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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Held at Killington, Vermont on September 20, 2014. Had the first run of the day at 7:30 with the elite men. Cold and blustery for most of the race with temps starting out around 39 F (felt like 35) but then leveling out to low 50s or so by race end.
Elite women started at 7:45 and this was the first time I've seen them run a course in person. They are FAST. Didn't take them long to catch up to the guys. Good job, girls!
Takeaways from the race:
Leg strength not what it used to be. The continuous pounding going down the hills roughed up my knees and ankles by a fair amount. Also, forgot to tape my ankles, so they rolled quite a bit. Was making decent time through the first half of the race...I think I reached mile 6 at about the two hour mark. Went downhill from there, though. Ended up somewhere around 6:30, so not good at all. Legs just didn't have much left around mile 8, and ankles wouldn't support running, so I had to sandbag it the rest of the way. Ugh.
Anyway, I've been training for American Ninja Warrior and that really helped me in this course. 33 total obstacles and I only had to do burpees on two of them: both spear throws. Surprise, surprise. Think I need to build a replica spear and practice that.
As far as supplies go, I went in with a CamelBak - no bladder - a 2MM wetsuit jacket, a windbreaker, and some gloves. This was an excellent combination and I recommend everyone at least have something like this. The last two years at this race I'm pretty sure I went hypothermic, so I wanted to take measures to prevent against that this year. Before the water obstacles I put on the wetsuit jacket and kept it on for maybe 20 minutes or so after getting out of the water. Afterwards, I would just tie it to the Camelbak strap. Windbreaker was key at the top of the mountain as the winds were very fierce. Gloves helped a lot the last three miles of the course.
Food / drink:
Two water bottles, 5 packets of electrolyte tables (used 3 packs, I think), a few ounces of potato chips, chocolate chips mixed with PB, and 8 cake balls. Cake balls were okay, but ended up being kind of thick. PB mix was good and had it a few times throughout the race, but the big winner was the chips.
I stored these items in snap top containers (also windbreaker was in a big snap top so it wouldn't get wet in the water) in my CamelBak. Everything stayed dry and they provided the added benefit of making by bag buoyant in the water, which made swimming a piece of cake. Unless, of course, Camelbaks are designed like that already...not sure.
To the obstacles!
2:18 Walls and Crawls
3:12 O.U.T - Over, Under, Through
3:57 Sandbag Carry
4:42 Bucket Brigade
4:51 Wall Traverse
5:41 Tarzan Swing
8:23 Stone Carry
9:16 Barbed Wire Crawl
9:31 Log Carry
9:56 Log Jump / Balance Beam
10:57 Wall Climb
11:11 Cargo Net
11:28 Weather and conditions
11:56 Cargo Net
12:41 More fog
12:50 Tractor Pull
13:43 Tire Pull
13:58 Sandbag Carry
14:09 Ring Swing
14:50 Tyrolean Traverse
15:48 Rope Climb
16:18 Spear Toss
16:33 Wall Climb
17:32 Barbed Wire Crawl
18:27 Bar Traverse
19:08 Hercules Hoist
19:59 Monkey Bars
20:29 To the finish line!
They removed the Tarzan swing and the water below the Traverse & Rope Climb last year, which was quite the rip off. I'm glad I was able to do this Beast despite the despair I felt during it. Thanks very much for posting this and the thwipps were a nice touch 👍🏼
Thanks! Sorry for the late reply. I was disappointed when they removed those obstacles as well. Those were some of the toughest ones in the past.
this was my third VT beast and i was limping for days after. def the hardest one ive done. nice video thanks for sharing
I'm exhausted just watching this.
Hey man great footage and excellent job.. Just wondering what kind of camera headset did you use.. I'm doing the race next week and wanted to film it as well and I figured I'd ask what you had and where you got it.. Thanks again
Thanks! I used a GoPro Hero 3 Black for this race. I like the head strap better than the chest strap as the chest tends to lead to more unstable footage. I got the camera as a gift from my brother a couple of years ago, and he just bought the camera directly from the GoPro website. Also, if you plan on using the head strap, be sure to secure your GoPro so it doesn't fall off your head. I was doing the Tyrolean Traverse on this course in 2013, leaned my head back, and my camera dropped in the water and was lost. Now, I tie some thin ropes to the heads strap and attach them to my utility pack (I refuse to use the phrase fanny pack. Ha.) so if the head strap falls off, the ropes will catch it and the camera won't be lost. At the start of the races, they used to have an announcement about losing GoPros because it was a really common occurrence. Haven't heard them mention it in a few years, though.
hey there. i was wondering if you think from all the people you seen running, if a camelbak or some form of hydration pack is needed..or were there a lot of people not using them?
