Spartan Beast Ottawa

After much delay (it's end of September as I am adding this), we shall resume events in the calendar..

It's here.

It's finally here...the Beast!

The Ottawa Beast is a bittersweet weekend - the longest Spartan distance in the eastern calendar, but it also marks the end of the Spartan season on this side of the country. New this year is the Ultra Beast, recall in a bout of temporary (lasting several months) insanity I signed up for it, but ultimately opted out. Maybe next year.

I've been feeling pretty physically burned since the end of July (BattleFrog Xtreme and a lap of Shale Hill will do wonders) so even if I wanted to train something I had no desire to do so, and settled for 5K runs almost every day of the week leading up to the Beast.

We are staying very close to the venue and we have a lovely view of the Gatineau river. But first, some last-minute switches on the contents of our hydration packs.

Show and tell between 3 of us: "Cherry Shot Bloks? Check."

Another roommate, Karine, has these little baggies that she's filling with electrolyte powder. I decide to try the same thing (with Skratch Labs' formula). Between the baggies of white stuff and salt pills, we look like we're street dealers...

It's electrolytes and salt tabs, I swear!

Morning of, we have breakfast and head out...and see complete chaos at registration. A long line of anxious-looking people snakes out of the lodge, and we see drop boxes on the ground. The Ultra Beast runners haven't been checked in yet due to an unforeseen error...yikes! This in turn delays everyone else running the first wave.

Quick bag drop and I run to the start line with Tracy; we're about 5 minutes after the official start of the 9am heat. The hill climb is to be expected, with a couple of obstacles to hop over on the way.

There are parts of the course I recognize from last year; the lovely mountain bike trails we'd descended previously have now been planned in the other direction, ie we slowly run our way up.

Needless to say I was not having as good of a race as I thought, wasn't feeling completely up to snuff. Sure, I avoided 30 burpees by completing a lane of the Platinum Rig, but at around 15km my on-and-off Achilles flared and hated me with every step. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Run through the pain, some say? Mind over matter? At some point, when it feels like someone's shoving a shard of glass in your heel with every step even during a slow trot, it becomes hard to ignore. That and your running pattern is about as graceful as a 3-legged chair.

Plus, it wasn't all about steep hill climbing, the trails were great and I would have enjoyed them ordinarily, but due to feeling "meh" and the foot, I am waiting for this ordeal to be over. I'm telling myself, "Nope...don't want to do this twice!" At other times, The Nights by Avicii is buzzing through my head:

He said one day, you'll leave this world behind
So live a life you will remember...

"I remember that $@#% course plotter nicknamed the Luzzinator and @#$%&& burpees" (not true, we love you Dan!)

I thought I could succeed at the slackline, but halfway through I over-balance and head over to the penalty area. The volunteer is going on non-stop about burpees being our friend and how we like them. She's driving everyone crazy! The guy next to me becomes my burpee buddy as we both try to keep count.

The infamous monkey bar & infinity bar combo looms as we exit the water crossing, and I stand on the hay bale and...fingertips brush air. 30 burpees, then the traverse wall I fall off of so another penalty. Then the creek crossing with water cold enough to numb your feet and just deep enough to hide the rocks that lurk beneath the surface.

Monkey bars appear and I get about 2/3 of the way across when my tired hands let go. The fandangled obstacle is longer than we've seen in past races. Well played, Spartan...

...and the spear throw is next! I miss and am fish flopping during my burpees. My quads are cramping up and screaming at me, guess that's what happens when you whiff 4 obstacles in a row.

Slip ramp and fire jump to the finish line, yay it's over! Collect 3rd pie piece for the trifecta!

I'm so tired!

The girls finish their race and I wait at the finish line to hand them their medals. There is nothing quite like the hugs at finish lines!

I would have loved to see a few people finish the Ultra Beast, but we didn't stick around too much - who knows if we would have fallen asleep standing up once the sun went down?

Despite the less than ideal race experience, it was a great end to the Eastern Canada season. Met so many people, laughed a lot, grumbled a bit and learned a thing or two (no more raspberry flavoured gels - I kept burping out artificial raspberry flavour, yuck!)

Fellow Mudd Queens Jen, Genevieve and Ruth all got their coveted glow in the dark UB medals! Wow!!!

Now for a week off before the next treat in the calendar - XMan Race Sherbrooke.