2019 West Virginia North American Championship | Spartan Race

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're here at summit Bechtel reserve in Glen Jean West Virginia for the 2019 Spartan North American Championships after the last two brutal mountain races this perfectly balanced 13 mile beast course will be a welcome change of pace for these athletes I'm David migite along with Kevin Donahue and Kevin Ryan Atkins dominated the US national series this year but should he be considered the favorite in this race today Robert Killian is the two-time defending champion so if men want to be the champ they're gonna have to beat the champ that contenders capable doing that today are the three Ryan's who are all ready to take his throne now Lindsay Webster tracked down Nicole miracle over the course of the last few races of the season but those were in the mountains now today this is a more of a level playing field how do you expect this race to play out and of course who else might be a contender well the field may be a little bit more level but that field just got a whole lot deeper Rebecca Hammond is back after missing the majority of the season dude in the Achilles injury she's eager to repeat that masterful breakthrough performance that she had here last year but we cannot underestimate Canadien face standing who's starting to peak exactly the right time well the course the terrain itself may be the biggest x-factor on the day and for more on that the third member of our broadcast team Steve Hammond well what an amazing morning here this course is absolutely epic this course has everything we've got four carries we've got a load of elevation gain that thrown in there as well it is a beautiful eclectic mix of all the last races that we've seen so far and it brings it all together if you're not ready for this race it will definitely expose your weaknesses this is gonna be a fantastic race I can't wait well thanks a lot Stephen this is an incredible course the third year that we're running the North American Championships here in Glen Jean West Virginia and here your starting line the best in the biz can take us to this course well as you can see tremendous undulating terrain through all these forests the areas and the gauntlet key shows you how extreme these obstacles gonna be in both physicality and also concentration well we mentioned West Virginia and you will find it all in West Virginia full of mistery wonder and surprise from outdoor recreation of culture and history our wild and rugged mountains with some of the East Coast's best-kept secrets visitors flocked the New River Gorge for incredible outdoor adventures including heavy plate water rafting some of the Nate region's best rock climbing and each step away from the churning burn of the daily routine to step closer to the place you belong West Virginia book your trip today at WB tourism calm just like that the athletes are off a fast start to be expected as they all turn their way towards this really quick up hill that they're gonna face they want to get into it first and faster than I've ever seen him Robert Killian the two-time defending champion has taken it out hot over guys like Ryan Woods are usually the pace setter now you're gonna see a big battle between Robert Killian and of course all the Ryan's but Ryan Adkins in particular he has finished second here a couple times and he has wanted the win at this venue he won the Series this year and this would be the icing on the cake for him yeah I mean there's so many athletes here I mean Rob Ryan Atkins obviously he's won the national series couldn't he go after the trifecta of winning the North American Championship and also threatening for the Tahoe World Championship which he's come in second so many times but has never won four times second place finisher always the bridesmaid and maybe this is the year that things change he's really got the tools to put it all together but it starts with the race today at the North American Championships here from Glen Jun West Virginia and of course what you're going to expect to see besides Robert Killian Ryan Kempson wants to prove that this is an ideal course for him and he's ready to make his mark and you have ryan woods who's had a tough tough year ryan woods you could say that the his entire national series was a dumpster fire everything that could have gone wrong went wrong but the slate is clear this race is singular to itself it happens once a year it's the best athletes from North America and he has a chance to turn the pages make his mark here today well you're looking at Ryan Atkins sitting here in the lead right there with just behind him that's Ryan Kent and you'll see the two of them making their moves there in second and third respectively right now but they will be up near the front of the leaderboard and that is a nick Ryker right there as well of course by Ryan Kempson and then Brian go is key sitting there in six position as well yeah Brian whiskey in the orange shorts and air is a two-time defending champion bald head with blue shoes Robert Killian who's followed closely behind by Ryan woods and the tall athlete right there is Vijay Jones who's taking a stab at a beast he normally does not do well at these distances but he's been doing well all year progressively let's see what he has today he's been working on his long-distance running specifically told us that he was going to be doing a lot of three hour long training runs to prepare for this and it's amazing because he's running next to Robert Killian and Ryan woods two men who are about twice as age exactly as well as many other athletes again from around North America it's Canada the USA and Mexico are the three major countries that are making up the majority of the athletes in this race so there's so many fabulous athletes from a lot of those regions that we haven't seen because they've been running in the Canadian national series and in the Mexico national series now a good lesson for those at home who are new to the sport is you'll see that there's an athlete out in front taking off at a very high speed and the rest of the contenders they're not worried about him they're gonna run the race against each other they know who they're concerned with they know who they need to market who they need to watch and if you're gonna let somebody go out fast like this you can let them fizzle out it's a long day ahead an athlete like this we we don't know what their ability is he could be one of the fastest most enduring people out there but we just don't know but these are athletes who have seen everybody in the world they have tremendous poise and like you said they're not gonna worry about someone taking out that hot and a 13 month plus mile race so what you're seeing is the class of the field is already starting to move into about a group of six as Ryan Atkins on the lead of it with Vijay Jones Ryan Kent Ryan Woods Ryan Kempson all the Ryan's crammed in their behind and they're already starting to close and move back into the front where they should be and the long legged tight saram was stumbling that is Ryan Atkins follow closely behind by Ryan Kent with the man bun if you could notice this is a great shot of Ryan Atkins stride he is a man who has for a person who is about 5 foot 10 he could sit on his brother-in-law's bicycle and touch the pedal his brother-in-law is six foot four he has tremendously long legs for a person of his height and allows him to cover so much ground so quickly as you see you called it Ryan Kent and Ryan Atkins have already caught up that out of their athletes now it's it's uh it's funny it's a long legs short torso kind of thing that it's really effective for a lot of runners in terms of like a quality build for a distance runner and we're here we've already hit the monkey bars you can see Ryan Kempson and Vijay Jones just a hair behind as well as I believe that's Ryan woods and this is so many people hitting the monkey bars at one time it almost looks like something after the show Deadliest Catch with all the crabs in a cage just arms and legs everywhere so Ryan Atkins got in and out of that way faster than everybody else and he already has about a six second gap on the rest of the field now everybody's gonna try and make their move back into things and that's Brian Gay whiskey VJ Jones and up ahead again that lead pack of all the Ryan's there you see Brian go whiskey there in the orange shorts he and Ryan woods as well as Ryan Kempton live in environments that are very similar to this they're very forestry there's lots of bushes it's a lot of undulating terrain with wet rocks very Rudy lots of bushes vines things that could trip you up they're used to running and train like this as you can see Ryan Atkins and Ryan Robert this is gonna be Ryan Kent running through the woods it is trees that are popping up everywhere undulating footing very difficult terrain and they navigate that all the time so one of the things that I think it's important to note is Ryan Kent has had a rough season as well and his last couple of races have not worked out the way he's wanted particularly Big Bear did not go the way he wanted and Utah so some of these mountain races have not gone his way he loves this course he's finished second here twice in West Virginia and it really fits his skill set just enough climbing just enough length and it takes a powerful stride to run well here so he loves this course he ran college across cross country about 30 minutes from here so he's very familiar with this terrain and not only this venue well as you could see they're passing the first water stop a couple of the athletes actually taking the water one thing of note I think is we saw one athlete turn back is the cup has to go into the Ashkan when you finished you can't just litter it on the course sometimes the penalties are assessed for that sort of thing so as the athletes make their way through this next little section the next series of obstacles that we're approaching includes the eight foot box that can cause a little bit of issue for some of them and the stairway to sparta also is a little bit different it's a jump up through some rock climbing grips that make it a lot more difficult to climb up and it's really going to test the upper-body considering that's coupled with that eight foot box the jump itself for each of those moves very anaerobic and so when you're running very hard it can actually cause a little bit of cramping a little bit of seizing up in the calves now it's pretty early in the race so we're unlikely to see that but you are going to see possibly a few little gaps forming as a result of the difficulty of that obstacle in terms of just completing it we're getting a great idea as we watch that one athletes slip as they're going up this very wet grassy hill and they're all on top of each other as they're approaching the Olympics right now which is actually pretty wet yeah and you're gonna see a lot of athletes posting up on their knees on this as they go across and lympus some will do it on their toes but it's a little slick today so you see like Robert Killian right now on his knees working his way across it just to be safe just to not risk letting his toes slip and drag on the ground it takes a little longer as Bryant whiskey and Ryan woods if you could see he's slipping really really bad if he went a little bit more he would have bent down for the count with 30 burpees it was a safe move but if you don't get that perpendicular pressure from your knees directly into that wall that's what happens you slip down and it really taxes the upper body so that was Brian could whisky that you saw one of the better runners from the North Carolina area so similar terrain profiles there he runs very well at the Asheville course which I say is one of the more comparable courses to this race course that we're at today and now they're gonna have a little bit of open stretch where they can fly a little bit so the speed guys will take their shot before we head into the trails there's been so much fast running early in this race if you do not keep up with this lead pack you are gonna get dropped really fast and you will never see them again because they are running so quickly and setting a fast pace for a race this long and you can see right now Ryan Kempson we know that he loves the speed we said this is an ideal course for him he can climb better than he ever has before but he also has built that endurance that he didn't have in years past in that 10 12 15 mile range that he just didn't possess and now you can see him starting to close on Ryan Atkins he's gonna make this thing a race today there's just a few the things that are just different from Spartan from other races and other sports you see how the athletes are running and there is that one tree banjo on their face and they're all hitting it trying to swat it away if you don't get that correctly that branch can hit you in the face ko your eye for the rest of the race and could really cause you problems so they're doing stuff like that in the woods where that is happening left and right every second well Robert Killian knows a little something about rugged terrain from his days in Ranger school yeah so I think my military background does lend to the type of racing that I specifically do we do a lot of orienteering through thick brush you know you're having to go through you know terrain that you know you don't want to be seen so it's almost like the worst terrain because that's not where people are gonna you know typically tend to travel so you don't want to be seen you want to kind of go through the worst stuff so yeah I do think that military backgrounds to me gives me a little bit of an advantage and I'll take everything I can get you know a37 them I'm out here competing against 20 year olds trying to battle those guys off but hey the better the competition you know the better you feel at the end of the day when you come out on top well Robert Killian of course the winner of the best Ranger competition just a couple years ago and always interested in continuing to train for it and he's been actually coaching other athletes for that competition one of the most knowledgeable military experts not just in the field but really in the world and as he's running this race right now he's as a two-time defending champion he's taught a lot of these guys about grit he's taught a lot of these guys about patience he's taught them a lot about heart and they know that if they're gonna take it to him today and take this title away from them they're gonna have to leave it all out there on the course well again here is Ryan Atkins in first place right now leading the way and through the second mile of the North American Championships here in Glen Jean West Virginia this is a big race and right now you're starting to see the the creme de la creme kind of rising to the top but nikka Riker is one of the guys that I think we're a little surprised to see up there he said he's in the best shape of his life and we've seen him have a very strong year but this is a incredibly quick start for him so we'll see if he can continue that and you we were talking about West Virginia you're thinking about Mountaineers you're thinking about pioneers and that's what these athletes are having to do right now they're having to navigate through all this crazy terrain wet leaves everywhere that are disguising holes on the ground moss that the second you step on I could slide out from under your foot and put you down you're stepping over logs and are super slick thorns vines it could pop up and get you there navigating this stuff just as you see it for the almost the entire 13 miles it's gonna be nasty so there through the technical portions of this course those times are gonna have to duck under branches like you just saw Adkins due to a bear crawl to get under that there's times that you're gonna see them slipping and sliding because the leaves and the loose earth are just given away and of course there's a lot of trip hazards out here one of the more impressive things is not just the folks who are running this race of course but the cameramen who are working their way through this without even being able to look at the ground and check for their surfaces they're just having to feel this course out at these high tempo x' some of the best trail runners that we have out here trying to keep pace with these incredible athletes yeah that's not handy drone work that is a human being carrying a camera following all these athletes and what you could also notice is because they're all kind of picking the same line a lot of these athletes are getting caught behind each other they're being forced maybe to slow down in spots they weren't and that allows athletes like Woods and Atkins to break away just a little bit right here well Ryan woods has very very quickly gained on Ryan Atkins and he's gonna want to put pressure on him and right behind him Ryan Kempson so you have three Ryan's in the top three and you know Ryan Kent is not far behind either he loves his terrain as we mentioned before right now we have a really solid tight group in that lead pack if you notice those little pouches that were in the back of Ryan woods and that blue one that was on the back of Ryan Kempson those are vests but there's also little nutrition packs as Robert Keeling just blasted his way up into semo's a really nice pass I think he's trying to make a statement with that one right there as well he's moving all the way into first position he loves to attack the hills he's chosen a spot that he wants to make a statement about how this race is gonna play out and there's that blue pack so if he's bouncing up and down it's kind of full Ryan Kempton has new trician in there so nutrition gels maybe a bar maybe a little bit of liquid that he could go to when he needs it as we're now seeing the stairway to sparta with these rock climbing grips yeah so there's a jump and then of course you got to nail that grip a few couple climbs where you don't really get to use the footholds until you're high enough and then up the stairway and you're now you're getting that grip to nail that grip right you're hitting your knees up against those boards those aren't padded those are 2x4 is that your knees are smacking against that kind of wear and tear kind of builds up throughout the course of a race and the more they have to do this the more it's gonna slow them down is that one athlete as you can see slipping as he goes over so here is the 8 foot box and what you're gonna see here is a couple athletes get through it quick and a couple athletes will struggle the wall material itself is very slick so the athletes with really strong upper bodies will clear it easily just by powering themselves up but some of them might get jammed up here at this spot because they just don't have the fluid climbing ability there the other thing I'd like to point out is that we've seen athletes injure themselves in the 8 foot box mark cadet for example who is in this race dislocated his shoulder on this obstacle in Asheville so kind of a cautious play for some of them to get up and over it Robert Killian actually struggled with that obstacle in Utah earlier this year and got through it relatively easier there so it sounds like he he figured out how to do it and made the adjustment the hard part is there's no lip for you to grab exactly at the top you pull on a rope it's hard to get your hands under that rope when your weight is on it and then you have to reach all the way over to get a bar it seems like he executed it very well well that was chase group 2 that you saw right