Goal #1: Spartan Ultra Beast Killington, VT

Wow What A Weekend! I have thought about this day for a year. The thoughts went from once in my life I want to take one of biggest challenges there is in my sport. To could I really do this. To I going to do this. To Can I finish a race that so few have finished before?

Before I get to answering that question let’s go back the last part of training. There was 4 weeks between Wintergreen and Killington, a great amount of time between races. The plan being to kick my butt for 2 weeks, a week of hard workouts but recover well and my normal taper leading into the race. In retrospect I had an epic month of training. Including 2 weeks before the race lunging the loop. It’s a 2.8 mile popular run/walking spot here in Wilmington. It’s something my friend Britt does every year on his birthday. I told myself back when I signed up that to be an Ultra Beast finisher I would have to accomplish this feet first. I tried in June and quit at 2110 lunges making it somewhere around 1.5-1.8 miles. Britt was nice enough to do his birthday routine a week early so I could heal up in time for the race. So 2 weeks before the Ultra Beast Britt, Amina and I set out to lunge the loop. It was not as hot as the last time I attempted this which made a world of difference and I think I was in a little better shape too. I got to the point where I quit last time and still felt strong and at this point it was all mental as I pushed through any pain that came my way. I really wanted to finish this. Amina ended up doing about 2400 lunges and walked with me to the finish. Britt is just an animal when it comes to lunges and finished a lot faster. Because of always having someone to talk to I did not end up counting, but based off numbers Britt had counted before and where I stopped last time it was around 3500 lunges.

Another big workout I did in preparation for all of the carries was a 9 mile run followed by 2 miles of bucket carry with an 80lb bucket. This helped me figure out which holds worked best when I was tired and just how far I could carry that thing. It took me an hour and 6  min to complete the bucket carry. One other thing I told myself back when I signed up was I needed to climb the rope 3 times in a row without using my feet. Well 2 out of 3 aint bad. I can start the 3rd climb but not get anywhere near the middle let alone the top. I’m ok with that though because I am a lot better than I was. I healed up nicely from these awesome 3 weeks of training that I had and my tapper the week before had me feeling absolutely phenominal! I was ready, so ready. Let’s do This!

We arrived Friday and had the same kind of set up as Wintergreen. So we walked over to checkout the course. This time they were not happy to have us throwing spears and were told to leave. Which is all good I was surprised we were able to get away with it at Wintergreen. The next morning dawns and I was excited even though I was a camera man today. The sunrise was absolutely beautiful.

I take all of this in as Mike gets registered. There is an excitement you can just see in the air. The looks of focus on all of the competitors faces. This was not your usual Spartan Race this was Killington and everybody knew it. There were badasses everywhere from men, women to children. Everyone looked legit. Then there were the faces of people going holy crap what did I get myself into. This was a small percentage which I’m sure grew throughout the day. Mike seemed calm which is good as we joked around waiting for the start. Time to go he hops over the wall and I walk up the first straight away to get a good action shot of the start.

Mike in the orange.

He’s off and that’s the last I would see of him. Unless you knew the course there was no way to know where go and spectate. About a half hour later I see one of the gondolas working but I have no idea how to make it there. I keep looking up the hills and no sight of anybody anywhere. They must be deep in those trees I thought. At this point Amina and the kids arrive to sign up cheese for her race at 10. I know I said this last time but they do not take it easy on those kids at all. Cheese wanted to up the antie to the mile course this time which means she would have to be doing more carries. She should be in the half mile but she said she was ready so lets see what happens. She looks pretty small in this group of made mostly up of 11-13 year olds with some younger ones sprinkled in. They start and she is holding her own which impressed me a great deal.

Then they got to the log carry up a crazy steep hill. She didn’t put the log down once, I was amazed. Then she disappears into the woods and I go to the next obstacle I can see the sandbag carry. As I’m standing there I get to hold a baby while a mom snaps a pic of her racer. Then I spot this kid really struggling with the sandbag. I say ” you can do this keep it up!” to which he replies with a yell of “God damn this b—h is F—ing heavy” (welcome to the northeast) I laugh as that was the last thing I expected to happen. Then I start seeing kids that I know were a little behind her and I start to think she got hurt, rolled ankle or something.

As she rounds the corner helping a little girl that was really struggling with the log carry at the same time she was finishing. She helps the girl pick up the sandbag then picks up her own. Somedays she is just a better human being than I am. She gets that from her mom. The other little girl could not get the handle on the bag and as her mom steps in to help, cheese keeps trucking. After sandbag a balance beam, high steps through tires, 4 foot wall, under wall, through wall, low crawl and a bungee field to the finish.

