Vermont Spartan Beast – 1 Week and Counting

For some reason photos never do justice to mountains. Looking at that picture, I would think to myself, “Those mountains don’t look so bad.” But I have been to Killington before and these mountains are BIG and STEEP.

But looking at the picture below gives a better perspective of the mountain.

In exactly 1 week, Luke and I will be out on the course at Killington. Next Saturday at this time we will probably be right smack in the middle of out a climb to the summit of Killington Peak, 4,236 feet tall and about 2,000 feet above where we are going to start the the day. Most likely it will be one of either two or three climbs to the top of the mountain. That is one of the “joys” of Spartan races, you never know exactly what the course is going to be like. You don’t know the distance, the obstacles or route you will be taking.  For this race, all I know is that it will be long, steep and hard.

The uncertainty in this race cause me to think about many things. But, it always begins with one basic question:

AM I READY FOR THIS?

And since I have no idea what the course is going to be like, all I can say I sure hope so.

In years past, the race has been between 13 to 16 miles long and has had between 4,000 and 7,000 feet of elevation gain. The profile below is from two years ago and it is a bit frightening, that is a LOT OF CLIMBING.

And this one is from last year. Still a lot of climbing but it is a couple of miles shorter so it is a bit less frightening.

With the uncertainty of the race, questions begin to rattle around in my head.

• How long will the race be this year? Who knows. Spartan always says “Between 12 and 14 miles” but I have no idea how Spartan measure their miles.
• How many times will we climb to the summit? No idea, but there will be a bunch of big steep climbs.
• Would I have liked to have done more long trail runs? Of course.
• Are you fully healthy? Of course not; but, I’m not that bad off either.
• Have I trained well?  Yes.
• Could I have trained better? Couldn’t we always train better?
• Will I have to do a billion burpees? I sure hope not.

And these are just a small sample of the questions in my head.

I head into next weekend with some doubts; but, with confidence as well. I don’t doubt that (barring injury) we will finish the race. But I do wonder what a difficult experience it is going to be and what it is going to teach us about perseverance. I am hoping if all goes well for Luke and I to finish in about 6 to 6 1/2 hours. But I am preparing to be out for as long as eight hours as well.

Until next time.