Race Review - Spartan Beast, Utah 2014

Stop number three, in our quest for the Spartan trifecta, was Soldier Hollow, the site of the 20xx Winter Olympic games in Midway, UT. We began planning our trifecta bid about mid-season the year prior. The 3 closest races to us being the Super in Vegas, the Military Sprint in our own Colorado backyard, and finally Utah, to finish with the Beast nice and early in the season.

Out of all the races I've done, Spartan or otherwise, this was the hardest yet. We weren't quite sure what to expect. We felt the Super was relatively tame, light on obstacles and long on running. We both ran the Super clean and aside from some cramps, had little trouble with the mid length course. But at a little over 12 miles in length and nearly 3,000 feet in elevation gain, the Beast was a 4 hour test of endurance.

In an effort to curb cramping, we planned ahead with some carb chews and brought our water bladders for the race. At our VRBO rental, in Park City, the night before the race, we did a little carb loading and had some more in the morning before heading out to the venue.

Pre race obligatory pic.

Our race time was late morning and it was shaping up to be a hot afternoon. We charged off a little after 11:00am and the race was on.

The race began heading downhill and quickly into a murky water pit. These water obstacles were spaced cunningly throughout the course to ensure wet feet the entire day. Shortly after the water, the course went straight up the mountain side, for something like 1300 feet. Being from CO, we didn't suffer the slightly higher elevation as much as some, and we were able to plow our way up without stopping. After the summit, and taking in the nice view from the top, the downhill trudge began. This is where my pain as well as some frustration with other participants began.

The course sort of wound down and up and down the mountain side. We spent a lot of time standing, waiting, on the single track path as the less confident racers crawled down the mountain. Occasionally we could break off to the side, but the brush was pretty thick, so it made for a slow descent. The pain came in my toes, as I consistently have a problem with going downhill and my toes smashing into the front of my shoes. I've tried different shoes, socks, boots, lacing techniques and haven't found a way to avoid the painfully bruised and blackened toenails that result. Maybe I have weird feet/toes, bad technique or terrible taste in footwear, I don't know. What I do know is that it sucks and makes for a long day.

Slick and slippery.

Back down in the valley, we start to get into the familiar Spartan obstacles. Our plan this year was to stick together at all the races, unties someone fails an obstacle, then the other can press on. We breezed through most of them, until the dreaded Monkey Crawl.

Now, I seem to have a bit of trouble with hanging obstacles. My left wrist has some damage and I've been known to slip off relatively easy things like monkey bars. The Monkey Crawl is a webbing net that tents up, then back down to a bell you have to ring to complete the obstacle. My first encounter with the Monkey Crawl was at the CO Military Sprint the month prior, where a failed just a few rungs in and did my only penalty burpees for that race. Well, I didn't fair much better at the beast, and let's just say Dave got to continue on alone while I played around in the dirt for a few minutes.

The next big challenge, for me, was the Hercules Hoist. usually I excel at this one, but it was particularly heavy and I made the mistake of grabbing a rope so slick with mud I couldn't hold it. Knowing there was no way I was getting this on my own and not wanting to do more burpees, I noticed the guy next to me having the same issue. The staff guy said we could double up on a rope, but we'd have to hoist it twice. So we did, and even with 2 of us, the slick rope took some effort to hang on to.

The Beast spike on my training watch.

After the hoist was a new one to me, a bridge with ropes attached at the top, and large tires hanging off the side. You had to pull the tire up and lower it slowly back down. At this point we had down several arm smoking obstacles in a row, and right around the corner the reason why appeared: the Spear Toss was next. Probably the most hated obstacle in Spartan history, but one I've come to embrace. I nailed my throw, putting my 5 for 5 on the obstacle. Here a shouted encouragement to Dave, as he did his burpees and I pulled ahead.

Here the course began to work towards another mountain. Starting off with the bucket carry, which a plowed through without stopping. Once you put that thing down, you're in for trouble. For me, it's much easier to just bear it and move as fast as you can. This one was steep, but significantly shorter than the one at the Super. Somewhere along to shorter ascent of this mountain, Dave caught up to me and we began tackling obstacles together again.

My advice: Keep moving.

We kept a descent pace until the traverse wall, where I fell. I'm usually pretty good at this one, only failing it once before, and that was before I started rock climbing, but I think the race was getting to me on a mental level at this point and I was starting to make mistakes and second guess my abilities. Dave breezed through the wall and was ahead of me again. I was surprised to catch Dave soon after the wall at the tire flip, when cramps again struck Dave hard.

I was still doing pretty good, but just like in vegas, once I had to slow down or stop, I would start to cramp a bit as well. We pushed on pretty slowly from this point, walking a lot of the hills and trying to run the flats and downs as much as possible. With Dave's severe cramping and my toes screaming at me, the race turned into a real grind. Again it climbed up the steeper mountain with some wall obstacles and mud pits thrown in for good measure. It seemed forever before we began to descend back towards the valley where the finish awaited us.

Longest. Wire crawl. Ever.

Near the end, there was another nasty surprise. Another rope climb. This rope was a little thinner and and I slid down from about halfway rope, giving myself some nice burns on the shins before deciding to give up and grind out a last 30 burpees, putting me at 90 for the day and giving Dave a lead to finish first. Pretty disappointed in this failure as well. Haven't failed a rope climb since my first race 2 years ago. I was physically and mentally smoked by this point and these burpees took a long time to bang out.

The final major obstacle was a super long wire crawl through some really thick mud. Perhaps the longest crawl I've done, with maybe the inaugural CO Military Sprint being a bit longer. Mercifully this one went down a gentle slope, so it wasn't too clogged and everyone seemed to be getting through in a timely manner. But it made for a seriously mud covered finish.

Trifecta Tribe at last!

I've never been so happy to finish a race as I was this day. Getting that final piece of the trifecta puzzle was the icing on the cake and made the accomplishment all that much sweeter. I would like to try the Beast again, but I feel I need to prepare a little more, physically as well as mentally, before tackling it again. I also think shelling out the extra bucks for an elite heat entry would shave an enormous amount of time off my finish, by avoiding the crowds and the mucked up ropes, etc.

I'm much younger than I realized.