Spartan Ultra Beast, Lake Tahoe, Sep 30, 2018

I woke up groaning a little.  At 4 am.   A quick check of my Heart Rate Variability netted me some sage advice:  "You're almost dead.  Take today off.  Definitely don't think about running 30 Spartan miles."    Well, perhaps it said something more like, "take a rest day".

Because, to be honest,  I had given my all in the World Championships the day before; running 14 miles in 3:37, getting soaked 3 times in cold water, and doing 60 burpees along with the rest of the obstacles.   Read about my World Championship Spartan race here.    With 18 hours to rest up, I had used every supplement tool in my arsenal, including Kion Flex, H2Now Hydrogen Water tablets, Emergen-C electrolytes,  Spirulina tablets,  Essential Amino Acids, my regular vitamins supplements, and a great bacon cheeseburger at a restaurant in town.  

By 6:15 I was lined up and shivering, ready for the start.   Thinking I wouldn't know anyone in the dark, I immediately bumped into my teammate Phuc from Salt Lake, and also bouldering competion teammate Aaron.  Small world.  We lined up early to get into the start corral, and I found myself on the front line of competitors.  This was my day, I thought to myself.

It was cold.  I had added arm warmers and a windproof vest to my arsenal, but still refused to carry a pack.  To be competitive, I needed to run myself warm and dry, not spend time changing clothes and carrying around extra stuff.  Rumors circulated that the swim was cancelled, but the official announcement was that it was still open.   All I knew was that by 7 am at the pond, it would be very cold, barely daylight, and quite shocking.

I had no idea how many people had raced the day before and were also attempting the Ultra.   I felt pretty good myself, after walking for a few minutes, and wondered how long I would be able to run.   I felt like it was all coming together with my fitness and preparations, but remembered not a few races where I had been reduced to a shuffling weak walk somewhere in the second half.

 

The shouts echoed down the trail.  "The Swim is CLOSED!"   I was very happy to hear that, and passed the message down behind me.    I asked the volunteer manning the lifejackets "why?" as I ran by.  "It's only 32 degrees up here" he said.   Good enough reason, I thought.  In fact I hadn't considered the idea that there was any reason we wouldn't be tortured with the swim regardless of the temperature.   My minimal clothing choices immediately became a bonus, with very little to carry.

After another grueling gauntlet of heavy sleds, heavy stones, and that rolling barbed wire, I was bruised and hurting.   At least this time I was dry, warmish, and fairly clean.  Tahoe dirt seems to just blow away, unlike some venues where it takes a week to get the sticky dirt to wash off.    The dunk wall was closed too, and the day just kept getting better.

Then we started the "extra" 3 mile loop on the Ultra, which took us up to 9000 feet of elevation, along singletrack leading to almost the very top of the mountain.  Somewhere along the way, we carried a sandbag for about 1/2 mile.  In that loop, I could see there were a couple of women not too far ahead of me, and a couple more behind.    Back to the regular loop again, I knew the Twister was coming up, and pulled out my secret weapon from my vest pocket....hand warmers.  I stuffed them into my gloves and started clenching my fists as I ran.   It worked.   I hit the spear, high-fived a volunteer, and sped through the Twister.  

Back downhill to the festival area and I was warm for the first time all morning.   I made a tactical decision at the Ape Hanger to save my strength, wade through the water, and do my burpees.    Shortly after that I passed Phuc, who was unable to get his fingers under the 400 lb men's tire, which was sitting on concrete for this race.

Again the second half of the loop was a grueling steep uphill, but then I found myself still able to run back down into transition.  Could I keep that up for another loop?   I passed a couple of women, and then wouldn't see any again for the next 5 hours.  In transition, I dumped all my extra clothing and kept only the purple ultra shirt everyone had to wear.  It was warmish and sunny and the swim was still supposed to be closed so I could go ultralight.   2 minutes flat and I was back again....no transition suck for me.

 

 

 

One more big loop.  I walked uphill munching on cheese, regretting my empty water bottle and no water stations for another two miles.   When I did get to the water, I drank a bunch and took more electrolytes.  Stomach happy.    The third time through the barbed wire, I had nothing to protect me.   It hurt, I grunted, and closed my eyes against the rattling wind gusts blowing dirt in my eyes as I rolled.  The world circled around a million times, and I got up staggering like a drunk.   Done with that bruise making monster.

Third time on the spear was a miss.  Oh well.  3 sets of burpees during a whole Ultra didn't seem too bad at all.   Another competitor was on my tail, and we pushed each other to run fast back down the technical trail to the valley.   Only 4 miles to go and after walking again through the Ape Hanger water and my last set of burpees, I knew I just had to keep pushing.   By now I was passing Beast competitors who had taken almost as long to do one loop as I had to do two.   Very few purple jerseys around at all.

I did math during the final uphill for distraction.   3 bottles of drink mix x 200 calories.  2 small cheeses x 60 calories.  1 x shot bloks x 200 calories.  1 x UCAN bar x 190 calories = 1150 calories for the 30 miles of racing.   Then I started betting myself that I could beat 9 hours at the finish.  Time seemed to move fast after that.  The crest of the hill never looked so good, and I found that I could run, and run very fast, on the final downhill.   Beast competitors moved to the side as I sped by.  It was very very satisfying for some reason, to feel that good after 44 miles of weekend racing.   My final mile was my fastest.  Almost a sprint.  No one was going to pass me at the end!
That 2 mile run to the finish is seared into my mind...I felt invincible, and flew over the final obstacles to sprint over the line. 

