This past weekend, I raced the SoCal Spartan in Chino, California. Prado Regional Park was a beautiful venue, the weather was great, and everyone was so excited to kick off the U.S. 2018 racing season for the Spartan Series.
When you hear about an adventure or race, often times it is the elite or masters finishers that get the most attention. I am not going to lie, they are some pretty amazing people, and however, I like to hear all sides of the story. An Ultra event is an epic adventure no matter what category you are in as a racer / OCR athlete, and for the Iceland race, I wanted to get multiple perspectives from those that ran it.
For a bit of context, let's start out with a little bit about me. I finished off 2012 at the doctors, sick and obese in horrible health. I knew I needed to do something about it so I set a 2013 resolution to get healthy and loose some weight. Fast forward, I've lost almost 75lbs and had a child in 2015.
I am 15 years old and I am just finishing up my freshman year in high school. I’ve been active in team sports since I was 5 when I joined my first soccer team and I continue to play with a local select team when I am not training for my high school cross-country or track teams.
Never let someone else tell you, “This is what you have to do.” You’ll most likely fail. Get angry at yourself. This is the best drive you will ever get. Self-motivation was my secret weapon in becoming who I am today. I’d be a VERY, VERY rich man if I had a dollar for how many times someone told me, “You should probably lose weight,” and I never went to the gym the next day.
One thing that almost all racers can agree on is cool tech to track training is always fun to learn about. I stopped by the Suunto booth to find out more about the Suunto Spartan Sport line of watches. Watch below to learn about the new upgrades for 2017.
Today, Spartan Race released the US 2017 Race Schedule. Athletes can start planning out their trifectas and plotting their season schedules. Check out all the dates and locations below.
This weekend we did a double race weekend. Saturday the RAM run and Sunday the Spartan Race Beast Windsor. This was going to be my first ever Spartan Trifecta, so I was really excited! My knee got a bit worse overnight, but I felt up to it! We were on a tight schedule, having to return the car at 7 and fly home at 8, so we were happy to be able to start just before noon. At the starting area, we met up with two RAM friends volunteering there.
This is the Spartan World Championship race, and more specifically, the World Championship heat, where a couple hundred of the best athletes in our sport are waiting to race for the big money and TV glory. Everyone here has had to earn a spot by obtaining a Spartan coin, given out to the top 5 male and female finishers at the other races throughout the year. All of the other athletes in the corral have stood on a podium or been close enough to taste it.
Spartan Race's Director of Sport Joe Distefano and Vice President of Production Mike Morris take Margaret cover the Spartan Race World Championship rules, cutoff times, and the whole experience - what it will be like on the course for athletes running the Beast - and Ultra Beast courses this weekend at Lake Tahoe. Rules, tips, debunking Joe De Sena's advice to "just stay home" and much more.