The race organizers say that you need to run with some form of hydration or else you won't be allowed to race. It can be as simple as a water bottle. I've seen lots elites run without water, but those runners are in great shape, and I'm not. Ha! I always carry a bottle or two with me. I have a hydration pack, but don't use it very much.
Was curious as to what brand your gloves were that you used for this race. Always looking for better grippers, thanks !
Hyperflex 3/4 finger gloves. Grips well when wet!
+Cory Covino Thanks!
Cory Covino
Congrats!
I'm gonna run the Beast Elite Race in Korea. I was wondering how long it took you to complete the race?
Julian Diaz Thanks! This course took me about 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete. Average time for an Elite racer was around 6:20 or so. The winners finished in around 3:15, and the average non-Elite racer took about 8 hours, I think. Each Beast runs a little differently, and while I haven't done any other Beasts aside from the Killington one, I think that Killington is one of the more difficult courses that Spartan offers and has much longer finish times than usual. Also, it was the site of the World Championship, so they may have just made it extra difficult because of that. This year they're not having the Worlds at Killington, so it will be interesting to see what they do with the course.
Cory Covino. Cool, thanks. I imagine that the one at Killington would be more challenging than the one here in Korea. Plus, because of MERS here in Korea the race is being delayed so it'll give me more time to train. Also, they haven't set a new date so who knows when it'll be. What was your training schedule like?
Julian Diaz I trained basically every day of the week, though at varying intensity on certain days. I never really go 100% on a day as it would require me to take a few days off to recover. I try to be training for about an hour or two each day in some form, at around 80% of my max. I do a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, body weight squats, and running. Pull-ups, I would say, are the best exercise to squeeze in multiple times a day. A few sets of 15 or so can add up pretty quickly!
Nice Video ! Brought back alot of memories.... and pain. Can't wait for 2015
This is my goal for 2015. What do you need to do in order to qualify for the elite heat?
It's open to everyone. Might be on a first-come, first-serve basis, though. The fee for the elite heat is usually around $30 more than the standard open heats. Some obstacles are made more difficult for the elites. In years past, they only got 3 tries on the Tyrolean Traverse (burpees for each failure, of course). If you didn't make it, they would DQ you. Sometimes you have to carry two sandbags as opposed to the standard one, the tractor pull is two instead of one, etc.
Great job. We ran Sunday (much warmer) .I fought Cramps from mile 6 and a knee sprain from mile 9 on to finish 9h:23mi
Congrats on finishing! It was a really tough course.
yup them cramps were real my first was swimming in the water after the tarzan swing
+Rockland Kcorvic have you found something that works best to fight those cramps? Gearing up for my first race in March (Spartan Beast) and if you had something that has helped I'd like to hear it!
FITTEST LYFE
Lunges', followed by wind sprints,burpees more lunges, hill training . Nutrition wise , there are wide array of things that help , stingers ,gel packs , salt tabs, and water enhancement tablets. But The best way I've found is the repetitive exercise's till you can't hardly stand up . Train how you race .
Great Stuff Rockland, thanks! Been hitting the hill sprints and burpees hard. I'll have to go till these legs won't stand!
Is in Vermount?
Manuel Di Geronimo Yep! Killington, VT. Usually held around the third week of September.
How heavy is that stone on minute 9?
Whewwww...been a few years now, but I think it's at least 60+ pounds. I've heard 60, 70, and also 95. The 95'er was similar to that one in the video, but I think it was at the 2013 race.
Huge respect.
what is the equipment that you bring to the races? both wearing and in the bag? just so i get an idea...
never mind, ive seen it a few comments down, still though, great job!!
