In the fall of 2022, Spartan offered the just-released Unbreakable Pass to Para athletes. This new pass was an opportunity for athletes to race any Spartan-branded event for just the cost of insurance, bag drop, and parking. The initial term was three years, but it could be renewed for up to a total of nine years.

I had seen the Spartan races over the years, but had never done any prior. But I was interested enough that I accepted the opportunity. And three years later, I’m glad that I did! 🙂

One of the main renewal options is the annual Unbrekable events. For this cycle (2023 – 25), this is the short version of what happened: In 2023 (Granbury), things went sideways with my guide less than thirty days out, and I couldn’t find another one. In 2024 (Florida), school commitments made me have to cancel plans last minute. And in 2025 (Finland), I couldn’t afford the trip or find a sponsor.

During the lead up to Finland, it looked to me like the Finland event covered the full cycle renewal since it was an international event. But as I found out after realizing it wouldn’t work, I clearly misread things. In the end, it was probably for the best that Finland didn’t work out — I’d be in a much worse position if it had…

Once I found out from Jake (Unbreakable Concierge) that I had to do a total of twelve full day shifts to renew the Pass, multiple games of Tetris began…

Fortunately, I had a lot of flexibility this summer, and some this fall. So the math became six at Tough Mudder Chicago (Rockford), four at Spartan Midwest (Attica), and two at Spartan Dallas (Granbury). But as you’ll see below, that plan didn’t fully work out…

As friends and family found out about my “interesting” plans, a few suggested that I either just pay the $1,500 or let the Unbreakable Pass lapse and pay full price in 2026 on. As a starving college student, the first wasn’t logistically possible. Out of respect for Joe, Dan, and so many others within Spartan who have helped me since 2022, the second wasn’t even a thought. In my mind, if I let it lapse, I would have to leave OCR. I wouldn’t be able to face any of them and say ‘you gave me this incredible opportunity and I let it slip away…’

So this is what the journey was:

1: TM Chicago (Rockford)

I am fortunate to have family in the Rockford area. Going in, the plan was to volunteer Tuesday – Friday, race Infinity Saturday, and then volunteer again Sunday and Monday. But when I lost two guides in less than an hour on race week (both due to foot) and couldn’t find another guide, I ended up volunteering Saturday as well.

When I showed up on Tuesday, I could tell that a few people were uncertain about what I could and couldn’t do. But that changed quickly, and we got a lot done that first day.

While the build went smoothly, unfortunately the Paratransit did not. I could understand them having an issue finding base camp Tuesday, or even Wednesday morning. But by the fourth time, they should have known… Thankfully Joseuah (sp?) helped to get that straightened out.

The overall specifics of the build are a blur. I remember being handed a sledgehammer (hey, I didn’t cut my foot when someone handed me an axe last June in VT, so that was safe ;)) to drive rebar, putting up the stage, and putting up umpteen amounts of fence and tents. As a side note, while Spartan merch tents are put up by an external company, the Tough Mudder one was not. That was an interesting experience putting up a tent that large.

On Saturday and Sunday, I was at the finish line handing out medals. So, so, so many medals (I heard the total count was 12K people total). I also talked one of my cousins into volunteering with me on Sunday. In addition to all of the fun of seeing people finish and handing them their medals was getting to hear 15 – 16 hours of Clinton’s continual banter around EST.

One of the other interesting notes from Saturday and Sunday was rediscovering Reign. When I had had it on course, I believed it was horrible. But from the can, it was great — and how I survived (both those days and the rest of the volunteer shifts).

On Monday, two interesting things happened — one good and one bad. The good was that one of the other volunteers offered me a ride home, which saved me about four hours in transit. The bad was that I ended up getting sick after Chicago (with the famous line of ‘I hope I didn’t get you sick’… I’ve already had a few good laughs over that :D)

After Chicago, I had a tight, but solid run of Washington State to West Virginia for TWC. But things got to a point with the illness that I was delirious the Tuesday after Labor Day and had to pull out of TWC. It took me about three weeks to get better, which also meant scratching Attica.

