Race Recap: Spartan Super Utah 2018

The road to my pain.

The Course

The master of ceremonies cut us loose and we were off, beginning our ascent up the mountain hitting our first four obstacles before mile 1, from there we continued our ascent with switchbacks up and down and through some short tree covered areas on our way up to around 6400 feet,  there were trails that were super thick powder at some spots and then sharp rocks on others.  Once we hit the fourth mile we finally began our slow descent back down where I hit the eighth obstacle, Bender, it was about another half mile before I hit the Monkey Bars, which they switched up and removed a couple of the bars that added a little bit more of challenge for short armed individuals such as myself. I continued on to mile 5 where I started getting really light headed and sick feeling, I finished the bucket carry and couldn't really recover afterward, Obstacles such as the rope climb, 6- or 7-foot walls and the tire flip that normally are no issue for me became extremely difficult to complete.

Rope climb sponsored by the US Army.

As I continued on I noticed I was not the only one having issues, every tree or patch of shade that I came to always had 10 or 12 people laying in the shade trying to cool down and get rest so that they could recover enough to get to the next obstacle.  I finished my spear throw and as I was moving on I noticed a girl laying on the ground next to one of the volunteers shelters, it ended up she was waiting for the medics to come and get her because she was delirious from dehydration and possible heat stroke.  By the time I got passed Twister, I had a headache that was pulsing so bad that my eyes were watering. I made it over the A-Frame, through the rolling mud, and over the slip wall to “jump” over the fire to what I really wanted……..some water and a banana.