Awesome vid
Great stuff here, Cory! Thanks for shooting this video. I'm documenting my entire journey to the 2016 Spartan Beast (my first Spartan Race) and I like seeing some of the action from these races. Would be pumped if you stopped by my channel and dropped some pointers!
+FITTEST LYFE Thanks! I'll stop by your channel later this weekend and see what's up!
Cory Covino I appreciate that a ton brother!! Thank you for the support!
Congrats man!
Manuel Di Geronimo Thanks!
What are those bandannas that people are wearing where it says spartan then a four digit number under it?
TheAirfreshna Race numbers. It's how you can be tracked for photos. It works better than a pin on race number which can leave holes in your garments or get torn off. .
Nice work, man.
Thanks!
That looks awesome!
at around the 11 min mark someone said 'we have an elite woman here, get her through' what did they mean?
I think she was one of the leading women at that point in the race. I can only speculate, but I think they wanted the other men to move out of the way because she was closer to the leaders of her elite wave than the men were to theirs. Just a guess.
That makes sense, thank you for your response
How deep is the water? I'm a weak swimmer and plan on doing this.
O'Neil Campbell It's pretty deep. Not sure how far down goes, but you can't see the bottom. I'm a pretty weak swimmer also. I either flip on my back and kick or dog paddle. I apologize for nothing.
Cory Covino thanks for the info. Looking forward to doing this.
O'Neil Campbell They have life jackets available.
OCR Nation ok thanks
it was pretty tough all those inclines...my time was 6hrs:17mins better than I expected
Right on!
I was also 6 hrs 17 min Ryan!
Joshua Cherwinski how long was that race. I've only done a few sprints and finally have a super close enough to me to do it this year but the 3+ they say for sprints is a rough estimate, most of the sprints I get are 5 to 6 miles. I know beast is what 8+ so are they on average 10 to 14 or something like that?
ryan edwards This race was about 16 but it's advertised as 12+
Joshua Cherwinski ah k thank you, just wanted to know what I would be in for if I ever had the chance to sign up for a Beast.
Tough mudder doesn't have anything on this
I hate seeing ppl talking during anthem
Anyone else wanna just punch the guy with the blue camelbac who is stretching and messing around during the anthem? Show some respect.
No, not really.
Not everyone is uber patriotic. Mightve even been a foreigner.
oh god, i do. im glad someone caught that.
Not a big deal. Each to their own..
Spear Throw should be a learning lesson, take one fist back from balence point to keep from sailing.
awesome i could see myself
Nice!
Cory Covino i was the guy with the pink mo hawk that hi 5 after the carrying the big boulder lol
Shit I'd love to do this!How much training does it take? And how fast exactly was everyone going?You did a great job, except on the spear toss aha.
+Bish Queen Thanks! Spartan Races can be really difficult, and I think that the Killington Beast is one of the most difficult courses that they offer. The amount of training required depends upon how fast you want to finish the course. The average finish time for the Open heats was around 8 to 9 hours for this course, I think. The average Elite racer finished at just over 6 hours. The course is about 13 miles, so if you can pace around 30 minutes a mile, you're doing okay. Admittedly, that sounds pretty slow, but the elevation change is huge on this course and makes it difficult to go really fast. One of my friends wore a fitness monitor and found that the total elevation change was around 7000 feet up and 6800 feet down. Her average heart rate was around 170 for the duration of the race, which was about 5 hours and 20 minutes for her. So for training, the more you do, the better off you are. Each year I get a lot stronger - or so I think - and each year, this race is an absolute dogfight and I have to dig deep to finish. It's a total body fitness thing...you need to have good cardio, good leg strength, and good upper body strength. At a bare minimum, good cardio health will get you through the race. If you can run, you'll do well on a lot of the course. So, hit those burpees!
The race changes a bit each year. This year, they didn't have the swim to the bridge obstacle, or any water obstacles, for that matter. Rumor is that someone almost had the radish at the obstacle last year, so they took it out for this go around. Additionally, there was a lot of carrying obstacles this year. Two large log carries, two sandbag carries, and a bucket of stones carry (~70 pound buckets for men. Probably 50 for the ladies, I think. Maybe less. Don't' quote me on that one). Also, Spartan races are self-sufficient, meaning that you generally have to supply your own calories during the race. There will be water stations, and maybe a station that has some fruit gummies, but that's it. I've only seen the gummy station a few times...your best bet is to go into the race thinking that they won't give you any food, because usually they don't.
