Spartan Ultrabeast: The Happiest Place on Earth

The winners have been declared, the legs have become mobil-ish again, and the bruises and scrapes have begun to heal.

Beast and UltraBeast medals

And all I can think is "Woo, let's do it again!"

That was fun. No, seriously: SO much fun. Let's run up and down mountains every weekend.

Depending on who you ask or whose Garmin you go by, the Ultrabeast ranged from 28-32 miles, and somewhere between 15,000-20,000 feet of elevation change. My chip time read 8 hours, 35 minutes: 2nd place female for both the Beast and Ultrabeast.* A little under 4 hours for the first lap, and a bit slower on the second (ha--go figure. Negative splits here would be damn near impossible). Here are some interesting stats on the course, btw.

UltraBeast Eve Eve Non-Sequiturs

As I sit in an Epsom salt bath, the random musings of a brain on overdrive:

Probably should have laid off the
clean & jerks.

• Grape Pedialyte is the bomb.
• Ironic that this is my first "real" Spartan Race. (Death Race not included) Most people work up from a Sprint, I work down from the Death Race.

How far we've come

I'm not big on anniversaries. They always seem to forced, so artificial, to me. Then again, I'm also a sentimental person. I enjoy milestones. I enjoy reflecting on progress that has been made in a defined period of time. So, by that reasoning, maybe I should like anniversaries.

I'm overthinking it again.

I suppose I have an imperfect anniversary coming up this weekend: the Wisconsin Tough Mudder--the obstacle race that started it all for me. Imperfect, because it took place in July last year. So call it my "one-year and two month" anniversary into obstacle racing.

[Aside: holy hell, has it only been that long?! Perhaps it's because multiple 24+ hour races have taken years off my life, but I feel like I've been at it for much longer than a little over a year. Perhaps I should cool it on the 5-hr energy and N.O.-Xplode.]

DR Recovery: At Sea

A funny thing happened over the past few weeks. I've had post after post started concerning the Death Race, yet I couldn't finish any of them. There were things I wanted to talk about: the concrete bag, the ravine (dear God, the ravine), yet it all seemed too forced, too fake. And I had no desire to write a book recapping the entire 60 hours.

No caption necessary

DR 2012: Cheaters (and Brats) Never Prosper

As we began the 6hr drive back to Philly from Vermont, I broke out my legal pad and a pen and began to list all the tasks we completed in the 2012 Death Race. Despite having just spent 60 hours out in the woods of Pittsfield, VT, even then I had trouble recalling the sequence of events. And these past few days, my mind has been constantly churning over things that I think happened, things that I wish had happened, and things that I wish I had changed. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to come to terms with how I FEEL about my Death Race experience, and what it is that I'm taking away from it. This will probably end up being several posts as I distill the events over the next few days and weeks.

After the Winter Death Race, I wrote a post about how its easy and fun to be in the lead at the Death Race; the real test of strength and self, however, is when you have fallen (or feel like you've fallen) helplessly behind the leaders. Given my success at the WDR and CMC and other recent races, it's a feeling that was foreign to me, and one that I could only talk about in the abstract.

Until now.

Death Race by the Numbers

Total time to finish: 60 hours, 23 minutes
Place: 2nd female

# people wearing non-black shirts: 1

Total approximate distance covered: 50-70 miles (depending on who you talk to)
Clif bars consumed: 8

The Betrayal Has Begun

When I signed up for the Death Race back in December, I remember talking to a previous Death Race finisher and asking about the race.

"What is it?" I inquired.

"A complete mindfuck," he said.