Tag Archives: Montana

Sep2

Summer Running Recap

Posted on September 2, 2022 by mscurlgurl78

Of course, I did my last post 3 months ago. Of course, I haven’t written about any of the races I did in the late spring and any of the training I have been doing this summer, and I haven’t written about what is ahead.

So, I am doing it now. It’s going to be pretty concise, but it’s a post.

I left you with the fact that the race weekend for Whitefish Half and Full Marathon was upon on. We headed down for the Canadian long week in May and had just an overall fantastic time. We went with our good friends Nick and Alycia, and my husbands parents also came down and stayed at a hotel to help with Andy. Dan and Alycia would then run the full marathon, while Nick and I both ran the half.

Everyone runs the first 13 miles together. Half course was relatively “easy” as far as elevation, turns, etc. Dan and I ran together and had a very good pace for most of it. Dan was actually killing it and ended up leaving me at around mile 8 or 9. I had trouble in those two miles and was very tempted to just start walking and quit. My competitive edge felt lost. However, I mustered up some willpower and pushed through. My finishing time was 1:47:47, which I will happily take after it being such a long time without racing! 20/237 for women and 4/40 for women 35-39.

The following weekend I had the disaster that was the Calgary Full Marathon. I need to stop doing this full marathon because it’s never a good race for me. The half goes well. The ultra has gone well. But this damn distance. Anyway, 5km in to the race I knew stuff wasn’t going to go right. I also had my worst day of my period and felt like shit (yeah, I’m whining. but I’m talking about a natural thing that everyone should know SUCKS when you are trying to compete) so there’s that. The fact I finished is just good enough for me. I ran a 4:30.23, and YES-Dan’s time at Whitefish (even with the crazy elevation!) beat mine. He ran a 4:07.25, with a 1:45.41 half split. And his time for the second half wasn’t slower because he hadn’t trained….it was slower because the second half of that course was EVIL!

In the end, Calgary was completed. But the highlight may have been seeing the photos and video of our son Andy run the 1.2 km kids run. Ohhh, he had the best time!

How was summer then? Well…we bought a house, sold a house, moved, went to Hawaii….and oh yeah….I trained for the Lost Soul Ultra 100KM. This race happens ONE WEEK FROM TODAY and HOLY SHIT IT IS STARTING TO GET REAL.

I did the LSU 50km twice—once in 2019 and then also last year in 2021. Last year, a monsoon came in the middle of the night before the 50km race start so they had to change things last minute and make it the wet-weather route. Not a trail race, but it was done. This will be my first ever go at a 100km race distance, with my farthest ever before being the 54km that is the regular Lost Soul…and the most I’ve ever run in one day is 70km during our silly 100 point day.

Look really close and you can see me. The coulees were so green early in the summer!

My good friend Tracey is crewing me (thank god) and the weather appears to finally be getting cooler. The rain needs to hold off and all should be good. I know there will be some really high HIGHS and some pretty low LOWS during my attempt at this. But as long as I finish, then it’s a personal best.

I really do hope to do a detailed report on this race because this is a pretty big deal for me. I’m grateful for having the time in the summer to do the training while not teaching, and also for Andy being at daycare so I have this selfish time to run.

Next post will hopefully be posted in this same month! I can’t wait to share stories from the trails!

May20

Race Weekend!!!! FINALLY!

Posted on May 20, 2022 by mscurlgurl78

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Well well well….it’s finally time. The time has come. It’s here. WE HAVE A RACE WEEKEND GETAWAY!

I know there have been events happening elsewhere in the last year even during the pandemic. But in Canada, most of our things were still cancelled due to gathering laws. And then the ‘easy’ border crossing by road wasn’t easy because it was closed to traffic until I don’t even remember when…November 2021?

In early 2020, we had chosen the Whitefish Marathon Weekend in Montana as our spring race. Had an AirBNB booked with friends. Going to be great! Well, that got cancelled (obviously) and our race entries got transferred to 2021. The race happened in 2021, but none of us from Canada could go…I mean, unless you flew. We weren’t allowed to cross the road border.

