In the quest to complete my first Spartan Trifecta, I knew there was only one race worthy of the accomplishment. Thankfully, living in New England, we are close enough to head up Vermont, the birthplace of Spartan Race, for the always challenging Killington Beast. I attended last year's race and barely survived the 10-hour ass kicking that it delivered. I immediately questioned why the hell I was there and even vowed that I would never do that again. Of course, a few days after the soreness subsided, I was already planning my return. Funny how that happens.
When the decision was made earlier this year to move the World Championships from Vermont to Lake Tahoe, I was concerned how that would affect the race. Social media buzzed when a cryptic email from Joe Desena surfaced about “going back to our roots” and promising “more carries, more crawls, and more climbs.”
Shortly after, it was announced that the Beast would be a Founder's Race which mostly meant it would involve more natural elements and obstacles and less man-made ones.
During build week, there were rumblings of no water-based obstacles including the classic swim to the Tarzan swings suspended under the bridge or the Tyrolean traverse spanning the lake. Rumors varied from it being a safety concern based on last year's race to Spartan not wanting to spend the money on lifeguards this year.
Before the race started, concerns arose about the quality of the race. With no World Championships, no NBC cameras, and no water obstacles, how would it stack up against previous years?
The Good:
Unfortunately, this will be a short list. There is no other Spartan Race that comes close to the challenge that the Killington Beast offers. The unforgiving mountain beats you up both mentally and physically. You learn more about yourself in one day here than anywhere else.
The brutal 16-mile course included numerous sole-crushing climbs with over 6,000 feet of elevation. If you are not prepared, this mountain WILL break you, and I love that about the course.
The hard earned medal that you receive is not the mass-produced generic green medal that you get at other events but a specially designed one for the Killington Beast, and it's badass!
While slightly monotonous, the numerous carries were taxing and extremely tough. Along with the always difficult bucket brigade, were two sandbag carries, an atlas carry, and no less than four log carries. Many of the classic obstacles were present, including all your favorite walls (O-U-T, inverted, 6′-7′ and Z-walls). There were three barbed wire crawls including a sadistic uphill climb that followed one of the many log carries. As always, the volunteers were great, especially under some very tough circumstances.
The Bad:
Just because you call it a “Founder’s” race doesn’t mean the course should be careless and haphazard. The first of the two spear throws was simply a hay bale sitting on the ground. Many of them were already starting to fall apart when we got there, and we were in the first wave of the day.
Even though I’m not a fan of water obstacles, it just didn’t feel the same without them. The only water obstacle was an insignificant wade through waist deep water.
The most embarrassing of the obstacles were the two rope climbs. The first set incorporated knots but were suspended so low from a ski structure that I was able to tap the bell after climbing to only the first knot.
The second “climb” was even worse. Even though it had no knots, it was suspended between trees and sagged so low that I was able to jump up and tap the bell without even touching the rope. Ridiculous!
Also, some of the walls were so poorly constructed that they shook when you climbed them. I was mostly stunned by all the miscalculations throughout the day.
There was a line for sandbags at the first carry because there weren’t enough to go around. Same thing happened at the bucket brigade.
There was a shortage of trifecta gear and medals for those that completed them. Shirts were an issue for any finishers later in the day with sizes quickly running out.
All these criticisms may be minor, and I would usually be more lenient if this were a local or first-time race, but not for the industry leader in their signature event.
Another complaint is regarding all the trash on the course. Contrary to a recent post on another media site, I was actually at the race and saw more than a few runners blatantly toss their trash on the ground. Mustard packets, wrappers, sports tape, etc.
The Ugly:
The main criticism that nearly everyone has voiced is the lack of water at the stops. Listed in the athlete’s guide as having six stops on the course and an additional one at the finish line, I can only recall five total.
After reaching the first stop, we were instructed that we could only have a couple cups of water and not refill our bladders. We were told; the next stop would allow refills. Fair enough. After reaching the second stop, we were told that we could not refill our bladders. Some ugly confrontations erupted between the runners and volunteer staff. The anger was misplaced but understandable.