there with Aaron Newell Vijay Jones and Marc bachelors as well bachelors of course a great marathon or running the low to 20s and renewal and excellent mountain runner and rock climber and that was just about mile 2 so the next obstacle they're going to be approaching is gonna be another grip strength obstacle and so these guys need to kind of shake out those arms a little bit but Robert Killian right now our two-time defending champion at the Spartan North American Championship right here he is running down Ryan Atkins and trying to maintain contact with a very fast runner in a very flat area so the North American champion chip defending two years running chasing the the National Series champion last year's National Series champion Ryan woods right there being chaser again with the blue pouch in Ryan Kempson who won the first race of the National Series this year is having the best year ever as the camera just got smacked with those branches its Robert in the Ryan's right now and right here this doesn't look like it but this is actually a bit of a descent these guys are opening up you saw a nice pass right there from Kempson Ryan woods seems to be holding back a little bit on the descent as that's now Ryan Kent moving into the mix as well Woods is gonna try and hammer people on the uphills and you're gonna see a pass happen right here just past caps in as soon as we started the climb again it's very rare to see jockeying this much this early in a race with these this many great athletes and the terrain is really enforcing it as Ryan woods that just passed Killian Wow to push up into Ryan Adkins backside this is very aggressive behavior from each of these athletes each of them is really trying to take some psychological blows towards some of their opponents right here because normally in this situation you could fall in line be efficient know that you have 11 miles left in this race there's no need to be throwing jabs at one another as you're going by trying to pick up a space here or there and really there's nothing more that could be said about it then it's just psychological attacks on one another trying to break each other's confidence a little bit in the world of obstacle course racing this is like a great rocky fight this is like rocky and Apollo Creed going back and forth to Storen hay makers in the world OCR this is exactly what that looks like I mean we have a long way ahead of us still and there this bar cadet who we mentioned before his shoulder wrapped up from that dislocation that he had just in Ashville a couple weeks ago yeah if you want to know what that tape actually does it helps pull the the skin back it gives you a little bit more mobility and it also helps bring a lot more fluid to those areas to help heal it and a little support when he gets on those upper body grip strength obstacles you're looking at Robert Killian on the right Ryan Kempson on the left and just in front of them you have Ryan woods on the Left Ryan Adkins on the right so the big four right now that we anticipated being in this mix with I believe Ryan hot on their heels he was about 20 seconds back when we saw him entering that one kind of straightaway through the grass and I I guarantee that he's meaning some kind man painting some kind of contact because there's no way you could let this pack break away and have a chance to run them down later now one of the things that's important to note is even though this race is only about 13 miles long beasts Spartan beasts are basically marathon efforts we talk about this frequently because of the combination of the intense terrain with the obstacles as you see forest boos right here this combination taxes the body in a way that a marathon might and in terms of the length of time you're running you're pushing about two hours of time and the leap marathoner is running for about two hours so these guys going to need to be very careful with their pacing you saw Ryan Kempson checking his watch earlier probably to look at where he was pace wise how far along he is in the course you're doing careful calculations throughout this race with your nutrition and with your pacing to make sure that you have enough in the tank to finish strong and for more diminutive athletes just like there as far as booze the cadence of his running that he has to put down he's only about five foot three and a half five four so for him to be able to keep up with a guys like Atkins and Killian and Kent that are so long Lin takes a huge effort by him well you know there's two different kinds of styles with this open scribe these long-legged guys and you have high cadence runners and both have their merits and certain have certain benefits in certain portions of the race for example shorter lakes can often help you with climbing so they each have an advantage they each have different styles but forest works with the tools he's got so he's an incredible talent in his own right was a great college wrestler I believe he was tremendous as we see Ryan Atkins in riot Ryan woods taking their first sip of water in this race they don't want to slow down and grab water but you have to in a race this long because if you don't do it now you're gonna regret it later there's a log carry coming up shortly once they make it out of the woods over here that log carry will take them into the water a little bit as well you're gonna see it as they hit this clearing actually this is a beater right in front of us at about mile three mm-hmm first we got to get through beater and and the way Peter is assembled for this particular race is each of those rotating those beaters it goes one beater to the next rather than into monkey bars some people think this is a harder setup some people think it's actually a little bit easier rhythm wise when you grab that beater kind of egg beater bar it will propel you into the next one that momentum helps you grab the next bar but it also creates more force on your grip that could contribute to a easier tense of slipping and those bars are very wet today with water dripping off of them so you can see there's no straight lines to take here there's a lot of weaving a lot of tree branches a lot of stuff to jump over as well it's a little bit dicey you'll see some divots a lot of mud like deep mud when you step in you go ankle deep chin deep so many hazards out there on this course kind of keeps you from being able to run at maximum efficiency maximum speed and you're using a lot of energy what you're watching right there with those two men running through the woods is what really appeals to so many people about Spartan raising it B takes you back to being a child just running with your pals in the woods having a great time creating games like having letting your imagination run wild and they're able to do these now as professional athletes in a tremendously hard sport but that's what appeals to people is the fun of settings just like that so this is the lake I was talking about before the log carry coming up right here is actually fairly long and these are pretty big logs that you're gonna see momentarily as some of the other top athletes making their way through beter and you could really see the momentum as it turns and spins how far it propels them forward it's Mike Ferguson right there I believe now this log carries very interesting they grab this big log they could throw it on their back whatever way they want but they're gonna have to go into the water with this they can't see what the footing is because the water is very murky it's undulating it's gonna shift back and forth and it's slanted so their footing is crucial here but they still need to move as but as fast as possible these are opportunities one to put some time between yourself and your opposition but to also just to catch your breath because when you have an effort like this which is more strength-based there's a chance to slow things down get your heart rate under control let your legs flush out just a it and some athletes are good after this they feel better some the taxing effort of carrying this log will actually slow them down and eliminate their running legs and what you're watching right now is Ryan woods trying to pass a much better heavier carrier and Ryan Atkins he tried Atkins surged on him that is telling you a lot mentally about where Ryan woods is right now he's trying to attack on this race he's seen Ryan Atkins who is better at this obstacle than he is and he is not backing down right now and that says something about how where he wants to be in this race what people don't realize actually is Ryan woods is one of the best heavy carry athletes in the field and he's been so for a long time people think he's just more of a runner but it's not accurate in in I believe San Jose just a couple years ago he had the fastest split on one of the hardest sandbag carries we've ever seen he has the ability to run with weight and he credits it to all the deadlifts he's been doing over the last couple years something he never incorporated previously in his life and he just tried to make a move on Atkins right there - but he's Duke he's duking it out he's holding his own with that kins on a heavy carry which is a a very very hard thing to do he better be careful though if you notice his hand was right in the front of that log and it was starting to slip backwards if you were to drop it right there there there is a risk that it could fall into the water and that would be disaster for him because that log is so heavy it might float away on them you know you could see he's looking for an opening to make one last move but you're gonna see these guys come out of this at a very high speed that's the objective right now dropped that log get up tempo and go what's going to be important to see now is did Ryan woods expend too much energy trying to keep up with Atkins right there if he can make a pass on Atkins or stay with him for the next half mile be very very very not surprised you know Brian woods takes a lead we also just watched two neat moves there one by Ryan Atkins choosing his spot where Ryan woods was not able to put his log down in an efficient place and had to cede way cede the line to Atkins you saw it again Ryan Kempson stealing Robert Killians line to dump his log as well which resulted in him gaining a few seconds there this is an interesting race too because it's not like some of the Spartans we've seen all year there's two added extra carries in this race the log carry being one of them and there is two sandbags so they're getting two more times to have to put out that kind of effort in this race and again Ryan woods trying to drop the hammer on this run right now and drop Ryan Adkins who knows he needs to stay in contact as you see the women start line and of course the big name that's added to this field Rebecca Hammond look for her to be a strong contender today as well as face standing in addition to our usual suspects of Lindsay Webster and Nicole miracle Rebecca Hammond is right there in the center with the black top and green wristband on her left wrist and Nicole miracle is with the orange shoes and the lighter gray top right out there in front and in the blue top just going over that over that hay bale there was face standing someone again who we cannot sleep on in this race well again as usual Nicole miracle taking it out hot you'll see Lindsey Webster sit back for the first mile or two and then you're gonna see her make her move as well someone I'm really happy to see there is a sh Li Heller is back on a Spartan course after rocking her ankle in Utah in the last National Series race which basically put her out of the series which it fought so hard for all year to be in the top ten seems like she's healed up enough to compete today and that's that's good for all of us because we all missed her out there you know it was a tough thing to see to see her out there and you know we we didn't expect to see her come back so quick but she's relentless she's so tough and she just decided this is her season and she's gonna take the risks medically to see if she has it in there to have a strong finish to the year she's got a torn tendon in the front of your ankle and ironically enough on that ankle she has tattooed on it already tenacity yeah well this is tenacity right here because right now you're seeing a back and forth battle between Ryan Woods who was last year's National Series champion I'm Ryan Atkins this year's National Series champion we mentioned before woods had a very tough year this year he had a time penalty in the first race of the year when he had finished second that cost him all the way down to 11th place I think is where pushed it back to second race of the year he missed the spear a mile in and never caught back to the leaders and then from there he injured his hamstring and missed the you know a lot of training time moving forward this is the first time we're seeing the real Ryan woods that we've been wanting to see all year long he still thinks he's a contender to win this race and the world championships throughout as a year he throughout his career out there he's had is he's got his issues to be very inconsistent and there's been a lot of reasons because of that last year he put it all together in the national series and became the champion this year kind of inconsistent again but what's great about this race is we've turned the page on all that and the season has started over for him if he could throw down a great performance today it's almost like the rest of that stuff never happened and it makes this even sweeter all right I will say this the national series is a little bit like the regular season and now we've hit the playoffs this is where things really ratchet up prize money's huge for the national series and of course it's big-time bragging rights and statement making in terms of moving into Tahoe in people's minds that psychological edge that you can gain yeah Bill Parcells is a great Giants coach who also coached the Cowboys and the Jets and the Patriots he always says you don't know what kind of team you have until December until after Thanksgiving and this is kind of our after Thanksgiving we know who these guys are right now and this is the time to prove it well this is a nice open stretch of running that the athletes are gonna see here today this is a chance to get a little bit of speed before we hit the dense trails and Ryan woods has made a little bit of move in that open speed section he is now put in a small gap between himself and Ryan Atkins and this is exactly what he wants to control the tempo of this race today to dictate the terms to everyone else well for Ryan woods it's gonna come down to obstacle efficiency and completion because today he has the wheels against somebody who likes to dictate the terms of the race early on that's the Col miracle sitting in first position and behind her you'll see the rest of the field which will include over the wall Rebecca Hammond and of course Lindsay Webster and face standing Faye who put together a great race and took third place over in Utah in the last race finally hitting the podium in the National Series this year getting a great shot of Rebecca Hammond right there she just finished medical school at Harvard and sheikhs loaded onto the OCR scene last year as face sending just made a move on her but Rebecca again she had an Achilles injury early on and Fae right there who was running really strong has struggled throughout the year but she's gotten so much better and it's ready to really throw down today and again the return of face standing to form but the return of Rebecca Hammond to action entirely that Achilles injury really devastated her year she started the first race of the year and that's it that's all we saw out of her but this year I think now she's starting to find a form again starting to find her legs and there is Arielle Fitzgerald in the pink she is a surprise athlete out here today from Canada she is the world Guinness world record holder in the 50k and the hundred K on a treadmill she is a fantastic ultra athlete and she's out here today with very little obstacle experience but she has the wheels to make noise in this I mean if you were surprised to maybe see her with face standing a little bit earlier I think you're gonna be you're gonna be impressed with how she's able to hold that tempo throughout the race today she's gonna be a major contender if she can get through obstacles to set records like that on a treadmill you have to be very mentally strong as Woods and Atkins are now monkeying through this very wet twister and again Ryan woods kudos to him and he's passed another grip strength test as now the ladies all together on the monkey bars all pass it and you can notice how much momentum they're using through their legs as Lindsay makes it through to make sure they do not slip and they use as little energy as possible well one of the things that's worth noting is we went into that men's twister obstacle was that all the athletes are doing that forward ape swing and it's one of those obstacles where it's absolutely necessary to be confident with the technique that you use a lot of people go backwards a lot of people move with that ape swing cuz it's quicker but it's a little more dangerous you can see that Lindsay Webster running stride for stride with excuse me Lauren Cummings who is actually an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon so she is one of the best pure runners in the field and she's won a number of Spartan races but this is a deep field for her she doesn't usually get to race against the competition this this quality she's also a spy New York City police woman she just went through her firearms training this week and now she is here down in West Virginia throwing down and shooting it up with all the other ladies and look how tight this just got in the woods as the athletes are dodging trees and tree branches did you see the athleticism of Ariel Fitzgerald right there weaving in and out of those those branches it was incredible well that's Ryan woods right now your leader on the course in the North American Championship Series hero she's me in the North American Championship race here from West Virginia and there's no one seems to be quite on him right now and you can see in the women's race that's Lindsey Webster sitting in about third position behind Rebecca Hammond and up ahead you can see both face tanning and the coal miracle yeah Lindsey's sitting there and fourth she's actually much further up at this point in the race then she was at the same spot last year she's certainly moving a lot faster but she has to because the women are just that much faster this year this is a really slick little ravine right here athletes are gonna go down over this tree and it gets really deep what Ryan Woods is running right now as the women have hit that first big kicker that tightened up the men's field early when you drive into the state of West Virginia just has a big sign it says West Virginia wild and wonderful you're seeing all those sights right now all the grass the trees down the branches it truly is kind of an outdoorsman's paradise when you watch Lindsey Webster run one thing you notice is how relaxed she is the other thing that you'll notice is she never seems worried about not being in first position for an athlete this is as accomplished as she is that's one as many championships as she has she just sits back there confident in her abilities knowing she has all the time in the world she lets athletes lead her not concerned not rushed at all we just saw a picture of a shot rather of her husband Ryan Atkins and they kind