Home from the Big Sky state. I love our trips to Montana. We camped our way to Big Fork. The first night out was at Lincoln Rock state park in eastern Washington. We car camped (slept in our Van) and used a large pop up tent for our belongings and to have a space to be in if we had any rain.
Cute little Marmot's here and there in the rocks.
Lake Entiat
Our first "bear" sighting at the RV park!
In the start chute photo below you can see the 5 foot wall that has to be scaled before crossing the start line. They ran waves of people through every 15 minutes.
About 7 miles of the Beast course was a large loop. Here's a couple of Spartan official photos of obstacles he did out on the loop.
I didn't see him until he came down towards the barbwire crawl. Nice to see his smiling face again.
Before the barbwire, they had a high hurdle for everyone to get over.
The long barbwire that we had the last two years was broken up by the placement of the Slip wall halfway through.
In the photo below, you can now see the rest of the barbwire crawl - after the slip wall.
My husband is patiently watching my journey down the hill.
Spartan sprint finishers.
Cute little Marmot's here and there in the rocks.
Lake Entiat
We traveled through I-90 to St. Regis Montana. We stayed at the Nugget RV park for the night. It's a wonderful campground. I highly recommend it.
Our first "bear" sighting at the RV park!
It's always exciting when we see Flathead lake for the first time. The Spartan race day excitement/nerves really begin to kick in.
We have stayed at the Outback RV park for 3 years in a row. Last year we reserved our campsite for this years race within a few weeks of being there to ensure staying at the same site.
It remembered us ❤.
This year my husband did the Beast alone. Thankfully he had the best weather of the weekend for his race. Just a few sprinkles in the afternoon. Lucky for the Beast racers.
Their day was about 12 1/2 miles with 36 obstacles. He missed 3 obstacle so he did 90 penalty burpees plus 5 mandatory obstacle burpees.
In the start chute photo below you can see the 5 foot wall that has to be scaled before crossing the start line. They ran waves of people through every 15 minutes.
About 7 miles of the Beast course was a large loop. Here's a couple of Spartan official photos of obstacles he did out on the loop.
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| Vertical cargo net |
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| Log Carry |
I didn't see him until he came down towards the barbwire crawl. Nice to see his smiling face again.
Before the barbwire, they had a high hurdle for everyone to get over.
The long barbwire that we had the last two years was broken up by the placement of the Slip wall halfway through.
In the photo below, you can now see the rest of the barbwire crawl - after the slip wall.
Burpee time for not completing the "Twista" obstacle. It looks like the monkey bars except each hand grip is individual and turns when you grasp it.
Here's a little video of him doing his burpees ;-) with the festival music playing in the background.
I'm glad I was there to take some pictures, because I couldn't find an official fire jump photo in the Spartan race event photo album.
First Trifecta!!
3 wedges complete.
Day 2 for my husband. He did my Sprint with me. We woke up Sunday for the Sprint to a cold rainy morning. My weather station said 43 degrees when we started for the race. We tried something different this year. In the past we got car rides from the RV hosts to the race start, but this year we drove to the bus shuttle area just to experience it. Here I am ready as I'll ever be.
Being Washingtonians we came with an umbrella, it really helped. We at least got to stay dry until we checked our bags before the start. In the photo below, my husband was giving me tips about what I'd encounter on the course as part of his Beast course followed our Sprint course. I really appreciated his insight for what was ahead of me that day.
We had very few official Spartan photos for the Sprint, I think the photographers had difficulty keeping their cameras dry.
I had thought to put a Tyvek jacket in my camelbak pack, and boy did it come in handy. Tyvek jackets are nice because they don't weigh anything. When we got to the A frame cargo net at the top of the hill, we were backed up and my husband counted out 26 of us on one side at the same time. I'd never been on it with that many people at a time. Because of the weather the webbing straps were stretched out and saggy. It was swaying slightly from the weight of everyone on it. The volunteer official had to keep reminding us to wait near the top & leave some space in front of us so the person in front of us could swing their leg over the top without kicking us in the head. It had happened to a few people that day. Anyway, I was so proud of my husband while we were on that obstacle. He helped talk a women through the climb. He did a great job of calming her so she could overcome her fear of heights. Since we had to wait and go very slowly over that obstacle, I got so cold that I was shaking. I put on my paperweight jacket. I was so glad I thought to bring it.
They did manage to get some photos of our bucket carry, but we are blurry :-(.
I'm wearing my white tyvek jacket in the photo. I found it easier to walk sideways down the hill. I couldn't see over the bucket to see where to put my feet.
My husband is patiently watching my journey down the hill.
Our fire jump pictures.
I was sooo happy to see that finish line.
Spartan sprint finishers.
Thinking back to 3 years ago and my first Spartan race to yesterday, what a difference. I'm proud of these bruises. It took 3 years but I've learned how to get up and over that slip wall by myself.
Life can seem impassable at times but as I've learned in these events, put one foot in front of the other and I will get through the obstacle and someday conquer it and find peace.
*Another lesson learned at these events, be grateful for that helping hand up. It may be the only way through the obstacle.
The same with life.
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| Breakfast at the Woods Bay Grill the next morning. |
"Success in never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts." John Wooden
Garmin stats:
total miles - 6.06 miles
minimum altitude - 3110 feet
maximum feet - 3833 feet
total ascent - 1503 feet
total descent - 1532 feet
I did 85 burpees, my husband shared doing burpees with me. He did 35 of mine. 120 total for the day.
Happy to be home from Montana my place of big skies and big dreams.
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