It’s been more than three weeks now since a group of 30 or so brave souls from the Merritt area tackled the Spartan Challenge at Sun Peaks, but rest assured, their memories of the ‘exhilarating’ (my word, not theirs) set of adventure races remain clear as a bell.

Some of the two and a half dozen participants from the Nicola Valley at this year’s Spartan tackled the Beast ­— a punishing 24-kilometre ramble up and down the Sun Peaks mountainside that included an additional 28 obstacles and challenges just to make things interesting. Average time to complete — five to six hours!

The more neophyte (or sane) took on the Spartan Sprint — a five-kilometre jaunt in the hills with 10 obstacles to negotiate.

The obstacles, by the way, included vertical walls and ropes that had to be climbed up and over, log piles that had to be navigated through, netting that had to be crawled under, spears that had to be chucked, and loads of sand that had to be carried, hauled or dragged whichever way possible. Just your everyday chores!

For Sam Latremouille, 35, taking on the Beast with a group of her girlfriends was a tremendous cathartic experience.

“In 2013, at the age of 33, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. It came as a huge surprise to me,” Latremouille said. “A nine-centimetre tumor was discovered and I had to have one of my kidneys removed.

“The early prognosis was that I was facing full-on cancer, but three weeks later my specialist phoned and said that I was a miracle and that the tumor was benign.”

Colin Gage, 44, tackles the rope climb — one of many obstacles and challenges on both the Spartan Beast and Sprint courses. All photos courtesy of Spartan Race Canada

Colin Gage, 44, tackles the rope climb — one of many obstacles and challenges on both the Spartan Beast and Sprint courses. All photos courtesy of Spartan Race Canada

To celebrate her new lease on life, Latremouille wanted to challenge herself in a big way. She had heard about the Spartan Race and decided to give it a go. She contacted a bunch of her 30-something friends and pretty soon had a team of five that included Candice Bateson, Jill Starrs, Ericka Bateson and Robyn Anderson.

“It was Sam’s hurrah to celebrate surviving and conquering cancer,” said teammate Candice Bateson. “In terms of training, we’re all busy moms, so we tried to get together once a week for a run, and then everyone just sort of did their own thing in between.”

“It was definitely more intense than I ever could have imagined,” Latremouille said. “Grueling but epic. It took us six hours to climb to the top of an entire mountain, run down, see the finish line, then have to go back up and back down again!”

“We stayed as a team throughout,” said Bateman. “That’s what I loved about it. You were there for each other — to encourage and cheer on. If somebody got behind, you waited.”

Marcia Cooper, 58, toughs out the sandbag carry on the Spartan Sprint course. Failure to complete an obstacle resulted in doing 30 burpees.

Marcia Cooper, 58, toughs out the sandbag carry on the Spartan Sprint course. Failure to complete an obstacle resulted in doing 30 burpees.

Another Merritt team that took on the Beast was the trio of Melissa Madden, Amy Stamp and Helen Asselstine.
Madden, a TRX fitness instructor, said, “I did the Spartan Sprint last year and wanted to do the Beast this time, but wanted to do it with a couple of other girls at my fitness level.”

The threesome began their focused training nine months before the Sun Peaks Spartan and used Madden’s TRX classes as the catalyst.

“TRX is a total-body, multi-functional exercise program that was developed and first used by the U.S. Navy Seals,” Madden said. “It’s suitable for any sport. I love TRX and swear by it. I see what it does for people — from the beginner to the elite athlete.”

Asselstine credited the TRX training with helping her to deal with the many challenging obstacles.

“I’ve run half-marathons before, but [the Spartan] was something really different. An awful lot of strength is required as well as stamina.”

Madden, Asselstine and Stamp strategically paced themselves, finishing in just under six hours.

Eleven-year-old Janelle Gage, shown in the log jam, completed the Spartan Sprint despite being later diagnosed with a broken right hand.

Eleven-year-old Janelle Gage, shown in the log jam, completed the Spartan Sprint despite being later diagnosed with a broken right hand.

“We didn’t rush it, and we had lots of [water, gel packs and high-carb foods],” Asselstine said. “We all felt fine when we were done.”

The lack of supplementary fluids and nutrition presented a major challenge for Ryan Yastremsky and former-Merrittonian Ryan Irving, now a policeman in Vancouver.

“We forgot to bring any of our own water or food,” Irving said sheepishly. “There was some water on the course, but we were out there almost six hours without anything to eat. That was tough.”