of have this funny thing they do between the two of them they call her legs to power stumps they call his legs to power Pistons her legs to power stumps because they're so short because she move him so fast as no coal miracle just used her belly to maintain pressure on that wall she's gonna have some scratches later Rebecca Hammond has found the footing and I tell you what she has had one race since that race in Alabama and she's hanging with the best girls in the world right now and she is fearless she came into this race last year never running a race that was over eight miles now she's coming in with the confidence that she brought in from West Virginia and Lake Tahoe last year knowing she could throw down on any one of these women and they better be nervous that she's right on their tails well that's Ryan Adkins right here you're defending national series champion and as he hit some of these rugged trails we heard him talk a little bit earlier this week about rugged trails and the work that he likes to put in back home in Canada well the fact that it's a lot more you know densely vegetated here I love it I mean I'm from the East Coast and then where we live it kind of looks like this it's just really green really tons of like plants in the summer everything grows up like crazy so that's what I'm used to I'm used to the humidity and so yeah it feels like it was like coming home so I'm stoked I'm stoked for the brambles and Stokes for the the steep loose wet stuff and I think it's it's just fun out there because there's so many little elements that they can use that we can't really see when it's you know somewhere that's a lot drier like you know maybe Colorado or Utah somewhere out west where you're more running on like service roads a lot more and again this is a perfect terrain for a guy like Ryan Atkins one of the things that that's tougher for him not living at altitude is when he runs to these mountain courses that are at altitude it's just a disadvantage he manages to power through it but it can be very challenging this is an ideal location for him and for his wife right there Lindsay Webster Rebecca Hammond given chase the big question for her is of course how are her legs gonna respond to all this technical trail running when she hasn't been doing it as much we're looking at the Z walls right now at before I'll get back to Rebecca Hammond in a second this is one where again takes a tremendous amount of concentration we've seen many of the athletes such as a Hobie call such as a Ryan Atkins just missed the bell at the end of that because they lost focus for a second as you see Lindsay ripped Webster they're being chased by Rebecca Hammond she just did a race in Boston a few weeks ago where the train was somewhat similar and it held up pretty well she didn't really but she walked away with tremendous confidence after that knowing the foot would heal up she's just hired a new coach I've been working with him they've worked on a lot of different things she has the confidence to get through today that always efficient perfect stride that you see from Lindsay Webster just so comfortable so relaxed and in front of her that looking almost more aggressive choppier stride that's face standing she runs by almost just muscling her way through these races and when you're close to her one thing that you'll notice is her breathing which is so loud wheezing and vocal and she does that for the full two hours of this race it's not gonna slow down it's not because she feels well she does feel awful but it's nothing out of the ordinary for she always sounds like she's doing the 400 meter dash for the entire race yeah and she basically is she's pushing herself to her absolute redline limits for the entire race that takes so much heart and so much guts to do that all the time but she also has that gas tank to back it up as we're watching to Rebekah now kind of power up this hill maintaining contact and this is something that she did last year she hung with these ladies very early on they could not shake her and it really kind of shook them up now there are at the Atlas Carrie now there's a rule change here Ryan woods no longer has to drop it and do five burpees he's gonna run that post and return it to the initial spot now that's gonna tax his grip a little bit more because he has to hang on to it the whole time but he also doesn't have to repack it up and that sometimes taxes the athletes back it's the second lift that they don't have to do anymore it's basically like avoiding having to do a heavy deadlift so you're taking the back pressure out you're taking the hamstring and the glute pressure out and it makes the obstacle just quick as a whole the objective there is for most athletes the hope that maybe the Atlas Carrie will get longer instead because you don't have to waste that time on the burpees now this is a big descent very very steep very very technical you can see the camera can't even tilt down fast enough super slick as they head into the woods and they're gonna be a hard right when they get into the woods just to give you a little perspective there was a bridge going over that so this gap had to be high enough where they needed a bridge to go over and so that's how steep it was there at about four and a half miles at this spot and one more thing about that Atlas carries who watch her Becca now going through that bramble that we look at the men doing earlier is we had some of the athletes who actually broke their fingers Ryan Kempson last year in a race as he was placing it down in between smashed and broke the tip of his finger so that eliminates a little bit of the risk at that one obstacle this is true and again Rebecca Hammond put her power hiking skills to the test there's gonna be a lot of that back and forth as the athletes hit these steep kicking inclines and Ryan Woods is now on this stretch of gravel where he can open up a little bit shortly coming up you're going to encounter a sandbag carry after this next little climb ryan woods went to North Carolina State where he was an all-american and I believe it was the 1500 so he could put it down on flat terrain just as good as anybody I mean he would had a sub 14 5k which and that's 14 minutes for those who aren't big running aficionados and that is an absolutely absurd pace to drop for that for that distance but also he's was a member of the team USA mountain running team so that's a huge deal as well his ability to run on multiple terrain surfaces incline profiles is very rare as a runner of his caliber for so long there's so many parts of his physicality that got ignored while he was in college and right after college as Rebecca - was also an outstanding runner in college 1,500 runner as well but you don't develop the grip strength in the upper body strength and the back strength that you needed for a lot of these obstacles early on a lot of that contributed to his early inconsistency but as he's developed that strength over the years that's why he was able to take first place within the national series last year and why he's still able to hang on today even after disappointing national series this year you could see that he was taking a little bit of nutrition right there Rebecca misses her first jump up that wall shows you how it difficult it is considering she is an outstanding rock climber now that's a lot of a lot of this is about confidence for her right now she's not attacking it aggressively she wasn't going for the big jump and a lot of that I think is because of her Achilles she doesn't want to over push it over attacks it she didn't try and jump the way some of the other athletes have at this point but third the charm and she's up and over and her ideal goal just get back up into that tempo that she was running before cuz she looks very smooth right that was a great point you could actually see when she was going up the tape on her right lower leg that's protecting that Achilles right now an opportunity for her maybe if she can get the right foot box again another jump here so she's gonna have to be cautious on this but the actual running itself doesn't seem to be phasing her at all and that is Lindsay Webster now making moves I think it's possible that she's moved up into second position now and those are the power stumps she was talking about well it may be little but they are mighty well Lizzie Webster's gonna make a move on this descent she loves the downhills she tends to close pretty significantly on her competition on any downhills that she can find and Nicole miracle may be the only person in front of her right now Lindsay Webster is probably the best downhill athlete on the women's side in the world she gets to run a lot of down hills and train a lot with her husband Ryan Atkins who's also tremendous in his own right but we've seen Lindsay last year on this course blow past other athletes like Ray echo bouncing down hills and she's gonna have plenty opportunity to do that later in the race as the elevation goes up and the train gets more technical so especially when she has this open gravel this is times for any athlete when you hit portions of the course like this new hammer you hit it hard because when you're in those sections like what we just saw Ryan Woods in it's steep it's slippery it's incredibly difficult to navigate that's draining but you don't actually move very far for the amount of energy you're putting out so when you've got to cover 13 miles you need to hammer the course where you can we're here at the first sandbag carry now this is about mile five and a half as Ryan woods takes off what really nobody left in sight at this point right there taking some of the video footage is our rabbit and trail master Steve and it's about I would say a 10 second gap back to Ryan Kempson who's moved into second position and Ryan Atkins in third but don't be surprised if Adkins passes Kempson right here very quickly this is what he loves to do he thrives on these heavy carries and for Kempson who's one of the more slight of build guys it's gonna be about just limiting the damage limit the damage he can carry be well on his own right but Atkins may be the best in the world incredible savvy moved there right Atkins you see how he kind of pancake that sandbag behind his head as Kempson struggling in the sandbags kind of like across his back almost like a backpack this allows Ryan Atkins to run with more balance in this very undulating under footing and close on Kempson without of having to expel as much energy no it's important to note that if the bag is hanging down your back the way it is with camps in some of these other people where they let it dangle that is not energy efficient the higher it sits on your shoulders the easier it is to move with that weight it doesn't move around it takes pressure off your lower back and it allows you to just move more freely like you're wearing just a backpack or something if they've been running there at Mile five and a half right now running at such a feverish pace putting in so much hard work at no point in this race have you seen any of these athletes kind of take a break trying to take their breath kind of repays themselves and slow it down they've been hammering the entire time and attacking each other we're ferocity well again you can see Ryan woods up in the front that's first position Ryan Kempson in second Ryan Atkins in third the three Ryan's who we expected to see today all out in the front here in the North American Championships in West Virginia and that's Lindsey Webster she's your favorite for the women's field you're defending North American champion and you're defending US National Series champion what championship is she's not defending none she has all three she's defending them all she's got two world titles to her name as well here's Mark Patras one of the best pure runners in the field hoping he could put it together it seems like he's not too far behind either he's having a very solid day this is his best effort in a big race this year he's hanging right in there now it is early we're only you know looking at four or five miles into this thing it's a 13-mile day there's a lot of time left but this is a good sign for Mark Patras I will say he is struggled on things such as the heavy carries for him to be doing that well on that obstacle saying a lot right now well it's not one of the super steep carries over the toes have a steep section it's just very long and we have a number of long carries on this course today to sandbag carries a bucket and a log carry for more on this particular sandbag carry the third member of our broadcast team and that Steve Hammond Steve thanks a lot Steven there again your leader on the course that's Ryan woods after a tough year he is looking to make his mark and claim a championship at the North American Championships and of course put himself in the driver's seat for a world championship and right behind him Ryan Atkins as expected has moved into second position on the carry but Ryan who that was Mark Patras now sitting in that third spot for him to hang on a heavy carry five and a half miles into a beast is showing that mark Patras is here to play today now it is possible that Ryan Kempson actually is up ahead in second position but again here another open spot on the road where you're gonna see Ryan woods drop that speed really open up it's a little tougher here than where you'd think if you can see that kind of berm running down so the ground there is like a gully so he's kind of running in a ditch so now these up on the left side of it that right foot is dropping a little lower and then to the center into a little bit of water so he's kind of going back and forth on that it's really hard to get some kind of even footing but he's making it look pretty easy right now it's pretty clean over there compared to the rest of the stuff that they're gonna see out on that course they're happy to have it and he made that move into the gravel right here that's the fastest terrain you can find on this course so anywhere that you see gravel you should be gravitating toward it but if you notice he's staying within the boundary has to stay inside that tape he couldn't hit the gravel before because that was outside the boundary so he's doing a great job they are following the rules but making sure he's taking advantage of the ground in front of them as we're getting a look now at Lindsay Webster rolling right through that beater with ease yeah Lindsey Webster making it look easy and that's something that a couple years ago might have given her some trouble but now she seems to be so obstacle proficient and again that spot where you said the runners can open up Marc Patras one of the best runners in the field is quickly separating himself from Ryan Atkins this is a significant move for him because to be this far ahead of the main field this this far into the race it looks like he's got some Lakes today that we haven't seen from him in a while and he sees a sense of urgency there too he has to put it down in areas like that knowing that they still have two more carry heavy carries ahead of him in the bucket and in the other sandbag and of course looming over this entire race that very difficult Yokohama tire flip oh that Yokohama tire flip has posed problems in the past in fact it costs Ryan woods here a win a couple years ago when he was in first and had to take burpees on it who knows what the carnage that it might have today and this is Rebecca Hammond she has not spent a lot of time on beater and you could tell she does not have the fluidity but that second transition was pretty good and she's made it through safely good signs for her as she makes her way through some of the less familiar obstacle we got a great look at how fast that beater spins you down and for somebody who's such a proficient rock climber it almost took her out where she had to readjust on it and kind of take her time and rock back and then rock forward again no Woods has just made it to the top of this climb it's a hard left he's gonna descend and then he's got a little bit of space in the field before he hits the armor obstacle the armor is an obstacle where it's a giant Atlas ball with a triangular handle in the center it's very awkward to pick up and walk with and that's where it's gonna it doesn't seem too complicated but it's gonna attacks things like their upper back and their groin muscles tremendously and for this kind of running as you see Rebecca Hammond doing it bouncing back and forth the groin later on could cramp up severely if that armor takes a little bit too much out of them yeah Rebecca Hammond looks very smooth on the trails and it's exciting to see her putting it back together again she's had a really long road back not just to being able to run being back in peak form and I still don't think we've seen peak for him from her this year this was supposed to be the year that we saw her breakout as a true veteran even though she took second at North American Championships and World Championships last year this was supposed to be her year that she challenged Lindsey Webster for the crown but we'll see what happens when she gets the tahoe it is a year-long grind that gets a lot of athletes and this is the grind of the armor as you could see the tremendous pressure it's putting on that groin he has to open up his legs in a way that he hasn't yet today and that could cause severe cramps but he got through it pretty quickly it looks like he's running away as he looks over his shoulder and sees nobody over it right now yes that external rotation of the legs really challenges the hips and the groins a lot and it's one of those things where again a lot of these obstacles are just designed to be rhythm breakers you're running very smooth you're comfortable you're in the zone and all of a sudden you hit something like that and it just shakes you a little bit just like that wall that face standing just climbed over she struggles on the wall sometime there one thing that we could see right there was Ryan woods ran away from the armor with Ryan Atkins not even bare yet so he has kind of a full obstacle lead with a little extra as well now woods he is about to hit the most technical portion of this course they're gonna do the most ascending here a number of climbs really technical and then of course they hit the second nasty sandbag carry me mentally this is so difficult on these athletes he has to push tremendously hard right now but he has nobody to pace off of there's nothing in his foreground or in his background that right now that's giving us a sense of the speed at which other people are coming and when you can't do it it takes a tremendous amount of mental effort to maintain the kind of speed he needs to continue to win this race and that right there is Ryan Kempston trying to move himself back up into that podium spot I believe that's Ryan Adkins right in front of him and before that we force off a standing running very fast as well she's hanging in there she's having a very strong race and she seems to have put it together over the last couple days because what we saw over the last couple races because what we saw from her early in the year which just wasn't herself she's usually always on the podium and we just didn't quite have that from her through the first four races of the year but now with Utah strong showing there and this race today she's proving that she is back close to peak form and what we've noticed now is Ryan Kempson is actually in second place behind Ryan Woods as he trips slip this is the same train that Woods was on and it's before Ryan Atkins so he was kind of in there in the