Now its 2 years later. And it’s been about 3 years since I have done a half marathon race (my last was Woody’s RV Half Marathon in Red Deer, May 2019). I ran a 1:43.20 then. After that race, my focus was a full in Haida Gwaii (3:42 and change) and my 50km Ultra Trail Race.

I have trained pretty well this spring….but my base and my ability is SO DIFFERENT than it was since I last toed the start line of a road race. I know I should just listen to Dan and focus on that this race weekend is about travel and having fun with friends….but I am nervous. I would used to thrive on being competitive to myself in road races. I am going to push the best I can, and while I have done the mileage in training, I am not sure if I will just explode part way through. It almost feels like this is my first time doing a race and don’t know what to expect.

We leave this afternoon to do the 3-3.5 hour drive to beautiful Whitefish. The weather for the weekend looks ideal. We are staying with really good friends at an AirBNB close to start and finish. In-Laws are already down there at a hotel and are going to watch Andy race day and then take him on Saturday night so we can have some fun.

This trip and race has been 2 years in the making and we finally get to go. I have no clue what my “Race Report” will be. Maybe I’ll surprise myself. Maybe my legs will give out and I’ll have to walk my ass across the finish. Either way, I just have to remember that this means one thing—RACING IS FINALLY BACK!!!

May31

May Happenings…FOUR recaps and then some!

Posted on May 31, 2016 by mscurlgurl78

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Wow, I have been slacking on blog posts! May has been SO busy with not only races, but teaching, coaching, and life! If I tried to do an individual recap for each for the four events I did in May, I wouldn’t get them done until September, so I am going to briefly touch on what I’ve been doing ‘running-wise’ lately, and also whats next…

MONTANA SPARTAN BEAST

On Saturday, May 7th, I participated in my 4th Montana Spartan Race weekend. This time, instead of doing it with my husband, I was able to do it with my best friend Ali. She flew in from California on the Friday night and would be participating in both the Beast on Saturday and the Sprint on Sunday. The Sunday Sprint would be her first Trifecta of the year, and she is going for an incredible 5 Trifectas by the time 2016 is complete!

Before the Sunday Sprint

I knew what the expect with the course; Ali had an idea from what I’ve told her or what she read online. But I think it’s safe to say it was tougher than she could even had imagined! The terrain is very challenging, and you are basically doing hills for 14 miles. The barbed wire crawl at the end is also brutal, as I would say it’s a solid 200 metres long. We stuck together the whole race and were very happy to be finished! It is a gorgeous course with a great atmosphere post race. I was happy to just be doing the Beast, as come Sunday being a spectator was right up my alley. Sunday was a bit of a let-down, as it seemed that Spartan Race was more interested in their Elite Heat and the NBC video crews than the paying customers. After the elite heat started over 30 minutes late, they started the open heats really quick, one after another. This caused for back ups at obstacles and just hoards of people in the way. I saw this first-hand by being a spectator. I do enjoy Spartan Races, but I think I will be taking a break from them for some time.

Who doesn’t love a good fire jump!?

Happy to be finished…and even happier to have those fries!

LAKEVIEW SCHOOL SUPERHERO 5KM

This event was a late addition for me. As a Wednesday night race put on by a local school, this event had a different purpose and would draw a different crowd. The school was fundraising to build a new playground, and ScotiaBank had agreed to match their fundraising amounts! Around 450 kids and adults registered for either the 2km or 5km run. I think it would be safe to say it was a huge success!

The event was geared more towards the children, and that makes perfect sense as it was put on by an elementary school. The 2km race went first at 6:00, and then at around 6:30 they started the 5km. The loop for the 5km runners was down the green strip we run on with Marathon Club, around park of Henderson Lake and back, with the last 400 metres or so on the grass at the school. Running on the grass was the hardest part for me personally! I was able to huff and puff my way in to a first place female finish with a time of 22:16. If they did this event again next year I would definitely participate, as it supports a local school…and I am a teacher!

