but happy. I was impressed and freaked out at the same time. I’m a runner, how could I get there. It pushed me to create two days in my lifting schedule just to sandbag burpees to get there. I wanted to beat him, in a friendly way of course. It helped me push past where I was to get to the next level of funishment.
Battlemiles.com is not just another virtual race. It’s a race with a giant group of friendly people and a comradery behind it that I have not felt in a long time. If you think it sounds tough, it’s because it is. Don’t take the runs lightly, you might end up throwing up in the end. It is hot, the races are competitive, do you best to run hard and get faster. I’ll be looking for your results and competing harder each time!
I have become an ambassador for battlemiles.com. I really do love their races and thought it would be a better way to share my passion for the races. I have only started doing the run’s but I can see myself doing their races until I complete them all…and hopefully push to win a few. Use my code below to sign up…start with the 2mile and work up.
Copy and paste this link...help us both out :)
https://battlemiles.com?sca_ref=320988.KtA3au98X9