She was disappointed there was no mud. She said it was a little hard but had a lot of fun and “look daddy I got scratches on my arms from the logs and I got to flip a tire 4 times!” Then we found a shuttle to the gondalas and rode up to the summit to hike to the peak it was beautiful.

Me and cheese decided to take advantage of some of the rides Killington resort had open while we waited for Mike. While in line at the beast coaster a lady working the ride is looking in amazement at the marine corp pullup challenge. Not just men and women but kids are hoping up one after another popping out multiple pullups. “I can’t even begin to do a pullup and these kids are popping out 5 at a time. These people are just crazy.” why yes, yes we are. It’s a lifestyle and for the most part the people who come to do Killington are all about it. Which trickles down to their kids. Cheese brought up to us that she wants to try these races and that she wants to do the longer course. It’s just in their nature to try and see if they can do things. It’s a special group of people and I am proud to be apart of it.

Now we are waiting for Mike to come down the final stretch of obstacles. When suddenly he appears. I yell “Mike T everybody” this gets people clapping around us. He replies “oh man you gonna die”. Over the logs he goes to the spear throw. I am now trying to make up for all the pictures I didn’t take on the mountain clicking left and right. Mike finishes in just over 7 hours. Truly a great accomplishment. Last years average was around 8:45 so this was awesome. He was tired and a little beat up but he did it. So proud of him. He has put in a ton of hard work. Lots of it with no one around and it paid off today. He would give me pointers about the course throughout the rest of the day. The best quote he had was “I embraced the suck. I just didn’t realize how much of a suck it was going to be. The suck just never stopped.” I rehydrated, had a good dinner and tried to go to sleep early. I didn’t sleep well but that’s to be expected.

I get out of bed. The day is here. I have been thinking about this day and WTM all year in a consuming unhealthy way. It has been my constant motivation in everything I did this past year. This race in particular was on my mind everytime I picked up a bucket, everytime I climbed on the treadmill, every second in spin class with Jolie, the whole reason I did grandfather mountain marathon was this race, every single stupid lunge was for this RACE! Could I finish a race not many complete? Could I exercise for 14-15 hours? Could I become an Ultra Beast in Killington Vermont? Well the hay was in the barn I was ready physically and mentally, now it was time to find out the answers.

We left the house for our little walk to start area at 530. I used this as my warmup doing my high knees and butt kickers to get the blood flowing.  Standing outside the starting corral I notice nothing that I noticed the day before I was focused, I was ready, I had nothing but positive thoughts going through my head. I can do this, I am going finish, I feel great. I ditch the sweats, put on my pack, fist bump for Mike and a great kiss from Amina.

So fresh and so clean, clean.

Time to jump the wall. The race director gets on the mic and tells us how much he wants us to finish, to be careful and a few other important piecies of information. Then the man everybody fears Norm Koch (Spartan’s main course designer) grabs the mic. “I know this guy says he wants you to finish… I DON’T” I love this dude. He tells us about the course, the national anthem, I blow one last kiss to Amina and we’re off. I have a little pace because Mike told me it was single track most of the way, but nothing strenuous just jogging. Over some logs, O-U-T obstacle, Inverted walls then the memory test at the base of the mountain. ZULU-052-0484 I keep repeating to myself out loud, in my head over and over as I climb the mountain.

Pictures do not do this hill justice.

Then all of a sudden I notice everyone around me. Everyone is controlling their breathing and pumping their legs as the take on this beast of a mountain. Ok back to ZULU-052-0484. “I think I found my mantra for the day” I say to one guy. “try thinking of players with those numbers” he says. This was a great tip. Still climbing I repeat ZULU-052-0484, ZULU-ray lewis-brett favre-me (I went with the first players to enter my head). Nobody is complaining everyone is focused and knows this is just the beginning of a long day. I feel the wind getting cooler and cooler but I sweating big time. As I crest the top of the mountain I take some deep breaths getting ready for the first spear throw. Then I see it’s closed, get running my head tells me. If it’s flat you better be jogging is the general rule of this race. We get to the first sandbag carry a regular Spartan pancake of 50lbs. I place it on the back of my neck so I don’t have use my grip. Aside from almost slipping on the downhill no problems. A shout out to the volunteers here they were great both times through. As we start our steep decent it smells like Christmas trees and the view was awesome but I couldn’t look at anything but my feet so I did not bite it and take a very painful trip down the mountain. Half way down I make quick work of the tire drag and into the woods we go. To me this was the toughest part of the course on both down hills. The rain overnight turned the dirt into thick slick mud and as you slid down you hoped not to slam into a rock or a protruding root. I felt like a paraolympic skier sliding down in a pistol squat grabbing trees and boulders to slow myself down. It was at this time I met a guy named Mike we shared some jokes and talked for a bit to the bottom of the mountain.