center we didn't see him but he is in second place as we're looking at a rock and six pack from base tenting yeah face tanning he's just super buff super comfortable super fast and you know she's looking to drop the hammer on this section of the course right now she looks very smooth at this moment and oh that's a bull bear that's a bear that just ran across right in front of face denigan you know it looks like she's just got to keep going she doesn't even look fazed by this at all you know that's a total Spartan athlete reaction to just keep on churning through we talked to Ryan Adkins about this just a little while ago and about what he would do if he encountered a bear out on the course actually had races where there's been a bear on course running the same direction as I have and I chased him for like the quarter mile and just hoping that he wasn't gonna turn around and charge me but I mean there's it's black bears out here there really nothing to worry about you get a couple of elite men together and even if there's a black bear attacking you like we could we could take it so we'll be fine well I don't know if a standing had the same opinion about whether she could take a bear not but she seems to be trying to put as much ground between herself and that critter as possible as she really opens up here on this flat section again just something that maybe makes you stop thinking about the pain that you're in for a moment and that's it and that's why we practice the spear throw that's it right there probably not a good enough tip on that spear but I think I remember seeing Matt neva kovitch with one that might be able to take down a bear and if she didn't get a general adrenalin jolt from that I don't know what will well right now again you could see face Denix she's sitting in fourth position overall here in the women's field at the North American Championships here in West Virginia and again with the speed like this you have to wonder just how fast are the women in front of her going maybe they were getting chased by the bear maybe we could see power hikes now you can see a little bit of a gap closing with these athletes is that uh let's mark Patras up on Ryan Atkins and Mark Patras is having quite a day keeping up with Ryan Atkins because that's no small feat if you notice the difference in the the running right there Ryan was power hiking is Markus taking an opportunity now as the pace is slow to get a little bit nutrition it's just savvy veteran move and face tending there again getting some mortar herself making sure she's hydrated going into the twister yeah the twister obstacle definitely one of the more concerning ones for athletes in the field and this is tough for the women they've mastered it over the last couple right now I would say seasons but but really this has been one that that puts a wrench in it for a lot of the women's field because of the grip can be so tough but it's also three sections and normally this is only a two section twister that third sections where things get very hard face setting is using a really good pendulum here the key to this obstacle is not only having good grip but it's using your lower body to propel yourself forward and up to the next handhold so it takes less energy off your back in your biceps and propels you down the twister now that was an easy work from face setting she used a a reach and match technique so she's gonna reach with one hand she's gonna match with her second hand on the same grip hold and then go back into the next reach and this is they rope traverse the Tyrolean Traverse Ryan Adkins is very good at this obstacle the thin rope does make it a lot harder than what some weight someone might encounter in the military where it's a little bit thicker and you could climb on top of that rope but again quick work Marc Patras Ryan Adkins in and out very different techniques you just saw there from for mattress Atkins and now Ryan Kent who's on it Kenton Atkins were using a swinging back and forth their legs to help propel them to keep some of the pressure off their wrists where Mack braches just put the rope on his compression shorts and just use his arms to pull himself that is gonna tax his grip later how much rot Ryan Kent right there was rocking side to side as compared to Robert Killian who's a little more used to this being the military man but you have to kind of itsy-bitsy your spider your feet back and forth because if you were to drag your feet and the rope dragged on your ankle instead of your feet you will Flay the flesh right off of yourself Marc mattress got away with it because he has high compression socks Robert killin uses a technique kind of like an inchworm he pulls his arms all the way up and then slides both legs together as we're getting a great look right now with the ladies that is Nicole miracle and Lindsey Webster toe-to-toe right now on the Z wall maneuvering through it carefully but fast and efficiently maintaining three points of contact on each one of those to make sure they don't slip well that's first and second place right now in the Comerica land first Lindsey Webster in second in between the two of them they have won every race of the u.s. national series this year they finished first and second in that series respectively and now they're duking it out for the North American Championship Nicole miracle is committed to trying to win this race a little bit less mountainous totally her speed she sees the opportunity to seize it from Lindsey Webster we see Ryan woods there our leader on sandbag number two he has just completed it as Ryan Kent is just starting that's the kind of showing the lead he has and not a two-minute carry just so people understand the gap between them right now and that's about seven and three-quarters miles into this course so they're more than halfway through as Robert Kelley now is also arrived behind Ryan Kent who's fought his way back up into this course now this is this gnarly descent to this gully we were talking about before it's super beautiful very slippery as you saw face standing almost go down there and that is a part of her game that she is not super competent in is a technical descent she's worked a lot with Lindsay Webster who are friends up in the Adirondack Mountains of New York to work on the descending it seemed to pay off a little bit for there and Ryan Woods who you're seeing on camera right now after doing that sandbag carry has now approached probably the most technical section of this entire course there's a lot of rocks and stumps and roots in this little section very hard to get your footing and yet they're running at an incredibly high speed and that was Vijay Jones again we talked about him not being too super couple of beasts course he's hanging in there right now with those top 10 men Ryan Atkins just finished in the carry as well so probably about a minute 15 behind Ryan woods right now as he heads into this technical section he may be able to make up some ground and here's Nicole miracle and Lindsey Webster toe and toe right now at the Atlas carrier you're not putting it down that's critical right now you know you I've wondered today what any athletes make that mistake not read the rulebook or forget that change in the rules and end up costing themselves some time but you haven't seen that from the ever consummate pros that we have out here on this course the Kohl miracles sitting in first position looking very comfortable is that there's that risk of kind of being on autopilot these athletes are sometimes running 20 to the 30 Spartan races a year and are so used to the rules that when there is a change you never know if they're gonna remember Nicole is breaking a lot on this Lindsay's gonna close a big time on her on this descent it's a very slippery one so by the time that descent is over and they enter into the woods I assume they're going to be about deadlocked the Col miracle moving very quickly there though and as the Kohl makes her way into this section she's gonna have to keep the pressure on there's a gravel road before the women's sand bag carry but you just saw Lindsey Webster moving within a few seconds of her you saw a very savvy athletic move from Nicole miracle grabbing that trees didn't the lose any momentum kind of slingshotting her around that curve and heading down and you were right there right on each other's tails this is what happens you know you give Lindsey Webster an opportunity to make up a few seconds on you on a downhill and she will take those seconds every single time and now Nicole is gonna have to hammer on this sandbag Carey coming up if she wants to keep that lead because Lindsey methodically has been pulling her back for the last few miles with those big climbs coming up with those very long descents and technical descents Lindsey Webster as Nicole miracle right where she wants her you know it's it's one thing to be running out in the lead and another thing to be chasing when you're running in the lead it feels like you have wings on your feet but it also is running scared and there's something about having somebody stalking you that makes you very uncomfortable and this is a long race to be that kind of anxious for it's men lead reigning and physically draining a Nichole miracle and it is making life much easier for Lindsey Webster right there it also requires that nicole has to set the tempo and establish a actly how fast they're gonna go and Lindsay all she has to do is sit back there and watch and respond you know you gotta be like if you're Nicole you gotta be like what do I have to do here's a course where I've a tremendous amount of flat terrain where I'm generally better but I cannot shake her what do I have to do to get rid of her because Lindsey Webster will not go away we're standing has made it to the Z wall right now and as she works her way across just gonna have to be very cautious you saw she could use that post to get up but as we make that transition into the corner she's no longer allowed to use any of these additional aides to her she's gonna have to work her way with just the hand holds and the foot holds as much concentration as this obstacle does take it's always sort of a welcomed obstacle to athletes because it's a way for you to drop your heart rate a little bit and kind of recover as you navigate through here so she has to avoid stepping on that Center section that's how she could end up getting the Burpee penalty here or of course slipping off in general but again quick work from face standing off and running and usually when you come off an obstacle like this you've caught your breath you have that opportunity to really attack the next section of the run it's also a sigh relief when you hit that Bell well Lindsey Webster just methodically working her way through this course just such an experienced veteran because all the races she runs at all the miles she doesn't she we caught up with her and she talked a little bit about her training and how she speaking for Tahoe I think we all focus on trying to peak at Tahoe so definitely building towards that I've had a lot happening lately in terms of mileage so I think I'm actually coming into this race a lot more tired than I normally would be I had erased a couple weekends ago that I crashed and burned really hard about halfway through I started feeling really good and then I just totally ran out of energy so I'm just hoping that that doesn't happen tomorrow and then if it does then any residual fatigue that I have I can shed before Tahoe so what I put down a good racer well a good process produces good results and that's not my words those are the words of West Virginia native and Alabama football coach Nick Saban who's had some of the greatest teams come out of his university and Lindsey Webster takes those words to heart herself she always puts in the work and this is why she's always getting fantastic results well we talked about that sandbag carry that was coming up that might kind of equalize it for the two of them and you could see just about ten seconds ahead Nicole miracle is just crushed in that hill and at the top of it the first of two sandbag carries lindsay is looking to do damage on this thing what's great about these sandbag carries for Lindsey's with the undulating downward terrain it plays very well into her running down hills with heavy things so it's a spot where she could really make up some time and that we can get an idea of how far face standing is behind the leaders as she's coming in not too far on the Atlas carry behind them no we got to say this is actually very surprising that she's this far behind already we have to assume that something went terribly wrong in faze race already and we're having reports that that part of this was issues at the eight foot box right out of the gates early on and that would explain why she's gotten that separation she just hasn't been able to pull these ladies back in with the efforts that she's been running yeah we talked about that 8-foot boxers some of that sand is pouring out in the sandbag time leak in that sandbag right there right that's not the athletes faults they pull them out and sometimes as you're running now you're just gonna pop a hole and the sand will come out now again this is that slippery treacherous descent that we talked about before and you see some slips from face standing right there this is a tough way down and she's moving with speed but sometimes it's easier and safer and less slippery slippery to just open up and just go with gravity on these hills rather than trying to resist and slip it on your heels and falling on your back up buddy she had that early slip where she kind of went back a little bit and it didn't faze her she still had some confidence and put him down and continued to go hard that shows he had some of the work that she has done with Lindy Lindsey up in the Adirondack Mountains in New York has helped her out she's run him a little more confident she is and I mean she's running there it's just her and that cameraman hammering together really quality effort from the two of them those rabbits that we have out there again world-class athletes world crafts ultra runners that are following these men and women with a camera through all this journey not only getting the shots but keeping themselves from hitting the dirt as well and again here we are on the sandbag carry and face standing is rapidly approaching it we've got a idle up ahead for her or its Lindsay Webster Nicole miracle battling for first and second on the sandbag carry Rebecca Hammond approaching it in third position and face getting in fourth so the big four that we assumed are the four out on the course that are competing for those podium spots and towards the end of this race before that Yokohama tire flip that we referenced earlier is that spear that's an obstacle that's been tougher on this field ladies throughout the course of history in Spartan and something that's always looming their head as they're running these trails approaching the other obstacles face standing for those who don't know does have a third-place finish at the World Championships to her name of which she was separated from Lindsay Webster by a less than 1/10 of a second the famous Burpee off at the end of that race where Lindsay beat her by one Burpee to the line and that is Lindsay Webster passing the coal miracle moving into first place it for Nicole this has got to be pretty soul-crushing because she just worked so hard to get a lead and it evaporated just like that on one carry she could not shake Lindsay Webster no matter what she did and going back to your story about face setting Lindsay Webster I actually had the the thrill of being the official on sight when that moment happened I was laying down in front of them counting every single Burpee and what happened was face standing who were seeing running here right now attacked three quarters of the multi rigged fell off and Lindsay Webster decided just to touch the rig and run and attack that Burpee off with her so they were neck-and-neck the whole time savvy move it's a savvy move by Lindsay Webster who right now looks completely unfazed by the sandbag carry she's about to drop it and then it's an opportunity for her to open up and fly as well maybe Nicole can closed this little gap that formed between them because we have a lot of flat right here and she's gonna need to before they hit that ever so technical section in the woods it was a very savvy veteran move and what you saw there was a savvy veteran stare as she ran away from that sandbag she turned her head gave him the coal a little bit of look and if she's looking at Nicole with a face of no fatigue on that's got to be a scary thought for Nicole miracle and again it's a little bit of gel work out of Lindsay Webster right here she's gonna try and take some and Kjell right now this is as good a time as any it's flat there's no obstacles she can take it and then of course she just had some water one of the big things that people don't realize when you meet an energy gel because you need those calories to keep the body going is that those gels need water about eight ounces of water or they're gonna find that water from a different source meaning it will suck that fluid directly out of your body if you don't take it with a cup of water and a lot of athletes find that moments after taking one of those gels they start cramping up because one you're having blood flow away from your muscles and into your abdominal region and two you have that water being sucked directly out of your muscles as a way to kind of fuel that gel to piggyback off that great information she ingested it right after the heavy carry which is gonna be more taxing on her blood glycogen a lot of times when they're running at this pace they're burning fats when they hit a heavy carry or a hard obstacle their body will shift into a more glucose energy system so to get that back in you immediately after a really hard obstacle is an opportune time and like you said she did it when she had a water source to do it with and just like we were mentioning and predicting before this is Nicole's chance to hammer down a little bit and she is pulling all that time gap right back on Lindsey Webster don't be surprised if when they hit this little incline she tries to make a pass beyond her and move back into first position it's so important here for Nicole to maintain that contact too because when they get to some more of those skill obstacles such as the spear you have to be there ready and available to make someone go maybe a little bit faster than they thought they wanted to Lindsay Webster in the Utah race was able to take her time at the spear because even though she missed she knew if she did she'd had the time to hit the 30 burpees and continue if it happens today and Nicole miracles right there it puts so much more pressure on her to make that could cause a mistake now face standing and fourth position still making her way into the sandbag carry to start that's a big gap in the class of the field is up ahead Lindsey Webster and Nicole miracle and that pass by Nicole like we were just thinking might happen she knows as this race is about to hit the most technical and most steep sections of this course she needs to get away from Lindsay Webster she's not in a good position because she knows she can't out technical run her especially on the big downhill she's got to use every bit of uphill and every bit of flat she can this was very similar to the race that we had here last year's we're watching these men now power up this incline you can help kids Ryan Kent Kent has moved back into the field