WOODYS RV WORLD RED DEER HALF MARATHON

This is an event I have done many times before. Red Deer is where my in-laws life, and the event always falls on the Victoria Day/May Long Weekend, so it’s super convenient! For my 5th running of the half marathon, I would be joined by my husband and my sister-in-law. Thing is, it turned out I was the only one who really had been ‘training.’ Now, let me be clear—Erika, my sister-in-law, works out and stays active doing things other than running. She just joked saying that she had a running ‘rest week’ that lasted 7 weeks! And my husband….well, he hadn’t run since the BAA 5km…and before that he ran while in Hawaii in January…so he initiated his 5 day training plan leading up to the race. I didn’t have high hopes for him. He just wanted to finish.

Pre-race clothing consisted of rain poncho garbage bags…which Dan wore all race!

Come race day, I didn’t have high hopes for myself. I had cramps that felt like Satan was inside my body and it was raining. HARD. I started out feeling OK, but by mile 4 I knew I just needed to trod it out and not care about my time. My time was a 1:46.35. I was freezing, wet, irritable and just happy to be done. I thought I would have enough time to get back to the car, get clean clothes, and see my husband finish. Well, of course he outdid himself. He finished his first half marathon in a time of 1:52.37. Seriously….it took me until 2013 to hit under 1:54, and he just goes out there and does that. Whatever! He was on Cloud 9 the rest of the weekend…that is, until Monday morning after I let Snoopy out to the bathroom at 5:45 AM and he got sprayed by a skunk. What a memorable Victoria Day 2016 it was!

Half Marathon Finishers!

CALGARY MARATHON WEEKEND-50KM ULTRA

Expo fun!

My last event of May 2016 happened to be the Calgary Marathon Weekend. I often do an event in Calgary, having done the half marathon in 2013, the full marathon in 2009 and 2014, and the 50km Ultra in 2015. This year, I opted to register for the 50km, as I wanted to see if I could better my time from the prior year, which was 4 hours 40 minutes and 34 seconds.

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Other than my races in between Boston Marathon and race day, I hadn’t put on any crazy mileage in preparation. I really was going out there and seeing what I was made of. The race start of 7 am is great, because it ALWAYS it warm this weekend, and the sun was out in full force early. There was at least a nice breeze throughout the morning to help break the heat. I started running with the plan of holding a 8:00 minute/mile pace for as long as I could, knowing I would probably have to slow down some. I was able to keep my mind going on tons of different things during the race, because during the week before I asked for family and friends to let me know if they wanted me to ‘run for them’ at any point. I had a list in my back skirt pocket that had the names of those who wanted me to run for them and the segments I would think about them. I took this idea from my friend Dennene, who I met at this very race last year!

I was holding my own until around mile 22, when I realized I wouldn’t be able to hit the marathon timing mat (42.2 km) at a 3:30.00 (8 minute pace). I decided to take a little break, use the washroom, and hydrate even more. I knew I was just going to try my best to finish still with a better time than the year before. I trucked along a bit more and my right foot started to really hurt (where my bone spur and arthritis is). I ended up compensating for this pain by almost running on the outside of my right foot for the last 7 miles or so; it hurt too much to have my whole foot hit the ground.

My friend Saskia was helping out with her triathlon group at the 40 km mark, and she saw me as I went by. She joined me and got me to the marathon mat, which I hit at 3:41.02. What’s even funnier is that this is now my third fastest marathon time, with Vancouver being the fastest and Boston being next! I was quite a bit ahead of my pace from last year, so I knew I just needed to muster through any pain and get the last 7.8 km or so completed! I kept a positive attitude, smiled and had fun, and by doing this, I even had some extra energy stored during the final stretch to really push myself. My final time—4:23.10! I beat my time from last year by just over 17 minutes! YES!

Thumbs up!

I was very happy with my time for this race, and even happier to find out I placed in the 50km at 20/122 runners overall. For my gender, I was 6/42 and in the 30-34 female I was 2/9. I earned a 1st place age group award, however, because much like last year the overall female winner was in my age group, thus removing her from age category awards.

Bling and trophy acquired!

This race was not a ‘goal race’ by any means, but it was important. This marks my “last hurrah” before my cheilectomy surgery, which is happening on June 10th. My bone spur will be shaved off my right foot, along with my arthritis being cleaned out. Stitches will be put in, and I will be put resting and elevating my foot most of the summer. I will probably have 8 weeks off of any sort of running, and then when I do start running again I will be taking it VERY EASY. The arthritis will most likely come back over the years, but hopefully the bone spur stays away. I will have lots to write about in regards to this surgery, and that will be what my summer posts are devoted to, so stay tuned.

