Utah Spartan Beast 2014 Race Recap!!

Who’s ready for a Spartan Beast Recap??!!

Saturday morning I was literally bursting with excitement over this race.  I was trying to suppress my giddiness, but it was just oozing out all over the place.  I could not wait to get out there and see what Spartan had in store for us.  I felt so ready to take on the challenge.  I had been training seriously for about 6 months in preparation for this day and it was finally here!

Here is the course map.  It went all over Soldier Hollow for a total of 12ish miles.  The little green dots are where obstacles were placed.

I was dying to see the list of obstacles since they do not reveal those until race day.  Of course I was a bit nervous when I saw all of those “classified” tags.  I want to talk about every single obstacle!  But I’m saving that for another day.  Today you get an overall feel of what the race was like:)

We had a start time of 12:45pm so there were lots of people out on the course when we arrived, some were even finishing.  It was fun to see people doing the obstacles and get ideas on what works and what doesn’t.  In this pic you can see the first rope climb.  What you don’t see it the giant mud water pit that you have to climb into to get to the ropes!

They had kid races and obstacles in the “festival” area for spectators.  I have to enter Valie next year, she would have loved it.

You could practice your rope climbing skills before the race!  The rope was definitely skinnier than what I’m used to, but it was still climbable.  I didn’t take any pictures once we moved to the starting line, because, well…I knew I’d be swimming in mud and that just doesn’t vibe with electronics.

So now you get my commentary minus pictures.  Arrival is pretty smooth.  You pay $10 to park, boo.  Walk to the registration.  Print off your waiver and barcode before to save time.  Don’t forget your ID, but if you do, they will ask your b-day.  I know this because…I forgot my ID.  Spartan then gives you a little envelope and sends you on in.  You get two bracelets. One with your start time written on it and one with your timing chip.  You also get a bib and a headband with your number.  I’d recommend tearing off you tags for your free drinks before racing since they are going to get wet and muddy and most likely lost:).  Oh yeah and don’t forget $5 to check your bag…again…boo!

Spartan recommends arriving 2 hours prior to your start time.  I think that is a little much.  We were about 90 minutes early and I was still antsy waiting for our start time.  But I suppose I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Ok now for some actual race talk!  I was so hyped up to start, I’m sure I was annoying the crap out of the people around me.  When 12:45 finally hit I was smiling and bouncing like a complete idiot, only to have my happy bubble burst when they tossed us into a mud moat right off the bat!  I mean seriously, how mean!  They soak you down within the first 3 minutes!  Anyway, moving along…

I thought the variety of obstacles was great.  Some were simple, some were long, some require pure strength, balance, or endurance.  It was great to test your overall fitness.

I did get a few pics of some obstacles after the race.  This is the lattice.  You just climb up.

Then walk across some beams and climb back down.  This simple obstacle was sandwiched in-between two very hard obstacles.   First the rope climb, which was challenging since the rope was slick and the mud was up to my chest!

And do you see this net thingy?  You had to swing across on it and below you is a giant mud pit!  There is a bell at the end and you have to ring it in order to complete.  This was tough, especially since it’s a net and you have to grab up every time.  It’s not as easy as monkey bars which don’t give.  This gives!  My grip was dying, but guess what??!  I made it!  Out of all the obstacles, I am the most proud of completing this one.  But I feel like they rip you off by not having a platform for those who make it to the end.  You still have to fall into the mud and get out.

Overall I felt great through the whole race.  I never lacked energy or hit a wall.  I ran with my hubby and was just out for fun.  Next year though, oh yeah, I’m running it for time and points!

Our family came out and cheered us on which was super fun and uplifting!  They were able to get some shots of us all nice a dirty.

This was at about mile 6.5 or 7.  I can’t believe I don’t have dirt on my teeth here!  Most of the race I had a dirt grill, it was gorgeous.

The spectators could watch the inverted wall.  It looks harder than it actually is.  I’m a shorty and even I didn’t need assistance.

There are lips on the boards that are easy to grip.  So as long as you can jump and hang on at the same time, you’re good.

My baby didn’t want and hugs or kisses!  But I may have smooched her anyway…love you Val!

When we met up with family again it was by the second rope climb at the bridge.  Yes this is me climbing.  I totally thought it was a dude when I saw the pic, so don’t feel bad if you did too, haha :).  I was elated that I had the energy to make it up the rope again.  There were tons of spectators there!  Not going to lie, it was way fun climbing the rope and then seeing the big dudes have to do burpees.

Ugh, my least favorite part of the day had to be the barbwire crawl.  It was at least a quarter mile mud bomb, rocky as could be, and they were spraying us with a fire hose!  Thank you to my brother in law who had the Spartan chick hose us repeatedly!

I may be smiling here, but I was not enjoying this.  My hip bones and ribs were getting torn apart by the rocks.  My forearms were bruised and cut, and I wanted to punch the girl with the hose.  But I digress…

I lived and that’s all that matters.

Oh wait, it gets better.  This wall was impossible.  The whole thing was pure wet mud and the ropes were just slime.  I was able to grab the first two knots and then luckily a dude I didn’t know just pulled me up and over.  It was insanity!  

Yeah, I tried to stay up here and help Cam over the wall, didn’t happen.  I was so coated in mud I was useless.

But after the slippery wall it was just jumping over fire and then DONE!!

There’s the FINISH!

It was a mad house so our family didn’t get a muddy finish pic.  We hustled straight to the hose off area to get clean.  More on that later this week.  I have a thing or two to say about that!

We got our Beast medals and shirts and were so excited to have completed this race.I honestly loved the whole Spartan experience.  I had a great time throughout the whole thing and would do it again tomorrow.  It was so different and challenging and gave me motivation to push my fitness to the next level.  I’m going to keep on training and making improvements and you’ll be sure to see me doing this race again in the future!

Have a fantastic Monday everyone!!  If you have any Spartan questions feel free to ask!