Average Joe Fitness: Montana Beast 2017

Well my first ever Spartan Beast is on the books. I went into the race with one main goal and one extra credit goal. The first goal was completed as it was only to finish the race. I failed the extra credit goal of completing the race with out having to do any penalty burpees. The main reason being I was impatient and the combination of obstacles made for a weakened grip. We will get more into that later in this post when I talk about the obstacles. I finished with my sister and nephew at 5:23:11.

Location: Big Fork Montana is a beautiful location and Glacier National Park made for some nice views. The area has very dense vegetation all over and is basically a valley that is surrounded on all sides with hills and mountains. The race itself was like going hiking, but instead of following the trail you go off the train and plow your own way. I must thank my affiliate Mud Gear. I wore my Mud Gear compression socks and hardly felt any of the branches, bushes or small plants that were constantly hitting my legs. I'm sure some people that weren't wearing socks would have gotten a lot of small cuts through out the course.

As you can see below the location is quite beautiful.

Altitude at the location was 4200 feet above sea level. Now I train at approx. 500 feet above sea level. I worried that the altitude would cause me problems, but other then having to breath hard from time to time it didn't seem to cause me any grief.

Race: The race was labeled 10 miles on the picture above, but during the race I saw a Spartan Beast Mile 11 on the course. Of course for people that haven't run a Spartan Race before the obstacles don't count in the distance of the race itself. That means that if you have a .5 mile bucket carry as an obstacle that .5 miles doesn't count in the overall distance.

The course itself was a wonderful mix of up hill and down hill running. There were hills that had running water going down them and it also had many area's that there was no trail to speak of and you just had to trust the tape that lined the course. Two of the ascents and descents were steep enough that even trail running shoes with deep tread would slip on. One descent even had ropes and a danger sign before it, but in my opinion that descent was not as slick as others that didn't have any warning signs.

This race I would classify it as a calf killer. Thankfully I train on hills everyday and even though several times my calves would start to burn it was usually at the top of the hill. My calves were able to recover by the time the next ascent came around and I can only thank my training. Even with that training I wasn't unstoppable. By the end of the race my right hip flexor felt like it had a miniature sun buried in it. I can only assume that it was because that I tend to lead with my right leg during the many climbs.

There was a bit of mud on the course and it seemed to be very strategically located right before a climbing obstacle of some sort. It wasn't nearly as muddy as the Portland Sprint in 2016, but the mud still caused some challenges when trying to jump over the several walls.

The most shocking thing that I found during the race was just how many people were very unprepared for the race. People that sprinted past us in the beginning we caught several miles later they were cramping terribly. I also noticed that many of the people that were having cramping problems weren't carrying packs with food or water in them. I understand if you were an elite and going to finish in under three hours you could run without extra electrolyte, but anyone other then that should really have something with them.

I believe that my success for my first ever Beast was the fact that I was carrying electrolyte in my back pack. I drank water at most stations because I was sweeting a lot, but the PowerAde that I had filled my pack with made it so I wasn't cramping at any point in the race.

Obstacles: So there were 34 obstacles listed on the map. The only problem is that some obstacles listed didn't seem like obstacles and we also felt that there were some obstacles that weren't actually listed on the map. The first one listed High feet we didn't even do anything that resembled high feet. The first obstacles that we encountered where a wall that was probably 6-8 feet and a hurdle. The Z wall was the next obstacle and one that I had never been able to complete. That was until this race. I believe it was my bouldering that allowed me to make it through the Z wall as the turn around the outside corner was difficult. It required both feet to be on the same small block at once in order to go around. The inverted wall was just like most walls in that if you can get a leg up you can get over them.

The next hurdle or gut check was just like before and only took getting a leg over to get past it. The next obstacle was a small sand bag carry that had a light sand bag and a short route. This was just a warm up carry that was only the beginning of the carry pains. The Atlas Log Carry I found much less difficult then the Atlas Ball as the logs had area's that you could grip. It made picking them up much less difficult.

The Tyro Traverse was interesting as my socks were wet and just slid along the rope. I was able to speed across the rope over half way before needed to walk my feet at all. The next obstacle was shallow water that you had to wade across. The water was quite cold and didn't require much skill unless you were short and had to nearly swim. I imagine that it is supposed to freeze up your legs, but I found it quite refreshing as it was fairly hot out. There was another wall that I believe was 8-10 feet, but as it was classified I am unsure of the height.

