After Toughest Chicago in 2024, I was looking forward to racing Infinity last year. Then I lost two guides to broken feet race week and couldn’t find even a second guide. While I had a tremendous amount of fun volunteering and listening to Clinton’s EST banter for hours, I missed being out there last year. So I was looking forward to racing this year.
After Shane and Mike joined the guide team, logistics were finalized and we all met up at the new venue. After making it on course, we were met with a lot of “crawling” obstacles at the start, including barbed wire, electrical, and gas. It also included some very deep mud mile pits and a confining tipping point (I was told it wasn’t being tipped enough at first). Later on we had walls and water obstacles (including a very deep “creek crossing”).
As I was leaving for the race, I had felt a minor pain in my left knee. I think somewhere between the extra stretches to get out of the deep pits and over the inverted wall, I tweaked it. By about mile 5, I was limping a little and it just got worse. The last 3 – 4K was a real struggle. Even with all that, I still had the temporary thought of going out for a 5K loop to get the 3rd hex. But after coming to the more reasonable decision (for both short-term and long-term safety), I tapped out after the 15K loop. I really wish my knee hadn’t been an issue. We were doing a decent pace even with having to walk a lot (either because of lighting for safety or limping), and could have gotten at least 10K more in.
Even though I could only get in a single loop, it was still a lot of fun to be back out in the mud again. I am grateful to Scott, Shane, and Mike for all of their help, guiding, and keeping me safe. And I’m grateful to those who helped on the course, especially at the walls. Glad to see SundayFunday will be back for Chicago 2027. 🙂 Here’s to hoping that re-addition for 2027 is a good step towards US Toughests returning in the near future! <3 <3
“While the supposed smart ones are thinking, the crazy ones are doing.” – James Patterson / Howard Roughan
While I am not crazy, I will admit to doing things that others may consider crazy given my limited vision. But as I learned a long time ago, if you say yes to only the “safe” and “comfortable” opportunities, you miss out on so much of life. Spartan said this in a much more eloquent and much better illustrated way than I can. Look for one of the recent The Hard Way newsletters (last two – three weeks as of Labor Day weekend) to read it.
After last year’s Para World Championships in Orlando, we all waited to see where 2026’s race would be. And in Q1 2026, it was announced as Lahti, Finland. Thus began my first international game of “athlete Tetris”. For those of you who know me personally, you know that’s how I plan my entire year… always in flux until that final four-block straight piece drops in!
I already had support from the Cordani Family / Achilles, and help from Achilles Germany with a guide (Frederic). All the other pieces (race registrations, flights, AirBNB, nutrition, etc.) fell into place one by one, with the final piece being some great advice from an athlete friend.
As usual, I ran around the day before leaving, checking and quadruple checking that I had everything. So within five minutes of takeoff, I was dead to the world. The staff on the flight over and within Helsinki were wonderful. I had a brief concern that Finnish Passport Control would throw a flag on the play because Obstacle Course Racing apparently isn’t a common phrase. Thankfully, the staff member guiding me knew about all the events that go on in Lahti and was able to more suscinctly tell him it in Finnish. 😀
After that brief hold up, I met with Frederic at baggage claim. We made it to Lahti by train and then to the AirBNB by foot. After a quick trip to the market, I collapsed.
Not having traveled outside of the US since 2008, I had forgotten that European countries don’t use as many (or maybe any) artifical things. Let’s just leave it at my body did not adjust well that first day… And while I’ve laughed at seeing friends’ posts of ‘leaving for [foreign city] on Wednesday for a Sunday race’, I get it now. Had I arrived on Friday, Saturday’s race would have been really, really, really messy.
On Friday, after getting things “straightened out” with my body, we headed to the race venue mid-afternoon. After doing packet pickup and watching the kids race for a bit, we headed over to the Para group meet up. At that point, John told us about the test portion for Laser shooting, which I tried for a bit before the Para ceremony. There are some very cool photos from it on the Spartan Finland Facebook page, and hopefully more will get shared.
On Saturday, after getting nutrition and everything else set, we headed over to the venue. We dropped off packs and joined the group prior to race start.
While things went better than 2025, there were some of the same struggles with walls. That was extremely frustrating because of the work I had put in (including push ups, as recommended) and being able to get up onto the stage from the ground Friday night. My best guess is that there wasn’t a wide enough “lip” top for me to grip (think thin I versus abbreviated T). But I had also learned from the painful nutrition incident, and had all that in check (thanks to help from Frederic).
