Spartan NAES - West Palm 3k

Spartan West Palm!! What a race this turned out to be! I had many doubts on this format coming into this year; How would qualifying go? Why is qualifying a 3rd of the length of the final? Could lower level athletes sell out to knock out the top contenders? Will this actually be a good race? So many questions, and they all were answered. Overall, I loved this event.

High Octane racing is what the new Spartan 3k Format holds. It’s very fun to watch both in person and on the broadcast. It keeps the viewer locked in. Surprisingly, it’s also extremely fun for the athletes. I suppose I only speak for myself here, but I thoroughly enjoyed the qualifying rounds and the quick turnover and transition that was required to compete here. Gone are the days of slow jogging for 2+ hours and casually completing obstacles. Spartan is exciting.

Since this is very new and experimental format, Spartan is literally building these courses from already built locations and putting them together best they can while still catering their normal product for the masses. So Steve and Gary had their hands full with this one. The only failable obstacle on the course was the multi-rig. Everything else was some variation of a wall. (Z-Wall, Over-Wall, Dunk-Wall, Inverted-wall, etc.) After arriving and scoping out the course I was disappointed with what was presented as far as challenge, but the course truly doesn’t matter because the athletes will make it a race. Obstacles, easy or hard, will always create challenges for the racers. Running as hard as you can into a 6ft wall, hurts. When you’re racing at this high level, intensity is the deciding factor of obstacle difficulty. So with that in mind, I respected what the course would ask of me, and I began piecing together my plan.

I knew I probably wasn’t the fittest athlete in attendance. I’m still building back after everything I lost from last year and things aren’t always as smooth as we hope them to be. But fortunately, I’m a good racer. I can get a lot from myself when it matters most. And I mean, I’m the 3k world champ so… I felt confident! I figured the first round was going to be the learning experience of the day to get familiar with everything, then we could strategize from there.

The first round was scary. We knew there would be eliminations from the start but the top athletes still wanted to conserve energy best we could. The real wildcards were the athletes that we knew wouldn’t be competitive in the final. Because if your only concern was making the next round, you can sell out in that round and knock out legit competitors who might have gone just a little too conservative. So I figured if I won my heat, that should be a guaranteed spot right? Plan = Win.

I was in the 3rd heat of the first round, so we would follow the rest of the field. We were all hoping to not catch any traffic from the previous heats, but the obstacles were going to be wet and muddy no matter what. There was a major bottle neck 300-400 meters in at the bucket carry, after seeing that, all I wanted was to make sure I got there first and I would have a major advantage. When the gun went off it was an all out sprint right into the weeds to try and snag the best line possible. For a 1k loop in West Palm Beach, the amount a varying terrain was impressive. Right out the gates were deeps weeds into fast hard pack, after an over wall we hit a rather technical descent into a bucket carry with dense foliage. Stability and agility was crucial to keep moving quickly through every part of the course. I’m confident on sketchy terrain so I moved right to the front, and was able to take the bucket in first. This bucket loop had one line, so passing was next to impossible. I held my position up front coming out of the bucket carry and turned the corner to the fastest part of the course. The back side was cross country grass running, very fast, very flat. A fun moment to open up the stride and get back to speed after the bucket, but it would only be a few seconds of it. Right after that we went into Inverted wall, Z-wall, and a 100m water section. Runnable, but definitely a rhythm breaker. Coming out of the water, your legs are heavy, your shoes are soaked, and you have to lean in and get back to speed immediately because we’re already halfway done. After the water we hit something new for the year, the laser pistol. Straight out of modern pentathlon, we had laser pistols with electronic targets set up to test accuracy under duress. I loved the concept. The only downside, it was way too easy. The target was the size of a dinner plate but we were only 8 yards away at most. Not a difference maker in the race, but it was nice to get a short rest before the end. So I nailed the target, moved on to rolling mud and barbed wire. This was the interesting part of the race. I wasn’t sure how the holds on the rig felt yet, and my first attempt would be soaking wet from the dunk wall. I stayed very safe and conservative to ensure I qualified through the first round. Failing an obstacle during the qualifier is a guaranteed elimination. So it was not an option. On the rig I took no risks, went slow, hit the bell. I already had a solid lead so I cruised into the finish, confident I had advanced to the next round.

Upon checking results, I had the fastest time of the first round. I was just ahead of Manuel Dufaux. I felt rather comfortable during that round so I wanted to do the exact same thing in round 2 so we would qualify for finals without selling out. The narrative was already starting to show a battle between Manuel and I, though we still would not line up together until the final. About 10 minutes later, we lined for round 2. My two goals were; get to the bucket first, and stay relaxed throughout. I was successful in both of my endeavors and ended up winning my heat and qualifying with the second fastest time of the 2nd round. Manuel laid down a faster time than myself, which hasn’t happened on a short obstacle course in a long time. So it was shaking out to be a very exciting final.