And with that, my Winter/Spring/beginning of Summer 2016 races are complete! Up next-surgery. After that—get back into running so I can complete the 2017 Goofy Challenge in Walt Disney World! Can’t stop me now!

May19

Montana Spartan Race 2015-The Beast!

Posted on May 19, 2015 by mscurlgurl78

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This is the third year that Spartan Race has offered a Montana event, with the past two years being the Sprint Distance. This year, they kicked it up a notch and added the Spartan Beast on Saturday—12+ miles and 30+ obstacles of fun! Dan and I had done the Sprint the past two years and loved every second of it, so when they made Saturday’s event the Beast, I registered us for it right away! This year, we also decided to go back to where we stayed the 1st time around—Averill’s Flathead Lake Lodge in Big Fork, Montana. This dude ranch has been in operation for 70 years! It is absolutely gorgeous, and as long as we keep doing the Montana Spartan Races, we will always be coming back here! Part of the fun for us during Spartan Race weekend is getting away from Lethbridge for the weekend, and being able to drive 3.5 hours south and be surrounded by such beauty and fun is fantastic. Big Fork is a small vacation “town” (I even think it is unincorporated) but there are a handful of restaurants and bars to enjoy before and after the event. We opted for the new Flathead Lake Brewery for dinner and drinks on Friday, and we’re very happy with our meals. The beer was excellent also! On Saturday, we went into “downtown” and ate at Kiska’s by the Lake, a Cajun restaurant that was also new. Excellent food and drinks all around! My Cajun pot pie was AMAZING! Now that I just gave a lodging, food and drink rundown, onto the race recap….

We had the 9:00 am heat on Saturday, which meant we wanted to be over at the course by 7:30 – 7:45. Ok, I know I said I was done with the lodging and food talk, but the great thing about staying at the lodge is the proximity to the course. It is two miles down the road, and since the lodge is the “host” resort you get a VIP parking pass. If you stay in Kalispell (15-20 minutes drive) or Whitefish (even farther) you are in more of a populated & commercialized area, but you have a farther distance race morning and after the event to travel. They do offer shuttles with parking right outside of Big Fork, which is great, but I like being able to just drive up and park. That way we can leave things in the car to come back to after the race, and since we are so close to the lodge it makes for a nice quick trip back. Also, breakfast is included with your stay at the lodge both mornings, and they started it up in the main building at 5:30 am Saturday. It is buffet style, with eggs, pancakes, bacon, fruit, cereal, toast, bagels and all the beverages you’d expect. Seriously, I cannot rave about the Flathead Lake Lodge enough. They treat the Spartan racers very well and it is worth every penny staying here.

Packet pickup went very quickly on Saturday morning, and this was a relief, as there wasn’t the packet pickup the day before like they offered the past two years. I assume they canned that since now they had events all weekend, and it just makes it easier to do pickup morning of. By the time we got on the grounds, the men’s elite heart had just started, with the women right behind. We were able to watch the men’s elite runners come through the 4 mile area, as it looped right in the main part of the grounds. This was neat as we got to see them do the bucket brigade and Hercules hoist. Dan and I tested out the rope climb station they had to practice on and also messed around with the slosh pipe challenge. Before we knew it, we were checking our bag ($5 bag check) and in the starting gate.

We had an idea what we would be in for with this race, since we had prior experience running the Sprint the past two years. I really like that they change the route up year to year, even though the race site is the same. We started a lot farther back from the main grounds but of course, tackled a hill immediately. This course has a ridiculous amount of elevation changes happening….calves burn so bad going straight up, then your quads kill going straight down. I don’t even know how many times we went up to only go down and repeated this over and over again, many times on single-track trails full of rock and debris. It makes for a good challenge that’s for sure!

Many of the obstacles are the same at all Spartan Race courses….monkey bars, walls to climb, cargo nets to crawl over, rope climb, barbed wire crawl, tire flip, traverse wall, spear throw, sandbag carry….the traverse wall was like how it was in California, where instead of being just a single straight wall, it made the shape of a Z. I was very proud that I was able to make it across this obstacle in Montana all on my own….something I couldn’t do in California!

