Sun Peaks Beast-September 24, 2016
The part that is the killer is the hills. No, not hills, mountains.
This is the third year that I have done this race and I was mentally prepared for what was in store. I knew that we would be going up the mountain twice, on the second time up it would be a mentally punishing death march, straight up a black diamond ski hill. I was feeling confident.
On Thursday evening someone posted some pictures of the start of the race and said that the race was set up different this year. For some reason it played with my mind. I started getting worried and didn't sleep well. My other concern was the weather. The forecast kept changing. One day it would be rainy, the next sunshine. The temperature was cool. Rain and cool weather meant snow at the top.
At our 9:30am start time it was 3 degrees Celcius, sunny and the weather for the day looked promising.
My "team" this year was my son in law Jordan, my son, Jarom, my nephew, Jarren, and one of our homestay guests, Sebastein. Liam's hand was still too sore to race.
After the Spartan "get pumped" speech we were off. The course was way different. We started off with the death march! All the guys dashed off, I tried so hard to keep up but after about 100 meters the incline was too steep and I was reduced to a brisk hike.
Highlights of the race:
-When I got to the parallel bars there was another lady starting at the same time as me. We were having a bit of a discussion whether gloves are a good idea or not. I said, "Well I never get this one anyways so I don't even know why I'm trying." She said, "Oh girl friend we are getting this!" We both started off and cheered each other on and we made it!! I was so happy. I seriously can never get further than a foot or two. I let out a big whoop, told the lady thanks and off I ran.
-Getting the monkey bars- although I spent way to long contemplating it before starting.
-Getting the spear throw. It's only my second time to get it.
-Running the last third with Jarom (see low point)
-Leap frogging with an older gentleman. I would pass him when we were on the flatter parts and then he would pass me on the climbs. We finished within minutes of each other.
Low Points of the Race:
-When I finished the barbed wire crawl I looked up and there was Jarom. I was so surprised to see him, remember all the guys darted away at the beginning. I asked him if he was lonely and waited up for me. By the look on his face I could tell that wasn't the case. He told me he was hurting pretty bad. His feet had huge blisters and his left hip was in bad shape. He told me to go ahead without him but I couldn't leave my "baby" behind. I asked if he needed anything and he said no. We walked a bit and then we started to run. I kept a good pace and he kept up with me. We held hands at some points and he put his arm around me when it got bad. He was such a gentleman always making sure I was ok and helping me when I needed help. It was really fun to run with him. I had on my Garmin so I kept calling out the kilometers to him. When we got to the bottom of the mountain he said, "Mom we aren't going back up are we?" I wanted to tell him no but I knew better, I told him not to get his hopes up. Sure enough, up we went again.
-Getting down to the bottom of the hill with only 5km left and then having to climb again. We were following behind a guy and he came to a clearing and yelled, "Finally". I snapped back at him, "Are we done climbing? Dont tell me we are if we aren't!" In crazy lady voice!
Time: 5:08:55
Overall: 216/1089
Females: 25/385
Age Group: 1/9