The Stats:
1st Place Woman in Age Group (would have been 4th Elite)
56 Miles
7 Laps
140 Obstacles
15,500 feet of ascent and descent
15 Burpees (for the WHOLE race!)
140,000 steps
The Spartan 24 Hour Ultra was in the USA this year for the first time in history. Compared to flying to Iceland or Europe, Colorado seemed like it was just down the road...I couldn't resist.
Weather can always be an issue during long races. We got absolutely so lucky I still can't even believe it. Cool and then cold, but clear and dry and just a hint of wind. When we pulled out of the parking lot the next morning (24 hours after the race finished), there was 6 inches of snow on the ground already. THAT's how lucky we got to have amazing dry weather.
The race started at 10 am with a 13 mile loop Beast course that they had held the day before. We got to skip a few of the obstacles at the start to let the large group of racers spread out at little, so it was really just an enjoyable run through nice scenery and groomed gravel roads and bike trails. I stuck with a woman I recognized from my age group, we probably ran together for almost 10 miles, chatting away, and concluding that we were probably in the lead for our age group. It turned out that we were in the lead for all the women age groups! I gained a couple minutes lead on her in the last few miles of the first lap and stayed in the overall lead for the rest of the race.
The minimum requirements for what we had to carry while racing included full waterproofs, long tights, a sweater, whistle, water, 2 flashlights, gloves, and a bivy bag. I wore the long tights the whole race just to avoid carrying extra, but for the laps through the daytime, I was down to just my race jersey, yet staying plenty warm.
The second and subsequent laps were shorter, only about 7 miles, but with about 1500 feet of climbing on each loop and still about 20 obstacles. The first climb out of transition was super steep for about a mile, but the last few miles were downhill, so that always seemed to make up for it. Jim was waiting for me as I came back down into town on the second loop, where a bunch of obstacles were stacked up all in a row, including the highest wall, the herc hoist, bender, multi-rig, rope climb, and helix. I was pretty warm at that point, and mentioned to Jim that I could kill for an ice cold coke. He disappeared and I finished the rest of the obstacles. Not without a little pain, though, as the rope seemed to be slicker than normal, and my thin rubber gloves couldn't get a good grip on it. I had to struggle for a while before finally ringing the bell. I immediately swapped to a brand new pair of thicker rubber garden gloves and wore those for the rest of the race, much better!
Jim was nowhere to be seen in transition, so I drank a sip of my Coke (which was warm in the sun, yuk), and swapped my water bottles for new ones. Just as I was heading out to leave, he shows up with 20 ounces of Coke with lots of ice, and it was AMAZING. I drank almost the whole thing in a couple of minutes and set out on my third lap. It seems crazy, and I never drink Coke outside of racing, but cold, fizzy soda during a race always makes my stomach happy. I didn't need to drink much that whole 3rd loop but I felt great.
By the 4th loop darkness was falling and thoughts of needing ice cold drinks fading. Spot was there to greet me in transition and I gave him doggy hugs as I hurried to get going again, to go as far as I could in daylight. Namely, the spear. Perhaps I should have gone out in the backyard and practiced the spear at night with a headlamp, but the thought had never occurred to me! Oops. It was just getting to be full dark at the spear, but I nailed it anyway.
The penalties for missed obstacles were different on this Ultra than usual. We carried a little piece of Tyvek-like paper ziptied to our packs. Every obstacle that we completed got a punch out of it, and near the finish line was the burpee pit. For each one of the 6 punch obstacles, it was 30 burpees if you didn't have 1 of them or 180 possible in total if you missed them all, forgot to get a punch, or (gasp) lost your paper midroute. After 10 pm the penalties dropped to 15 per missed obstacle. I was very happy to come around the first 4 laps with all my punches and skip the burpee pit.
Jim met me one last time at about 8:30 pm and walked me to the start of the first big hill on the course. From there I would be on my own for the night as the gondola would stop running and it would be torture sitting in the cold and dark of transition anyway. As soon as he left I knew I would need to add more clothing as it was starting to get really cold. I went with my fleece sweater against my skin, my waterproof jacket, and race jersey over everything. Plus a beanie and buff around my neck. That kept me warm enough for the rest of the night I never needed to change clothing again, although I did put on a warmer pair of winter biking tights about midnight. The winter tights had a windproof section on the front of my quads that was perfect. I changed shoes then as well, although I regretted it, they weren't as comfy as the first pair.
It got pretty quiet out on course during the night. I always chatted with the volunteers at the obstacles, asked them if they were warm enough and doing ok. It's harder to sit out there than to keep moving! One of them said he had only seen 3 people the previous hour! A lot of racers called it quits after it got dark, finishing just a couple of loops during their race. The volunteer at the spear throw was visibly shivering, and didn't even have a flashlight the first time I came around in the dark! Perhaps he wasn't a boy scout because he definitely wasn't prepared! But he also might have extended his shift to do more hours than planned, who knows. Around 11 pm I asked him if he needed anything, offered some handwarmers. He said yes that would be great and I said I would bring some my next loop, What went unsaid was that it might be another 3 hours before I came around again!
