Freya's Spartan World Champs Review

Last weekend, BMF Race Team member, Freya, raced in the Spartan World Champs. With temperature and altitude against her, she was not in for an easy race. Let's see how she got on...

"They say in triathlon that nutrition should be the fourth discipline. Well in the Spartan World Champs, altitude should be the third discipline, after obstacles and running. A factor that I significantly underestimated and clearly surmised by Johnathon Albon that it would be someone that was acclimatised that would win on the day. If the course had to be run at altitude then what a place to hold it. Squaw Valley, the 1960 winter Olympic venue had an aura reflective of the greatness that had gone before.

The race started in the safety of the deep valley, but soon left its sheltered base to rise immediately up the mountain following an easy fire trail. With few obstacles in the first 3 miles the pure steep running spread the field and sapped all the initial race adrenalin. A basic wall at the top of the first climb was a real struggle and my initial fears of the effect of altitude started to play out when I had to burpee at some staggered monkey bars. It doesn’t take long for negativity to take over and when girls started flooding past me whilst I was wasting time on the floor, doubts set in.

We all filed down the mountain back to race village for the first time. Rocky single track making it difficult to make up time. We completed a few simple obstacles before setting out on the bigger 9 mile loop back up the next mountain. Finding it difficult to get into second gear it was all too easy to sit behind the girl in front who was walking in places I knew I should be running. As we climbed, so did the wind; bringing with it a chill that cried out for down jackets and woolly hats. Athletes leaving a water obstacle at the top of the mountain left wet footprints on dusty ground that turned icy. With jelly legs we started wobbling down the mountain to the signature log and sandbag carries. Thankfully the exertion warmed me up ready for the next challenge of the glacial pool swim. I normally like the swim to be as hard as possible but on this occasion it was extremely sensible to put us all in life jackets. As I furiously flailed my arms to try and move forward the initial pain gave way to a deceptive warmth. I started thinking of Everest mountaineers who shed their clothes when extreme hypothermia and oxygen deprivation make them feel hot. The obvious result is death. I think it is fair to say that at this point my head wasn’t really in it.

With all the co-ordination of a new born giraffe I made my way down the mountain to the bucket carry. Sheltered from the wind by the side of the mountain and in full sun I sat a little too often on the warm wood chips with my bucket as company to contemplate the beauty of the area (and how bloody far it still looked back to race village).

With that completed we followed a single track all the way home over the remaining obstacles. With nowhere to overtake it was hard to open up, and the finish line arrived too soon. Whether it was the altitude or a residual weak grip strength that I failed so many of the obstacles, I didn’t find any sort of rhythm. I let myself get dispirited by the number of girls that overtook when I could see that I should have been faster. While I didn’t enjoy the experience it has taught me a huge amount about the impact of mind over matter. You can’t win a race with positive thinking alone but you can lose it.

Having had time to put the race in perspective I want to reiterate the point made by Rose Wetzle in the pre-race athlete panel. I was extremely lucky to be given the opportunity to compete at this event and whole heartedly thank my support and my sponsors for getting me out there. May all your support be rewarded at the OCR World Champs next week (not at altitude!!!)"

Best of luck next weekend, Freya!