2025 Spartan Boise Race Review
By OCR Kings Reporter At Large
David Best
Confucius say, never go on a whitewater rafting trip the Friday
before a Spartan Race Trifecta weekend.....but more about that
in a bit. The Boise Trifecta Race event was held the weekend
of August 9-10 at the Tom Pence Ranch in Payette, Idaho. The
race weekend consisted of a Beast (750 open racers) as well as a
Sprint (1990 open racers) on Saturday and the Super (1084 open
racers) and Sprint (810 open racers) on Sunday. There was also a
kids race held on Saturday. Spartan had held races in Idaho from
2010 to 2020 before taking a 5 year hiatus, but have now returned
to Idaho and we can only hope this will be a long and prosperous
relationship as we need as many Trifecta weekends as we can get.
Venue , Logistics & “The Mistake”
There are certain Spartan Race venues that aren't the easiest to
access from the east coast and this is one of those. I had to fly
from Orlando to Salt Lake City and then to Boise and you're only
asking for trouble when you have to use multiple flights to reach
your venue. While getting there was no problem, the return flight
was a nightmare. I flew from Boise to Chicago and I found out
why they call it the “Windy City” as a a large windstorm hit just
before we landed and all flights out were canceled, so I got to
spend a very uncomfortable night in the O'Hare airport before
flying back to Orlando. The venue itself was located in Payette,
Idaho, but the nearest town with all the amenities of home was in
Ontario, Oregon which is about a twenty minute ride from the
venue and the Boise Airport is only an hour from both. As I have
never been to this part of the country before, I decided to make a
vacation out of the trip and stayed a week to enjoy all the outdoor
activities that are available there. Once my daughter heard where
I was going and what I was doing, she decided to tag along for the
ride. We flew out on the Thursday before and decided to book a
day long whitewater rafting trip on Friday to enjoy the Payette
river, which ended up being “The Big Mistake”. While navigating
a class 3 rapid called “Trash Can”, the raft nose dived into the
rapid and went one way, I went another and my left knee went
yet another. I was able to complete the rest of the rafting trip, but
there was no way in hell I was going to be able to participate in
the Beast race the next day, but was hoping for the best. I was
right, So I volunteered on Saturday and was put on the kids course
at the spear throw. I received quite the education from those
young Spartans and found out the older kids are worse then any of
the adults I've run into participating or volunteering at Spartan.
They are savages!!!!
Weather, Course Conditions & Review
Throughout this 2025 Spartan Race season, we have been battling
the rain and wet conditions. I have been praying to the Spartan
Gods to give us a dry race.....but be careful what you wish for,
because you just might get it. I should know by now that the
Spartan Gods are sadistic and only like to make us suffer.....and
they never disappoint. The course had very little shade on the
Sprint part of the course and no shade at all on the Super/Beast
part of the course and you guessed it, it was hot and dry on race
weekend. That sun was so hot that it could raise a blister on boot
leather. I also found out the hard way about the insects in that part
of the country. The locals told me that from the middle of July to
the end of September, the insects are everywhere. The flies were
so bad that I would let 5 or 6 flies into the hotel room just to go
get ice and it was way worse on the course with the stinging
insects. I was able to participate in both the Super and Sprint on
Sunday and saw first hand how bad they were. I passed multiple
boxes placed on the course marked “DO NOT MOVE,
STINGING INSECT NEST”. While I was volunteering on the
kids course Saturday, multiple children were stung while on the
obstacles as it seems the insects were attracted to the obstacles.
The course itself was separated into two sections with the Sprint
part of the course laid out on the low land near the river where
there was some shade so escape the blistering hot sun and the
Super/Beast part of the course which was located on a mesa and
there was no shade to be found. The were multiple racers that did
succumb to the heat. The afternoons on both days were
unbearable. The obstacle list was as follows: 4 foot over walls,
Hurdles, Over Unders, Monkey Bars, Inverted Wall, Atlas Carry,
Vertical Cargo, Spear Throw, Barbed Wire Crawl, Helix, Sandbag
Carry, Z Wall, Plate Drag, Multi-Rig, Bucket Carry, Dunk Wall,
Hercules Hoist, 7 Foot Wall, Bender, Sandbag Carry #2, Barbed
Wire Crawl #2, Irish Tables, Armer, Farmers Carry, Tyrolene
Traverse, 8 Foot Wall, Beater, Stairway To Sparta, Log Carry,
Olympus, Twister, Rope Climb, A-Frame Cargo, Rolling Mud &
ending the day with Slip Wall. No fire jump due to the windy and
dry conditions.
Final Thoughts, Recommendations
& Updates
I thought the course was a challenging one and well worth the
effort of every Spartan to consider for next season. The only
thing Spartan should do it to move the event date to the end of
September where we could only hope for cooler weather and less
insects. As Far as my injury is concerned, I was able to participate
in both the Sunday Super/Sprint, I just had to stay away from the
high walls and low crawls as well as take a few Advil washed
down by some Jack Daniels (LOL). I was lucky as I was able
enjoy the rest of my Idaho vacation hiking, swimming and
enjoying the Sawtooth Mountains. Idaho is a true sportsman's
paradise. Once I returned home, I found out that I have a grade 2
tear of my left MCL. Is my dream of 13 Trifectas in a season and
attaining Spartan immortality by earning a Spartan Spear over?
To find out, you'll need to tune in to this same OCR Kings
channel......but until then, this is your OCR Kings Reporter At
Large, David Best, bringing you all the Best that Spartan offers
us.
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