But I did remember to throw a couple extra packets of hand warmers and a set of gloves in my pack when I hit transition the next time, and at about 2 in the morning he was very happy to see me digging them out of the pack. Talking about this must have distracted me, because I missed the spear on that round for the first and only time of the race. I realized immediately that I hadn't got the balance right in my hand, and corrected it the next time.
So there was my 15 total Burpees for the entire race! I never missed any other obstacle which required them, which honestly was amazing. The twister, rings, ropes, and herc hoist were all difficult while fresh and rested, and I wasn't sure how long I would last. They also got really cold, and I always took my gloves off for the twister and rings, asI was afraid my gloves would slip. It would take me a while to warm my hands back up after touching freezing metal, thank goodness for chemical hand warmers.
That's not to say I didn't miss any obstacles. The Olympus wall is so difficult for me that I just always skip it. This time there was a bucket carry penalty loop, and I lovingly patted the wall as I skipped it and picked up a bucket. There were 4 women's buckets and the first one I picked up felt like it had about 4 tiny rocks in it. (It wasn't until the next loop that I realized 3 buckets were heavy and one was light! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize I always picked the light bucket on every loop.) I wasn't going to complain about it, so I quickly did my penalty loop and went on to the next obstacle, which was the real bucket carry. This one was a doozy and there was a lot more than 4 rocks in my bucket! It was also 1/4 mile straight down and back up a ski slope. Just thinking about this obstacle made a lot of people decide not to do another loop, I'm sure! I hadn't rested the whole race, but at 2 in the morning, I finally had to put my bucket down halfway back up the slope. I sat on it for a minute and just stared at the stars. It was the only time I sat down the whole race, come to think of it. The gondolas had stopped, and the hillside was dark and quiet, just the crunch of feet, labored breathing and the occasional crash of a bucket hitting the ground for a rest break like mine.
It was impossible to tell who anyone was at night. Shapeless clothing and a headlamp shining out. I took to saying hi to everyone as I passed them to see if I recognized any voices. I did stick with my friend Aaron for a while, but mostly I was just a quiet light passing in the night. It wasn't scary quiet, or at least I didn't let my mind go there, just a peaceful march through the darkness.
At 3 in the morning I set out on what would turn out to be my last loop. I brought my phone along this time, just for a little motivation and entertainment. By this point, my left knee IT band was hurting, which made it hard to run downhill at all. Physically, I could still run, but my knee said no. That's something I will work on this winter. I also was having trouble breathing deeply. What gets overlooked in long races is that the chest muscles get tired from taking breaths as much as the legs get tired from running. In this case, though, breathing deeply made me cough, and the cold, dry air at altitude made my lungs feel like I had bronchitis. By later that day I was coughing up phlegm like I had just gotten over a cold. It was painful and for most of the night I tried to breathe shallow so it wouldn't make me cough. Perhaps a cough drop in my pack would have been nice.
On my phone I also had live tracking of the race. I could see that I was a lap ahead of the nearest woman behind me, who was a lap ahead of the 3rd place woman. We could see this on screens in transition as well. There is a difference between racing to finish and racing to win, and that painful last lap changed my mindset from finishing to winning. Plenty of other age group racers had stopped once they knew they had won because the people behind them had stopped. I had hoped to go 8 laps, which was 100 kilometers, and there would have been time for me to do that, but my body and lungs didn't want to. It kept getting colder as the night went on, and frost grew on all the obstacles. I slipped on the pads under the bender, and they were slick with frost and I promptly landed on my bum. That would leave a mark.
But the worst part of the race was became the walls. We had to go up and over the 4,5,7, and 8 foot walls, plus the Stairway to Sparta, on each round. That's 35 walls, which quickly became painful even with the extra step up that the women were allowed to use. Carrying a pack made them even harder (I've never worn a pack in a Spartan Race), and I won't lie, I struggled to get over them. Even worse, I always moved over them the same way, leading with my right elbow, and my right arm had layers of bruises that got very colorful even before nightfall. By the last 8 foot wall on the last loop, I gave up and did a very short bucket carry instead. It was so worth it.
Jim met me in transition at 6:30 am and we strategized. I had to start my last lap by 9 am and finish by 11:30 am. But if I didn't finish that lap for any reason I didn't get a finish time at all. The women behind me were at least a whole lap behind, so would have to finish two laps by 11:30 to beat me. I was very cold, wheezing, and limping, and it was an easy choice to turn in my timing chip and be done. If they could push through two more laps they deserved a win. It turns out neither one of them did another lap and I won easily. I didn't get my 100k but that's ok, it was a really tough course.
Here's a link to the results: https://race.spartan.com/en/race/live/UWC2021?fbclid=IwAR2EdplC-DpVRiUUGGe4fLdmeAx9oYIQRamwIr-XJS3XfMqIS5nxCmScg64
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| Women's Overall Age Group Results |
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| I ended up 6th overall in Age Group with the men included! |
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| The Transition Area |
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| Helix |
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| Dang, those walls! |
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| Leaving the next morning in a snowstorm |
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| Spot waiting patiently for me to finish |
you are my hero!! Way to ROCK the race!
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