As a result, yet another game of Tetris began…

2: Spartan Nashville

As I played Tetris, Nashville was one of the closest (#3 being the closest). Having never been to Nashville before, and with the race being in a different county than the airport, this created some logistical issues with Paratransit services.

Also, not knowing the area well enough, I didn’t end up at the best hotels. As an example, I said the words “you’ve got a figurative gun pointed at my head” to the first one, and the second one let their smoke alarm beep for hours. After these experiences, I was willing to just work out for 15 hours (legimate training for a 48 hour race in Feb.) rather than deal with another nightmare. Thankfully, I found a better place for the final night when my body gave out after 3.5 hours on the treadmill…

In regards to the actual volunteering, it was a lot of fun. When I arrived Saturday morning, I met someone who said ‘my name is Steve, but I go by Stove because there are so many Steves’. Without saying anything, I had an idea that that was Steve McDonald — as doing something like that (making life easier for others) is a easy McDonald trait to spot. 🙂 I spent the rest of the day handing out a lot of medals (and shirt tokens) with a large group of people.

While Sunday started out similar to Saturday, a second McDonald found me in the dark. Sadly, I did not recognize it was Don in the dark. 🙁 Although, he shouldn’t feel too bad, as I also didn’t recognize Joe in the light, so… 😀 Sunday was an interesting day on the volunteer side — for most of the first four or five hours, I was on my own at the finish line. And then the “invasion” occurred — about eight or ten JROTC kids showed up, which helped. 🙂

In Chicago, about eighty percent of the festival still needed to be taken down (I know we did tables, chairs, and a few other things) after Sunday. But by the end of Sunday in Nashville, almost everything was down because of all the JROTC kids. I was honestly concerned that there would be nothing to do on Monday and I’d have to play Tetris yet again (San Antonio).

Thankfully, there was still a fair amount of final tear down and packing to do. That Monday was a blur, and all I truly remember was shotgunning Reigns to stay awaks. 😀

3: Spartan Orlando

With Para World Championships (PWC) being in Orlando, this was the best way to get the final two full-day shifts in.

As in Chicago, ParaTransit had issues finding base camp in Orlando. By the time I finally got there on Monday, the people I had been with in Chicago and Nashville were already out doing the tear down. So I ended up helping out at base camp for Orlando.

It was very touching (and also funny) to see [Person A] say ‘Can I have James?’ and then look forlorne when [Person B] said ‘NO. He’s mine.’ 😀

As I was waiting for my Uber to the hotel, I thought someone from the build team was walking by. I found out a few minutes later that it had actually been Joe. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to walk back to base camp, apologize for not recognizing him (I had seen him for about 60 seconds in VT before he left for Abu Dhabi) and thank him for everything.

After a long day, I had hoped for a restful night. That was not to be, as noise once again interrupted sleep. This time from people partying until 4 AM. But who needs sleep when there’s Reign? 😀 😀

The absolute best part of the volunteer weekend was being invited to be part of the Veteran’s Day video that was done right after lunch on Tuesday. It’s something that I’ll always remember. I also expect “outtake hijinks” to occur on 4/1/26… 😛 😀

While it was not an easy process to renew the Unbreakable Pass, it was well worth doing. I got to meet a lot of great people and make new friends.

Also, if I hadn’t done it, my 2026 OCR season wouldn’t have happened. Not just from the part about having to leave OCR as I mentioned earlier, but out of sheer cost. Right now, I have about twenty Spartan branded events (Spartan, Tough Mudder & DEKA FIT) on the planning calendar.
Without the Unbreakable Pass, with the resources I’ll have for 2026, I would not be able to afford the costs to do these races and continue to challenge myself. So I’m glad I’ll have the Pass for cycle #2 (2026 – 28)!

Words cannot properly express my gratitude to everyone within Spartan who’s helped me to this point. So I will just simply say Thank You.

Here’s to three more years of mutual stalk… um, I mean OCR racing! 😀 😀