Spear was great, wasn't it? I made a spear after this race last year and got 3 / 4 in targets in my races this year. The one that I missed was because they packed the hay super tight and I didn't give the spear enough gusto. It's in my Killington video that I posted a few months back.
Great
Wow, Nice job both running and filming.
I am competing in a Beast later this month, is a camelback and light food really needed? Ive done Tough Mudders in the past without both .
Bob Beekman trust me you will regret not bringing one.
+Bob Beekman Sorry for the late reply. They won't let you run this race without some kind of water. The average finish time for Beasts can run anywhere between 6.5 and 8 hours for open heats, depending on the venue. Even a little food helps.
Ran the Super already and no need for extra water there is plenty on the course. I regret bringing a camelback
+Bob Beekman how did your race go? I'm training for a Beast right now and would definitely take some pointers on my training if you have some. I've got my journey being documented on my channel. Would appreciate some insight from a Spartan vet!
This is amazing-you dud an outstanding job! I've been training for about a month and a half and I run it in adept. In Killington. My only goal is to survive. Do you recall roughly, how long the wire crawls were (200 yards, 300, or more?), the swim looks long-can you guess what water temp was? Also gloves-what did you wear? It looks like they are fingerless-is that accurate? What made you decide to do with those? You also mention wetsuit -was that the same shirt you wore for entire race? Can I get the name brand? And lastly-I think-how many set of pulls up were you doing a day and how many weeks/months did you train for this race? Thanks in advance for video and tips!
Sorry for typos-
*did
*run it in Sept
*decide to go with
+Jen From Vermont Hi!
Wire crawls at their worst would take around 5 to 7 minutes of crawling at a constant rate. Not sure how many feet that would equate to, but I would guess it's pretty close to 300.
The water was COLD. Air temp was around 39F, with wind it was 35F. It was the kind of water where once you got in, it would suck the wind right out of your lungs and your muscles would seize up. The swim is pretty long. I would say it's probably around 400 feet? Just a guess, though.
I wear fingertipless gloves to help with grip. Gloves are a tricky business in racing: depending on the temp, you want something that keeps your hands warm, but at the same time help you grip things. Neoprene gloves are great for 20F weather, but you absolutely can't grip anything. For a World's Toughest Mudder or some 24 hour obstacle race, you would probably be better off with neoprenes (5mm) to keep your hands warm and functional throughout the race. For Spartan Sprints / Supers / Beasts, fingertipless gloves work great. I find that by having the fingertips free, I can get some protection from rope burns and the like, and I'm still able to grip ropes and other obstacles. They really come in handy when letting the weight down on the Hercules Hoist (near the end of the video here). Would have had a few really bad rope burns if I didn't wear gloves. I'll try and fish up the exact pair of gloves I use now, but I used to have a great pair of kayak gloves. Lost them at World's Toughest Mudder two years ago. Still bummed about that.
I started with a 1.5mm Quiksilver wetsuit jacket. Similar to this one, but not the same color:
www.evo.com/wetsuits/quiksilver-syncro-15-mm-long-sleeve-wetsuit-jacket.aspx
I wouldn't recommend starting the race with it on because you will get hot, REALLY FAST. Probably within the first 10 minutes if you're not going through the water. This jacket is studly, though. I put it on before the water obstacles and felt none of the cold water on my upper body. It's absolutely amazing. However, if you end up sweating through it on the inside, the wind will cut right through you and make you feel colder than it really is outside. Much colder. So, I cycled between shirtless, the wetsuit jacket, and a windbreaker. The windbreaker is essential to keep you warm. Please consider bringing one. I was pre-hypothermic the two prior years I ran the course, and it really hurt. A lot. The windbreaker really makes a difference.
I never really quantify how many pull-ups I'm doing in a given day. I try to do sets of 12 - 16, or 20 if I'm feeling really good. I sneak them in as often as I can throughout the day but if I feel my form is crappy, I do fewer reps. Seldom less than 12, though. I would say that if I were to stand and do pull-ups consecutively as part an active workout, I would do 4 or 5 sets of 12-15 within 4 or 5 minutes and then sprinkle in more if I felt I could do them. But, I tend to do them throughout the day at work and probably get at least 100 - 140 in on a day where I'm focusing on doing pull-ups. Otherwise, I punch out a few sets of 15 a day for probably about 60-75 reps.
