If you thought my Spartan experience was going to end after that greuling half-marathon…well you were wrong.

Turns out, before the weekend began, I had actually committed to a feat that was a notch above simply conquering the hardest Spartan course in Europe.

You see, for each Spartan event, they put on a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon obstacle course. Completing all three in a calendar year earns you a unique distinction, called a Trifecta.

Completing all three in a weekend earns you the distinction of a Trifecta Weekend.

And an extra shiny medal to go along with it :)

So, after completing my half-marathon slogfest, I didn’t get to have a beer, or even celebrate at all really.

Unless you count the two 35 gram protein shakes I chugged (which I certainly do).

Instead got to hobble back to my hotel, scrub all the grime off my body, and figure out how I was going to convince my body to do a both a 10K and a 5K obstacle course the next day.

The Journey Continues

In endurance sports, I’ve often found that your mind typically fails you before your body does.

However, day 2 of the Trifecta Weekend was the other way around.

My mind felt great! I was dialed in for another rendez-vous with the top of that mountain. But my body, having climbed 8,500 feet of elevation the previous day, was begging for anything but that.

Nonetheless, as I stretched out before the 10K to start the day, I just decided that as long as I could keep moving forward, I was going to put out as much as possible.

I was far more prepared for things like the mud pool and the elevation gain which made a huge difference in my mindset when things got going.

And, as much as I complained about my body being wrecked every single moment until the start line, once I got loose, I forgot that was even supposed to be an issue.

Game on.

No Fuck-Ups

Maybe it was the knowledge of the course, along with the newfound confidence from finishing 5th in my age group the day before, but I felt amazing throughout the entire 10K.

It was an incredible mental boost when I realized we were only going 2/3rds of the way up the mountain as the previous day. I had been preparing for far worse.

During the 10K, I realized that a lot of Spartan isn’t about how well you do this or that. There are too many things to be good at and you’re bound to have a weakness somewhere.

What’s more important is to simply have the least amount of fuck-ups as possible.

Whether it’s bonking up a hill, not completing an obstacle and being forced to do burpees, or simply letting the race suck your soul and deciding to take it easy, one fuck-up can ruin an otherwise perfect race if you’re not careful.

I wouldn’t say that I ran a “perfect” 10K by any means. But I hardly had any fuck-ups. My only real mistake came when I failed the Javelin Throw a few hundred meters from the finish line, costing me 30 burpees (about 2-3 minutes of time).

The nice thing about the burpees is you had to do them in this dusty, nasty patch of grass and it got you looking absolutely badass as you cross the finish line.

The final rig, which I failed on the previous day, was made a lot easier by allowing you to come off the monkey bars at the halfway point.

I passed it with ease this time and pushed through the finish line, my body feeling better than it had all weekend.

Compared to yesterday’s course, I felt far better about my performance. When I checked my the results, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I finished in 2nd place for my age group!

It was the first time I’d made it onto the podium for any endurance event. The thought of finishing top 3 had hardly even crossed my mind in anything I’ve done before.

But I did it! 2nd place baby!

Honestly, I was ready to do the 5K immediately. My body was warm, my muscles were loose, and I was mentally on an upswing.

Of course, the oh-so-kind race directors had other plans. The 5K race was scheduled to start in 3 hours, which meant that I would have to rev my body up all over again.

Job Not Finished

The hardest part, I realized, is just getting started again. Every time your body thinks you’re done, you have to convince it otherwise. After that, it’s just a measly 5K. Easy money.

Of course, that really meant an 8K, just how the 10K was 12.5K and the 21.1K was 26K. But I was ready.

The start wave was specifically for people doing the Trifecta Weekend. I sensed two types of people at the starting line: those who were going to take it easy, and the small minority who were going to put out for the last race of the weekend.

I decided to go all in.

Despite what I said previously about the importance of minimizing fuck-ups, the 5K was a little different. Early on, I found myself within eyesight of the leaders, which put me in the top 10 of the race.

That was fun! But to stay within striking distance, I couldn’t just run a “no fuck-ups” race. I had to give everything I had. I ran some steep uphills. I pushed through obstacles. I tried to stick with the leaders like my life depended on it.

It was such a mental boost to pass someone after all the mileage we’d been through.

Sometimes, I’m too competitive for my own good. Every time I overtook someone I would think, “Haha! I can endure more pain than you!”

It's a mental technique I learned from David Goggins book Can't Hurt Me, called "taking souls."

Whatever gets you going right?

One thing I learned about myself during the 5K is that the last few months of training have definitely made me physcially stronger. But what I hadn’t realized is how much more I’m built to last.

It’s only in these sorts of moments where you find out if you’re really built to last. I just kept getting better as the weekend went along.

Despite all the mileage, the 5K was without a doubt my strongest showing of the weekend. I felt so good that I was ready to do it all over again.

This time, as I crossed the finish line, there was a feeling of accomplishment that I hadn’t felt during the first two races.

I was finally DONE.

I was officially a Trifecta Weekend finisher.

I also finished 1st in my age group for the 5K, and 8th place overall!

To top it all off, I finished 1st in my age group for cumulative Trifecta time! Seven hours and 35 minutes.

Not bad for my first Spartan weekend.

I had been on the fence about going for the Trifecta Weekend as opposed to just the half-marathon, but pushing myself to do the extra 5K and 10K was so worth it.

The half-marathon brought with it mostly frustruation, along with a tiny glimmer of hope when I crossed the finish line that maybe I was actually good at this sort of event.

The 10K and the 5K were genuinely fun on so many levels.

I reached my first podium.

I learned a lot about how to re-activate my body when it thinks it's done.

I put forth maximum effort when I should have otherwise been fatigued, finishing even stronger than I started. That's a learning lesson that I'll be taking with me into future endurance events!

Oh, and I got the shiny new Trifecta Weekend medal :)