The unique obstacles in this course we’re ones that were really made from the terrain itself. There was also logs EVERYWHERE! Logs to climb over, logs to climb under, logs to carry back and forth with chain link handles, and two separate log carries. One of the log carries even went out through some mud and water before coming back.

I forgot to mention the injury I faced when Dan and I approached the first log carry, about 2.5 to 3 miles in. After doing an 8 foot wall, I noticed I had blood coming out of the back of my shoe. My heel had been rubbing against the back of my shoe pretty bad, as my sock had fallen. I skipped the blister portion and went straight to open raw wound. We stopped for a good 10 minutes at the medic to try and clean it up, when in the end Dan just spit on his shirt and wiped it off. We put a bandaid on it, but it stayed for about 30 seconds. It hurt like hell the whole race but I wasn’t going to let it stop me.

Dan was in really good spirits for the first 8 miles or so. We were making jokes and having a great time. I even remember Dan saying something crazy along the lines of “I love running on trails compared to roads!” and during all the log carryies “I do this at work every day!!” Once we got to the 10 mile marker, though, Dan hit a wall. 10 miles is the farthest he’s ever run, and that was a few weeks prior at the 10 Mile Road Race. He never got snappy at me (thankfully!) but he was hurting. The elevation changes and the distance on his legs was getting to be too much. We took this photo on my disposable camera at about mile 12 (or so we were told) and then Dan told me to go ahead. I did jog ahead, because cardiovascular-wise I was feeling great. Didn’t matter in the end because Dan caught up to me during the barbed wire crawl that never ended, as I was struggling to figure out how to do it with the water back pack.

In the end, Dan and I finished together in 5 hours and 11 minutes. The pain of the race would hit me hard the next day, but for Dan he just had utter exhaustion on the day of. We picked up our bag and Dan didn’t even bother rinsing off. He put on his layers of clothes and got a ton of food from the food trucks that were set up. After gorging himself, he promptly fell asleep for about 45 minutes on the grass in the food truck area. So I was left to eating and drinking beer by myself. The nap was needed for him though, because he woke up a lot happier and less crabby 🙂

One glitch in the race day was that the Beast finisher shirts had not arrived. So everyone that completed the Beast would have to wait to receive their shirt via mail. We did get an email explaining more about this shortly after, and I was able to confirm our shirt sizes and new mailing address. Once we receive them and they are the correct sizes, I’ll be fine with this mishap, but if there are errors or delays it will be even more frustrating. When you pay fees like this for these events and aren’t even given all of what is included on the day of the event it is unfortunate. Hopefully something like this doesn’t happen again.

That being said, Dan and I will be back next year. For the Beast? Probably. I assume they will have a Beast and a Sprint again, as the Beast was very well attended. The Sprints always have more participants, but I think it is worth their time having both. The location is ideal! Basically, whatever event is offered in the Saturday we will do. And while I have done back to back Saturday & Sunday Spartans before (Sun Peaks Ultra/Sprint, Temecula Super/Sprint and in September the Red Deer Super/Sprint) I don’t think Dan and I will do that for Montana. We enjoy coming down the day before, having great food and beer, taking in the resort before and after the event, and having a great night out on the town Saturday.

Oh yeah….and this race was my Trifecta event! By doing the Super and Sprint in Temecula and now the Beast in Montana, I have completed my first Spartan Race Trifecta of the year! I will be doing my second in September when I do the Red Deer events and then the Sun Peaks Ultra Beast……omg, I signed up for the Ultra Beast. Crap……

Dec29

2014 Running Recap

Posted on December 29, 2014 by mscurlgurl78

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It is almost a wrap on 2014…what a year! Ok…I hate that I used that as my first sentence, but I am currently going on my 26th hour in a sleeping car on the Amtrak and am not thinking straight. So maybe writing my recap now isn’t the smartest idea, but I don’t have anything else to occupy my time with really (or that I want to be doing?) so I may as well type this on out!