Where the sandbag carry awaited us. Every blog I read about last year talked at length about this carry it was the same course but instead of 2 60lb bags we had 1 85lb bag. My training for the heavy carries really paid off all day. I dropped the bag half way up the hill and that was it. Over a wall and back up the mountain we went. At points we would hit various obstacles walls, Rig, Hercules hoist, cargo nets and the most pathetic rope climb I’ve ever seen(this would be my only complaint of the event).  Then started the most obstacle heavy portion of the course a series of 10-12 walls to 2 log hops to a log carry to the tarzan swing which I failed. I need a better technique on this. The great thing about failing this obstacle is you get to do burpees on gravel. Then it’s over a hay bale and into the woods to start the climb to the second summit of the day. This climb was long and seemed to be never-ending. Starting in the woods meant you could not tell how long you were going to climb and even when you came out of the woods there was 3 false summits that I can remember. On these climbs I would take my gels and salt tabs. At the water stops I would have a wafer and a salt tab. So my nutrition on the first lap was going great. I wasn’t cramping and my energy level stayed up. This is the most underrated part of a race like this.  Finally at the summit the sun had come out and as Mike T put it the view should have been a post card. We started down and shortly after we reached the first barbwire crawl. It was the shortest of the day but it was the rockiest. Every roll or crawl involved a rock jabbing you somewhere. Next the bucket brigade which was tough, but that 2miles of bucket carry I did during training really paid off. As I finished I saw my new friend Mike about start I yell some encouragement and into the woods I went. This downhill was steeper, muddier and rockier than the first. I am ok with the people who beat for one simple reason they have more fearlessness down these hills than I do. My hats off to you!

A common site on a Norm course is when there is a down tree that you have to hop over or crawl under there are words like “Spartan” “Killington” written in them with a chainsaw. After about the sixth or seventh one of these someone made the joke

“Norm had fun with the chainsaw this year!”

“Can you imagine Norm walking through these paths with a chainsaw wearing his Death Race shirt, laughing as he goes to town with all of these logs?” another racer replied.

Now I don’t wear a watch so even though it’s treacherous I am still pushing because I don’t know how far I have to go or how much time has passed. Then a reality check. As get up from my squatted sledding position and start to jog, whoop! Feet out from under me landing directly on my side. It made that sound of rocky hitting the cold meat carcus. Luckily only landed on mud no rocks and my arm was in front of me not overhead thank you for that. As I start to jog out of the forest I notice being in a pistol squat for the last however long really took a toll on my quad as it is getting crampy. Down a salt tab and a gel and push through. As we get towards the bottom a dude from Montreal passed me and tells me we have 7k left. On a side note it was really cool to be at such a big event with accents from all over the world. I encountered French, Spanish, Australian, British, straight up NYC, Boston and down home country. Somewhere in that downhill we had a farmers walk with logs. It was the heaviest one of those I have ever done. Finally we reach a stretch were we could run. This felt amazing as started catching a lot of people who passed me on the way down. Then came the most glorious obstacle, the water trudge in the cold Vermont water. It can either make your legs cramp or make them feel much better and since my legs were really starting to get crampy in a few spots I was hoping for the later. It was coming out of that water I felt phenomenal and jogged up the hill to the log carry then followed by the uphill barbwire crawl which was difficult to go fast through. Another hike up the hill then a jog to the Z-wall AKA my nemesis. I have never gotten remotely close to completing this. Not only did I get farther than ever before I was on the last wall. I’m going to do it I thought then uh oh I am caught 4 blocks away I make a move and I am on the ground. “SON OF A MONKEY” I yell. I complete my burpees and take off to an interesting take on the log carry set up like the atlas stones. As I near the third barbwire crawl I see people with paper. “Ultra” “Yes Ma’am” “What did you learn today?” This wording threw me off. What did I learn? we’re going to be here a while, I thought. “ZULU-052-0484” “Yes! You got it! get going” a great feeling this was. Now this barbwire crawl was the longest I have ever done 300yds min. People were getting dizzy left and right, but not as many rocks so that was awesome. I go to standup after and my head goes NOPE! A couple of seconds later the world stops spinning and I take off again. I see the logs where I saw Mike for the first time yesterday. This is an adrenaline rush I am about to finish lap one, by the sun it looks to be about noon. I feel pretty good. I’ve got a good shot at this. I jump over the log and a cramp in both quads. It happens again on the next log. I guess this is what it’s going to be the rest of the day. I also got a huge energy boost from Mike at this point. He’s yelling, taking pictures with a big smile on his face. To the spear throw. I miss and pound out the fastest burpees of the day. I guess it was the adrenaline. Mike says he’s going to wait for Amina and it’s 11am. As I run to the drop area I start doing math. I’m an hour a head of what I thought meaning being an Ultra Beast finisher is a real possibility. I get to my bag chug a bottle of water and chia seeds. Take bites of pb&j as I change out my gels and camelback. Best advice I read from any blog was to have 2 packs so when you got to the drop you could just switch them out instead of having to fill up your pack. I still have 3/4 of a sandwich left time to walk and eat because there is no reason to stand around here. I do the first part of the course with a sandwich in my mouth. I also meet back up with the Mike I meet on the course. We stick together to the top of the first hill where he goes ahead.