did you see the smile on his face as he looked up the camera and Ryan Atkins that was but you could get a great sense of how steep that actually was and for Ryan Kent to be that close-up on Ryan Atkins is saying a lot about his fitness right now yeah Ryan Kent had said he thought his fitness was there and yet the last couple of races just did not work out for him in the mountains he looks very happy to be back on these trails in West Virginia and he just made a pass on Ryan Atkins climbing one of the toughest climbs of this race right here and making it look easy as he doesn't just power hike he runs this thing this is one of his favorite courses in the country and he puts this course this race on his calendar as his number one priority when the season starts this is a place where he had his breakthrough performance a few years ago he came in second behind Robert Killian and actually led most of the race at that one so he is really wanted to put down a great effort today and stamp himself as the North American regional champion and again the coal miracle out in front of Lindsay Webster she's looking to try and stretch that gap to as much as she can she's managed to nab three or four seconds beyond the time that she reeled in but we are rapidly approaching that nasty technical section in the woods and this is her first look at Rebecca Hammond when I was saying earlier this is similar to last year Rebecca Nicole Lindsay and Fay were in a pack of four for almost the entire race running together so Lindsay Webster is very very conscious that this kind of happened last year she was running with someone or three other people for almost the entire majority of the race so this is not gonna spook her his last year she put it out a tremendous effort at the last 3k to take the win so she knows if she stays close she saw has a great chance to take this home and that's the athletes head into Armour right here again deadlocked in one little tiny downhill like that and Lindsay Webster has erased that force and disadvantaged again this is what she's gonna continually to do and this is it has to be just so mentally crushing for Nicole miracle to keep putting in all these efforts to stretch away and take the lead only to lose it every time there's even a slight downhill she can just cannot shake her it no matter how fast she goes it's almost like the more effort she puts in now it's just gonna make Lindsay Webster that much stronger on her later if Nicole buries herself right now in fatigue it just makes it that much more advantageous for Lindsay Webster later on the race on those sleep descents I mean this is pretty amazing guys right now what we have head-to-head battle back and forth constantly change between the two of these and you're talking about the class of the women's field Lindsay Webster versus the woman who's trying to steal her spot at the top of not just this podium but every podium every week it's like magic and bird you know big time rivals a big time tennis match this is like Venus and Serena just going at it trading for hands trading backhands rushing and net hitting volleys point for point back and forth eight game sets you name it they're just going toe-to-toe and not backing down and again Rebecca Hammond who was second place here last year making her return for the season sitting in a very strong third place but doesn't look like she has the ability to track these two down the question will be can she hold off face standing who seems to be hard charging right now even though if they struggled on that eight foot box that you referenced earlier she still has a greater degree of races under her belt this year and this the technical section we mentioned before with all the big climbing starts right now I would say at least half of the incline whoa as we shall fall tremendous past Nicole Goes Down and Lindsay Webster just reeled her in like she was taking a bath out of the one of these West Virginia ponds very very slippery terrain but also just treacherous footing a lot of rocks a lot of roots and the rocks are very mossy and slick but what we're gonna see over the next four miles or so is about fifty percent of all the incline on this course it's gonna happen then so a lot of nasty climbing it's just kind of messy you've got to use your hands for a lot of it to catch grip on trees and rocks and roots but also you have to be very careful that you don't slip and hurt yourself where the chance is she caught a crawfish we were treatment down in that stream probably very low but at the same time she's gonna have to work her butt off if she hopes to keep Lindsay in her sights because there's a sandbag carry coming up there's a lot of technical running coming up and then the course ends with about three miles of relatively flat and open a chance for her to maybe run that thing back but she's got to do damage control here Nicole miracle well somebody else wearing his bud off is Ryan woods right there who looked like he was almost running out of his pants he's going so fast they're starting to come down a little bit he's got a real those up and continue to continue to move this climb look for the athletes over the course this race we're seeing about 3,000 feet of gain probably 1,500 in the next three to four miles and this is a sizable separation between the Comerica land lindsey webster back to Rebecca Hammond you're probably looking at about four minutes and then back to face standing maybe another minute or so so that race for third position certainly not locked up by any means and in a race this long you can also have a four or five minute gap and completely blow up the wheels can fall off and then you find yourself completely off the podium even if you've been running in that kind of position all day these are the kind of races because there's so much undulating terrain that we talked about earlier as Brian Woods is now approaching that big swim that it could just tax you so much when you're feeling fine but eight nine miles later you blow up and this is one of those obstacles that's going to be really interesting to see because they're hitting this water and now they're starting to use your muscles in a completely different way a big change to navigate to swim this is where cramps could really start to set in now the fortunate thing is this water is fairly warm and typically the cramps are caused by not just swimming but cold water you're shocking the system the central nervous system is jarred the muscles all just contract and this is an opportunity for a lot of these outfits actually just to cool down a little bit but to do it at a rate that's not going to blow them up either so I think a lot of them it's a welcome reprieve catch your breath a little bit some of them maybe doggy paddle or breaststroke this thing but Ryan wood seems to be freestyling yeah it's advantageous for that reason one of the other things is if you've ever ridden a bicycle and you've been on there for a while if it's a stationary bike or regular bicycle your legs are kind of moving in the same direction the same way the whole time once you hop off and you start to run or do something else it kind of it feels a little bit funny that's how it's gonna feel when they get out of the water after they're done swimming and that is something again that could cause the cramps now you see the athletes are all messing with the life jackets a little bit before they get in one rule is that they must have the jacket fully locked and on before they enter the water also all of the jackets are currently strung up with the straps completely stretched tight so they want to loosen it completely before they slip their arms in and then after buckling it tighten all the straps and tuck them in out of the way taking a couple extra seconds there can gain you a minute or more on that swim because if the jacket fits you comfortably now you can actually move efficiently as we've seen Nicole miracle raging through the woods right now it's such an important safety measure because if they were to get a cramp as you notice you can't see through that water they have lifeguards out there but if you were to cramp and you were to go down it would cause a situation that could be very very scary and tragic so we're taking all the precautions here to do this right and do it safely well that's Ryan Kent sitting in third position entering the water cuz Ryan Kemp since somehow has moved in a second and Ryan Atkins in fourth Atkins is a very strong swimmer we've seen this out of him before that he has managed to close on people the man with absolutely no weaknesses in his game is about to try and make a move on some of the athletes in front of him and someone that if they're if he's chasing behind them he's anywhere close Robert Killian world champion Ironman is probably the best swimmer in the field by far very very good swimmer Robert Killian is looking forward to this swim there's no question about it one of the things is we've seen swims take a toll on athletes in a number of Champions races in the past and for more on this the third member of our broadcast team Steve Hammond the longest swim that I think we have had on a u.s. national series course course as well this is incredible round was the high me here and now we've got ranking and right now this could be a big game thank you we haven't had a swim this long thus far in the u.s. race this year see how it goes back to you thanks a lot Steve and as we cut away from the swim for just a moment that's the cold miracle holding 2nd position trying to maintain her grasp on Lindsey Webster who leads this race who is trying to claim not just another North American Championship Series title but she's trying to win every title there is this year including worlds as well and Nicole may be the only person who could stop her and there were about mile seven right before the second sandbag is now we're seeing again Rebecca Hammond who's holding third place very strong who is not too far behind there Rebecca Hammond very good on the downhills - she attacks those pretty aggressively for her it's gonna be about really holding off face standing the best that she can because this battle up in front of her is that really another level right now just two of the best in the world the cold miracle and Lindsey Webster duking it out for first and second place here today not only having to navigate the bushes but navigating the men that they're routinely passing at this late in the course and it's proud of amazing it's only been about seven miles these women started over 20 minutes behind the elite men and they're gobbling them up like it's nothing and again we talk about this all the time there's a place for everybody it's Bart and race and for many it's the age group division which I'm proud to run in myself yeah there's a place for it it's gonna be nice to see we the elite waves start to kind of thin out the herd thins and those who are not getting caught by 20 minutes being really the only people in the age in the elite division as we move forward yeah it'd be very honest with you David the at these big TV races that we've had in the past I found myself at the very end of these races being caught by Lindsay Webster in a coal miracle very talented and as I started getting a little bit older it got into my 40s I said you know what I'm hitting that line of demarcation we're as important for me to shift over into the age group waves and it's just how it is I'm very proud of it it's incredibly competitive but it is where I belong right now and where a lot of these other athletes belong as well it's following that trend line that triathlon kind of set in the first place and right now you're seeing Brian Woods the first to exit the water it took him a very very long time now the one thing that's nice is if you swam efficiently at all you should be fully with your breath heart rate down ready to really truly fly on this run and there is a high-five to aaron newell who's putting on his vests and entering the water yeah aaron newell having a pretty strong race himself right now the question is which of the three ryan's is going to be in second place when we come out of the water because we have ryan woods and first we had ryan Kemp's in Ryan Kent and Ryan Atkins all behind him for Ryan's in the top four spots and I would say it's a surprise but it's not this happens all the time and this is a great opportunity against Brian he came out of the water he hit a little bit of nutrition he's about to ingest it now and he could actually look back and see where people are now the majority of the rest of this race there's a there's about a mile of trails still to come but it's mostly this gravel trail or dirt trail it's nothing too crazy the really technical stuff is behind him and now it's gonna be a lot of flat fast rolling hills things like that and there is still another heavy carry to come that bucket carry yeah that bucket carries gonna be interesting because the rules on that changed as well the athletes are able to carry another shoulder now so we're gonna see who navigates at the best as we're now watching Ryan and Atkins moving into second we said man with weaknesses and look at him just so efficient he came out of the water he's almost skipping right now trying to get those feet up and Ryan Adkins somehow still in a position that he could win this race yeah he wasn't trying to be cute there he was actually using that move as a more efficient way to propel himself through the water Brian Atkins training for a very big adventure race coming up in Fiji a lot of it is him gonna be swimming and navigating through the water and he just showed the skills that he's put in the summer came out in a big way right there to his advantage sure did so you're looking at Ryan Woods in first position and now Ryan Atkins in second place so you have the 2018 US national Series champion at first at the 2019 US national Series champion in second this is a war that we've got that will probably come down all the way to the end because with a tire flip a bucket carry still to come things could tighten up a lot and don't forget about that spear throw as now Ryan Kempson moving into third position coming out of the water and he is struggling oh man the first hundred 200 yards out of the water is rough and then you find your legs again but your heart rates down empty those ears out and it's time to get rolling yeah a couple snot rockets right there trying to get the water out of the ears to keep his equilibrium but he's fallen now back into fourth place behind Ryan Kent who's holding a very strong third wow this is a this is a deep deep field and a really tight battle how many lead changes and second third fourth podium position finished changes have we seen over the last hour or so back and forth back and forth these guys are relentless and we talked about it in the beginning if they wanted to be the champ they would have to beat the champion each one of these guys are beating up each other another Knoll just goes down again big-time fall again again it's that slip on your heels when you're trying to break on some of these descents it almost works against you so she's now made it onto a little flat section because this is the sandbag carry a chance for Nicole to may be track Lindsay down there's one flat section of the sandbag carry early and then it drops down a very steep incline and into some technical stuff on the back half of the sandbag carry so she's gonna hammer this first half and try and pull her back while she can because when it gets technical Lindsay takes over let's just put that in perspective right there there's an athlete Nicole miracle at mile 7 and 3/4 picking up a 50-pound sandbag and sprinting out of you in the camera within seconds shows you the fitness and the elite athleticism the women in this sport now Ryan woods in the lead right now first place closing in on that festival area this is the Hercules hoist he's allowed to put one foot on that fence and drive back this is a pretty tough weight that they're working with today because he is really struggling with this thing he's getting it up but it looks like it's quite a bit of effort from him he was given a lot of that bag back actually pulled it up it was torrential downpour here the day before any kind of moisture makes those bags that much heavier they're filled with sand and they filled up with a tremendous amount more weight and made that so much different bit more difficult but he navigated it pretty well so now Lindsey Webster coming out of the sandbag carry we said there was a technical section we said she'd put in work there she's got that lead over Nicole but again it's slight this is one of the hardest running sections of the course very dangerous lots to jump lots of slick sections a little river crossing and a very steep climb out of this section where you actually need to use a rope to assist you in getting off over this cliff up there so this will be a challenge for Nicole can she hold on to Lindsey Webster through this section because then there's a chance for her because it will flatten out soon yeah that obstacle is obstacle number 15 at obstacle 28 they have the spear so if you're in the coal you want to hang with Lindsey until you get to that spirit of put pressure on her that is her best chance to take this race away from Lindsey Webster now a big climb coming your way this is mile 11 and at the top of this absolutely monstrous hill which will have a kicker right here level off briefly and then kick up again you'll see the a-frame cargo net it is a very long climb possibly the steepest longest of this race and that is obstacle 21 and that is the last obstacle before that gauntlet of obstacles that come up in the last mile before the finish line yeah look at this gnarly terrain that they have going on right now jumping over little creeks very very slick terrain and then it kicks up dramatically just very steep incredibly hard to just run through drains the legs a lot and it takes a lot of concentration which also really is challenging you could see Lindsey is pulling away in this she likes this nasty stuff she's good at running it and I got to give a shout out right now the Spartan staff as we see Ryan Kent hammering up this hill the this course as we're watching it has been incredibly easy to navigate with the eyes it's so hard to navigate just as terrain but then for the athletes they don't want to ever make mistake and run off course it's been incredibly well marked and a well done job by the Spartan staff well that right now Ryan Kent trying to hold on to a podium position with Ryan woods in the lead he's been out there all alone for most of the day but the question is can he hang on to it he is closing in on the top of this climb and at the top you'll see that structure they'll go behind it they'll hit an a-frame cargo net and then as steep as this climb is up they got a run down the side of this hill as well it is a precarious high-speed drop quick check behind of what we're watching now is intermittent hiking and running he's power hiking for a little bit to kind of like change the different muscle groups he's using catch his breath a little while not losing ground and then going into runs if he's able to do that there it shows that it he's still fit and still running with ferocity well that's Ryan Kempson right now trying to work his way onto the podium as well always a strong contender but this is a long race for him he's doing very well on the beast this year but Robert Killian you're defending champion two times over trying to pull him in and he loves the steep climbs and he has fourth and third right