At the third stop, we were once again rationed water. This time, we were allowed to fill our bladder about a 1/3 full. Racers were pissed! Volunteers were pissed! Spartan Staff were pissed!
Not a good scene. I’ve heard all the excuses. This is a Spartan Race! Prepare for anything!! STFU!!! AROO AROO!!! Sorry guys, this isn’t the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, it’s a race. A brutal, 8-10 hour, a 16-mile race on a mountain in 80+-degree heat. The lack of water was irresponsible and unacceptable.
Final Thoughts:
Huge props go out to Joe De Sena for immediately acknowledging and addressing all of these issues in a video post. However, as he stated, with five different events happening that weekend in four different countries, maybe they were spread too thin. Maybe without the NBC cameras and World Championships, Killington was just an afterthought.
I’m not sure what happened, but the bottom line is that two out of the three races that I ran this year for my first (and quite possibly my last) Trifecta were disappointing.
I have no doubt that all the issues will be corrected but, personally, I will no longer schedule my racing season around Spartan Races. They are no longer “Must Have” races. There are way too many great local and national events out there to experience.
Joe Addresses Spartan Race Issues
Hey Spartans – Joe De Sena here. This weekend saw 5 races in 4 countries. But when I heard about the issues we were having in Killington, I immediately left the Ft. Bragg race to come deal with it personally. The issues in water, medals and lines are unacceptable and I'm going to work with the Spartan team to make sure it never happens again. And don't think we aren't listening to the complaints – I love hearing them! And as anyone who knows me can attest, I want to hear them personally so I can respond. Email me at joe@spartan.com with your feedback. This was a massive weekend for Spartans but I won't rest until we learn from our mistakes and come back stronger. – Joe
Posted by Spartan Race on Sunday, September 20, 2015
Rating:
2 of 5 stars
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Muddy Warthog,
Unfortunately I left this rant on Brett Stewart’s of mud run guide’s September 24th’s post about the Killington beast/weekend (not my best moment)… weeks removed, bruises, cuts and emotions settled, not my finest reply… but 100% honest and like you mentioned, to many other great local 1 off events in new England to plan around the “spartan trifecta “… although I will say that I am one very proud father, I didn’t get into it in my rant, but my daughter on the day of the Barre, MA super was 14 years 21 days old, spartan is one of few that allows that young a competitor, on that day the showed no one younger completing a super, we then did the sprint (same location ) and she got her trifecta after conquering all that was that beast weekend in Killington!
Much of the comments prior to mine were very mixed… my rant…
None of what took place is/was acceptable for a OCR leader like Spartan, much of things said do not reflect how many of us spent our time on the Mt. I’ll touch on the less than educated “volunteers” who were there just for the free race or cause someone they knew was running (volunteers are great and allow events to happen, but this was a special crew) or the lack of Official Spartan staff assigned as safety people or obstacle monitors, never mind the condition the obstacles were in (I know it’s been discussed at nauseum )… My issues came in different ways…. We were Saturday 915… I was running with my barely 14 year old daughter and we had already done both the Barre, MA events, so this was for her first trifecta and honestly quite an accomplishment at 14…Our first issue came when trying to park, short version I’m an Iraq veteran with metal and dead people parts in me and my dad is Vietnam 73, implanted defibrillator etc. I HAVE handicap plates but didn’t even need them at 8 am as my wife and father were simply dropping us off to go reg. just the fact that I stopped in that crazy line of traffic got me yelled at and told to move along, I replied , I don’t need to they are dropping us off but later how can they get to the handicap spots, which the entrance was blocked by horse barricades, the reply was, how can you run the race if you’re handicapped and you need to keep traffic moving follow the flagger, so I pulled out of the lane and started a 3 point turn, got out of the traffic and stepped out, I said I can run the race thanks to a great Dr not that it’s your call, but you haven’t answered my question, my family needs to be able to park in there later as my dad can only walk so far (we