Final time was 8:50, and to my great delight I saw 1st place show up in the results.  First overall Age Group woman finisher!    A few women would trickle in over 30 minutes later, but the next woman in my Age Group behind me was 3 1/2 hours later.    I had the podium to myself during the Awards.  My first win and I was really happy it was here in Tahoe. 

4x Trifecta and Ultra finisher's buckle

Post race bruises, mostly from the barbed wire crawl

No prize money for Age Groupers so I gave myself the gift of post race pizza! 

Spartan Beast World Championship, Lake Tahoe, Sep 2018

My first Spartan race was just over a year ago.   By my second Spartan, I was hooked.  By the third, I started wondering if I could qualify for the World Championships.    By my 6th raced, I had qualified (!), and spent the summer training fairly intensely for this race.   Back to back weekend Spartan races, along with in-depth study of the best nutrition ideas that I could find. 

Finally I got to Tahoe for my longest back to back races yet.   A Beast on Saturday of about 14 miles.   An Ultra on Sunday of about 30 miles.   I was most scared of the cold swim atop the mountain, in a pond with water barely above freezing.   To that effect, I had been taking cold showers and ice baths for a month beforehand to prepare myself.   Brrr.

The start of the Beast was at 8:15 Saturday morning.   I was one of the few to start without a pack, as I had been streamlining my gear and was confident I really didn't need much.  No dry clothes for the swim, nothing but a bottle of drink mix, some supplements and electrolytes, and a pair of gloves.   I wore my normal Gypsy Runner shorts, and a bright yellow bumblebee shirt.  

The start corral was crowded as all the weekend races had pretty much sold out.   I was a few minutes late crossing the wall and ended up at the back of the corral.  We started our heat a few minutes early, which was fairly odd (if anything normal is a few minutes late), but after shouting a few AROOs we were off up the mountain.  Luckily the path was wide and I didn't get stuck behind anyone starting ahead of me.  In fact, almost everyone was quickly back to power hiking as the first 3 miles were a slow climb up the mountain.  Everyone had the cold water at mile 3 on their minds.    The Herc Hoist seemed a bit heavier than normal, and I passed a women with cold hands who just couldn't get a hold of the rope to pull the sandbag up.  

The temperature on the mountain was somewhere in the 40s when I hit the pond.  The water was even colder as I grabbed a lifejacket and plunged in.   Brrrr.    All I could do was swim as fast as I could and then keep running.  My time in the water was perhaps 5 minutes,  and the winds were howling across the peaks.  I was almost grateful to start the bucket carry as it would help warm me up....although I still had cold hands when I finished.  From there, it was a quick run to a gauntlet of Atlas carry, plate drag, and barbed wire crawl.   The barbed wire seemed lower than normal, and with a shirt on to snag on the wire, the easiest way to get through the long crawl was to roll through the rocks and sand.  I closed my eyes, grunted and rolled.  I got the beginnings of what would be really nasty bruises on my hips and forearms, but rolling was indeed faster and a bit easier than low crawling.    Next, a few mud humps, and a (once clean) dunk wall to wash the dust and mud off my bumblebee shirt.  

Freshly cold and wet again, it was downhill to the spear and the twister.   I hit the spear to my great delight, but as my hand touched the Twister, I realized that my hands were too cold to grip very hard, and 3/4 of the way across I slipped off.   At least the burpees helped me warm up.  So did a fast run down the mountain, where it got almost balmy back in the valley.    Luckily for me I had warmed up before I took my third dunk of the day on the Ape Hanger.   Sort of like swinging monkey bars, it was built over water in the parking lot near the festival area, giving all the spectators a great view of people falling off this obstacle.  I made it almost to the apex, then slipped off and did a very spectacular belly flop into the water.   More burpees.   

By then I was 2/3 of the way through the race and thought the last loop would be easier.   If anything, this shorter hill seemed longer and steeper than anything else.  The people around me were groaning and whining.   In the back of my mind, I kept thinking that for the Ultra Beast tomorrow, I would have to do this loop again twice!  I tried not to let that thought slow me down, as today's race was for the World Championship and I wanted to do as well as I could.  

Once the trail turned downhill, it was fast easy running a couple miles to the finish.   I made quick work of the rings and didn't jump the non-existent fire (let's not burn down beautiful Lake Tahoe) to finish in 3:37.    I had no idea how I had done and was afraid to look at the results.    But I couldn't help myself, and saw that I had finished 5th in my Age Group.  Just off the podium, but then again I was competing against the best in the world who had also qualified to run this race with me.    Or so I rationalized to myself!   I knew that there was no way I could have made up the 10 minutes it would have taken to get on the podium, and I had raced the best I could.  Perhaps I could hang a swinging monkey bar in my backyard to practice for next year....

Time to eat, rest, rehydrate, and get myself ready to do the Ultra in less than 18 hours.   I immediately started dreading the swim again (twice!)