in his sights right there so he is in podium position we have a three-way battle for third place right now and second and first are not too far ahead of them no not at all and this is where things start to level out a little bit we have Ryan woods at the top of this climb as we said he goes behind he's got an a-frame cargo net and then a huge descent absolutely massive descent that he's got coming up now again this cargo net got him into trouble at the beginning of the year he touched the vertical truss in the center on a race that he ended up having beaten Ryan Atkins by a quarter of a second the judges ruled the officials ruled that that gave him a competitive advantage and he was penalized 10 minutes for that dropped him all the way to 11th place and that was the first race of the year that pretty much set the tone for Ryan's entire year right there and it's nice to see him sitting in first place in a race with stakes this high after all that he lost this year it's so great to have this championship series being able to turn the page on that other season this race is a season alone by itself and he's taking advantage of it and now he has to take advantage this hill because with Ryan Atkins one of the world's best defenders right behind him he cannot give any ground on this descent you know we haven't seen Ryan Adkins in a moment so the question of how far behind he is is unknown but we know that Ryan Adkins can close gaps in a hurry and again we were talking about these steep kickers here's another one right here this cargo net very hard to climb just slow going and Lindsay Webster just eking away from Nicole miracle right now it's gonna take a big effort from Nicole to hold her in her grasp yeah that cargo nets kind of sneaky as you step in it you push down and it takes away a lot of your momentum you're almost better using the dirt underneath it but because the dirt is so slick the athletes are shying away from it but that cargo net will drain that pop in their legs yeah and again we have cameramen trying to climb this with one hand just keep that in mind and she has eyes on Lindsay Webster before she crested this hill you could kind of see Lindsay Webster running away so Nicole still has her in contact and again she has to do that until obstacle 28 when they approach that spear if they could stay together Nicole has got a shot yeah that's the big thing for Nicole is keep her within an arm's length because if she could get an opportunity to make Lindsay make a mistake that's her opening that she needs and one missed this race is still close enough that one mistake from Lindsay and Nicole will take it but the same could be the other way around Nicole can't get overly excited over eager because she also has to run a flawless race to win to do that she's got to take some chances though with none without the risk she's not gonna get the reward I think the thing when we watch Lindsay Webster run is we assume she's not taking risks because she looks so comfortable but she's taking risks on every day sent sharp corners she does a very good job making up time in little places by taking little risks here and there like most great athletes they look like they're doing it effortlessly because your athleticism is so smooth that it makes the task look that much easier when it's really incredibly difficult to do well again this is that steep that rope climb that we were talking about and the next to get that is probably gonna be Rebecca Hammond followed by face Danny and who knows where Ariel Fitzgerald is lurking was she able to navigate some of those obstacles if she did fail does she have the gas tank to pick it back up we know she has that it's just a matter of how many obstacles she possibly struggled on yeah I mean it's certainly a good course for an athlete like her her ability to open up and run this would be a better place than say a Big Bear where it's mostly about power hiking and descending those who have the abilities on treadmills this is a good place for them to go and this sport continues to draw in some of the best endurance athletes in the world because they're getting tired of doing races where they're just running they want to do something that challenges their bodies and more facets of their athleticism this sport certainly does it look at that change in the carry so the new rule with the bucket carries you can put the bucket on your shoulder and Ryan Woods is straight up running this thing right now this giant Spartan space Spartan shaped track that we've got going on on this bucket carry and he looks absolutely unfazed not having to hold it in front of him means he can spare his back and he could spare his grip yeah we saw this in Jacksonville they actually shaped the whole bucket carry like the Spartan helmet logo that you see on the medals and all the branding and he's the first athlete since 2013 that's been able to carry a bucket on his shoulders and he's taking advantage of the new rule yeah he's really moving quick and the nice thing for him is not having to put the pressure on his back means also putting less pressure on his hamstrings as well and that hamstring was what cost him a lot of time earlier this year as you can now see Ryan Kent making his way over the inverted wall looks very smooth and Ryan Kent again now 11 and a half almost maybe 12 miles into this cool still running with that podium position and this is just a magic course for him it always works out well for him and that's Ryan Atkins sitting in second position the inverted wall was just before this bucket carry so Ryan Atkins in second Ryan Kent is in third and both of these men are absolute savages on the heavy carries specifically this bucket as now Ryan woods has gone through it as a full bucket carry lead a whole bucket carry lead is probably about a minute and a half right now that's a sizable lead but there are a couple dangerous obstacles still looming including the spear throw that was a sizable smile and ponytail from Rebecca Hammond that we just saw them running out of the woods she's always happy always smiling and now Ryan Kent saying this is my chance if there's ever a time that I could drop the carry of my life it's chasing Ryan Africans on a bucket absolutely and he is running now with power on this bucket Carrie I want to point out this in really interesting technique that Ryan Kent is using and some of the guys put the bucket over one shoulder he's got it over his back shoulders which should be take pressure off his lower back but he's gripping it with his fingers there it's using a lot of tricep strength and a lot of grip strength to hold it in that position and it seems a little bit awkward like he could be dropped at any time but he must have practiced this since the rule change and we'll see if anybody else engages with that technique bucket carries obstacle 23 after that we have pipe layer bender helix rope climb those are all obstacles that require grip strength they're gonna need a lot of grip strength for that tire today if they're gonna be able to pinch grip it so I hope he doesn't waste a lot of it on this bucket Carrie that's Rebecca Hammond right now making her way up that rope ladder that we've got right here and she's using that hand-over-hand technique so that she's not wasting a ton of energy but she's also stepping through the holes to the dirt to climb you also saw at the very top there a lot of hip mobility that just shows that she's still running fluid the muscles aren't really tightening up it gives you a good sense of where her mobility and her flexibility is right now and that's really important for her to be able to run fast later now that technique we mentioned with Ryan Kent's grip Robert Killian is using that same technique but we saw that Ryan woods and Ryan Atkins went with the alternative technique with the bucket over one particular shoulder those two athletes can't and killing a little taller maybe a little bit broader shoulders maybe that fits on their back a little bit better but it's cool to see the different techniques these guys choose to use well Ryan Kent looks like he's about to take a little bit of nutrition for this one last surge as the only stairs of the race are hit right now by Ryan woods he is making his way into that section of the race at the end which is gonna be a lot of wood a lot of wooden planks some sharp turns it's almost like a little boardwalk around the river there's a lot of opportunities to slip and fall around a sharp corner so we're gonna want to keep an eye on that yeah they're not gonna want to take a lot of chances here right now nor should he because he's running with enough of a gap if he's able to maintain it and hit the spear he needs to be able to go into that tire with some more energy and a slip-and-fall would certainly hurt him well that's Rebecca Hammond again third place out there on the course and she looks good again on this big descent she's closing in on the end of this race but face standing is still hunting her and she's still trying to claw her way back into that top two spot with Nicole and Lindsay but Ryan woods is the name of the day right now out there on the course running in first position and looking like he's just out for a training run how comfortable he looks right now he looks super comfortable but if I'm Ryan woods right now and I know if I know what's happened over the national series do you think in his head he's thinking man is this too good to be true am I actually gonna be able to pull this off or am I gonna crash and burn like some of the other opportunities this year it is distinctly possible he's got a few things on his mind including that spear throw that he missed in Alabama as we see the pipe layer right here this is pipe layer not super taxing physically demanding obstacle but you have to contract the body in a strange way that can cause a little bit of cramping if you're really really fatigued and here's your leader on the course Lindsay Webster now Lindsay is gonna try and make some significant moves here to separate from the coal in this last little section anywhere that's technical like this she wants to gobble up that distance she wants to put Nicole under the rest make her uncomfortable make a run out of her comfort zone and here comes Army Ranger Robert Kelly trying desperately to defend his championship that he's won here over the last two years and he's gonna have to make up ground quick in a hurry to do it he's got some work cut out for him because he's sitting in about fourth or fifth position right now a lot of Ryan's in front of him a lot of Ryan's but a lot of drama that still could unfold in front of us you're gonna see potentially some big flip-flopping towards the end of this race because with a spear throw a tire flip a multi-rib there's a lot of failable obstacles towards the end of this race and this is bender right now that you're seeing Ryan woods make his way up in first place right now trying to hold off a hard charge from Ryan Atkins and Ryan Kenton of course Ryan Kempson a lot of guys in the mix right now great thing in a position of obstacle he's able to turn around and look up the slope and see who was coming at him and this is a lovely portion of the course but again a fast section for Lindsay Webster to really lay into those trails there'll be some hair pins as she works her way down this thing it's a little tougher than it looks because the trail is slightly slanted to decide the footings a little rockier then it appears on camera if you were to look at it up close you've realized this is an incredible effort from her to put in this kind of pace in the downhill and she is gaining fast on the men in front of her and you're looking at the calf muscles of one of our athletes right there powering up the hill Nicole miracle was a division 1 runner at Rice this is a person who was a savage competitor in college she's taking it to OCR and as Rebecca Hammond hammers up this hill she may be a doctor she may be a super smart person but she is also a savage athlete in her own rights and she's putting down one of the other best races of her career at this moment as well it's an incredibly steep climb you could see the male athletes up ahead are resting on their climb up your calves feel like they're tearing in half as you climb up this thing your lower back can be seizing up it's a lot of hamstring as well and because it's such an anaerobic like power effort with each step you feel your energy just sap from those legs they get incredibly heavy very quickly which is why she's relying on this hands on the knees power hike to extend them to get herself up this climb you also get a chance to look at the diverse fitness of these athletes as Ryan Woods goes over the hurdles they're not just fast but are strong they have enough muscularity to do the courses as best they can and here's to muscular fit incredible athletes neck-and-neck is the old miracle just made that pass huge pass by Nicole miracle she needed to take some risks we talked about it before and she made it on this descent anywhere where it's less technical she's got to open up and use her superior speed and that's a perfect example of this and she's given herself a fighting chance in this race and again if she sets the tone and she sets the pace maybe she could pull Lindsay out of that comfort zone that she seems to enjoy so much so frequently in these races we talked about Lindsey constantly pushing her and never backing off the Lindsey Webster has just found out that Nicole miracle will not back off either well they've already they're working their way down this climb that Rebekah Hammett is climbing up right now but Hammond is almost to the top of it and she has just been gobbling up the men from the elite men's field on her way here's that windy dock and that you were talking about it at any moment if they're running a little too fast they could slide right off of that into the bushes but what a scenic view here well the thing about that dock is of course athletes here are running with with shoes with lugs these trail running shoes have lugs on them and if they're a little bit damp a little bit muddy when they touch wood they basically slip off like ice skates so it's a very difficult thing to run on wood especially if that wood had been a little bit damp like yesterday we're headed rained so much this would be a totally different section to run very precarious and the more athletes that run on it the slicker it's gonna get well right now Lindsey Webster is battling herself to try and keep that first-place position because she trails the cold miracle they've gone back and forth all year long Nicole won the first two races of the US national series Lindsay won the next three to steal the title from her and Nicole may be looking for a little bit of payback as they hop over the tabletop right there those are the Irish tables in a very savvy move not to use those porta-potties either because that would have taken a ton of time as well that was very savvy indeed so Lindsey Webster somehow back in front making just a couple seconds gain but look for Nicole to again take the psychological advantage bomb the down hill seize the lead back this is gonna be a back and forth probably all the way until the end they've got that big swim ahead of them don't forget about that they do and Lindsey Webster has not been in the lake training as much as Ryan Atkins or a husband has because she is not going on this big kind of eco-challenge race that's happening in Fiji she's been doing more mountain running so this is something we haven't seen her dude since Tahoe it's interesting to note that it looks like the women in this field the top two right there Nicole and Lindsey are running at essentially the exact same pace that you're seeing the top men run at and it's a testament one to their talent but also to their staying power their ability to sustain pace it's as is uh it's been studied that women actually as races get longer closed that gap that they have with men in terms of the physiological differences and how much faster men are than women that gap closes and these two in particular often in a race this long are faster than the majority of the men in the men's field and don't be surprised with that said that some of the women come in with times that are in the top ten overall for the day as Ryan woods approaches a rope climb which is obstacle number 27 right before the spear throw a little rope climb right here hopefully no issues the key is of course to jump to cover as much ground as possible before starting your climb it looks like he's working with a little Jay hook technique easy tap to the Bell using his legs to help him climb the rope rather than just his arms saving his hands and his upper body strength and look at this the two women are gonna be heading into the water neck-and-neck they must be fully buckled before they enter putting on the life vests was the only problem Lindsay's had so far today and if you notice with Ryan Woods with that Jay hook very very savvy move right there using his feet as much as he can he's strong enough the hand over hand that but knowing that the tire is coming up after that he's trying to see those bicep and back muscles for the tire flip precisely it's one of the last obstacles that can really throw a wrench in your race this is the other one the spear throw right here woods missed this in Alabama and it really cost him for him a year that has been just so dismantled by a few little mistakes can he be perfect yes Woods is nailed the spear Woods is often going it's really just a couple small obstacles between him and the finish the Yokohama Tire flipped probably the most daunting the multi rig of course and he's gonna have himself a title so he has to be running hard but still cautious at the same time to review the tire flip now the rule used to be they could keep their hands underneath it for the first flip we would have the athletes lower the tire down with control onto their hand so they wouldn't have to readjust their grip for the second flip they're no longer allowed to do that they have to completely disengage from the tire and then reset their hands so if Ryan woods gets this obstacles only because he's been able to get a pinch gripper his hands underneath twice which is very difficult to do he is not far from that obstacle at all right now as he's working his way into the final festival area looking back to see how closes Ryan Adkins behind me he knows he's chasing and if it's anything like normal Ryan Atkins he knows he's closing as well this is a critical time for Ryan woods he can't take his foot off the gas pedal he will be able to do this tire and look across the lake to see what men are at the spear as he's doing this so if he's able to get this first flip after the second one he will be able to check those positions at the other men no problem getting under this thing for many it's to getting the fingers under that's the big problem with this flip then a quick deadlift walk it through the tire again must go completely to the ground and now the back side of that tire is slick and nasty because of the rain that we had yesterday he's desperately trying to find a spot underneath there he just looked the second flip is way hard like just hands right now that's what's called a pinch crimp where you put the hands on top of each other he's trying to use the side and the undulations of the tire do try to use friction to get it up he can't find that spot yet though this is gonna be a very tough thing as tires about 400 pounds Ryan's managed to get his fingers under it but now he has to get around to the side of the tire