Spartan Beast 2013

In March I was fortunate to be approached by UK Spartan Race Director Richard Lee, inviting me to take part in the UK Spartan Race Series following my fairly strong performances in the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest. Due to race clashes and much needed Ironman recovery, I was not able to make any of the sprint distance Spartan races and so, on 10 November, I headed down to the Spartan Beast as a novice to this particular event.

The Spartan Beast was first advertised as am 18+ km race but by race day this had been amended to 25+ km + 75 obstacles. I was of the opinion that the longer the race, the better, having trained for endurance rather than speed over the past 12 months.

Pete Rees at Mudstacle had done a great job over the previous six weeks profiling the favourites for the race. On the start line would be Thomas Blanc, who had won all of the series events so far, along with Sam Cherry and Ross Phelan, who had also excelled in several races. There was also Richard Crewe, who consistently finished in the higher places at OCR races and who incidentally was fantastic in giving me a lift to the race. Then… there was Jon Albon, the favourite, who has beaten me to first place at several OCR races now as well as destroying the competition at the Red Bull Steeplechase more recently. Could I finally give Jon a decent challenge for top spot?

What was going to be interesting was the difference between the experienced Spartan racers, who base their training around British Military Fitness and CrossFit sessions, versus me who just runs a lot and relies on the swim training I do for upper body strength.

The race was taking place around the awesome Pippingford Park, near Crawley. Here, the terrain was undulating and there were lots of trails, woodland areas and lakes! Arriving a bit too close to the start time, I put my Spartan headband on, joined the shouts of ‘AROOO!’ and got ready with the other contenders at the front of the first wave. It started pouring at this stage. We were going to be starting cold, and getting colder, on this lovely November day.

The start!!!

For the first ten kilometres it was very much Jon, Thomas and I running close together and I had a good catch-up with Jon as we enjoyed the first obstacles which included lake crossings, pull-ups, rope climbs, monkey bars and tyre carries. We were joined by a guy called Conor, who had missed out the tyre carry but who had little choice but to carry on with us at this stage. Jon built up a small advantage as we headed back into the event village and I had locked my knee by jumping too fast into a stream and jarring my leg on a rock. However, Jon and I both messed up the spear throw (I don’t think Leonidas would have approved) as I went for more of a javelin throw that looped over the intended target. The result- a 30 burpee penalty that took around forty seconds, enforced by Michael Cohen, head coach at Spartan Race UK.

The experienced Spartan, Thomas, was off ahead and my failure to complete another set of monkey bars due to my numb hands, costing me another round of burpees, put me further behind. I worked hard to close the gap at this stage and a mile later I found Jon, Thomas and Conor lost on the course- all four of us having missed a signpost. A few minutes later, we restarted ourselves and came into the event village for the second time together.

Jon took off again at this stage and Thomas and I dropped Conor. We then had several loops to do carrying various items such as sandbags and logs, and Thomas moved ahead of me. The last eight kilometres had much more running and I was able to use this to build up a decent gap on Thomas and Conor. I needed this gap as I approached the final few obstacles in the event village before the finish line. All of my upper body strength had gone, showing an area that I, like Jon, would need to work on for future events. My hands were also numb so when it came to picking up the 35kg Atlas Stone, I had no choice but to use my forearms. I then had no chance at all with the final huge rope climb as both a lack of strength and technique became apparent. 30 difficult, and closely watched, burpees later and I could finally cross the finish line for second place, a few minutes behind Jon and with Conor passing Thomas for third place, a couple of minutes behind me.

I think that anyone who has completed the course deserves huge recognition. It was a tough event in bad weather. Well done to those guys completing the entire series and getting their Trifecta medals.

It was freezing after the race and the rain made the organisation very tough. As with any event, Spartan Race UK will need to plan for all eventualities in future years and strive to improve. Even the superbly organised Rat Race Dirty Weekend had its organisational issues but they rectified them very quickly. Spartan Race is unique and I am sure it will continue to grow in the UK, given its commercial backing by Reebok.

I also need to mention the boys at Obstacle Race Magazine who will be releasing their first hard copy magazine in January, and are taking subscriptions now. Great to see the magazine starting up, showing how big OCR racing is becoming. Also indebted for the hot soup!!!

Given that Jon had a dodgy knee and I had done no specific training for the race, we were both very happy with the one- two. One day, hopefully it will be a reverse of the finishing order! Next week it is on to a full day of racing at Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest at Battersea. Once again, Jon and I will be racing, before I go round the course again with #peopleschampion Mark Garvey.