The Trifecta
The Spartan “Trifecta” is a goal of many OCR racers. The Trifecta means completing three races whose names just seem to get more and more menacing: “The Sprint,” “The Super,” and “The Beast.”
According to the official Spartan web page, http://www.spartan.com, the Sprint is three-plus miles with 20 or more obstacles. Eric and Patti’s sprint was held at Fenway Park, a huge thrill for Eric – he couldn’t resist leaning down to adjust his shoe and coming up with some Fenway grass.
“The Super” is eight-plus miles with 25 or more obstacles over more rugged terrain. Eric and Patti knocked that one of their list too.
And then there’s “The Beast.”
The Beast, according to Eric was more than 14 miles with even more obstacles than the Super and took place on Killington Mountain in Vermont. The race was designed by Norm Koch, famous (or infamous) for creating such difficult courses that some in the Spartan community sport patches that read: “F Norm.” Norm, according to Eric, is a huge fan of those patches.
Nervous about what they would find on Killington, Eric and other racers checked out the race site, the terrain, and the obstacles in advance. Making friends on that hike gave Eric and Patti more confidence to race, saying that the hike was nice, but the friendships were more important.
Your Own Worst Enemy
Eric asserted that attitude is just as, if not more, important than fitness in completing a Spartan Race. You can be as physically fit as you like, Eric said, but a good mindset is key. “You can psych yourself out and be your own worst enemy.”
A good attitude – and friends around you – can really help when running down a Double Black Diamond trail known as “The Death March.” Especially when you encounter an unexpected obstacle, like an inverted wall, stretching diagonally overhead at a 45-degree angle. There are horizontal supports roughly three part apart, so, you can’t scramble up the wall and scale it. According to Patti, there comes a time “when you have to take that plunge, if you will, and commit and hoist yourself up and reach for the top of the wall at the same time so you can use your upper body to pull yourself over.”
Patti said she watched a few people climb the wall, almost inverted themselves at a 45-degree angle, and her confidence wavered. Eric, she said, coached her, telling her that either you do the wall or you do burpees. “But either way, we’re pushing forward and we’re going to finish.”
She said she calmed down and attacked the obstacle. “It wasn’t pretty,” she said, “it wasn’t graceful.” Eric had to give her the “Spartan Kiss” and give her a final shove over the wall, but she did it.
The Beast attracts thousands of racers from other states and even other countries.
You Never Race Alone
“Your wave is a couple (of) thousand people,” said Patti. None of the racers behind her pushed her to move faster, but that didn’t mean she didn’t push herself.
“I know that I’m up here, and the only way to get down is through this trail.” Patti said. She said she can suffer from claustrophobia as well, and described the racers behind her as a “tidal wave” of people that were going to “crash down on me.”
She began to falter a little and, in Spartan fashion, Eric took her aside, let her talk through her fears and reminded Patti how many other races she had completed. And if she could finish those, she could finish The Beast. After that realization, she said, “the only option I have now is to finish. There’s no quit.”
Eric and Patti said they have seen some and heard some truly amazing stories: senior citizens and people who are overweight completing races, and people in wheelchairs completing trifectas. One man in particular, who had lost both legs and one arm, raced with a team of his military comrades and finished a race.
“There are people who are like: ‘screw this; I’m not giving up I’m going to do this’ and they do it, despite all these challenges that they have to face…If they can do it, I can do it.”
The Sprint, Super, and Beast are all finished now for Eric and Patti. Their medals hanging on their kitchen wall as a reminder of what can be accomplished if you never give up. Curiously enough, their “no retreat, no surrender” attitude has had surprising results off the racecourse as well.