2014 VT Spartan Beast World Championships

What a ride...  Not even sure what to include or what I remember at this point...

Left Friday afternoon.  Stopped at the Waterloo outlet mall to see if there were any UA deals.  As I feared, I think most of the good deals I found before were like start of the new year clearouts.  Nothing really seemed great.
This stop was made worse by me going into the bathroom and somehow tossing my phone under/into an occupied stall.  The guy was nice enough and handed it back to me but um... EWW to say the least...

Then I stopped at the UA outlet at the Adirondak Outlets near my hotel.  I at least found a couple things I could use for 50% off.

And I think around 6pm I pulled into the Lake George Inn.  Got checked in.  Room seemed fine, a couple spots of drywall tape to be fixed, but nice and clean overall.  Time for some food.

Decided on the A&W down the street.  I just wanted takeout, but it took me a minute to figure this out and pull up to a parking spot up front so that the waitress could come to me as there were signs telling me NOT to go up to the window on the building.

Can't say I'm overly fond of these little lake towns, it reminded me of the 1000 islands, except considerably larger I think.  Basically, the parking spots in the Motel were tight and slanted in a way so that some of them(like the one in front of my room) would be almost impossible to get in or out of.  The A&W lot was similar, and the entire section of Canada Street is just packed full of little shops.  I could see the appeal if you had a nice hotel right there and wanted to just walk around and were spending some time there, and it wasn't horrible since it was pretty much fall when I was there, but it all just feels a bit too tight/packed in.

So, back to the Motel, bikers were pulling in.  I took my luggage which had somehow amounted to a Camelbak, like 3 backpacks, a cooler bag, and a couple others...

Ate some dinner, then dumped all my stuff out and finally got the Camelbak packed and ready for Saturday as best I could, along with my gear to wear and items possibly needed before or after.

Then to try for some sleep about 9pm.  I slept not TOO bad, but I thought today's bikers were supposed to be more civilized.  Fraid I heard tons of creaking from people walking around and LOTS of yelling and swearing and what not.  Wasn't sure if a brawl was going to break outside.


Up at around 5am Saturday.  Showered, ready and what not, left the Motel about 6:30.  After a gas a couple potty breaks, it was just about 8:30 when I got to Killington.  And according to my GPS, I was a mile and a half out when I hit the stop and go traffic...  Well, about another half mile in and we got to pay our $10 to park.  Somewhere around here is when I got my first glimpse of the actual mountain.  There was definitely something about seeing it there, especially since the top was in the clouds.
  Then about another half mile in I got to actually park.  Which left about a half mile climb up to the actual starting area.  There were shuttle buses running from somewhere, but I don't know how much farther down the hill you had to go to get to them, nor how long you'd have to wait to get on one.  I had heard parking was close, so I figured I'd hang out in my car and what not before the race, but with seeing the big climb and not knowing the details, I elected to do the same as Jersey, just bring everything I needed with me and plan on not returning to the car.  Only new items this time were a pair of pants and a sweatshirt that I was wearing while standing around for a couple hours.  The forecast was actually looking good.  However, in reality, it may have been 50F which wouldn't be that bad, but there was zero sun and STRONG winds blowing constantly.  NOT warm at all.

So up I climbed, got to registration, got my packet, found the line for the pottys, saw a bit of the course and some tents and finally after a while found the Spahten team tent.

Interestingly as much as I had been hyped up on adrenaline or whatever excitement for about a week or so ahead of this, actually being there on the mountain and seeing some of the course and even the teeny tiny people WAY up on the mountain I was almost eerily calm.  It was more of a feeling like "It doesn't look that bad.  Don't get me wrong, it's gonna majorly suck, but we're just gonna go out there and do it!"