The numbers

My total of unique race events (ranging from 4km, 5km, 10km, 10 milers, halves and full!) in 2014 is currently at 24, and my 25th event will be on New Years Eve when I run the Brita Resolution Run 5km in Red Deer, Alberta. Last year, I finished with the Lethbridge version of the Resolution Run and that made for my 22nd event. So I will be up three events from 2013 when the clock strikes midnight! Doing the Dopey Challenge (4 individual events) and Dumbo Double Dare (2 distances) in 2014 made the yearly total add up quickly, that’s for sure! And in the process, I ran personal best times in the 5km, half marathon and full marathon distances. Now, will I be trying to “beat” that total and “feats” next year? Not exactly…

This year actually could have been a few races less than 25, especially since before Dopey, I didn’t even have another full marathon planned. After Dopey, I had gotten the bright idea that I could maybe push for a Boston Qualifying time. While I did drop my time in the two latter races I ran (in Calgary and Edmonton, June and August, respectively) it wasn’t enough to qualify. Looking back, I probably did too much in between if Boston had been my main focus for 2014. Going into 2014, Boston wasn’t even close to being on my radar…but my mind started going after seeing some of the possibilities. Was I frustrated I didn’t qualify for Boston last year? You bet I was….but now, I can look back and realize that looking at the progress in my full marathons is something to be proud of. My old personal best before 2014 was a 3:56 full from 2007. In 2014, I ran a 3:50, 3:46 and 3:44 over the course of my jam-packed year. And now I know what I need to work on more of while I prepare for 2015.

Boston qualifying is the main focus for 2015, as I am going to officially start my training program on January 11th. I will be running in the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 3rd, and my events leading up to Vancouver will help supplement my training, while not overdoing it. I have been able to get the half marathon distance down pat (running sub 1:40 now three times in 2014) but will need to work on building distance/endurance in my training.

In addition to Vancouver, I am currently registered for 8 additional events. Six of these events are Spartan Races. I will be doing the Temecula Super Spartan & Sprint on two days back-to-back in January, alongside my best friend. Then in May, my husband and I will be making our way down to Montana for their yearly Spartan Race! Only this year, we aren’t doing the Sprint….we are doing the newly added Beast! This means I will earn Spartan Race Trifecta Tribe Status by May! So I should be done with Spartan Races then, right? Of course not, as that is a Trifecta in the US, so I also want to earn a Trifecta in Canada! September will be the Red Deer Super and Sprint, and then off to Sun Peaks for the Beast! But not just the regular Beast….the Ultra Beast! I have already tackled the Beast in Sun Peaks in 2013, so I needed to take it up a notch and give the 26.2 miles of hell a shot. I guess that’s the main thing that’s bound to happen once you start trying all the different types of races out there…you want to keep pushing yourself beyond the proverbial limit.

I know I will pick up other smaller, local races throughout 2015, but my focus is on my full marathon in May and the Spartan Races. And oh yeah, I do have some things to worry about in addition to running…we have a new house to put sweat-equity in, an old house to sell, and I have a killer schedule for second semester that will take up all extra energy I have. Spring will be very busy for myself (and my hubby!) and while the training takes up time, and one might say I should “go relax or something”, I think I can beg to differ, as my running, training and racing is how I, in the words of Aaron Rodgers, R-E-L-A-X !!!

Cheers to 2014 and here’s to looking forward to 2015! And GO PACK GO!

May14

Spartan Race Montana 2014—We Loved it so Much, We Came Back Again!

Posted on May 14, 2014 by mscurlgurl78

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Last year, Dan and I participated in our first ever Spartan Race in Kalispell, Montana. That recap can be found here: Spartan Montana Sprint 2013

After that race, I participated in four more Spartan Races—2 more Sprint distances, 1 Super, and 1 Beast, thus earning my membership in the Trifecta Tribe. I had a great time doing all the races that I knew I had to do some again this year! Naturally, Dan and I signed up for the Montana Spartan Sprint again!

