This time was different. We packed up the kids and flew to Denver, CO for the Breckenridge Spartan Beast, and spent over a full week really scoping out the area. We had multiple reasons for doing this; neither of us had been to Colorado before but had always heard great things, and the race was starting at ~9500’ above sea level, so we wanted to give our bodies the best chance to acclimate to the altitude before the race.
For accomodations, we were lucky enough to be able to trade our timeshare for a resort in Breckenridge a couple of miles from the starting line, and later discovered that the course for the Beast passed within a couple hundred feet of the pool area and that a few obstacles were very close by.
We were also able to volunteer to do packet stuffing for Spartan Race (earning future free race credits), and met up with several friends who had also traveled from a variety of destinations to take on the challenge of Spartan Race’s highest venue.
One of the downsides of traveling is that normally if you’re going someplace new, you are pretty much alone with your traveling companion(s). You can certainly make new friends along the way, but this isn’t always easy for people. On this trip, thanks to social media groups like the Weeple Army and Team SISU, we already knew others who would be in the area at the same time, and it was fantastic to get together over a fine beverage with some of these friends we’ve made over the last few years who live far enough away to make regular social meetings inconvenient.
For many readers, this idea is nothing new, and they’ve been traveling to races for years, using the excuse of a race to explore somewhere new that they might not have reason to visit otherwise. For those who haven’t tried it, I highly recommend the experience. It’s a fantastic and relatively inexpensive (if properly planned) way to see new places and meet new people with similar interests and/or healthy addictions. There are loads of interesting options, whether you stick with Spartan Races and go to Hawaii or Texas, or try out a Battlefrog or the OCRWC in Ohio, not to mention the many international possibilities that exist and are continuing to grow in number and popularity. My advice is that if you are able, take the time to do it right (as opposed to a quick whirlwind visit to race and leave again), explore and get a real feeling for the area you’re visiting. You may just fall in love with it.