I think the San Jose Spartan Ultra/Super/Sprint weekend is my favorite Spartan venue.
I flew in Friday morning with just enough time to have lunch with my mother-in-law before heading to packet pickup and mentally preparing to make questionable life choices the next day.
Still, as Spartan weekends go, this course was actually pretty enjoyable. It was flat, fast, and had one major advantage: a lake.
Normally Spartan races involve slowly overheating while covered in dust and regret, but this course gave us multiple opportunities to jump into the water and cool off. One of the barbed wire crawls even ran along the edge of the lake through wet sand instead of the usual sharp rocks and/or cactus. The lake crawl honestly felt surprisingly refreshing considering the circumstances.
The Ultra was still a sufferfest, obviously. Heat, obstacles, tired legs, and the usual ongoing negotiation between body and brain about whether continuing forward is truly necessary.
Somehow though, everything came together that day. I finished the Ultra in 6:39 and ended up winning my age group, which honestly surprised me given how much time I spent throwing myself into the lake to cool off.
The rest of the weekend included the Super and Sprint, plenty of soreness, and the realization that obstacle race recovery gets a lot more interesting with age.
Still worth it.
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