The Asheville Spartan Super took place on August 6, 2016, in Black Mountain, NC. The race will go down shrouded in a bit of controversy, mainly because of 1) the slick ropes causing many (even pros) to fall right off a few obstacles but also because 2) many complained there were not enough hydration/calorie stations and 3) they shut down the uphill ascent for the afternoon lest any competitors get injured or dehydrated (apparently they found it difficult to get medical attention to some in need on the mountain).
Still, I can attest to the fact that the Spartan Race has a gem of a course here, and I hope this short backblast gives testimony to the worthy challenge these races present. The race was a soggy, unforgiving slugfest. Bottom line: our training in F3 prepares us well for these races. I had all the confidence I needed and as I eventually realized, all the training I needed and then some, except for maybe one thing.
If you want to get that gameday fix you”ve been missing, the Spartan Race is a great place to find it. The race came packaged as advertised: barbed wire, fire pits, mud crawls and swims. Here”s how I would break down the variety of obstacles:

• Carrying/pulling heavy stuff – large cement balls, big sand bags (some attached to ropes), buckets full of gravel (attached to a rope while sitting on your butt or in your arms up a large hill)
• Flinging yourself through/over/under stuff – tall walls, rocky (yet refreshingly cool) creeks, big mud hills, towering net climbs, large fire pits, barbed wire
• Traveling through/climbing stuff like a monkey – getting from one side of the obstacle to another by monkey bars, hand rings, large pipes

What I found most difficult:

• Far and away, the uphill ascent and downhill descent crushed me the most. I hadn”t trained for it save for a few long 9-12 mile trail runs in Durham/Chapel Hill. The ascent (roughly 3000 ft. I”m told) seemed interminable; most racing in my vicinity walked it. The descent was brutal on your feet/ankles, and for me, quads. It was like a giant slalom but through mud and branches and, in some cases, yellow jackets. Before signing up for a Spartan race, I suggest you check the terrain and make sure you can train for it and handle it. It”s one thing to run on a flat surface, but there”s nothing like finishing a set of 30 burpees and then staring a few muddy switchbacks directly in the face. I”m finishing this post on the Wednesday after the race and I am still sore (almost 100% of my soreness is in my quads because of the downhill running that I did not train for).
• The spear throw. It seems like many of the pros can”t nail this consistently, and given that I am neither a professional warrior nor a javelin artist, I doubt I will be able to, soon.
• In terms of obstacles, I actually found the barbed wire crawls to be fairly tough, mostly because (as I detail below) I was suffering massive hit point damage on my elbows and knees (not from the wire, which really wasn”t ever a concern; mostly it was due to dragging my elbows and knees along the rough terrain) and also because they were much longer than I anticipated. I want to say they were 100 yards long, give or take. Also (pictured here) the gravel bucket carry up a huge hill was full-body devastation. This was probably the low point of the race for me. You had to fill a bucket with gravel (it has been pointed out that I overfilled mine just a touch), carry it up a large hill, then carry it back down the hill, then race back up the hill and keep going.
• The clusters of obstacles: The race featured two points where 3-5 obstacles were stacked one right after the other. At one point, there were three obstacles in a row that I could not complete: a rope climb with a super slick rope, a spear throw, and a lateral wall climb that felt more like a rubix cube. That meant 90 straight burpees. There are few things closer to torture than 90 burpees in the middle of a long obstacle race taking place on a mountain. I was seeing stars after #90. Then, at the very end of the course, there were 4-5 obstacles right in a row. Luckily these were strength oriented and I had no trouble, but they still sucked the life out of me at the finish.
• Of course, last but not least, the burpees. If you run in the elite heat (I self-selected), your burpees get taped and monitored closely by the staff. You have to count them out loud. These also slow you down quite a bit. Overall, I didn”t finish 4 out of the 27-30 obstacles, which meant I had to do 120 burpees, 90 of which were right in a row. If you generously give me 5 seconds per burpee, that”s about a 2.5 minute delay X 4. And it was probably more like 5-10 seconds per burpee, because towards the end of them I was completely gassed.

What would I do differently?

• I would wear long-sleeve shirts and pants, likely Allen Iverson-style elbow sleeves and compression pants. The barbed wire crawl scratched me up considerably leading to a few too many disapproving looks from my wife and mother-in-law (who stayed with us on vacation in Black Mountain for a few days afterwards) and a few too many “daddy boo-boo” declarations from my 2 year-old.
• I would not get caught in the log-jams. I didn”t expect to be Steve Prefontaine in this race, but I definitely would have placed higher if I hadn”t gotten caught in log-jams at various points in the race. If you want to race for time, it”s worth it to get as close as you can to the front at the start and keep some healthy distance from the hoi polloi.
• Be prepared for anything. What I didn”t see coming: swarms of yellow-jackets in the woods, the elite women heat flying past me (they started 15 minutes behind us and they are lightning fast), the dehydration and cramping (toward the end of the race my quads were twitching).
• The glove decision. I showed up at the starting line and while sizing up the competition, I realized that very few had on gloves. I wore the Madgrips Pro Palm gloves, which are amazing for F3 workouts, but I think my grip suffered on many obstacles because I had on these bad boys.
• I would wear a hydration pack and/or carry more calories and salt. I underestimated the heat. And they don”t call me Sweats for nothing. Getting proper intra-race nutrition is really critical for these races, and even more so, probably limiting alcohol and caffeine on the days prior to the race.

What I”m glad I did:

• If I had done this course last Summer when I was hitting the weights 3 times per week and maybe a run here and there, there likely would not have been a backblast because there would not have been a Sweats to write a backblast. F3 is a blessing. The variety of exercises we do, the tenacity that we bring to each workout, and the faith and support we provide each other propels us through challenges like these. I could feel my training kick in about half-way through the course when many others were walking or Floyd-planking (read: laying on one”s back) and I just felt like I was eating up the course. However, keep in mind that in training for the Ultra Beast in September, I will likely ramp up endurance running and probably hope to shed 5-10 pounds of bulk.
• Buy Inov-8 Talons. These shoes were a godsend. I think I may have shattered an ankle or two if I hadn”t bought these. My footing was sure and true for the entire race, and this race was a muddy nightmare. If you want to do a Spartan Race, it”s worth it to invest in a pair of these. Make sure you wear them to a bunch of workouts to break them in before the big race.
• The Elite Heat. Yes, I think I”m elite like Joe Flacco, but in all sincerity, challenge yourself and enter the elite heat. It does cost a bit more, but you get to hit the course first before it”s mowed down by the masses, and you get to cruise through it before the real heat hits.

Overall, the camaraderie among the participants is something that will keep me coming back. I was happy to see Floyd right before my heat took off as I was a nervous wreck. I also ran into Snoopy and Scrappy from Charlotte and a few other guys proudly representing with F3 gear. Even beyond the F3 connection, I found the folks running the race to be competitive yet super-friendly and encouraging. I”ll remember for a moment under the barbed wire when a guy crawled up next to me and said, “It”s about now when you should ask yourself why you do this!” I replied, “Why ARE we doing this?” And he said with a smile, “You know damn well why. I don”t have to tell you, and we don”t have to talk about it. You know!”
Couldn”t have said it better myself.