Mainly hung out near the team tent for a couple hours before our 10:30 heat.  Looked around the vendors, would have liked to buy a VT t-shirt or something, but didn't want to make the trip back to the car and leaving stuff at the team tent wasn't a sure thing.  Watched the course, but it was probably around 9:30 before the elites started hitting the bucket carry so we could see anything.  The NBC helicopter was flying around then as well.  As our heat neared closer, I slathered on some sunscreen, shed my extra layers, pinned my bib, then the elites hit the sand bag carry and scared me as I saw them pick up TWO sandbags.  Oh sure, 60lbs for a half mile doesn't sound like enough, let's make it 120lbs...  But then as I had hoped, someone said that was just for the elites.  We had a team photo and then it was off to the starting line.


I aimed for a spot a bit closer to the front of the pack this time because you had to actually walk MORE uphill to get to the start, and then we were running DOWNhill to start.  And downhill running seems to be where I do better than a lot of others.

Sure enough, that worked out about like I thought, and then we rounded the corner at the bottom and pretty quickly everyone slowed down as we began the first of many hikes up the mountain.

I don't remember a lot of what happened when exactly.  But the first time up was just about all the way up the mountain and had some side trips through the woods as well I believe.  Steepness varied from "quite steep" to "you need to find a foot hold, or you're just going to slide down".  Really, it was steep.
After a number of miles and ups and downs I completely understood what Norm the course designer was saying a few days earlier on a podcast, something to the effect of "If I let people get a flat spot where they can run, I feel like I've failed." and "I like to just go out and bushwhack with the chainsaw.  I found myself wondering if one section was too steep, then wound up falling head over heels landing upside down in a ravine.  I laughed and thought: Yep, that was too steep."  If we weren't climbing straight up the side of a mountain on a grassy path we were in the woods, and all those wooded sections were like someone just went through a dense part of the forest and cut some trees out of the way.  Lots of slippery hills, jumps, fallen trees, bushes, branches, rocks, mud and whatever else you can think of.

There were a few obstacles here and there...  The pancake carry and the first bucket carry that weren't that bad.  A cool cargo net climb at the top up in the clouds.
Yes, it was crazy at the top of the mountain.  We were literally in the clouds and the wind was blowing them.  It's crazy to see clouds blowing through the trees in front of you.

Oh, and apparently I would later found out that we skipped the first swim and tarzan swing because someone went missing who later was found to just be somewhere else.

I think the biggest mistakes I made were regarding hydration.  I should have been taking in some good sips every 15 minutes during the morning instead of every 30 with food.  I was eating a snack sized Payday on the hour and a Gel ever half hour in between, that seemed to work well.  But cramps showed up later, so I probably wasn't drinking enough.
And I figured I'd refill the Camelbak at the halfway point.  Well, I guess everyone else had this same idea cause it was backed up pretty good there.  And this was at the top, about the coldest point.  So...  I spent about 10 minutes waiting in line, filling my Camelbak(which is nice that it sets the weight at your waistline, but is difficult to fill at best, and as I found out once it's full of items, it's almost impossible.) But I got it filled, had my Nuun dug out and tablets dropped in, then as I was walking off to the side for a pee break I thought "that feels like it's too wet..."  So I checked.  Sure enough, never happened before or after, but somehow I got a piece of dirt in there or something and it didn't seal.  And I had lost the majority of my water.  And I did NOT feel like wasting any more time digging out the Nuun again and waiting in line and trying to refill yet again especially knowing that standing around was going to get me in trouble, let alone on the coldest spot.  So I just got everything sealed and took off.  Ended up refilling at 2 later spots and never put more Nuun in.  Probably a mistake.

Oh, there was the log carry.  As usual I didn't have trouble with this one, but it was about the hardest since they were all big around and not long, so were difficult to balance.  But it was a dangerous place.  LOG!  LOG!  LOOOGGG!!  I believe I just barely stepped out of the way of a medium speed one, and after I completed my trip around, I saw one going supersonic down the hill, ready to take out several people if they hadn't moved.