We headed down to Kalispell, MT, the night before so we could get to packet pickup. Pickup was running from 5-8 PM outside of Sportsman Ski Haus. We arrived at 5:10 PM and the line was out of control. Last year, Dan and I maybe waited ten minutes tops. I am not sure why the line took so long to move, but we waited a solid 1 hour and 20 minutes. There were some people who waited even longer. If the weather had been bad, or if we hadn’t been able to take the beer we purchased out of the beer garden back to our friends standing in line (and vice versa) this would have been completely unbearable. This is my only complaint of the otherwise awesome weekend. I truly hope the organizers of the race do something about this next year, because obviously more people utilized race pickup the night before than last year.

I did win a parking pass for us (and a sweet long sleeve burnout-tee!) at the pickup pre-party! The pass came in handy the next morning, as we could drive straight to the race site and park our car on property, versus taking the shuttle. We had a 10:45 heat time, and our friends Matt & Kelly would be racing along with us in this heat. It would be their first ever Spartan Race experience!

The course, while in the same location as last year, started and ended in a different spot, and also went in what I would consider to be reverse direction as the year prior. This was awesome as someone who had done the race the year prior. Another cool thing about this event was it had been deemed a “Founder’s Race”, as Joe De Sena and other founders of the company personally helped construct it. They would also be participating in a Founder’s Heat later in the day!

There were many traditional Spartan Race obstacles, such as the Over, Under, Through….Cargo Net…Sand Bag Carry…Spear Throw…Barbed Wire Crawl….Rope Climb. But that last one was with a twist! I was all set to attempt this rope climb, but the climbing rope was swung from another rope between trees like a hammock. This caused a bouncing movement when climbing the rope as other climbers also climbed. I did not like this! Dan with his arborist skills made it up no problem. I, on the other hand, had to do burpees.

The terrain is crazy on this course, just like last year. Such steep climbs up the sides of mountains, to then only descend down slippery falls full of mud. It was also very wet and humid, in my opinion, but this just has to do with the surroundings. My glutes burned pretty much immediately upon climbing the first hill. This was expected though!

After the spear throw, Kelly and I told the boys to go ahead, as there was just the sandbag, 8-foot wall, and fire jump left. I finished in 1 hour 46 minutes. I even did two terrible cartwheels over the finish line mat! I am hoping that they caught it on camera, so when pictures are posted I will let you know! Being a bling junkie, I was excited to get the medal and see how it looked this year. The Spartan Race medals at split into 1/3 this year, and if you do one of distance they piece together as a giant medal. This race also included a special black medallion for the Founder’s Race, which is very cool!

We collected our bags, went and got an after photo, and proceeded to hose ourselves down. I didn’t even care that the water was ice cold, it just felt good to get semi-clean! After changing into crappy sweats, we collected our finisher shirts. I was pleasantly surprised with them, as last year they were just a standard cotton black shirt. Not comfortable or breathable at all. This year they are a heather grey, very light, and just plain awesome!

Other than the race itself being awesome, the after-experience at this particular Spartan Race is incredible. Just like last year, they had food trucks on site and beer flowing from local breweries. We stayed for over 3 hours after finishing and just enjoyed the food, beer, weather, and other racers finishing! It was a blast! I had been worried about the weather all week, as chance of rain was at about 80% for the whole weekend! but the afternoon photos speak for themselves! as we really got to enjoy the best Montana had to offer! When there is so much going on at the race site, beautiful May afternoon and all, why would we want to leave?!?! This is what makes the whole Spartan Race Weekend special—you don’t just go and run a race and are finished…you take it all in all weekend long! If you take advantage of all the things Spartan Race pulls together to make the whole weekend tie in, then you will have an amazing time. AROO! AROO! AROO!

May12

Race Recap-Spartan Sprint…..I Am A Spartan!!

Posted on May 12, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

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This weekend I participated in my first obstacle course/mud race—a Spartan Sprint. Last August, my husband and I were spectators when our sister-in-law participated in the Calgary Spartan Race. This is when we decided we needed to do one of these. We travelled down to Bigfork, Montana, for our Spartan experience. And I speak for both of us by saying it was well worth the drive!

