Spartan Arizona Trifecta Weekend, November 23-24, 2024

This weekend marks my 84th Spartan Race.  I know, 84 isn't exactly a milestone but it seems like a lot of Spartans.  Considering most of those weekend races included multiple trips through germ-infested, cow-poop laden dunk walls, it's a wonder I'm still alive to write this.  

The best news of this weekend is that there wasn't a dunk wall here at the NASCAR Phoenix Raceway.  I don't know why, but I could guess that they didn't want muddy racers in their stands?  I'm not complaining either way.  We did get a tour of all three floors of the venue, unfortunately there weren't any cars running....and we were carrying heavy sandbags while we took the tour.  Can't have everything, right?  

I flew down here for this race because I really wanted some sunshine.  And because I didn't have a 1st place Age Group Medal for the year yet.   I'd actually won 1st at an earlier race, but placed on the Elite podium, too, so I was displaced out of the Age Group awards, and there was a blank space in my medal wall.  I know, I'm the only person I know who would complain about that.   I'm OCD about my medal wall.  

This is one of the flattest races I attend, although we did take a bunch of trips up and down a little tiny hill behind the Raceway, and ran up and down some sandy, dry desert washes.   The small area is mostly parking lot and camping for the Raceway, and it took a lot of waggles to fit 13 miles into this race!  At one point I felt I might be in an endless loop of sandy washes, but then would pop out again on a different obstacle so it was just a mental game.  

I felt pretty good, ran easy, and won my Age Group by 32 minutes.   Job done.   I have no memory of running this beast 2 years ago, but when I looked at the results I had done it in exactly the same time as before, 2:24!   I think weather conditions were really similar too.  

I did have blister trouble...my shoes were meant for trails and not concrete and hard sand.  Without a dunk wall, I could have worn my road running shoes and been even faster.  Oops.  

The Sprint was right after the Beast, so I limped around it at a fast walk, to save my legs for the race tomorrow, and kill some time waiting for the awards.  

On the Sunday Super (10k), since I had accomplished all my goals for the weekend, I started in the first heat and was eligible for the Elite awards.  I had two friends around me and we made a hell of a race out of it.  I don't think I've ever tried that hard before.  I lost them both at the start while I waited for my blister pain to fade a little, then caught them doing burpees from missing the spear throw.  For a few minutes I got ahead of them, then we were neck and neck for a while.   Kate passed me and got a minute on me, and Christi was just close enough behind me that I couldn't take a second to rest.  We finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th within a minute or two of each other.  It was nice to hear my name announced at the finish line.  

Unfortunately the rules hadn't been clear and a couple of women had started later than us, yet their times still counted in the Elite.  Imagine Kipchoge starting 15 minutes later than the field in the Chicago marathon and then claiming he won it.   Oh well.   We were all bumped off the podium and, since we were all different age groups, we all got first in our respective podiums.  

Here's my loot for the weekend, which got me an extra scan at airport security...these medals are heavy!