#Itab spartan race registration#
#Itab spartan race free#

For me that was my primary goal, my secondary goal was to see how well I would rank in my first BIG distance race.Ĭameras were in our faces, the sound of the shutters going off, my heart was beating, and then they dropped the sport-safe smoke grenades. To get the pass you had to finish by the 7pm cut-off time.

#Itab spartan race free#

Ultra Beast racers were provided green armbands, these would signal other racers doing the beast to move to the side for us on obstacles free season passes were on the line after all. Then it was time to listen to all the rules: stay on trail, watch for markings, if you miss an obstacle you must do 30 burpees with push-ups, and so-on. Before the rules were sounded off by race director, Michael Morris, I gave Morgan one last HUGE hug for good luck. It was after that race last year that I decided to compete at the Spartan Death Race a year earlier than originally planned. Just under a year ago I competed at the 2011 Spartan Race World Championships in Texas, since then they have relocated the end-all be-all event to the homeland, where Spartan first began, in Vermont. Not only was this the first ever marathon distance obstacle race, but it was also the Spartan Race World Championships. With so many top athletes here for this race you knew it was going to be an incredibly competitive race. I remember spotting Andi Hardy, Ella Anne Kociuba, and I even had a chance to introduce Andy Weinberg, one of the founders of Spartan Race, to my father just before the race. There was Junyong Pak, Hobie Call and Olof. Davis, host of my favorite podcast, and Margaret from Dirt in Your Skirt. We staked our place at the front of the heat, Morgan, Pat, and myself were there, along with Matt B. Spartans! Are you ready for battle?! Photo Credit: Nuvision Action ImageĪt the starting line you could just feel all the excitement building, we all were ready to tackle the Ultra Beast. We later found out they couldn’t see the ditch when they turned causing the vehicle to roll, thankfully everyone within was okay, they still went and did their race. Walking up to the race site put a stunned face on all of us, just moments before we arrived a SUV flipped turning into the site. I also spotted another familiar face, Brakken, he won the Indiana Spartan Sprint and I was rooting for him to place high at the Beast.

As we pulled up I spotted some friends from Chicago Spartans, Candie, Stefanie, Paul, and Maureen. The mountain was covered in a dense fog, we would be running through the clouds if it stayed around long enough.

When we arrived at the race site you could feel the energy in the air. The race was scheduled to begin at 8am…it didn’t actually start until almost 8:15am however. We had to wake up around 6am to get ready so we could be at the race site by 7:05am. It was difficult to sleep that night, but eventually we all made our way off to bed, it felt as though I only slept a few minutes. Thankfully everyone was okay and still able to race.

#Itab spartan race registration#

Later we went over to the race site to pick up our registration packets and even there you couldn’t avoid running into a bunch of people you were unexplainably happy to see. It’s amazing how a year ago most of these people were strangers, and even until that moment I still had only known many of the people via the social internetz (mainly Facebook), and yet somehow it felt like a family reunion. We were going to be having a pasta party in a few hours so between setting up for that, playing with the spear throws and saying our hellos to everyone that arrived we all had a lot of catching up to do. We all went inside and they got settled in. We exchanged bear hugging each other off the ground and I was introduced to her client she trains, Pat. As usual, she was in extremely high spirits, and had more energy than a five year old all jacked up on Mountain Dew. My Death Race savior, had finally, arrived. Finally, the one person I was waiting for more than anyone else, Morgan.

Then I heard another car pull up while I was in the kitchen and I went outside to see who it was. Pak and I set up this awesome practice traverse at the house. I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome it was to receive lessons from the World’s Toughest Mudder.

He also set up a tyrolean traverse between the trees and a post on the house and taught all the methods to getting across this obstacle. Within a few tries we were all throwing far better than before Pak’s quick lesson. Right away Pak got out the spears and started teaching us the proper technique for spear throwing. Soon after Junyong Pak, Shelly, and countless others began to arrive. When we arrived it was only us, so we toured the house, scouted out the rooms and settled down in the basement. Olof was the first to arrive at the house and we met him at a grocery store we stocked up on supplies at before we went to the house.