Upon arriving on Friday, we headed to the Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell for our packet pickup. You were not required to pick up race materials the night before, but it was recommended. It was here that we got to also partake in food samples from local vendors, try our hand at the spear throwing, enjoy some live music, and have some local brews. Dan did the spear throwing twice—-the first time he attempted it like a javelin and failed. After watching some kids successfully throw it, he realized he needed to throw it like a kid—-just grab it and chuck it. It worked! Too bad the next day at the race it didn’t work like that!

Saturday was race day. We were staying at Averill’s Flathead Lake Lodge. It was a dude ranch. Seriously. And trust me. I did my City Slickers “helllloooooooo” impression multiple times. The lodge was gorgeous. Honestly, one of the prettiest locations I have ever been. We had a fantastic breakfast that morning and headed out to our VIP parking at 10:30 am. Since we already had picked up our bibs and headbands the night before, we proceeded to the “marking station”. This is where they branded us with permanent markers and stamps, writing our heat time and bib numbers anywhere and everywhere. Since our heat wasn’t until 1:15 we had plenty of time to walk around the spectator grounds.

Race heats were every 15 minutes until 1:30. Approximately 250 runners were in each heat. The guy working the start line was really great at pumping up each group as they started off. Immediately after the start you would hit your first mud bog and up the steep inclines you would go. This course was incredibly hilly—I would dare say mountainous. There were parts where you simply couldn’t run because you had to hike through brush and debris, over rocks and stumps. The views in parts of the course were absolutely breathtaking. Totally picturesque views of Flathead Lake. But, no time to stop and gawk!

The obstacles that we had a glimpse of beforehand were the rope climb, sand bag carry, cargo cross, over/under log bridge, gladiators, spearman, barbed wire, slip wall and fire jump. Below are some photos of the spectating area and parts of the courses that were visible.

Finally our 1:15 heat began! Dan and I set a plan that we would stick together, as some of the obstacles needed him to be with me for help. We were also going to stick with my running pace when we could run and our goal was to do it in under 2 hours. Yes, the course was 4.9 miles. And yes, I can run nearly 5 miles in around 45 minutes on a normal workout day. But this would prove to be not your typical 5 mile jog in the woods. Any of the climbing walls we reached Dan would go on the ground and I used his back as a step. It really helped—but him calling me stumpy didn’t! Being 5’3″ is tough for this race! If you cannot complete an obstacle you must do 30 burpees to buy your way out of the obstacle. I unfortunately had to do three sets, as I did not complete three obstacles. The first one I should have been able to, and that was the monkey bars. But when I grab the first bar and contemplated swinging, my hands were so slippery I had to drop. I also struggled and got most frustrated with the rope climb. Dan was used as a ladder again to get me hoisted up and I got all the way to just below the top knot, but after three tries of getting my legs up to this pinnacle, I had to slide down. Pretty much crashed into Dan. Both of us did not get the spearman challenge either. You only got one shot, so that is what made it really tough.

We finished together at 1 hour 50 minutes 6 seconds. We were both very happy with this! Dan could have probably shaved off ten minutes if he did not wait for me to do the burpees the two times and for me to finish obstacles, but he did say he thinks the breathing time he got as I was completing stuff really helped. He did give me a hard time about me only having 1 speed, as I wasn’t ever “sprinting” but I was doing my half marathon pace. Oh well, I was nervous about running out of fuel!

With every Spartan Race being a new and different course, you won’t be able to try and beat a time you got from a previous race. But that is ok—-many of the obstacles are the same from race to race, so my goal the next race I do is to succeed in the obstacles I could not complete. A co worker and I are registered for the Super Spartan, an 8 mile race, in September in Red Deer. That race will present different challenges than the one in Montana, as the running distance will play more of a part. There will probably also be additional obstacles! This race was all about completion and just having an awesome experience. I couldn’t help but wonder if my dad would have been all over this type of race and how he would have done. i know the long distance running wasn’t his thing, but most of those obstacles he could have just torn through! I did not do any specific training for this race other than my running, but now I know what I need to work on for September. So if any of you see me at the playground with a bunch of five year olds going across monkey bars and doing burpees, you know why!

Je Me Souviens-To Infinity & Beyond!

Running, Dad, & Disney–My Journey Continues…

Tag Archives: Montana

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Race Recap-Spartan Sprint…..I Am A Spartan!!

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