intro

Spartan Race Washington! My 6th time running a Spartan Race. The race was only about a two and a half hour drive from where I live in Vancouver. The location is at Meadow Woods Equestrian Center, located in Monroe, Washington. So not exactly a huge travel or anything. Still I wanted to share the experience. Even short trips can be fun and worth talking about.

mini road trip

At first I thought maybe it would just be a quick day trip. But then I realized that meant I had to wake up extra early in the morning to drive to the venue, eh, no thanks. Plus it's always nice to have a little time to chill before the race and not feel rushed. So I decided to book a motel instead. The motel was actually really nice. Clean, quiet and comfortable, which is all I really ask for. Unfortunately, after I had already unpacked and settled into my room, I found out the water in the shower wouldn't turn on.

So I had to switch to a different room. The new room had two beds which was fine, but I definitely lost a bit of the extra space I had before. The first room had a little couch area that was perfect for stretching out and just relaxing, so I missed that. And now every time I check into a hotel, I always test the shower and sinks first thing, just in case. Also, why does the 7-Eleven chicken wings have way more meat than the ones here in Vancouver? Like twice the meat.

The next day was race day, and I was late to my starting heat! Classic me. There was a huge line just to get into the parking lot to park your car, which I was not expecting at all, this never happened to me. Turns out this race location was more popular than I thought. What I didn't realize at the time was that this race was part of a series called the Pan American Championship. When you do a Spartan Race that's part of a series, you get an exclusive medal at the finish line. It's a little more unique compared to the standard ones, which is a cool bonus.

ready, set, go!

Let the race start! Off I go and into the woods. This race had more of a forest terrain vibe with river crossing thrown in. Up to this point, I've done five races, and none of them had any natural water elements. So this one felt like a cool change of pace. It wasn't anything too crazy, but just enough to keep things interesting. The terrain overall was pretty flat. You would enter the forest, weave through a bit, then pop back out into open space, and repeat. It kept a good rhythm going.

Also why is every Spartan Race I go to besides the Kelowna Spartan Race have such nice weather? I really wanted it to rain or have a heat wave. Get my full money's worth, you know?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how seriously did I take this race? Maybe a solid 5 out of 10. I mean I ate an entire box of Little Caesars pepperoni pizza the night before. Not exactly the pre-race meal you want before running half a marathon, and surprise surprise, it came back to haunt me with a mid-race leg cramp. Whoops. Lesson learned (probably not). All the racers were flying through this race, because the terrain was so flat. But then, the staff decided to throw in something absolutely savage, the barbed wire crawl going uphill. And they also decided to make it feel twice as long as usual. The difficulty went from 0 to 100 real quick. I was just crawling there like please, when does this barbed wire crawl end?

It honestly didn't even feel like I left Vancouver. Washington has some seriously pretty nature going on. Endless forests, rivers, and mountains. You can even see some of the Canadian mountains from afar. It's kind of cool how connected everything feels.

overall review

My thoughts on the whole experience? It was neat. It wasn't the most exciting adventure I did. But it was totally worth the experience. At the time of writing this, I have done 7 Spartan Races in total. I rank this adventure 7th. Honestly, this whole adventure felt like a mini side quest. A preparation for the next one. Spartan Race Ontario.