Spartan | 2021 North American Championship | Elite Women Coverage

hello spartans i'm david magee and we're in north lake tahoe the home of the last five world championship events and this year the host of the north american championships presented by yokohama and i'm joined today by a very special guest my good friend dave watson spartan head of sport all the way from abu dhabi dave it's great to have you back dave it's great to be here this is so exciting the premier ocr race in the nation this weekend i'll tell you something about the course 4 000 feet of elevation gain that is the killer here it's the it's the steep steep uphills it's about 1200 meters um 13.6 mile course that's about half a mile more than your standard half marathon and then no water on this course so no swim dave uh no dunk wall it'll be very much a race focused on the running and uh core obstacle components this weekend so as we break down the women's race no lindsay webster here today opens the door for a variety of athletes i'm looking at a couple specifically annie dube who's looking for that first elusive win but also reya koble who's strong in the mountains but has never fared well when she's hit the cold water what else do you think about the women's race i actually think emma cook clark is a very interesting person to watch this weekend she's only raced once this season in asheville but you know showed a great performance there so keep an eye on her and then alex walker as well i think is a very good chance for a podium spot i think those are two excellent picks and if emma cook clark reaches peak performance where she's not failing obstacles i think she's going to move into that upper echelon tier of athletes joining lindsay webster nicole merkel making them very nervous down the road we have an incredible race in store for you today a ton of amazing athletes an unbelievable course and the north american championship starts right now [Music] and the runners are off and the question is who's going to take it out hot in the old days it was always nicole merkel perhaps it's one of her proteges from the ocr dream team emma cook clark we know how fast she went out in asheville and uh we look for her to do that again today up this opening climb she's right to the front in the white emma cook clark third position right now that's lauren weeks she's your high rocks world champion and world record holder and then about fifth position in the white you can see annie dooby and he's gonna be lurking throughout this race her objective is just to run steady she's allowed racers like emma clark to get ahead of her before and then worked solidly throughout that race to run them back down right behind her is alex walker she's been steps behind annie throughout the year but on a course like this where athlete can fatigue anything can happen also look for rhea coble again we mentioned her before she loves these long slow grinding courses she lives out in colorado does a ton of work on the mountains but has been working on a lot of different elements of her training on the bike on skis finding different ways to train outside of just pure running as opposed to an emma cook clark who is really focusing almost exclusively on running and now things are starting to really shake out look at that lead from emma cook clark right behind her way in the distance in the white again annie dube followed by lauren weeks rhea coble now you're starting to see the class of the field just further down you see that you have alex walker already being separated from and we've talked about cook clark if she can turn that corner does she have the ability because of how strong she's as a runner as a climber as an overall athlete to really enter that upper echelon of racer in this sport to challenge lindsay webster to challenge nicole merkel when she's healthy but the climb is clearly separating this entire woman's field pretty significantly and off in the distance these you can see that these runners still have a huge amount of climbing left before they reach the peak and although the incline the pitch here is not incredibly steep it's significant enough because you're going to be hitting against it for 20 25 30 minutes at a time before you really start to peak this gradual incline takes a toll this earth here is fairly soft forgiving easy to run on comparatively but they're they're going to start approaching some of the rockier more undulating terrain as well where they're gonna have to switch to some power hiking in between some of these running sections and up in this section here it's also a little bit wet so there's a little bit of mud in there too nothing that's going to slow you down too much but again it's just things that start to affect your rhythm let's cook clark switch to a little bit of a power hike briefly up ahead and back to a run and you can see look at this smart savvy move grab in the water take the water where you can get it now real couples actually moved into second position but annie doobie looks comfortable she looks like she's where she wants to be right now annie and believe it or not these runners are only about a mile and a half up this climb so far each one of these three leaders is clearly running at the pace that they want to be running at right now not a single one of them looks extremely labored but cook clark is putting on an absolutely torrid pace to the top of this mountain now you're getting a little bit into that rockier rougher terrain that we talked about before it's a little bit harder to turn over around some of those hairpin turns sometimes it kicks up a little bit and those men you're seeing that's these women picking up the scraps of the men's fields who started about 15 minutes in front of them and already only a couple miles into this climb and they are passing some of the elite men over at the z wall basically neck and neck right now rhea koble and annie dubi and it would be wise of the two of them to work together push each other help pace each other to try and limit the damage that cook clark can do to them right now as they continue to ascend up this mountain what's cool to see is how the different types of terrain change the different types of rock that is in that they're climbing is changing now it's a little bit more of that like almost like shale rock that like falls apart underneath your feet completely different than what they were running on on the way up the mountain to this point now they're starting to get basically to above the tree line and annie dewby starting to assert herself a little bit stretching away from raya coble just slightly and your woman's leader at the top of the first climb that's