to flip it back the direction it came from Ryan's out I mean this is huge successful completion in the other athletes in front of him just saw it now it is a race to the multi rake and right now you're seeing a push from the women's race Lindsey Webster and Nicole miracle trying to separate from one another on the swim this swim is about a hundred and fifty to two hundred meters long using now every single muscle in your body and with water coming up into your face and that life that's pushing up on you it makes it that much harder to breathe as the rabbit goes down but back on his feet and right back on Rebecca Hammond Wow and this is just goes to show you just how challenging this terrain is for these athletes out here trying to fix that camera get it back on him and and close the gap on it again and this is the rolling mud so as Ryan Woods is the only athlete away from the tire flip so far he's gonna have to take on this rowing mud it's got a barbed wire crawl between each of these mud pits and sprinklers on it and when he comes out the other side there's a slip wall with very short rope so he's gonna have to run up it with wet muddy feet the ropes at the end are only about two feet long and with those wet muddy feet on the slick wall we've seen athletes in the past struggle and a slip wall such as this it is a very failable obstacle but first of course the final dunk wall as he comes out of this and as he comes out of that little roll on the barbed wire he's gonna have to heart charge this slip wall if he wants to get up it in one smooth effort we've actually seen athletes have to Burpee out on this obstacle when the ropes are this short we have see we saw in Big Bear last year we saw in Utah last year this is the first time they face an obstacle with a short rope this late in the year and we're gonna see how Ryan Woods does on it and the mud is probably as big a factor as anything because you don't feel confident with your ability to hard charge up this slip wall there's not much room for a runway Ryan's managed to just give it not just barely get himself up to that knot big quality reach now down the backside there is not much standing between Ryan woods and a championship for the North American Championship title is his if he can make it through this last section of running and a multi rig that multi rig is difficult today the very end of it is a bar to two very thin ropes and then a ring these athletes a lot of times like to skip those ropes and swing through the rings they will not be able to do that today there have to engage those those short slick ropes and grip strength at the very end of the race is going to be difficult and at a premium there is a knot at the bottom so if you reach for it you want to get the bottom of your palm right above that knot so it can pressure into your hand help your grip just a little bit and maybe get him through that last little bit on that multi rig but this is Rebecca Hammond right now running in third position heading down toward the water as coming out of the water neck-and-neck the battle for first place Nicole miracle just steps in front of Lindsay Webster as they work to get their life jackets off and start this final section of running heading into the final two and a half miles of this race these are like two prizefighters going into the 10th round of a heavyweight championship fight and nobody is giving any ground they're up in each other's grills and trading blows all the way from the beginning now all the way through the end it's gonna be a huge challenge now for Lindsay Webster actually to hold off Nicole miracle the majority of the running that remains is very flat and fast but there is that one huge hill that they will face before heading into that a-frame cargo net and a few huge obstacles looming after that some big ones the spear throw obviously massive the tire flip could be huge although we tend to see the men struggle with that more than the women there's a Hercules hoist there's a rope climb but that's spear throw scares us they really does we saw what happened in Utah with so many of the ladies vying for that position four spots in the national series as we get back to that in a minute as you take Ryan woods through the rig Ryan woods making the transition to the pipe right here and then it's those two Tarzan ropes that he's gonna have to get with the knots oh he's feeling a little bit of struggle if he can get to that ring he's safe and there you have it as he heads now to the vertical cargo net he's got to get over the tabletop and up the vertical cargo the most important part for him right now is working on the celebration because as soon as he gets over this this race is in the bag now Ryan woods for all the adversity that he's faced this year after winning a championship in the National City last year he had a rough year but now a chance to celebrate because Ryan woods is going to come across the line your champion North American Championship title is yours Ryan woods you earned it you deserve it and quite a finish for Ryan Woods your champion on the day I said that his national series was a dumpster fire he just steps over the fire becomes a chant today and represent in America you know an incredible performance and a lot of redemption for a guy that had a time penalty in his first race miss spear in his second race and injury withdrawal in his third race of the year he just didn't have anything go his way this year but now he has a championship to his name and Ryan Atkins showing the incredible grip strength as he's coming through in second place position right now easily navigating these ropes the hits the bell without even using the ring he's the most consistent racer in the sport he's been second place or better in every race of the national series and North American Championships this year he just manages to always get it done Ryan Atkins you're looking at one of the greatest of all time there's no such thing as an off day for this man and you know he wanted to win this race this year but second place is a fantastic showing for an incredible athlete Ryan Atkins second place in the North American Championships and a fantastic finish to this race and he's setting this up for the world championship in Lake Tahoe and that's the one that he really wants I'd say for most of us out here you have to assume that he is a guaranteed lock for the podium at the World Championships still seeking that elusive first-place finish he has four runner-up finishes at the World Championships and a big flex in a chest bump of Ryan woods just showing again the camaraderie that makes his sport so very special right now Nicole miracle with a nice little gap heading into the hurt Kois on Lindsay Webster and in the men's race Ryan Kent was third last time we saw with Kemp's and right on his heels as well as Robert Killian and a number of others but how are things gonna shake out that battle for third is one of the most interesting battles he's seen all day so I'm interest to see how it pans out well again we're looking at that hoist critic goal that Nicole miracle again escape here with as much cushion as possible because we know the closing abilities that Lindsey Webster has especially with that big climb looming yeah and again this is at mile 11 so there's not much after this after that climb it is Lindsey Wed serves wheelhouse to sprint down that hill so Nicole miracle better put in the work it's right now it's a five second gap and that's all and we see how steep this is five seconds could disappear in a matter of moments on a climb like this if you lose your momentum even briefly if you come up for air you have your issues you can catch her fast and that is Ryan Kempson coming out of nowhere to seize third place a podium spot and the North American Championships and of course a thrilling finish for him we've got to ask the question what happened to Ryan Kent's well we just found out it happened at the tire Robert Killian and Ryan Kent struggled there are two bigger stronger athletes but Ryan Kempson made it through clean and took over third place and we don't know where Killian and Kent are yet well there's our answer that's Robert Killian celebrating at the top of the vertical cargo net a little somersaults over the top and now Robert Killian he's won this race twice before he's gonna have to settle for fourth place today no podium finish for him but you know what a great showing Robert Killian shown he is ready to compete for the world championship in Tahoe at the end of next month take it home fourth position today yeah the throne was taking him from today but he is still a champion he treated as such and the crowd treated him as such as he was celebrating with him at the top but we got to talk about Ryan Kempson who is in second position for much of the early part of the race fell all the way back into fifth or worse and then battled all the way back into her third place incredible comeback win this field what a gutsy showing out of him and speaking of gutsy look what we have right here the final major ascent of the day and you have Nicole miracle and Lindsey Webster going head to head and Nicole miracles boyfriend right here that's Aaron Newell sneaking into fifth position in the U and the North American Championships that's an amazing showing out of Aaron Newell who has got to be thrilled closing down and taking in fifth and a very unfortunate ending to Ryan Kent stay that this is how it went down for him but great day for Aaron Boone so Newell taking that fifth spot Robert Killian and fourth Ryan Kempson and third Ryan Atkins settles for second but your champion on the day Ryan woods and four more with him the third member of our team Steve Hammond well thanks guys Ryan you've had a bit of a trip tough season this year but you've really really come for and this is a massive win for you what does it mean for you to win this and going into Tahoe the s been too rough year I was a US Series champion last year and I thought I'd defended this year and I just had you know the trust incident and injury and then just a bad race in Utah so it's been really bad but it's all that motivated me and really made me work hard on my fitness coming in today and this is the second biggest race of the year and I took home the title I've got a u.s. Series title now I've got the North American title and there's one title left to get the World Championships well speaking of titles Lindsay Webster who's got two world titles to her name and numerous US national Series titles also a North American Championship title is competing to get one more and that's the Comerica looking for her first still a title of any kind in the Spartan sport because right now Lindsay Webster is trying to just seize them all stash them all keep them all for herself yet Ryan Woods referenced a career Spartan trifecta US national series North American Championship Series and Tahoe he wants to get that Lindsay Webster right now holds a single-season trifecta doing that last year and is trying to double up and do it this year but Nicole miracle is eager to take that away from her it's like the tiger Slam right now that she's going for and right now somehow she's managed to get away from Nicole miracle that's a gap forming right there and it wasn't where we expected it wasn't on the big climb it happened on a little downhill here and now the bucket carry will be critical huge win for Nicole miracle to hang with Lindsay up to this point we thought maybe Lindsey could have dropped Nicole on that downhill but now they're a neck-and-neck on the bucket and that means they have the chance and the opportunity to be together on that spear throttle just coming up this is an absolutely insane battle you don't see competition like this 12 miles into a Spartan race where they have not created an inch of separation from one another where each has led for an equal amount of time and where neither has shown a single sign of weakness for over 90 minutes they have been trading blows and not backing off the mental and physical fortitude that takes is just incredible well Rebecca Hammett has just climbed up one of the steep sections of this course and now a moment to run before it kicks up again she's on the final big climb of this day we talked about Ryan woods being very savvy and having to make sure that he kept pushing when really in a couple spots nobody else was around him it seems like Rebecca Hammond has been running alone in third place for the majority of this race having only herself to push herself that is so hard in itself this is a sport where you can get isolated out there by yourself on your own and it's so critical that you continue to maintain that sense of urgency as you see her alternating between that power hike and getting back to that run you have to find the way to push yourself right to that verge of your redline limits without blowing up and without becoming complacent and still side by side first and second place Nicole miracle and Lindsay Webster as Nicole now searches into the lead and Nicole has the inside track on that now actually they got to go single file because Nicole took the inside track and the way that's curving it gave her the lead just by position now Lindsey has to work harder on the outside if she wants to pass her Nicole would not let her that was it a little acceleration very savvy vet moved trying to keep her from getting around she knows I need to dictate the terms of how this bucket kerry goes down and lindsay trying to respond as well as they close in on the bottom of the first half of this bucket they merked their way through the entire Spartan helmet shape and again you're gonna look for Lindsey to try and make a pass on this uphill Nicole better close it in tight actually she's went to the proper side because they're gonna turn now to the left but if Nicole had given up that ground Nicole now would be five feet in front of her and not the opposite and again a lot of this is just psychological battle it's just showing I'm not weak right now I feel very strong I feel very good and I'm also not gonna let you have control this thing I want to keep it for myself just a presence of mind that Nicole miracle showed right there just shows you how intelligent that these athletes are and how savvy and veteran they have been throughout the course of not only its race but in their careers another quick to set they're gonna open up their stride when you are competing neck-and-neck and you're trying to hold someone off for the entirety of a race it requires a ton of concentration and it requires a ton of willpower one of the things is when you're off and you could just run and get a rhythm that's one thing but every single step these two are taking they are competing and it's just taking a lot of energy out of them and a lot of energy spent right there there was a little confusion and Nicole was able to take advantage of it actually afternoon Lindsey had gone out first so it doesn't seem like a lot but that wastes a lot of mental and emotional energy and creates frustration with these two athletes now when they get to the top of this climb it's gonna bank left keep going up that's where they'll hit that staircase and then there's an actual open flat section of running and there that's Nicole's favorite bread-and-butter section Lindsay's got her work cut out for if she's gonna make up the time we're looking at a spear throw that might be the difference in this race if Nicole could get there a little bit faster to the spear it allows her to take more of her time it allows her to lower her heart rate she could have a couple extra seconds to hit that spear it could give her such an advantage because Lindsey is gonna have to rush after that if she wants to keep up well Nicole miracle has stretched herself a little lead she took advantage of a little bit of directional snafu for Lindsey but Nicole is hitting apart where it levels out watch her speed kick in before she hits pipe layer up here I don't know whose Adrenaline's kicking more there's our mind right now because this is fun man this is definitely fun this is as close a battle as we have seen in any beast race in recent memory usually these things get so spread out because someone just has a good day or someone has an off day but right now you're watching the two best females the sport going head-to-head and neither of them is given an inch it's safe to say that the miles they're running right now might even be faster than the miles they were running early in the race they are flying well Nicole miracle hits this obstacle first but this is one that can actually take a little bit of time if you to choose the wrong route through those pipes it couldn't slow you down you could see Nicole headfirst Lindsay feet first and they come out in a virtual tie Nicole Lindsay Brad Bell just a little bit earlier and again another counter punch to Nicole's excellent effort on the bucket look at that acceleration from Lindsay Webster she's trying to kick from distance she knows that Nicole has superior top speed so she's got a hurt her wherever she can before they get towards that final finish Lindsey's background is a cross-country skier Nicole's background is as a 15-hundred meter runner at Rice University it's a very good Division one track program and she is now kicking in front of a track athlete and doing it with fearlessness and again we're talking 12 and a half miles into this race at this point this is one mile to the finish tops probably even a little bit less now is where it's gut-check time this is about who wants it more and really nothing else the two of them are really at their limits if they had anything more they would have already thrown it at the other person so now it comes down to who's got the legs to go back to that rocky reference again with him and Apollo Creed this is ender slugging it out and whoever it gets off the mat first is gonna win the championship today this is something special you're watching right now Nicole miracle has got to put on a hard charge right now because Lindsay Webster has counter punched her once again and as they head into this little descent right here this is the chance to use the last little bit of speed in your race they're gonna head around this corner and into that wooden plank boardwalk section that is a fast section of the course it really picks up and when they get down to this rope climb it's gonna be a race to kind of hit that Bell and get to the spear first but Lindsay Webster is taking advantage of this small hill right now that do whatever she can to hold off Nicolle miracle she's so good on this descents and Lindsay Webster looks as fresh as ever right now and that is definitely a little bit of separation Foreman that's mile 12 possibly even more and we are right near the finish of this race heading into the woods Nicole knows any little technical spots like this this is what Lindsay craves this is what she wants I need to hug right on her heels and Lindsay right now also could use the money her and her husband Ryan Atkins just bought a new house they could use that extra money for some renovations so that's gotta be running through her head as well so Nicole miracle chasing Lindsay Webster both seeking that top podium spot and that is a fall from Nicole miracle and that is not good for her towards the end of this race let's hope she's okay she's got to put herself back together and open up and maintain that tempo she was throwing down before physically she looks fine but psychologically that has to be devastating she's been putting in so much work to keep up with Lindsay and now because it had fall she's just given