After what felt like three minutes asleep, I woke to find James Appleton making a well needed coffee and some porridge. Fuel I would need as this race was going to be long: the usual Spartan Beast races are around a half marathon, this one eventually clocked in at over 30km.
I managed the mountain stage well but was a little surprised to find I wasn’t the athlete most at home there. Siting in second as we finally reached the bottom of the descent I was a little relieved when the leader was awarded thirty burpees for using the top of the traverse wall…I was now leading and we were heading into the valley. Miles of flat running lay before me made interesting with interspersed obstacles and clever use of terrain such as rivers, forest and swamp.
I was now up to speed and kept my legs firing completing each obstacles as they came. Some time in a swampy quarry packed with obstacles put a halt to the quick progress but these I completed one by one and was soon headed back to the base of the mountain and the finish.
I knew I was in the lead but not by how much and there were still two obstacles left that I knew could cause me some problems. The first was the spear throw, I watched disheartened as my spear sailed the distance well but of target, so thirty burpees it was. Next was the Hercules Hoist. Being a light chap, if the ballast is of a certain weight it can prove quite impossible for me to pull up. Managing to lift it something like four inches it didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion it would be more realistic for me to climb the rope instead…thirty more burpees done and I was finally over the fire and across the line in just over 2 hours and 42 minutes.
With no more races planned for the weekend it was now time to catch up with the friends that weren’t in Oslo and have a well deserved shower, massage and beer. With plenty of big races coming up it’s exciting times and should be interesting to see how the season finishes, check back to find out.
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