While I’m not going to go through every obstacle, there are three that I wanted to hilight. They are the three that could have easily broken me — and had the final one occurred in Orlando last year, it probably would have.
** NOTE: I want to make it very clear that I am not complaining about any of these. I expect challenging obstacles for a Worlds event. These are just three that gave me the most challenges.
(1) Barbed Wire Crawl Earlier this year, I was introduced to the “fun” of uphill barbed wire crawls in Atlanta. As this weekend was also the European Beast Championships, this one seemed both steeper and definitely longer than Atlanta. From what Frederic told me, it was 100 yards long (fifty wires), along with the fact that the wires came down a bit as it went up the hill. His continual encouragement and guiding helped to keep me safe as I worked through it.
(2) Sandbag Carry While I couldn’t see if, and honestly don’t remember every part of it, Tom’s description of Tom’s (Producer) Sandbag Carry for Atlanta Beast was a doozy. But I think the Sandbag Carry for Worlds was more challenging. Up, down, and all around lots and lots of bleachers. There is no way that I could have done this obstacle without so much detailed guiding help from Frederic as he helped to keep me safe.
(3) Ski Jump During the kids race, Frederic mentioned the ski jump. During the start of Beast races, the announcers mentioned the ski jump several times in both English and Finnish (including the TEHO promotions). Somehow, none of that fully registered with me as to what that entailed… Therefore, when we got to the ski jump, I had that ‘are you crazy?’ moment; and the immediate internal answer was ‘possibly… but ask me again at the top.’
While I won’t go through the entire climb, it was both a mental and physical 120 yard with 150 yd gain (per Frederic) climb. There were a couple of points where I had minor panic attacks related to potentially falling; but the worst was at about 65 – 70 yards. At that point, there clearly was no way out except getting to the top. What helped at that point was remembering the gratitude for so many (including Frederic) who had helped me through things I thought impossible at that time. Two very clear examples within Spartan branded events are EST in 2023 and Mt. Sparta in 2024.
Because I am not the “mountain goat” that many other athletes were, I did not make it up the ski jump in the sub three minute pace of the challenge winners. If I had to guess, I would say it was 30 – 40 minutes on the ski jump, if not more.
Also, while the spear throw was closer in Finland that it has been in any other race, I still did not hit the target. So I had to do the burpees that I had said I’d hoped to avoid (during the Friday intros).
As we got to the finish line, they held out the tape for us, which was a very cool experience. And about 5 – 10 minutes later, we all gathered as a group once the final Para (from Spain) finished. There were a couple of very cool media moments, which I hope get shared in the near future. After hanging out for a bit, it was time for awards — 2nd PWC, 2nd Delta (2nd PO5 Male).
As we were leaving the awards Saturday night, it began raining and continued for about eighteen hours straight. Because of that, I decided it wasn’t safe for me to race (especially having to face a slick surface for #2 and #3). I honestly was afraid of slipping off the ski jump and getting hurt. So for safety reasons, Spartan allowed to transfer my entry. This enabled Frederic to learn from another guide as they both raced with another Para (from Denmark).
As the group was getting ready to head out for the Sprint, I was informed of the Para “bypass” around the ski jump for wheelchair athletes. Honestly, even if that had been an option for all Paras on Sunday (to get to the penalty at the top), I still would not have raced. The thinking went — safety for my guide and myself, and respect for Spartan. In addition to keeping both of us safe, part of my gratitude towards so many within Spartan whom have helped me is not creating issues for them, which a fall off of slick ski jump definitely would have created.
So I stood by the fire jump as those who hadn’t left after PWC raced (about half the group). Even in the rain, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the time. 🙂 But it meant that my first Trifecta had eluded me yet again.
While the race portion was great, so was getting to meet and know a lot of the Paras / guides. I don’t know whom organized the group meet ups for dinner each night, but I’m grateful to whomever did. Although, I may have accepted temporary “adoption” by the British for a race weekend next year at one… 😛 😀
Even though the travel back (once landing in the US) was a challenge, I made it back safely, and with hardware. I am extremely grateful to everyone that made the weekend possible and successful. This includes the Cordani Family, Achilles International, Achilles Germany, Frederic, and many others. As I’ve mentioned above, the support from each of them enabled the trip and race to be a success!
While we expected to learn where PWC 2027 would be during the awards ceremony, nothing was said. So for now, we all wait…