The food I ate at the drop was needed but the combination of the amount of food and having to work so hard on the hill made my stomach a little upset, but I don’t stop moving. Coming down allowed me to digest also my cramps were gone so nothing but good news. Till I got back to the rig. I failed it mainly because my grip was tired and I noticed my hands were swelling (something I am going to have to figure out by WTM). I got to do burpees next to a guy named Chris. He had twisted his knee on the first lap and all of the downhills were killing him. Just like the rest of us he kept moving. It seemed between Mike, Chris and I we kept leap frogging each other. So most of the time I was running with one of them which made the time pass by.

Thanks Chris!

When I was alone however I kept thinking about the finish line. The people who supported me in so many different ways. The more I completed of the course the more it was not if I could finish but when. Making it become more and more real. I would fight back tears on numerous occasions including one time where I had to yell out loud at myself “The job was not done! There’s still work to do! Get your head back in the game!” This trip up to the summit was the longest of the day. The false summits just mess with your head. When we get back to the bucket brigade the volunteers ask if we’re Ultras. “yep” “you have to go all the way to the top this time” They doubled the course for the second lap. Thank you Norm. This was also an example of the mindset of the people who showed up to do the Ultra. There was no complaining. Everyone grabbed their bucket and kept moving one step at a time. We were all their to challenge ourselves, see what we could do, what we were made of. Nobody I was around cheated. Everyone did their burpees. No course cutting. The buckets were filled up to the top. I was happy to be apart of such awesome people. Now when we got back to the series of walls and log carry I witnessed the opposite side of this. A small few of the beast racers we passed just wanted the suck to be over were not interested in morals. As I come up to the log carry 2 people in front of me peel off and I hear “I’m not doing that”

“You can do this” I say.

They look at me and turn their heads to sit down while their friend carries a log up the hill. Then as I am doing my burpees for failing the tarzan swing (my hands were just not working at a hundred percent) I see them just walking by the structure. OK soap box time. It doesn’t bother my course time and 95% of instances it will not effect my ranking, I’m going to beat the people who take the easy way out anyway. You don’t know what you can do until you try. I see it all the time and it’s one of my favorite things about my job to see someone do something they have never done before. I am not shaming anyone. I just wish there was more effort everywhere in life and these races can help show you what is possible. It’s part of what you will know at the finish line. Off soap box. I meet up with Mike again as we head back into the woods. He had his own emotional triggers that were kicking in so we decided we couldn’t talk about the finish. We start talking about all the food we are going to eat tonight. Truly a great conversation. Mike was faster than me on the uphills so I tried to stay with him. Near the top I started to slow and Mike pulled away. As I started down I noticed I was not feeling well and my stomach grumbled. Numerous times I almost roll my ankle, but I catch myself. A sign of not being focused and my body being tired. I was so full earlier and I wasn’t cramping so without thinking I got off my gel salt tab timing that was so great on the first lap. So I take a gel. That didn’t work lets take another one, Nope! At this point a group passes. Whenever I passed someone or vice versa “good job! keep it up! you can do this! I would say. Well to this group I must have slurred it. One guy stops and looks me dead in the eye “are you ok?” “yeah I’m just low on calories” the way he looked at me told me I must look pretty bad. I take 2 more gels, but nothing yet and at this point I’m on auto pilot. I would not stop though. No matter how slow one foot in front of the other. I’m just trying not to take a spill down this hill. People were asking questions and I honestly could not remember much. Maybe finishing isn’t a sure thing. Another gel. I’m starting to come out of it but I’m not there yet. Now I’m starting to feel chilly as we come to the clearing with the atlas stones and water. I eat a wafer while standing in the sun. I ask a couple of guys sitting in a truck if they had a piazza in there? They didn’t (weird right?) but sense of humor was coming back so that was good. I carry the atlas stone across and start the 5 burpees that go with this obstacle. On the fifth one I laid on the grass feeling the heat from the earth and the sun on my back which helped. Then back in the woods someone passed me and like flipping a switch my head was back. I started picking up the pace down the hill. Then we reach the running portion and I was shot out of a cannon. To the glorious water trudge. I had a nice pace through the log carry and up hill barbwire crawl. I take another gel as I am not going to bonk again. As I come to my nemesis the Z-wall I focus and pick the same wall I fell off on the first lap. I get to 3 blocks to go and said screw it and did a superman jump laying out and ring the bell. First time ever I am pumped. We didn’t have recite the memory test this time through but I yelled it out anyways ZULU-052-0484. Not only was I going to finish but I was going to finish in the day time. I roll as fast as I can through that long crawl and as I come to the log hop there are my 2 ladies.