Irving, who had done a ‘Tough Mudder’ in Whistler in 2013, said that the Spartan Race at Sun Peaks was much more difficult.

“The Mudder was a lot of just straight running with obstacles that were more fun rather than physically demanding. And you didn’t have to climb a mountain!” he said.

A couple of hard-core local runners who turned their attention to the Spartan Beast were Kevin Black, 39, and 36-year-old Mark Nendick.

“Mark has done these things before,” Black said, “and he convinced me to join him this year. What an experience.

“I’ve run a marathon in two hours and 59 minutes,” Black said. “[The Beast] was half that distance, but it took me a half an hour longer. It just shows how tough everything was with the obstacles and all the hill-climbing.

Kevin Black finished the 24-km Spartan Beast in 3:43:46.

Kevin Black finished the 24-km Spartan Beast in 3:43:46.

“People were calling the last part of the course the Death March. We were passing people that literally couldn’t even take two more steps. They were done.”

Like Nendick, local chiropractor Colin Gage has done the Spartan Beast before. It didn’t make this year’s event any less challenging.

“This one was long and nasty,” he said. “You went all the way to the Top of the World at Sun Peaks. That must be a good 2,500-foot climb.

“I ran out of food and water about two-thirds of the way through the course,” Gage said, “and then my [quadriceps muscles] seized up again just like last year. I ended up walking backwards down the hill at the end.”

What Gage didn’t mind at all this time around were the ideal weather conditions (warm and slightly overcast) — a far cry from last year’s cold temperatures and bouts of rain and snow.

The number of Merritt participants in the shorter Sprint event was substantial, too. It included a 10-member RCMP team made up of detachment members, some of their spouses, and one friend thrown in for good measure.

“The idea of entering was initiated by Const. Emmie Clements,” fellow officer Brodie Ferris said. “She had heard about the Spartan from some of her troop mates and said that we should give it a go.

“We really had no idea what we were getting into,” Ferris said. “We knew it was about five kilometres and there were some obstacles, but that’s about it. We pretty much just winged it.

“Everybody had a really good time. Most said that they’d do [the Sprint] again, and a few said they’d consider pushing themselves and attempting the full Beast.”

Merritt's RCMP team jumps the fire at the end of the Spartan Race.

Merritt’s RCMP team jumps the fire at the end of the Spartan Race.

Also entered in the Sprint as part of a seven-member team from around the Interior were Lower Nicola’s Marcia Cooper, 58, Lynne Larsen from the Dot Ranch, 55, and Larsen’s daughter Blaire Owen, 24.

“My daughter, Dana, had done a Tough Mudder a few years back, so I sort of knew what these things were about,” Cooper said. “The Sprint was only five kilometres so I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. Yeah, right.

“It might have been a smaller course, but it was still difficult. There was one inverted wall that was really tough. Fortunately I had two gals at the top that I didn’t know reach back and grab my arms, and a guy from below help push. Everybody worked together, even complete strangers.”

Kevin Black’s wife, Diane, decided to enter the Sprint at the last minute — on her own.

“I just kind of moved in and out of groups, depending on whether they were going slower or faster than me,” Black said. “I was just happy to finish considering I hadn’t trained for it.”

Two of the youngest entries in the field of 654 Sprint participants were the Gage sisters — Tyra, 13, and Janelle, 11.

Truly remarkable was the fact that the younger Gage completed the course and the obstacles with a broken hand!

“She had fallen off her scooter earlier in the week,” Janelle’s dad said. “She said the hand was a bit sore but nothing much more. We bandaged it and she went in the Spartan with her sister and a friend and did fine.

“On the Monday after, Janelle said the hand was hurting a bit more, so we went and got it X-rayed. Sure enough, there’s a break and it’s now in a cast.”

Spartan organizers certainly went out of their way to embrace the next generation of Spartans, as they even offered a Jr. Sprint for the real youngsters.

Molly Black, age 7 and Brady Nendick, 6, took part in the 1.5-kilometre fun run with its own set of age-appropriate obstacles like a mini-wall, a tunnel and rock-carrying.

“The organizers did a great job with it,” Black’s dad said. “The kids had a blast and everyone got a T-shirt and a participation medal.”

Judging by the fact that this year’s Spartan competitions attracted close to 2,000 participants — from tots to seniors — it doesn’t look like the latest active living phenomenon is going away any time soon.

And judging by the number of entrants from this neck of the woods, that’s a darn good thing.