Two 1k rounds for the qualifiers, a 3k final on the same course. The final would be a completely different race than the heats. 3 times the length. This actually gave me some confidence going into the the last race of the day. I knew that I was comfortable on those qualifiers, people with times close to me I was confident they were working harder than me. So 3 laps would expose that. But it was never going to be easy, especially with Manuel, Alvaro, Batres, and Maszk all being very fast runners. They could all technically get ahead and box me out to have to take bad lines and block obstacles. I new it would be tough, but I had to get to the bucket first or second. No other options. After that, just sit and wait. I’ve raced many times before, the race would come to me.

We all lined up for the final, everyone fully aware of how painful this event would be, but everyone ready to make it hurt. The gun went off and I went to the front. Manuel set the pace and I sat behind him. I actually ended up getting to the bucket in 3rd which I was fine with. I wasn’t worried about losing this race in the first half of the first lap. We had to hit all of these obstacle 3 times, it would take its toll and I wasn’t going to start racing until the second half of this race. But I have to admit I was a bit worried watching how fast Manuel moved with the bucket. He had to be 10 seconds ahead by the end of the carry and you can’t fake that. I was also worried that by staying conservative for the first lap that I would end up bleeding to much time to make up. But I trusted my experienced and trusted in the plan. Then in the back half of the first lap, I actually started to close in on Manuel. Not a ton, but just enough to show me everything I needed to see. I knew I would catch him on the second lap. I would make my move in the middle, let the obstacles separate us, then out run him on the final 1k.

I was patient, and the race had come to me. Manuel and I had separated ourselves rather quickly so it was obvious that the battle for the win was between us alone. When we started the second lap, I opened up a bit to close in on Manuel to set up for a lead change. It went out of the window actually after the bucket when Manuel ran like crazy with that heavy bucket on his shoulder. I lost some time but hit the cross country section of the course and put in a little push to close down. I was able to catch him on the Z-Wall, and take a bit of a risk to jump to the bell and skip the last section of the wall to make a move. I took the lead going into the water and I was able to move a little easier out there than Manuel.

I like racing up front. It gives you control of the race. I don’t mind chasing, but it’s much more comfortable to have the reigns in your hands. We got into the water section and I knew Manuel was still close behind but it was now my race. I wanted to start opening up a gap on him before the next bucket carry. As far as I could tell, that was the only section of the course that he was gaining time on. I figured I could end the fight early by taking that advantage out of play. So I pushed on ahead, saving just enough energy so that if he had an answer I could still fight to the finish. I was shaving a couple seconds on the rig every lap, my laser pistol was deadly accurate and I kept transitions quick. Next thing you know we’re crossing into our final lap and I’ve stretched a rather solid lead. Enough to keep separation on the bucket and I could stay relaxed through the finish.

The only thing that could stop me now would be a foolish mistake. That was another scary part of this format, taking risks to save time could actually end up costing you lots of time with a failure. At OCRWC for example, taking risks on obstacles is just how you have to race if you want to win. But what’s different there is the rule for failure, you retry until you complete the obstacle. Everything is mandatory completion. In Spartan Race, if you fail the obstacle you have to run some sort of penalty loop. A penalty that basically takes you out of the race. So you can try and race fast, or you can stay safe and ensure you complete everything. I wasn’t there to get anything other than first place so I wasn’t going to change anything I was doing. Personally, I’ve found that when you over think and take your time, that’s when you make mistakes. Go fast and trust your body and instincts to handle what comes.

I had the race locked up, Manuel in second, Alvaro in third. But that simple mistake was about to come into play, not for me but for Manuel. He ended up slipping off of the Z-Wall and losing second. But fortunately we were far enough ahead for him to still finish on the podium.

I closed out the race nice and comfortable, walked across the finish line feeling much better about myself than when I started the day. I had raced a savage race the week before and had a very poor showing. I was clearly not in great racing shape but if you know your body’s capabilities you can use it correctly to still compete at a high level. I had raced the wrong way at Savage, but I had executed a much better race plan here. Plus I was the only one that brought an ice chest to stay cool in between rounds. Shout out Sarah and Tamara for that.

So all in all, a solid day of racing. I’m happy with result and more importantly I’m very happy with what I can do with the little fitness I had. we’re gonna make major leaps forward in the coming months. I’m not sure what my next Spartan Race will be, but if you see me on the start line, I’m there to win.