I hate to give a rambling answer like that, but I try to do as many reps as I can in a short period of time while keeping pretty good form. To me, a good workout is one that I feel a little sore from a day or so later. So, if that takes 120 total reps, it takes 120 total reps.
I train basically every day now. I really started training in summer 2009, but I think with a focused training plan and a good athletic base, you could do pretty well on this course with only a few months of training. If you were doing Crossfit, you would be well-suited to tackle this course without a great deal of additional specialized training, I would say. It's still going to be very difficult. But, if you have cardio and leg strength, you can really do well on this course. I would say that my legs and cardio are slightly above average, so when it comes to hills, I tend to plod along instead of power up them. My grip strength is a lot stronger, so I can get through some of the obstacles fairly quickly.
+Cory Covino Hey Cory, Thanks for running through my questions. Just one more (for now, lol). I am reading about all the food that people took with them. Did you take anything? And if you did, did you feel like you had enough? Thanks again for your time!
Jen from Vermont Hey. I took a few things with me: potato chips, some peanut butter mixed with chocolate chips, and cake balls. For the cake balls, I bought a cake mix box a day or two before the race and rolled pieces of the baked cake into balls with a lot of frosting. I made them the size of chocolate truffles. They tasted okay and gave me some energy, but I think I only ate two or three; they ended up being way too dense to eat during the race. The potato chips were a big winner, and I might take more of those this time around. I had maybe 6 ounces of crushed chips that lasted me for a good portion of the race. The peanut butter and chocolate was also good, the protein really helped me restore some strength. I took probably a 6 or 8 ounce container and dumped a bunch of milk chocolate chips in there and a few spoonfuls of PB. It was messy, but effective. All in all, I ate all of the chips and all of the chocolate / PB mix.
I've also tried canned fruit in syrup, like peaches or pears, specifically. Those end up working pretty well as you get some sugar and water. I've tried those energy gels as well, but I don't feel like I get enough energy from them during the race.
It's still early, but the forecast is calling for 55 - 75, but cloudy. It will be warm, though, so I think I'll bring a bunch of chips, two bottles of water, some PB / chocolate, and electrolyte tablets and see how that goes for me.
+Jen From Vermont Followed along with this, great questions Jen. Good insight for me, especially. Gearing up for my first Beast in March.
Hi im an active teen and i'm really inspired buy your feat. I know they have a kids one but is there one for a 12 year old (i know it sounds crazy but still!!)
that is covering in the junior race, it is up to 14 i believe
Thank you so much!
+Sasha Callaway all good, hope you enjoy your race if you decide to do one. me and my friend are doing our first ever race of this kind (we are doing the spartan sprint) and from what i have heard, it is so worth it.
I wish you and your friend the best of luck!
+Sasha Callaway thank you, we'll need it for the training lol
The junior ones were really easy. I completed one in Owl's Head with pneumonia
thanks for the amazing footage of the race! looking forward to my next beast in Oberndorf Austria!
+Günther Gros thanks! Good luck with your next race!!
I think you may have experienced a mild seizure at 4:25
What a great video and brilliant effort on your part!! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks! Appreciate it.
Apparently you finished right after me, I'm the guy with the red shirt hobbling when you crossed the line.
Haha! Nice. I put everything I had in that final push over the finish line.
Good job!
I took a wrong turn at the 13 mile marker and got lost in the woods for 2 miles. I had nothing left for a run down the hill to the finish or the fire jump.
Joshua Cherwinski That's too bad. Glad it's over now! Doing it again next year?
Ultra beast next year
How about you Cory Covino
Man, youre a beast! Nice job. Really impressive.
+mysskay Thanks!!
what's up with all the burpees?
@17:00min, why has the guy in the blue under armour 4 shots to climb over that Wall!? Rules say just one try on every obstacle! I hate cheaters..
Wrong. 2014 wall rules: " Elite athletes may re-try this obstacle until they complete it
properly, or complete the penalty". Same for 2016.