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Hiking and Chopping Wood

  • February 15, 2012
  • Tony Matesi

If theres two things you can count on doing in the Death Race it’s chopping wood and without question some form of hiking will occur. Why not make a weekend morning afternoon out of it? This past Saturday I did just that but for once I didn’t have to go alone. I met up with fellow Death Racer, Amelia. We hit the Pulaski Woods Forest Preserve up in Willow Springs at around noon. It was the perfect day for a hike.  This was the same location where I ran the Red Bull Trail Daze back in December. I remembered there being lots of hills so the location was perfect for what we wanted to accomplish.

We both brought our rucks, I definitely will need to be investing in a better one in the near future, and set out for our hike.  My ruck doesn’t have anywhere that could be considered convenient to carry my axe so for the majority of the time we were out I held it in my hand. We stopped on two occasions to chop away at some fallen trees. It continually amazes me at how incredible the workout that can be achieved from chopping wood really is. Even if you’re not normally an angry person I can’t stress enough how great it is simply unleashing any and all fury you might have stored up. Regardless of whatever weight that normally weighs down on your shoulders, the power you feel from the force of striking that wood and splintering it to pieces is extraordinary. After the second round of chopping wood we both picked up the largest log we made and set out to find our way back. Now we had gone on and off various paths throughout our mini excursion so at first we had to do a few GPS checks on the good ol iPhone but luckily enough we were not too far off from the main road leading back to our cars.

The one thing I always find fun about doing these workouts is the stares people will give you when you’re randomly carrying these huge logs, and rucks for no apparent reason. A  gentleman who was biking asked us if we were gathering wood for a fireplace. We found it humorous and of course explained to him what we could about the Death Race.  It seems no matter how you go about it, there really is no way to explain what the race really is. No matter how detailed or vague you are, the confounded look seems to be the standard.  All in all it was a great workout. I can’t wait for the Go Ruck event coming up on St. Patty’s Day.

 

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