up about a 15-second gap yes she's definitely an entire length of bender behind now how quickly can she make her way over the top and does she have the speed left in her legs to close here at the end a tough break for Nicole Buerkle that created the separation that she did not want to see at this point in the race and now it's gonna be all about can she claw her way back into this race and will Lindsay Webster hit that spear throw coming up this is one of those championship moments literally how bad do you want it you're gonna have to put in more work and endure more suffering than you probably ever had if you want to snatch us away from Lindsay Webster we're heading into that boardwalk section of the race right now this is gonna be about speed and that's good news for Nicole because she is great at the speed work that is her sweet spot her bread and butter and she's gonna have to work that entire section so we have Rebecca Hammond on the bucket it is probably about a four-minute difference between her and Nicole maricon Lindsay Webster right now the question is how far is the fourth-place athlete behind Rebecca and he's gonna be able to see whoever that is while she's on this bucket Carrie well we've seen face standing sitting in fourth position for the majority of the day Rebecca Hammond has held steady in third position it's been a lonely day for her it's been a lonely day for face standing and each of them wants that final podium spot the question of course what we asked how far back is Fay does she have a charge left in her and we know this is Rebecca's first race back and her legs hold up for these final couple miles well this bucket carries really showing it she's moving it through very smooth looks like that ankles fine on those tight turns and she's coming down with that heavy bucket and here's Nicole miracle approaching the hurdle she's gonna have to get a little boost over this that's a big separation that Lindsey webster's just formed she's putting her finishing kick on from easily three-quarters of a mile out from the finish she wants to end this race now and she got to see exactly where Nicole miracle was and that she has a little bit more of a gap on her that she had in the woods that fall was everything in this race these athletes were not separated by more than two seconds before that fall and you could see that Nicole's confidence has been shaken right now and lindzi's is absolutely swelling and years passed many of the women in that field could absorb 60 burpees 90 burpees and still win a race the level of athleticism of precision is raised to such a bar right now that a simple slip is now what separates first place from second place going into the final obstacles and that's again Rebecca Hammond sitting in third place she's not in it for this final push but you know who is Nicole miracle may be making one final attack to try and win this race to win her first championship title because Lindsey Webster is trying to win her third North American Championship and go after that coveted double trifecta of holding all three of those titles in one season remarkable absolutely remarkable and you could see Rebecca Hammond is just at her limits as compared to Lindsey Webster who looks so smooth right now absolutely flying through these final couple turns on this board walk up and out and into the spear throw is next after running through all that undulating terrain being able to run on these docks must be such a welcomed feeling on their feet as she's back up into the grass and the coal is still hot on her heels she is not backing off as she's flying past these other runners we're looking at about a 15 to 16 second gap between them right now possibly even as much as 20 not insurmountable but starting to get dangerous if you're in a coal miracle and again in pipe layer this is Rebecca Hammond she hasn't done this obstacle very much it's kind of a strange technique but the legs first is what Lindsey Webster did and it seemed to work pretty well for her as well and as she comes out her key is just don't blow up now so close to the end don't blow up lindsey is about 12 and a half miles into this race right now as she's hitting the helix and helix as a dangerous obstacle because that plexiglass can actually be very slippery she's got to be very cautious with where her foot placement is especially on those lower sections staying high on this thing can be absolutely key to avoiding mistakes because the slip at least you don't have to worry about stuffing a toe on the ground and getting called for failure but no problems from Lindsey Webster here not something that's gonna really tax you that physically especially because at this time of day wasn't really wet or muddy but it does tax your concentration it does drain a little bit of that mental energy and takes your focus off of things like the spear but if you're on this and you're thinking about the spear it allows you more opportunities to possibly fail and she just went down from that a little bit differently it just looks like she's not feeling the same as she did before that fall here your legs look a little bit jelly right now for Nicole miracle but she's only 15 seconds back it's not over yet she's still managing to turn over with some high tempo and still the spear could change everything and Lindsey Webster is approaching that right now she's got a rope climb first and then with heavy arms the spear coming right afterwards this rope climb she needs to conserve energy use her legs the best she can just like Ryan Woods executing a j-hook is only gonna take three poles to get to the top of that Bell incredibly efficient lowers herself down with control didn't risk going down too fast and burning and blistering her hands on the rope now she's running to that spear knowing that if she could hit that she's in the driver's seat for the North American Championship yeah I mean the big thing here is Nicole is still close and as long as she is Lindsay knows that the pressures on her Lindsay controls her destiny right now if she wants to win this championship she's really just a spear away that's a great point because even with that fall any mishap by Lindsay she would only be about five to ten burpees in while Nicole is able to get a throw off and there's no there's not enough ground for Lindsay to make up anything on her unless Nicole made a mistake as well so right here this really could be the determining factor in this race and don't forget it's pace of throw as well Lindsay is trying to throw quick today and a really nice strike right down the center of the pipe Lindsay webster's nailed the spear and now it's just about half a mile and a championship to her name if she can hold off Nicole miracle right now who also must hit this spear to have a shot you want to talk about like doing well under pressure Lindsay Webster used to routinely mr. spear it was her worst obstacle she just stepped up to that and in no time drilled the stroke perfectly in the middle and that was probably the best spear throw I've ever seen her throwing her life and to do it under those stakes was remarkable and he could see taking her time being very cautious Nicole miracle nailed it that was huge that she nailed that she still got a shot she's still in this thing but now it's the run of her life is the only way she's gonna be able to pull Lindsay Webster back she is running out of real estate real fast and Lindsay shows no signs of weakness going back to that one slip and fall there was possibly two seconds that separated when she went down it became 15 seconds now you're seeing a lead that's probably about 45 seconds how did Lindsay Webster put such a gap in the call in that time well when that fall happened you could see she came up a little bit lame a little bit slow and didn't have the confidence now the separation still was only about 20 seconds at that spear throw so nothing is over yet but two easy flips the gap has grown at the spear itself Lyndsay through quicker than the coal did one thing that's a little different that we saw from the Meno that slip wall the ladies are less explosive and have more of a difficult time getting that high up on the wall in particularly wet shoes this moment right here of what we've seen in the past could have a flip so this is no gimme at all well into the barbed wire out of the first section of rollin mud that's Lindsey Webster and her lead seems to have grown to about that 45 seconds you mentioned before david migite in Big Bear last year we saw athletes that were right at the front spending two to three minutes at that slip wall so anything could happen right here yeah and it looks like strangely enough a little bit of struggle with that tire flip but Nicole is in and out she's on her way into the rolling mud but now she needs some help she needs Lindsey Webster to make a mistake to either struggle on that slip or to make a mistake on that multi rig and that's wishful thinking with the way Lindsey has been on obstacles this year the great thing about Spartan Race it's never over until you cross the finish line anything could happen well she's gonna have to up that sense of urgency to have any chance now because Lindsey Webster is running like a woman possessed and the cold miracle looks like she's gonna be satisfied with second place if she doesn't drop a little bit of extra hustle into this thing that's actually if you could see it right now it looks like she's kind of conceding it but you never stop pushing Lindsey Webster can make a mistake and Nicole miracle needs to continue to push to take advantage of it if it happens it's a it's been a long day but at the same time there is still a chance if you've worked this hard you might as well work a little bit harder and try to like sneak away a reward she could still steal this race so Nicole miracle trying to close that gap on Lindsey Webster who just seems to just have a little bit more in the tank today Lindsey Webster over by that slip wall already in the coma miracle approaching it now two obstacles left on the day the slip wall after this rolling mud pit you have the slip wall you have the multi rig and then of course yes not to mention so three obstacles the vertical cargo net but the failable ones are right here in front of them yet those obstacles right there and there is Lindsay Webster running away so she definitely executed the slip wall and Ryan Atkins is cheering her on there's her husband who followed her down quarters to give her a couple flexes and let her know that he's there for and to cheer on well an incredible performance by Ryan Adkins always runs back onto the course to make sure that his wife knows that he is there and ready and a big charge and reach and there is where we talked about right there keV a hard slip wall to get up and she's gonna have to pull herself back together and make another charge at this because this is the opening that Rebecca Hammond was hoping for exactly Rebecca Hammond is still looming and we've seen athletes spend a tremendous amount of time here oh the bottom of a not huge reach that's a massive grab buying a cold miracle she's out of the woods on this obstacle and really the only thing standing in her way from second place is of course that multi rigged very sure handed athlete that move required a ton of power and explosion every attempt that she would have made after that would have been so much more difficult to complete that could have gone downhill and really bad in a quick way there so she's very fortunate she got it on that second try but let's talk about this amazing woman right here this is Lindsay Webster she's managed to win two World Championships in the last two years two North American Championships in the last two years three the US national series championships in the last three years and by the end of this race today she's gonna hold her third North American Championship in as many tries all she has to do is get through this multi ribbon we're gonna have to come up with some acronyms because every time we talk about her accomplishments it just takes way too long so just in the last month yeah it's it's it's it's getting ridiculous so Lindsay just to put it in reference she used to fail this obstacle routinely Houston never be able to even do a bar Traverse she's worked incredibly hard to fill in our entire obstacle game things like this were for a while guaranteed 30 burpees and now she just completed it with the greatest beams and actually executed that better than Ryan would it's unbelievable how quickly she made it through that she pulled herself all the way up he can see she's been working on her pull-up game and now Lindsay Webster is about to seize the third us excuse me the third North American Championship title she just keeps on winning representing Canada the Americans just cannot take it from the Canadians in the women's field because right here Lindsay Webster has claimed the North American Championship for the third year in a row and she is going into Tahoe the heavy favorite for her third title there as well Lindsay Webster winning another one take a bow Lindsay claim it whatever way you want take a seat somebody give her a massage get her a drink but she is a champ and she is celebrating as such and listen we got to hand it to Nicole miracle here who again one of the best climbing and grip strength athletes she's not gonna have a problem there but kudos to her she finished second in the North American Championship in 2017 she finished third right behind Rebecca last year and here she is gonna stand on the podium you know barring the impossible failure here she's just so nervous right here so consistent and what we're seeing out of hers she seems to be the only person in the world right now with the ability to go toe to toe with Lindsay Webster and have a chance had this race ended at mile 12 she would have won who knows might have been her day but instead she's gonna have to settle for a second regroup and aim for Tahoe because at Lake Tahoe the world championships Nicole miracle has put Lindsay Webster unnoticed I'm coming for you 200 qualified women athletes stood at the start line today for her to consistently be in the top three and almost every single one of these races year after year is remarkable she should hold her head up high she has lost nothing today Jesus added to her own legacy as well it was one of the best female obstacle racers in history remember in Seattle how much difficulty had she failed that three times after a 13 mile race she just made that liquid ease from race to race she just gets better at everything and there we have it Nicole miracle running in to a second-place finish at the North American Championships third last year but second this year and looking to add to her resume maybe with a world championship at the end of the year Nicole miracle second place on the day and it's disappointing of course but at the same time second place is nothing to be upset about when it's a great champion like Lindsey Webster that took it but again a great battle between the two of them and a lot to look forward to in the upcoming years and the rest of this season Lindsey I'm Nicole force Lindsey to race with absolute perfection and here we have Rebecca Hammond the breakout masterful performance at this very race last year at this time last year nobody knew who she was she was an anomaly she was a stranger now it looks like she's gonna take the podium for the second year in a row and as she's taken the OSI our world by storm she has taken another podium here today in West Virginia it's an amazing performance out for the entire year doesn't faze her at all she goes through these obstacles like it's just easy child's play and here she goes over the final obstacle of the day that vertical cargo net once she finishes it she's gonna have claimed her third podium finish in a championship race in as many attempts which is actually unbelievable unprecedented meant Becca Hammond third place today in the North American Championships what a return and look out Lake Tahoe because here comes Hammond never has a third place performance put more fear into the athletes around her than this one today this is Rebecca Hammond - a full season of training just wait until she gets a season under her belt she's got one more month to get it in - can get that Fitness ready for the World Championships in Lake Tahoe top three women as anticipated Lindsay Webster Nicole miracle and Rebecca Hammond and face 10 and chasing right behind and again as we look into the final top five aerial Fitzgerald did manage to slip into the top five their face setting and forth Rebecca habit at third to Comerica in second and Lindsey Webster in first and with Lindsey Webster Steve Hammond well Lindsay Webster you did it again you held up in the call on this epic of the course you keep winning you know I've asked you this before what is your secret but there must be something in your training plan you're crushing all the trail races as well what's going on Lindsey Webster actually I thought she was gonna take this one from me and then you never know like some days you have those really good mental days and I think we're a couple miles from the finish now it's like no like I was just really interesting and I was I wanted to just leave everything over there that I had and when I kind of turned that on I guess it was enough to sort of like drop her a little bit and I think she also started cramping so that helps unfortunately you guys run together for most of the course where did you break from her because you finished only about you know 30 seconds maybe a minute head not even that so yeah I mean she was leading for the first half and then once we hit about mile seven then I lead it through that woodsy section and then we were together at the Swim and I think I finally broke away from her on that whole staircase section where you run up the staircase and then we run down the ramps and we're going I was like going around the railings yeah it's hard to kind of explain away but that's kind of why I mean you're winner today you must be so proud of yourself going into Tahoe you must be extremely excited I'm really excited for Tahoe yeah definitely I mean I'm nervous for it but I'm glad we have a month off sort of recoup a little bit and refocus and yes can't wait well thanks a lot Steve and of course your woman's podium finishes Rebecca Hammond the cold miracle and Lindsay Webster your North American champion once again and on the men's side Ryan Kemp's and Ryan Atkins in second and Ryan woods claiming your North American Championship for the men an incredible showing this year at the North American Championships in West Virginia for Steve Hammond for Kevin Donahue op David beginner we'll see you in Lake Tahoe

Channel: Spartan Race

Views: 274,162

Rating: 4.8150597 out of 5

Keywords: Spartan Race, Spartan, OCR, Obstacle Course Racing, Full Spartan Race, Beast, West Virginia Beast, Motivation, Spartan Athlete, Training, Race, Spartan West Virginia

Id: d2ov7lkSnIo

Length: 147min 11sec (8831 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/unexBot]

OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected:

Never seen such a pitch invader

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Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.

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Look at my source code on Github What is this for?

[u/Zodiak4371]

I ended up watching this for like 15 minutes

[u/XboxValentine]

Bearly got near her to be fair.

[u/Eshim906]

I kept waiting for the second attack...

[u/RocketmanRK]

“Thats’s a bear!! That’s a bear!!”