Rutland Herald
For the fifth year, the town hosted Spartan Race, a test of endurance, strength and grit that has grown in popularity internationally.
“We’re looking at 8,000 to 10,000 (racers) and 6,000 spectators,” said Jeff Alexander, the Killington ski resort’s events and sponsorship manager. “We have almost 20,000 people this weekend.”
Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the Spartan racers lined up and struck out on the mountain inclines. Scaling walls, jumping fire and climbing ropes were just a few of the obstacles the Spartans were confronted with.
From 4½-mile runs treated as sprints to 29-mile treks called “Ultra-Beasts,” the thousands of rookie and veteran competitors worked to overcome obstacles and slopes.
The course began at the Ramshead Base Lodge and came to a close near Snowshed Base Lodge.
Montreal resident Nancy Bourassa won the women’s “Beast” division — a 14½-mile course — Saturday, claiming a $500 prize.
She placed 11th across all divisions Saturday with a time of four hours and eight minutes, she said with a heavy French accent. On Sunday, an excited Bourassa was handing out medallions to racers crossing the finish line.
“It was hard,” she said, tilting her arm in a slope to symbolize Killington’s steep terrain, searching for the right word and asking “How do you say?” before accepting a suggestion of “incline.”
An exercise enthusiast and veteran of about a dozen Canadian Spartan Races, Bourassa said Killington is among the most difficult courses due to the mountains and naturally made obstacles. One man-made challenge, hoisting up a sandbag with a rope, gave Bourassa particular difficulty.
She never considered quitting, she said, because the race is designed to wear you down.
“When you give your max, it’s always difficult,” Bourassa said. “It’s always rushing.”
Norm Koch, a race director and Spartan Race course designer, said Killington’s 4,000-foot incline makes it a unique canvas.
“There’s a lot of ups-and-downs, bushwhacking,” Koch said of the Killington course. “We use any natural feature … so it’s not a trail run or road race.”
Describing his trade as part art, part architecture, Koch said he’s learned the ins-and-outs of environmental law and permitting during his work designing courses across the world, in locations including Killington, France, Montana and the Czech Republic.
“There are a lot of technical aspects,” he said, “but it’s all about having a flow and overall style.”
With so many thousands of visitors, the Snowshed lodge became base camp for a village of competitors. Food trucks and a beer pavilion offered food and drink, and several health and fitness product vendors set up shop.
Racers walked around in droves, their running outfits ranging from all black to pink leopard print. Heats of racers jumped a line of burning logs and lunged across the finish line, then slung arms around each other and posed for photographs as energetic music — carefully chosen to keep athletes pumped, according to entertainment director Senneca Reyes — blared in the background.
The teenage Hirschbuhl brothers of Woodstock entered the Spartan Race after one of their teachers offered students a discount code.
“So instead of paying $150, it was only $18,” said 17-year-old Michael Hirschbuhl.
Hirschbuhl and his brother, 14-year-old Wade, ran in a sprint Sunday. It was their first Spartan Race and they said they didn’t want to overwork themselves in the Beast or Ultra-Beast categories.
But after nearing the finish line, the boys said they wanted to press on.
“We came to a split in the trail where it said ‘Beast’ on one side and ‘Sprint’ on the other,” said Michael Hirschbuhl.
Wade Hirschbuhl said they almost continued onto the Beast course.
“It felt like we could keep going,” he said.
Alexander said the Spartan Race is part of Killington’s push to build up the ski town as a summer destination and not just a winter one.
With new events like the Dirty Girl Mud Run, Jamaican Jerky Festival, the Spartan Race and an upcoming Pro GRT “Beast of the East” downhill bicycle race set for next year, there is “…no doubt, it’s how we’re going to build summer out,” Alexander said.
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