Basically 5 miles in I was thinking "This isn't that bad...  which scares me...  I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bad at the end..."  Which was correct.
The first 3hrs went by pretty quick and was leading me to think I might be done in 6hrs.
And around mile 10 or so, still not much for obstacles, but definitely getting tired.

I think around mile 12 or 13 they finally gave us the obstacle dump(though we were still going up and down hills).  Oh, and apparently Spartan doesn't count the distance you take around obstacles, so Spartan said 14.9 miles, everyone else said 16(about what my Tomtom said) or up to 18 others had.

I think I just didn't have much energy left so I never actually exhausted my arms as much, and my cramping leg killed whatever little chance was left.  That started right after the second bucket carry.  I got done, started up the hill and UGH, right quad locked right up.  Something I have never experienced before.  THankfully I had brought the mustard.  Wasn't sure if I believed in it or not since some people say it's just a placebo.  But I tell you what, I took 4 packets, and as I took the third one, the cramps just went away.  This happened again at the rope climb.  Wasn't sure I was going to make it out of the water.

I started the platinum rig, but have never tried gymnastics rings, and as soon I was trying to hang by one hand I just fell right off.

The Atlas carry was trying to speed things up, so it was just a matter of taking it from the previous person, carry it out and back and hand it to the next.  Never touched the ground or burpees which are the hardest parts, but I've never failed that anyway.

I passed the memorization test, and I hauled all the weights around, the herculean hoist, atlas, etc.  Made it maybe halfway across the Tyrolean traverse.  Wasn't sure just how hard that would be, but it was definitely a big drain on the arms.  About halfway out I was doing all I could to try and stay on, pulling myself up to my elbows to try and keep going, but the arms were all but gone and then my leg started cramping besides and poof, it was time to drop.  I'm sure I was supposed to do burpees there somewhere, but I didn't see a spot and my leg was partially cramping so I just kept going.  Also got my biggest cut there along my knee(even with knee pads) while going over a fallen tree where branches had been cut off.

Failed both spear throws.  One by not much, the other completely off.

Thought maybe I had a technique to get up the rope climb this time, but I didn't realize the ropes don't reach the bottom, so I had to pull myself up with my arms to get my legs on the rope, and there wasn't enough rope to wrap around my leg/foot to get a grip from the height I could pull myself up(not much at that point).

More cramping at the second barbed wire crawl, but made it without much issue for that and the final crawl and under the wall.

Made it about 3 or 4 hands along the pole hanging thing which was a couple more than I suspected I might get at that point.

Only made it to about the 3rd monkey bar as well, first time I've failed that one at Spartan.  Just didn't have much left in the tank I guess.

And I was so whooped I think I did about 10-15 sloppy burpees for each of those failed obstacles.  I was just trying to keep moving forward.

And it was getting dark at about that point.  The last trip through the woods was definitely borderline for needing the headlamp.  And then after the last obstacle and hearing "just up the hill, down the hill and you're done!" I was hoping he meant hill and not mountain...  Yeah, it was a pretty good climb up the hill and over/under/through fallen trees to get around to the finish, and that part definitely would have been good to have my headlamp on for, but I didn't feel like spending 5 minutes to get it out of my pack when I was only a hillside away from the finish!  Couldn't see a lot of where I was stepping, but I made it without a problem!

After that, it was the usual, get your medals, your foods, your finisher shirt.  I went and found nicely that my pants and sweatshirt had not been stolen from the team tent.  And I decided this was a big enough deal where I'd try to buy a Beast/trifecta shirt.  They really suck at having stuff/enough stuff, but I did find a trifecta patch and a beast shirt.

My Tomtom watch died just over 8hrs in, I finished in 8:53.  My phone recorded the whole thing, but as has happened a couple times before, it decided to erase almost all of it when I tried to sync it to runkeeper.  *NOT HAPPY!*

I normally hose off before heading back to the car, but I didn't even see where those stations were(assuming they were) and I just wanted to get that 2 hour trip back to the Motel done before I passed out.

