West Virginia Spartan Trifecta Weekend, Beast, Super, and Sprint, Aug 25-26, 2018

August 30, 2018

West Virginia Spartan Trifecta Weekend, Beast, Super, and Sprint, Aug 25-26, 2018

Alternatively titled "How I lost 3rd place in the US Nationals Age Group category by less than 2 minutes by missing the spear and doing burpees, even though I had practiced that darn thing in my backyard for months!"

As I got on the plane last week to fly to West Virginia for these 3 races, I contemplated whether I had ever flown somewhere for the weekend just to do a race. I concluded, yes (for an Ironman many years ago), but not very often. Races were closer when I lived in England and Germany... mostly drivable. At least packing for Spartan only consists of shoes and minimal clothing....no more boxing up bicycles and hoping they don't get smashed going through the bag check.

I'd been sweating the weather for this race, but shouldn't have. Breckenridge last week and Hawaii (cancelled for a hurricane!) were awful Spartan weather races. West Virginia rolled out the red carpet, turned off the sprinklers and dried the ground out just in time for a perfect day of racing. Sunny but not hot, winds enough to provide a cooling breeze and amazing dry conditions underfoot. "It might rain tomorrow but we will always have today."

It was nice to drop down in elevation for this race....I took my resting heart rate the morning of the race and it was significantly lower than normal. 1700 feet felt like sea level. Not that the course was flat. The little flags told us to go up and down forested slopes so steep that occasionally it was simpler to slide on your bum, either deliberately or accidentally. But the brambles discouraged such practices. I was glad a couple waves of Elite racers had mostly knocked them down before I ran through!

The Elite Women set off first on Saturday morning

The Beast was the first race of the weekend, run on Saturday. It was the North American National Championship Race, so the first 6 heats were people who had qualified to run by scoring well in other races. I had qualified fairly easily, but wasn't sure what to expect of the competition.

Spartan mile markers are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. Sometimes I think they just drive along the course throwing them out randomly, but in order, if you know what I mean. Deliberately wrong, perhaps. Today, "Mile 2" was at just 1.6 miles. Yet "Mile 3" was perfectly placed just as my watched dinged 3, and was in the middle of the steepest non-trail bramble path we had seen yet. Clearly someone had needed to drag the sign up or down that hill to place it there, as no Gator was going to make it anywhere near that spot.

By official Mile 12, my watch was already showing 13 and somechange, so clearly the trend continued. Of course, there's the whole Spartan idea that "heavy carries" are obstacles, and don't count towards mileage in a race. As if when I'm grunting under the load of a heavy bucket, sandbag, or log, somehow the distance I'm covering shouldn't matter?

I think the whole deception is brilliant. And probably deliberate. Get millions of people to do races where they aren't quite sure where they are, how far they've gone, what's coming up next, or how hard it's going to be. Normal life is just too darn ordinary, and this provides....something.

Even a swim this year. The water temperature felt exactly the same as the air temperature. Not hot, not cold. Quite a short swim...but just long enough to seep into a baggie of salt tabs, if you hadn't happened to zip them quite closed. Leading up to the swim, I needed to pee. I said to myself, it's a big lake, go while you swim. And then I repeated that to myself a bunch of times. And then, of course, forgot to go. So I could have said to the people around me, hey, I was going to pee but I didn't. They might have been grateful. Or decided to go for themselves since I brought it up, and saved a bathroom stop. But if I had remembered to say that, I wouldn't have said anything, and just went. But I didn't. So I spend another couple of hours trying to convince myself via an internal conversation that I really didn't have to go that badly and could wait until the finish. It's a mental game. Even if I visit the bathroom 2 minutes before I start racing, I'll still feel like I need to go.

Then I missed the spear. Dang it. Somehow I knew that it would be the difference in my race. I felt great otherwise. Good nutrition, body was healthy, stomach was happy, and I was running fast. About Mile 11, I had a quick run down the last big hill to do a mile in under 10 minutes, including the Z-Wall obstacle.

The newest Spartan obstacle was Monkey-Twister-Monkey. I didn't think it was all that hard, and made it through all three races, but I sat and watched it in the festival area later, as hundreds of people fell off and thousands of burpees were paid in recompense.

The slip wall was my favorite of the day. Dry, all by itself, with short ropes just at the top. I gathered my energy, thanked heaven I had been doing sprints, and ran as fast as I could for 50 feet and up the wall. Just as my speed dropped to nothing, I reached down and grabbed the rope before gravity kicked in. Many races were won or lost at the slip wall.

Worst part of the day was the Olympus, just after the dunk wall. Wet and slimy at the end of the race. I made it on the Beast but it taxed me. On the Super I made it halfway and had to pay my dues, the third race I didn't even attempt it with tired arms, and just did the burpees.

At the end, I was amazed to see that I finished 4th place, in the US Nationals!!! Finished it in 3:31 after about 14 miles. And really sad to see that I was just under two minutes behind the 3rd place woman. Dang that spear, again.

Day 2 was much the same, except with more gimpy people at the start line, and everyone was thankful that the races got shorter instead of longer. The obstacles got a bit easier too, with longer ropes on the slip wall, and no swim, log carry, or Twister. I had recovered well with an ice bath the night before and was ready to race hard again. I felt great, and gave it everything, especially as I passed women by and then tried to stay ahead. Just the Olympus wall got me this time, which I was thankful for. Finished the Super in 1:54, good enough for 2nd place!

My sprint was scheduled for the afternoon in the Open category, but I still felt good and didn't want to wait 4 hours to race again. So I moved it up to the earlier Age Group category again, figuring I'd race for another podium. By the time I waited in line to make the change, I had just enough time to change my socks and was off again. As with most Sprints, it was a lot flatter than the longer races, which I appreciated on tired legs. I talked to the women in the start corral who had finished near me on the Super, who were starting to feel sore as well. I tried to stay ahead of them at the start and managed it for over half of the race, even as we all did burpees for missing the spear throw into what were piles of fluff rather than hay bales. Shame on Spartan for not having some fresh ones available! The worst part of the race was climbing over the 7 foot wall on my arm which was already super bruised. Or maybe the worst part was a super long bucket carry near the end of the race...my arms were almost cramping up by the time I put it down.

After over 5 miles (a LONG Sprint), I was happy to be still near the two other women in 3rd! We finished just in time, completely muddy from burpees at the Olympus, to race over and get our medals on the podium for the Super.

I was VERY happy with my nutrition and recovery plan, I felt great before, during, and after the races. Now just a couple days later I am energetic and ready to start training for the Tahoe Spartan Beast and Ultra Beast in a month! Stay tuned for a blog on my nutrition strategy, which has gotten a bit better, but more complicated, since starting the Keto lifestyle.