The Monkey bars were next. I find the varying heights of the bars interesting, but I have little trouble and could actually skip several bars in order to save my grip strength. The vertical cargo was where the first time check was and we cleared that with flying colors. I thought about trying what the elites do and flip over, but my fear of heights prevented me in the end I climbed down. The rings were I believe the next obstacle and I find this much much less difficult then the multi-rig. It mainly takes momentum and timing to cross, given that you have the grip strength. The horse tie off was you duck under a bar and then climb up and over a series of wooden steps that started at chest height. It was like a less difficult Mount Sparta.

I knew I was out of the Beast section of the course as I approached the next series of obstacles, because they were tightly packed together that I only saw during the Sprint courses. First was Olympus another obstacles I had never completed. I completed it easily using the chains for holds, but I think this might have been a mistake as it started the process of my eventual only failed obstacle. Then second in the series was the Herc Hoist. The weight wasn't anything all that taxing, but being directly after Olympus I found that after finishing my hands hurt with the effort. The final in the trio was the rope climb. I had a climbing rope in my back yard for months and was use to climbing. I was able to scale the rope quickly and through I was in reach, but in retrospect I should have stopped to ensure that I was in reach. I swung at the bell and completely missed, I believe to the inside of the bell. I did rush and had what I felt was failing grip strength, but with my feet locked in I could have probably hung for longer and made sure I would have completed the obstacle.

Unfortunately at this point my fatigue had started to idle my brain and I stopped taking notes of the obstacles completed. I know that around this point was a log carry and I found a long skinny one that rested nicely on my shoulder. I felt bad for people running without a shirt as I'm sure the logs dug into the skin badly. There was another wall that wasn't nearly as tall as the prior. Then there was the double sandbag from hell. It started with a giant mud pit that I'm sure ate shoes for every meal of the day. It sapped energy quickly right before a long climb up and back down. Then you had to cross the same muddy hell to finish the carry.

A-Frame cargo was also in there, but as far as that obstacle goes I believe it is mainly to induce fear of heights then being difficult. There was also a farmers carry that you had to carry two logs that had chain handles down and around a marker and back. I felt that the logs weren't all that heavy and could have gone farther, as my hands had a good rest and my strength was back.

The Bucket Brigade was the obstacle that caused me the most grief as by the half way point before traveling back down the hill I had to stop and set down the bucket. My lower back was on fire and screaming out at that point. I didn't feel that the bucket was all that heavy, but the climb up must have put me at an odd angle and my back was unhappy. After a short rest I was able to finish the obstacle. The Spear Throw was around here I believe. I am thankful that I did track and field in high school as I nailed the spear throw so hard I heard a loud THUNK with my throw. The volunteer at the obstacle yelled out "NICE" after which was a confidence boost.

The Bender was around this point. The horizontal bars that were several feet off the ground and tilted like the inverted wall where slick with mud, but overall not very difficult. There were several barbwire crawls at this point. I feel that they weren't separated as different obstacles, but all lumped together even though other obstacles separated them. Like the hurdles and the slip wall. The slip wall was mixed up as there were only short one or two foot ropes at the very top. I was able to run up the wall and grab the rope fairly easy, but I then turned and while holding the rope dropped my hand down to help my sister up. It was a difficult maneuver as it stretched my cross body pull strength to the limit, but we were able to do it. I stayed and helped several others before moving on.

After another barbwire crawl the final obstacle was the Twister. I had seen video's of this obstacle, but never attempted. I knew the general idea and thankfully my grip strength was back in form. The twisting of the handles took some getting used to, but once a rhythm was made it was easy pickings. I had seen others complain about the Twister tearing up hands, but I was confident in my hand and callus care that I wouldn't have the problem. After finishing the obstacle I looked at my hands and were shocked at first to see they were completely BLACK? I have no idea why they were black as the handles didn't feel like they were coated in anything, but I also noticed that I had a large tear on my left hand.

It wasn't the worse tear I had ever had, but the first since the November Sacramento Sprint and I started truly taking care of my hands. I was shocked, but it didn't stop me from jumping over the fire jump and finishing the race.

Last Impression: In the end my sister, nephew and I all felt that the Beast wasn't as difficult as we had all thought it was going to be. The running and the hills made it difficult, but with good hill training and keeping up with your nutrition that problem is fairly negated. The other thing we felt was that with the large running gaps between obstacles you had plenty of time to rest the muscle groups that you used. I actually almost find the Sprint races more difficult as they are jam packed with obstacles and very little running in between that you don't have nearly as much time to rest in between. I feel that for the Super distance I should go burpee free, but the Sprint course I am much less confident as I am not sure I'll have the grip and muscular endurance to go burpee free.

In the end I had a great time and felt like this length is a good length of a race. I am excited to try the Super course and see I feel the same about that length or if it feels short or what. The Sprint races are probably the most popular, but after doing a Beast I feel that they are almost the most difficult as well. I had a blast and will totally be doing another next year.