Well, there was that long walk back to the car, the usual sorting out of what stuff needs to go where back at the car, but I just laid down a couple towels on the seat and headed out.  Stopped at McD's for dinner and it took them a good half an hour to get through the drive through.  I think I got back to the Motel around 10PM, and after eating, showering, etc got to bed close to midnight...

But unfortunately while there was less biker noise this night my mind was just racing with race thoughts.  Not sure if it was adrenaline or what exactly, though after the fact I have now realized that I believe like 7 out of 9 of the gu's and a last packet of jelly beans had at LEAST the caffiene equivalent of a 20oz of Cola, and since I don't normally drink more than a cup or two of Earl Gray, I may have been swimming in a good bit of caffiene.

I got about 3hrs, then couldn't sleep, think I got maybe another hour in, then it was like 5AM, I decided to sit in the bathtub for a bit, tried again and got maybe another 45 minutes and decided it was time to head home.

Quads were still quite making themselves known.

But made it home early afternoon, and thankfully the girls took a nice nap and let me get another hour or so of sleep and I felt a good bit better that night.

Monday the quads were still sqwuaking about getting up and down, but were considerably better by night.  And Tuesday morning I had a 7 mile run scheduled.  Well, I went a LOT slower, walked a LOT, and made it about 4 miles.  Not much pain, but I could tell the legs were definitely not back up to speed yet.

But since then, I haven't noticed the "ugh" and pain as I get up from a chair, etc. so I think we're in much better shape.


I was really kind of undecided on future races and what not...  But now I'm kinda really feeling like I'd like to get another trifecta next year...
The biggest issue with that is going to be that this year I won my entries...  So...  I'd have to either spend a crap load of money, or I need to find some time to volunteer...  And of course there's no races that are close by...

We shall have to see.

For now, "just" my first full marathon in 12 days!

Tri State Super Spartan

Left the house about 6am.  Was about a 4hr drive.  However, while I did stop at 2 of the rest areas, I made the mistake of not stopping at the third, figuring it would be like the Tuxedo sprint and in less than an hour I would be parked and have lots of porta-potties.

Well, it wouldn't have been bad if I didn't need to go so bad.  It ended up being another of the "let's figure out where I'm supposed to park" deals coming from my direction.  There were people parked all along the sides of the road, then what looked like ONLY VIP parking at the registration area, then a lot of people walking down the road from an unknown location...  Then definite parking to the left, but the sign saying to go straight and then finally finding an actual parking spot at what felt like 10 miles down the road.  Apparently it was only 2, and I'm not sure why people were walking, the shuttle buses were running very quickly.  But at the time I arrived, I REALLY had to use the bathroom and wasn't sure how it was going to work so I made the call to just leave what I didn't need in the car, and anything else was going with me in the Camelbak.

So about 10 minutes later I was at the registration desk, though there weren't any bathrooms there either.  So another 10-15 minutes later and I was through registration, partway up the hill looking to the right where I was told they were, but then finally found them far off to the left.

It was QUITE warm.  I heard 86F.  And pretty humid as well.  Know what's even better?  When you've really got to pee and you end up standing in the portapotty for 5 minutes.  It was over 100F in there, as soon as I got in the sweat was steadily dripping off my head and when I finally got out, it felt SO much cooler(though it was still nasty hot).

On the portapotty note...  I was amazed at the amount of Spartans who don't understand porta-potties and latches...  It's pretty simple.  You look for one that's green and go in.  Red means it's occupied.  However, when I tried to do this, I opened the door on one male and one female Spartan who failed to latch the door.  And when I was inside with the door latched, some guy came up, tried the door, it didn't open so he tried again and forced it open.  At which point I had to reach behind myself, UNlatch the door so I could close it, then latch it again.  *sigh*.

After that it was largely standing around for an hour before the start time.  I should have brought another bottle of water to drink because I was hesitant to use up my Camelbak water before the race.

