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| Grrrr! |
The venue was the same as last year, the Ft. Carson army base in CO Springs. A great area with a lot of army training obstacles already onsite that Spartan makes good use of. This year I brought along 5 Spartan virgins who were inspired by my tales of glory (and failures) from last year's race.
The route was reversed from last year and had a couple of other change ups. The tire drag and pull was new to me, as was the Atlas Carry and the Hobie Hop. The lat pull down machines were absent and so was (mercifully) the grenade toss. The covered water trench was much shorter, which in turn made the mud hill after it shorter too. Also, the length of the barb wire crawl was significantly reduced and there were no rubber M16s to cradle. The wire crawl was, however, more interesting with its hills, but it had a lot of shin and knee scraping rocks in it. Although, I didn't find a piece of broken glass in it this year, so it all works out.
The log ladder was just over and down, rather than the weave, this year, which I figure was to alleviate the backups that obstacle had last year. It was a several minute wait in my 1030 heat, last year, but went fast this time. I'm guessing this is also why the barb wire crawl was shortened, as that was a painfully long slog in 2012. Although, I admit, I did miss the rubber training rifles and the Browning 1919 machine gun firing blanks over our heads.
Running the elite heat made for an overall easier race, in my opinion. There were no backups and the mud hills were not crazy slippery yet. Also, the layout and obstacle placement made the race feel shorter than the previous year, but that might also be because I ran better, finished quicker and generally am in better physical shape (10 pounds lighter helps) than last year. My friend just told me that the elite heat is going to be an additional $30 next year, as opposed to the $10 it was this year, so it's unlikely I'll run it again. Supply and demand I suppose. I'm certainly not threatening to win this race anytime soon, so I'll help make way for those who are.
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| Here is a picture to break up the text a bit. |
The 2 obstacles that gave me the most trouble were the tire flip, (4 flips this year instead of 2) and the rope climb. I don't know what that tire (Ted) weighs, but it is a real gut check trying to flip it for me. It's got to be over 200lb. and on the last 2 flips my form went to hell. I was able to get it over fairly quickly, but had it been 6 flips, I might have been in trouble. A couple of my teammates didn't seem to have any trouble with it, so it might also be my fear of another back surgery on these type of lifts (dead lifts over about 200lb. start to freak me out). Also, it's not a burpee penalty if you fail, it's an instant DQ! Not sure if that's true for all heats, or just the elite? The rope climb was at the very end this year and the knot spacing makes for a tricky ascent. We'd been practicing fast rope climbing and that helped a lot. I came damn close to slipping at the top of the rope, but managed to power through and ring the bell. I believe only 2 members of our team prevailed here.
After our heat, the only back up (that we could see anyway) was at the slant wall with the rope on it. This particular obstacle did seem a little harder than last year for some reason and I heard several people remark likewise. I heard the traverse wall got backed up later, and I can only imagine that the tire flip must have as well.
At the festival area afterwards, we tried our hands at the slosh pipe. What a wacky contraption that thing is! A 10' long piece of 6" PVC pipe, half filled with water, that really wants to pull you over when you try to overhead press it. Shawn was the only one of us who could even get it over his head. But, we got the crowd into it and helped count and cheer on others that did far better than we did. Best I saw was 25 reps. There is an official contest, and the winner gets a free entry to a Spartan event, but we didn't hang around to se it.
The free beer was, well, free beer. I know Coors is a big sponsor, but Coors Light has got to be their worst product. It would be nice to see some better beer at Spartan. Then again, this is Colorado, recently coined "The Napa Valley of beer", so we tend to be uppity about our brew. There were also Mike's Hard margaritas there for $5 a pop.
Pro tip: if you want your servers to make money, charge $4 for the can. Instant $1 tips all day long. A lot of people aren't as nice as me to ask the volunteers to make change so I can tip them.
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| Shawn, AKA "Herk", with the slosh pipe. |
I was hoping the medal might be different this year, but it was the same. But, it is also a unique medal as far as Spartan races go, so it's still the coolest one out there. I liked last year's shirt better, they were Colorado specific in 2012 and the tan color was more military looking. The new shirt needs a bigger Spartan helmet on it, I think. The festival also didn't have any fighting vehicles parked around it this year, which were cool to check out in last time. The showers had much better water pressure this time, but the water was so damn cold I chose to rinse off at the car with the water I brought. It was a pretty chilly day in CO overall though.
Security was tightened this year, complete with a bomb sniffing army dog. Even though the security and check in process went fairly quickly, getting there, just over an hour early and herding all the cats, made for a rushed pre race prep. But we were able to get everyone taped up, prepped and still had a few minutes to spare, but if we hadn't brought our own marker, we might have been really pushing it. Unfortunately this put us at the back of the starting pack. Also new in 2013, was the $5 bus ride fee, but not a huge deal. Last year military personnel were manning the buses, but this time it appeared to be Spartan's people.
I spent a lot of time training for this event. Basically the whole year since the 2012 CO Military Spartan Sprint. It paid off big time. I completed very obstacle this year, yielding me zero penalty burpees. This fact, combined with running the elite heat (with it's less muck and backed up obstacles), wearing better shoes and the shorter wire crawl allowed me to finish almost an hour quicker than last year, even though this year's course was about a half a mile longer.
I'm happy with my 1:10 finish time. My goal was to cut last year's time in half and pass all the obstacles and I nearly did both. I was chicked once, by April Luu (she passed me right at the top of the ruck sack climb), but that's only because us guys had a 15 minute head start on the elite ladies. 6 other elite gals posted faster times than me. Last year I did 150 burpess and I'm sure that added significantly to my time. This year I only stopped running on the steeper hills and never completely stopped anywhere except for some "Everest shuffle" on the ruck climb. I came in first place out of my friends and we all had a great time.
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| Team Live Badass |
The post race pictures were not very good this year, I'm finding out. There's about a dozen pictures linked to my bib number, but only about 3 are actually of me. Also, no lost and found pictures to search through for some better shots. But they are free, so I suppose you get what you pay for. There was better video coverage though, with shots at a half dozen different obstacles. The official video for the day is OK, but it might as well be called the April Luu highlight reel. Doesn't show much of anybody else. But she genuinely deserves it.
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| I am the 2% |
As always, the Spartan organization was phenomenal. Plenty of volunteers, who were all helpful, encouraging and even quite funny at times. The course was well laid out and maintained. The festival area was great and the crowd was happy, friendly and fun to be around. It's still my favorite event. My buddy Dave called it "The Daytona 500 of obstacle runs", because it's the first (major) race of the year (for us in CO) and also the toughest. I always think to myself, "Maybe I'll skip the Spartan next year, to free up some money for some other events I haven't run yet.", but it's a tough race to beat and I know I'll be back. Hmm... Maybe I'll try one in another state to see how it compares next year... Anyone have a couch I can crash on for a night or 2?
You might also like:
DIY Spartan spear with throwing tips
DIY Spartan slosh pipe and lifting technique
2012 Spartan Sprint play by play
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