Texas Spartan Beast - 2013

The Texas Beast – Dec 2013 – Glen Rose, TX

To the beast and the trifecta for the year. I managed to make this a VERY inexpensive trip. Air miles for flight, $27/day for car, free hotel on my Hilton points. A good start.

Did I mention COMPACT car?

As always, tons of Spartans at my hotel. I went through my normal routine the night before my 8am elite start time. Drink a ton. East something that won’t strike back in the morning.

My fav is Wendy’s Baja Chili Salad. Plenty of greens and some chili. Perfect.

The Day:

The weather in Texas had been utterly crazy in the days leading up. Snow and ice storms, freezing temps. Norm, the course designer, announced there would be no swim across the lake do to safety concerns. I like the swim and already knew what this meant: he would make up for that in many evil ways.

I brought and decided to wear my wetsuit. I’ve never done any activity in it so that was a risk, but the 30mph winds and cold dictated this move and I was glad that I chose to.

Off we went. 

Within the first mile, they threw us into the chest-high water/mud pits. This wakes up up fast but the only cold thing on me were my feet. Thank you wetsuit.

And off into the race.

I won’t go through all of the obstacles because that’s tedious; just a few highlights:

1-      The course was about 14.5 miles long

2-      It was muddy, snowy, icy.

3-      They utilized the hills to the max this year

4-      This was NOT last year’s course. Not even close.

5-      They got us wet early and often.

6-      There were TWO rock bucket carries. The last one at mile 12. A shocking surprise that almost broke me. My hands were rough and frozen and I really struggled… but I made it through.

7-      I missed my spear throw (normally a given)… 25mph wind in an open field made the spear look like a matchstick.

8-      The swim was removed, so instead we had to walk just below waist high AROUND the lake in the frozen water and mud. That was utterly brutal. Feet like cold stones in the end.

9-      They did an AWESOME memorization challenge. Early in the race, you had to memorize and alpha-numerical code based on your bib number. Mine was Delta6012313. You see I haven’t forgot. Anyway, after the lake walk and a short run, they had the station set up for you to check in with your code (probably 7-8 miles after getting it). I remembered mine. Many people didn’t and had to do burpees before going on.

 Barb Wire: note: crushed cacti in mud STILL hurt!!!

 The final grind to the finish.

 No ups at the end of THAT race.... ooof.

 The map and my GPS watch route. Dead on.

 My thoughts about the race: it was tough, cold, long. Took me over an hour longer than the previous year because of difficulty. I’m never satisfied with my performance, of course, but my effort level was good and consistent. I cramped a couple of times, but quickly moved through them. I really used my grinder mind to keep moving through the mud… often I could even see my shoes.

Any then the finish and my trifecta!

Shortly after I got the wetsuit off and jumped in the car with the heater on full blast. It took me almost a half hour to quiet the shakes and shudders.

Glory-be, had first class on the way home and I enjoyed every second of it.

And so the end of another race year that I remained healthy, injury-free, and hit many goals and new firsts! Arrrooo!