But then we were off up the hill.  Nothing like climbing mountains with that hot humid sun beating down on you.  But it was going pretty well.  The swim section was new and was a bit interesting cause there were too many people in there including people with life jackets just laying on their backs kicking so I was getting hit from ahead and behind.  But it was nice and cooling!

Thought I was drinking enough as I was taking a decent drink of my Nuun water like before and after a Clif Shotblock like every 15 minutes and a glass or two of water at each of the stations, but around maybe half way or so, I started to feel my calves acting up on the way down the mountain.  This is the first I've ever had them start to cramp.  I ate two of the mustard packets that had been recommended for this situation And continued on.  They never completely cramped on me, but I could feel them getting stiff and I thought I might have been out of luck right after the fire jump, they really came close to a full on cramp as I was waiting for my medal.

But anyway, around this halfway or so point I was thinking I might be done around 3, but got to the bucket carry and was told they were pausing the race.  Now, it had been thundering for almost an hour at this point.  So it was not real clear as to just when they might decide to go again.  Nor were instructions/explanation very clear...  The first I heard was that the bucket carry was stopped, but you could do your burpees and continue on.  Then that the course was stopped.  Then that you could go at your own risk, then immediately no you can't.  So ended up sitting for like 15 minutes and of course my body decided it might as well start shutting down since we were no longer in race mode...  And given that the forecast was calling for MORE thunderstorms at this point I figured who knows how long we'll be here.  Might as well eat a Clif bar.  And of course as I was halfway through they started up again.  So I've got my 5 gallon bucket full of gravel, climbing the mountain and half a Clif bar sticking out of my mouth.  In retrospect I should have just dropped the Clif bar cause I think between the sitting and eating a whole bar at once, I didn't start getting close to recovering till towards the end of the race.  Also didn't help that this was the start of like twice more up the mountain and a lot of the weight carrying/pulling stuff.  It also meant that because of the pause but everyone still moving to obstacles that EVERY obstacle was backed up at least 5 people deep.  And then they still weren't letting people do the rope climb when I got to it. Though the next time down the hill it was open again so I was kinda disappointed I didn't get to try it.  But I still burpeed the spear throw and the log hop.  Oh, I was so close, I just got leaning off to the side and missed the very last log! and I did 30 somethings, but they were REALLY sloppy burpees from the way I was feeling.

Anyway, it was good, but that pause at the middle which seemed just stupid(Umm, we already signed waivers that we might die and I'm sure we're more likely to get killed driving to/from this event than struck by lightning and what's the difference if we're moving or sitting still on the mountain?), well it just really killed my motion and I ended up with a 3hr 47 minute time which I think was about 45 minutes longer than it would have been...  I didn't run down much of any of the remaining hills which is where I make some time.

Oh, there was a lot more water at the bared wire crawl too.  You pretty quickly learn to just ignore any sort of worry about nasty water, etc.  Cause it's like 10-15 minutes of rolling through foot deep puddles, lots of rocks, etc under the barbed wire.  Everything is just completely filthy when you emerge.  On this note, I tried using the Shotblocks in a ziploc bag, but while it kept them from getting too bad, it was definitely still muddy in there.  Thinking I may switch to something more single use like Gu's for VT just to avoid this issue...  Not sure.

But then the race was over, I did a quick hose down at the showers and it was another quick shuttle back to the car.  I changed quick and was on the road.  At which point in the first hour I did a good bit of yelling and swearing at a couple of idiots that were really causing me time.  I want to get home to my girls by like 8, not after 9!  The worst was a like 5-10 mile stretch of single lane construction with a 55mph speed limit so it shouldn't have been bad, but for some reason this rimmed Jeep with a U-haul trailer was topping out at 30mph and then slowing to like 20mph when the road had a turn in it...  UGH!

Still, I made it home around 9:20 very tiredly.

But I now have my second piece of the Trifecta!
Killington is like ten days!