Since the Spartan Para World Championships were announced during the early summer (I believe June), I had been researching everything it entailed. I asked lots of questions, stal… um, I mean proactively looked for updates, and asked more questions.
Rob, Kali, and I met in Orlando on Friday night. After sleep, round one began.
Since Saturday’s race was a 5K, my plan was to just go with the aid stations. And it worked out OK for the most part… I will admit to being shaky at about 2.5 hours on the vertical cargo net. But it was a good learning lesson — not just that I could accomplish the obstacles, but that I couldn’t go without hydration.
Post-race, my plan was to get a couple of bottles to throw into one of my guides’ packs. But that was quashed during the race walk-through. But before getting to that point, I was led (astray? :P) by a 6 foot pink bear…
While I wasn’t able to crawl (precautionary for PWC), it was still great to be involved with the Teddy Bear Crawl Foundation event. Mark has done a lot to help so many so far, and the foundation will do even more in 2026 through its partnership with Dealers of Hope US. For more information on the Climb for Hope and how you can help, visit their respective Facebook and Instagram pages!
After the crawl and the course walk-through, we had a really nice dinner. Normally during race weekends, it’s chaos. So it was really nice to have an hour to sit, relax, and talk with people. Afterwards, we made a trip to get nutrition and Rob gave me hydration tablets.
The short version of the PWC race is this — after the second hydration stop, my insides turned to “concrete” and I spent about 30 minutes working through that. Very painful to say the least, and it greatly impacted my race. Prior to it, I was keeping pace with a few of the other Paras (although John was probably done at that point…); after, I struggled to cross the finish. I did manage to get over the fire, but I was concerned that I’d have interesting stories about missing leg hair… While there were struggles, I did cross the finish line and earned my first Delta (2nd #PO5).
I am extremely grateful to Dan, Joey, John, and so many others for making the 2025 event a reality. I am looking forward to having a better race in 2026, wherever it is! I’m also grateful to Rob and Kali for guiding and all their other support throughout the weekend.
[Update: the 2026 race will be in Lahti, Finland.]
