Arizona Super

Arizona Spartan Super Review

50 weeks ago, I began a journey I thought would last 2 hours and end for good. But less than 30 minutes after those 2 hours were over, I knew it was only the beginning. Today, I ventured back to Fort McDowell near phoenix Arizona to that same ground where it all began; the Arizona Super.

With a course almost identical in route to last years challenge, I took less time studying the map as I usually do (memorizing every hill and obstacle to plan my attack) and stayed focused mentally on myself. Knowing I was only running that day, and not the next in addition, I knew I had one chance to leave it all on the dirt, rather than conserve for a round 2 the next day.

The start was early (7:45 California time) and it was chilly enough to be shivering during the epic speech given at the start of each race. My daughter and very dear friend Nate were a few yards ahead of the start line cheering me on beneath coats and blankets while I was in my usual race apparel: compression pants ONLY. Can’t we just GO ALREADY!? I needed to warm up my body! My aerobic warm up was quickly quenched by the frigid air temperature; a balmy 55 degrees :)

The initial tempo was nice, slower than it was at Chino two weeks ago and I held onto the top 10 guys with ease at about a 7:05min mile split. As usual, the first few obstacles were a breeze as we jumped over hurtles, O.U.T. and over-walls. Walls seemed to be a “running” theme, no pun intended, at this race because next came 6’ wall, invert wall, and 7’ wall within another 0.5 mile span.

After that, we had a nice mile-ish run through the desert with gentle hills and LOTS of cacti to avoid. Dry river beds and 5-6’ deep canyons were common trail running and the sand made it difficult for most to maintain pace. Lots of beach visiting and lifeguard training paid off for me here since I was familiar with thick sand running technique and I started picking off guys one at a time until I knew for sure that only about 6 were ahead of me from my start time. Similar to Chino, I ran with ages 17-29 male and female all at once, so it was hard to know who was in each category, but 6 was enough to give me confidence. At mile 2 we hit Z-wall and vertical cargo where I made another deep cut and picked off 3 more guys. Only three ahead of me now, but still very early in the race. I backed off to a 7:45 min mile pace to make sure I didn’t burn out too soon. 1 guy passed me at this point, but he was breathing much harder than I was when he did, so I felt ok. Spoiler, we played cat and mouse for the remaining 6.4 miles, and he will be referred to as “the bearded guy” from this point forward. Another mile of solid trails lead us back to the Sprint course for a mini gauntlet of obstacles.

Plate drag was WAY better this time as I picked a good flat one, but a guy passed me here who I passed at Z-wall, I honestly didn’t know he was right on my tale and I quickly tried to make up ground. No sign of bearded guy yet though so I knew I now had 5 ahead of me again.

From plate drag, we hit multi rig, which was rings-pipe-rings and a photo opportunity, Olympus, and tire flip. Olympus felt more comfortable than ever before and I flew through it, catching up to the second guy again. At tire flip, I saw bearded guy already having flipped the tire once, struggle to get a grip for the second turn over. I quickly flipped mine once, then twice, while he was still resting. Boom, passed both of them now again! The last of the gauntlet was an Arizona exclusive: great wall climb. On the reservation they have a random castle wall, about 15 ft high that we were able to scale with rope to get over. I remember it from last year and was happy to see it again. Up and over, no sign of either guys yet behind me; sweet! It was a ¾ mile dessert run to the rope climb and in that time guy number 2 caught up and passed me again. It was clear he and bearded guy were better runners, but I had the obstacle edge nearly every time. By the time I hit the ground on the rope, he was still at the top. Shortly after was the sandbag carry.

Longer and steeper than in Chino, I tried to jog with my 75# bag parts of the loop and again I caught up to other guy, but bearded guy was hauling and he passed us BOTH, making his bag look light. I actually got very fortunate to have grabbed a ripped bag and the whole route, I was losing sang down my backside, giving me more incentive to jog or run to the end of the carry!

Bearded guy was still in my sights after the climb that followed the bag carry, but other guy appeared to be long gone; man could he run. We were now back on the super course (blue loop #2) and it was 2 miles with only one obstacle, not my best position knowing both my cat/mouse games were advantage me on obstacle and adv. them on the trails. But, with only about 2 miles left in the race, I took a risk and jumped my pace back up to about 7min miles, where we were all hanging together at the start. Bender was the only challenge in that loop and I tried a new approach to the descent which payed off but really hurt/bruised up my legs.

Once back on the sprint course again, we had rolling mud (just two patterns as opposed to the 3 in Chino) and the dunk wall followed IMMEDIATELY by a very very long and hilly barb wire crawl.