also had our 16 month old daughter with us, who my wife would be pushing later), the answer I got was we were not allowed, it was employee and VIP only, I asked to speak with someone who knew more than he did so he walkied someone, we got out to go check in and meet “new” parking person in the VIP lot, wife, father and baby go back to condo (Pinnacle), new person arrives, I give the lowdown and am told their best bet is to “luck out” and find a spot on the street right near there… with time ticking and pre race stuff to get done i explained very sternly that what they were doing is not only wrong ethically/morally but also illegal by law, that both my wife and I work in law enforcement and I’ll make sure that she makes a call before coming down to watch, did not change where or how they were going to have to park later, my next issue came at the first wall, my daughter goes, grabs up top and hooks her heel on the support 2×4 and uses the leverage to get herself over, “staff” tells her its not an approved method of getting over, so 30 burppeis or try again, i said only other way is I help her and that “that” way was recommended by a staffer at the Barre super and that she’s trying to race with as little help from me as possible, pointless banter, took up time and put a bad taste in her mouth as she’s now worried about the obstacles she found ways to do without my help and is she not going to be able to do them those ways… couple more useless volunteers myself and others asked about distances or how far to water, we all clearly that day had no idea how far a mile was… which brings me to my BIGGEST PROBLEM, CONCERN and ISSUE OF THE DAY, The water station without water, unfortunately my daughter for whatever reason, even after drinking her 50oz and a lot of mine, upon arrival there she was bone dry to the touch, not sweating, dry white mouth and in my Army combat medic opinion was past dehydrated and on her way to some type of heat injury, we had been asking for the water station for a few miles and on top of the mileage was the pace we were stuck going through the woods… I get her in shade and go to fill our bladders when I not only notice a 50+ racer deep line, I’m hearing someone shouting 1 cup per racer and move along another water station is a mile and a half away, I run up to the person and tell them what’s going on and she said she can call a medic and she’ll be DQ’D, I said she wants to race just needs more than a cup of water, she’s on the verge of going down, she replies with I can give you each a cup or call the medic, at this point I’m already in a rage as my daughter sits dry heaving, I have a few regretful but choice words for the worker and run back to my daughter, thankfully a very nice team of 5 30 somethings have a little water in their packs and offer it to her AND to stay while I run to what looked like a garage under one of the lodges buildings and fill ours… a KILLINGTON EMPLOYEE in a truck sees me running asks what’s going on, has me jump in,drives me to a ice machine and sink, fills a small trash bag with ice for me and drives me right up the hill and let’s me out next to my daughter… I thank everyone for their generosity and then we sit for a good hour plus as my daughter slowly rehydrate ‘ s. .. we then carry on meeting my wife at one point for an extra 100 Oz bladder I’d carry (now have 200 oz capacity)… the rest of the race was just BLAH!!!… nobody knows anything about anything or who,how or where to find someone that does or go… seemed like major details were overlooked? Looked past in preps for Tahoe? Or just really bad,low quality and quantity of volunteers… I have no idea… so many things out there who knows… I apologize for the length of the comment, but it’s the first I’ve spoken up about it… I’ve been debating emailing Spartan HQ, but I usually get generic reply with a link to the FAQ page… again sorry for the rant…
P.S. we finished!!! Past 9pm but finished!
No LG tee shirt for me even though I registered for one as they were out…
In the end, proud of my daughter for spending 12 hours on the Mt. Finishing with a smile and completing her trifecta!
Muddy,
Do what you want with this post, delete, pass on or not even read… in the end I feel still Spartan owes, or should give those there that weekend a bit more than a CYA blip from Joe appologizing and saying next time we’ll be better… what, no clue, not looking for a free race or even a sticker, but like yourself and many others, we’re still not sure what to say or do… and the Internet fed crap just adds to people’s unrest and after this post here I’m not talking about it again (only 2nd site I bitched on,sorry)
Best to you and the NES crew,
John