I try not to look so I don’t get emotional. I sprint to the spear throw. My son right next to me going “Hi Daddy!” Mike and Tika next to him. Amina and cheese behind me all eyes were on me.

I take a deep breath and Nailed it! I heard yells and cheers and I’ve got to tell you there is no better feeling then after 29 miles not having to do 30 burpees. I sprint over the fire and cart-wheel over the finish line.

I guess with all of the adrenaline of the finish I didn’t cry as expected. Amina said the look on my face was “Holy crap I just did this” and that pretty much sums it up.

This is the only time in all my athletic endeavors that not only met expectations but smashed my goals. My final stats were 11:19:40 95th overall. 400 finished but I don’t know how many started to get a DNF percentage. This race wasn’t about my placement or stats. It was a race against time and myself. Finishing was a big deal. Finishing in the day light sent me to the moon. The only downside to the day was not being able to see Amina finish her first Spartan. She did awesome though finishing 31st in her age group and 600th out of 1500 participants. Here are some of her highlights:

We got to meet Joe Desena on the way out. He seems to enjoy people pushing themselves and getting kids involved in fitness.

“You did the Ultra Beast?”

“Yes Sir”

“Hey congratulations, good job” and shook my hand then looked at cheese

“You did the kids race?” She nods.

“Way to go!” and gives her a high five. As a trainer I am in ahh of how he has gotten people to be fitter all over the country and made people push themselves harder than ever before.

I did this race for myself. I was not looking to prove anything to anybody but myself. The support I have received is a little overwhelming and this blog, the attention I received is really not my style. I hope my story can inspire someone in the fact that I am a decent athlete, but everything I have achieved has been because of hard work. I have worked harder these past 2 years than ever before. Having days like this make it all worth it and then some. “Destiny demands you do better than your supposed best” a quote from Jack Kent Cooke used a lot rings true. You really have no idea of what your capable of. I must thank a bunch of people. When dark thoughts would enter my head the thought of letting people down helped me push through. Mike and Chris thanks for being great people to talk to on the course. Thanks to my fellow Shape trainers for all the conversations about fitness that helped me train smarter. Thanks to Britt for doing so many challenges with me this year. Thanks to my clients who believed in me and listening to me ramble on about OCR constantly. Thanks to my biggest cheerleaders Katherine, Kristy and Mike your support was unbelievable. Thank you to my parents who were always there when I was younger that built the foundation for who I am. Thanks Tika for helping with the kids and allowing us to drag you all over the place at this stage in your life on our crazy adventures. To my kids who make sacrifices that they don’t realize. A huge Thank you to Amina. She has come on this journey with me and if I told when I met her 15 years ago that I would be taking her on vacation to run through mud, climb mountains in the middle of nowhere I’m guessing she would have said No Thank you but here we are. Our life is filled with spectacular views and experiences that money can’t buy all because of everything she is and has achieved. She is my Love, my Lady, my Life!

What I learned:Keep eating no matter what. I can do this.

Next race: Atlanta Spartan Super

Race miles for the year: 194