And since we were freshly soaked from head to toe, it made for a very dirty transition to the bucket carry. Luckily, I have worked on my barb wire crawl a bit since Chino and I gained some ground I guess because when I grabbed my bucket, I saw bearded guy about 20 yard out... and he was standing with his bucket on the ground! Now those of you from work know I carry my bucket from building to building when I can so I saw this as my opportunity to strike hard and fast. This carry was ALSO a bit longer than the Chino carry and with only 20 yards to gain, I took to it.

Unfortunately, about that same spot he once stood, my bucket came loose and rocks went flying everywhere! To pass the course marshals at the end of the loop, your bucket MUST be filled passed the marks on the interior, and the amount that spilled revealed the full 360 view so I quickly pilled as many rocks as I could get back it and heaved it up for a better trip. With my grip secured, I scurried off to find my target. I passed him at the halfway point and kept pushing. I took one small break, where he caught up with me, but now being rested, I took off again and made it to the end break free.

Ahead of us was the last and longest, steepest hill of the course. I ran up ¾ of it and looked back to see if he was gaining, but he wasn’t. In fact, he was walking up it. So, I saved a little gas for the decline about a ½ mile later and power hiked to the summit. Up there, we had monkey bars and stairway to Sparta. Both were without issue and I actually caught up to the second guy up there. He must have had issues with monkey bars because we charged the Stairway together along with bearded guy in tow. These two would just NOT let up on me. I love this type of finish… but I began to have my doubts… Hurc hoist was coming up in the final gauntlet, and spear throw was NEVER a sure thing… We had a battle on our hands and we didn’t even know for what position!

On the decent, it was me in the lead, other guy, and bearded guy right behind. We began to crawl up A-frame cargo net and I did my signature flip at the top to leave them both behind and of course, I got a few “oohs” from them on the way. Twister was next and I took my time to get it right because failing here AND possibly hurc hoist would have been devastating. I made it through without knowing where the other 2 were.

A-frame was the first of the 7 obstacle gauntlet for the final 0.5 miles. With 2 down, I met up with the worst of my fears. Hurc hoist. I picked a first bag and right as I did, the one next to me was let down RIGHT on top of it… seriously? So I picked that one instead. I could hear my friend Nate and Layna cheering me on and it got the attention of the course marshal who decided to come watch me personally… great. No getting away with anything here! But with all three of them now cheering for me, I heaved and hoed it to within 18” from the top and my grip began to fail. “No... not now! I am so close!” Nate yelled just what I needed to hear though at that moment “Brendan! You have ONE more pull! GO! 1 more foot!”

I re-gripped and leaned back to the ground and left the knot hit the pulley! YES!!! I lowered it down with control and heard yet another voice yell my name. It was my buddy Paul in the stands after recently finishing his heat. “Thank God!” I yelled to them all, “I did it!” On to atlas carry. At this point I had caught up with a friend of mine that I made a bet with the day before. He started at 8:15 and I told him I was going to catch him even with a 30min head start (I was 8:45 recall). I even wrote “Hi Cory!” on my back for him to see. And sure enough, with about 300 yards to the finish, we were carrying out 90# rocks together, neck and neck. I finished my burpees first but he carried his ball faster and we were neck and neck again heading to spear throw.

For the first time in 4 races, I missed my spear and had to do 30 burpees for penalty. Dang it! Surly bearded guy and other guy were going to pass me now… I haven’t seen either of them at all… Cory also missed his spear so now I knew I could beat him to the finish, but where were my age group comrades? After my 30 burpees, I began to sprint to the finish where the slip wall and fire jump waited for me. I made it up and over the wall with ease (since it was dry this time) and I did my best pose for the first jump and I crossed the finish in 1:32 and change.

To my surprise, about 40 seconds later (while waiting for Cory) bearded guy crossed behind me! I still never got to see where other guy ended up though, but I have suspicion he finished ahead of me. The reason I think that, is that I finished 3rd for the age group and got to go to my first ever Spartan podium and 2nd place was not there… I think this was him! 2nd place was ahead of me by only 2 minutes so if he hit the spear even behind me, that would have worked out about right, but I will never know.

It was so amazing to get my first podium at the same venue a year later as my first EVER Spartan race and it was even more special to have Layna and Nate there to witness the victory. To make things even better, one of my training partners also got his podium for Spartan in the Elite series!

A big thank you to my sponsors II-VI Optical Systems and Past Parallel for my race gear. This huge moment is shared with all of them! Also a special thank you to my friend Nate who watched my daughter while I was on course and cheered for me at the final gauntlet. I am not sure I would have done the Hurc without his support in the background. Also a thank you to Dr. Derek King for my pre-race treatment and checkup on Friday afternoon. He made sure my body was prepared for the battle!

The next race is in 3 weeks, March 3rd and 4th in Littlefield Arizona for the “Las Vegas weekend.” Until then everybody, AROO!

Current Ranking: 23 - 20 - 3 (overall, male, group)