emma cook clark making her way into this opening climb of the bucket second place has arrived at the bucket carry it's annie tooby but she's already over a minute behind emma cook clark she's got some work to do but it's early we've seen emma cook clark go out hard early and then get caught we've seen annie be one of those people who's caught her so she has to stay calm keep pushing herself there's a lot of race left third place not unexpected ray coble right here in the mix she's great at the climb she loves going long and she knows with no water obstacle up here today she's in for a good day for the rest of this race but first get through this bucket carry and then of course the dreaded spear right now emma cook clark is absolutely destroying this race and the shoe wraps up her bucket carry there's not another woman in sight right now the competition is emma clark in first can she hit her spear and hold that first annie doobie trying to hold off reya cover for second now over through bender the big challenge for cook clark is of course the spear throw here alex walker's joined the party at the bucket carry along with lauren weeks now coming into the spear throw this is an absolutely huge moment for emma cook clark because she has an opportunity to cement her position at the lead of this race otherwise a miss here would mean she's in a dog fight the rest of the way after 30 burpees it's a little bit windy up here it's not the most ideal conditions and we saw almost half of the lead men's field missed the spear throw it created havoc in the men's race a newer athlete to this race has emma cook clark been practicing her spear throws and that's a miss 30 burpees for him at cook clark and the door is now open we're gonna have an incredible battle between one two three in this race annie dubi has arrived in second position she's trying to just let that blood drain back out of her arms stay relaxed she knows a hit here on the spear gives her a chance to win this race but a miss she'll lose all that ground from emma cook clark's miss emma's already finished her 30 burpees and she's back on the run so annie now knows she's got to go and find a spear that's gonna work for her get a quick throw in there oh that's a stick just barely by any doomy that's as close as it gets right on the edge and now rhea coble can she stay in the race 30 burpees for red cobalt but still in third position at the moment a miss from lauren weeks but alex walker struck her spear and alex walker has got her shot at running down raya coble now as emika clark is now all the way over to twister and you can see there's already been some significant improvement in her obstacle technique she's got the grip strength we saw all those mistakes over in asheville but annie dube is making up ground right now over at twister they're gonna come off this thing essentially side by side [Music] and now we have ourselves a race [Applause] and you have to ask yourself is cook clark prepared to throw down aggressive speed right now against danny dube or is she gonna be content to run with her and he has a huge advantage on actual obstacle proficiency so cook clark is gonna have to outfitness her outrun her throughout the rest of this race nice and once again you're seeing that obstacle proficiency just those extra few seconds that doobie's able to take from cook clark but these are a little bit different these black ropes just take a little bit more time to transition if you're new to them a close call from member club clark but look how quickly back up to speed as alex walker sitting in third place chasing hard wow as we make it to the rope traverse you can see once again how quickly cook clark is able to stretch out these little gaps on the runs i mean we wouldn't run far we took a few seconds here or there but again yep danny dube has been making up time on her throughout these various obstacles this is one of the ones that actually cook clark has done better on the rope traverse right here the real test is gonna come when we get to some of those other heavy carries and you saw that little swing back the loss of momentum from cook clark over here on beater she was able to recover from it but she lost valuable time probably 10 to 15 seconds and now a snag in the barbed wire and these are all things that just come with being a little bit newer to the sport being a tremendous athlete but but a little bit newer in any the experienced veteran avoiding some of those mistakes that cost you a few seconds here and there and looking very smooth on the obstacles as always alex walker trying to get herself back into the race during this top of the mountain gauntlet as your leader is now annie dube but chasing hard behind emma cook clark it's a tall order to beat her down the back side of this mountain yeah you can stay on up jp you can stay with us through the barbed wire crawl that's river bend athlete alex walker trying to hold off a charge from rhea koble who is just completing the rope traverse here and now we're starting to descend a little bit these athletes are going to charge towards the sandbag carry shortly and again look at the speed of cook clarke nice one we got a battle on our hands right now because emma cook clark and annie duby are coming into the sandbag carry and they are separated by mere seconds right now duby smells blood in the water and she is looking to make a big pass on this heavy carry she's already out of the transition taking the lead and now these two are going to battle the rest of the way only one big climb to go lots of downhill and lots of heavy carry so is it going to be clark or is it going to be the mountain goat and this is where experience is going to be a factor you're going to see the comfort level of annie dube really come into play especially look at this technical rocky nasty terrain that they're going down with those heavy bags they'll turn they'll come up the other end of this half pipe and you see right now cook clark has been fumbling with her bag over and over trying to find that comfortable position where is she going to hold it annie dooby is going to assert her dominance and her experience over the next couple minutes on this carry third place huge move alex walker into the sandbag carry somewhere she's past raya coble maybe when she was still doing burpees at the spear but now alex walker is going to assert herself so strong on the obstacle so good at the carries she's not far out of first place right now and she is closing another pass this time emma cook clark moving back into the lead annie dube right behind her duby looks comfortable she's not using a ton of energy clark looks like she's driving hard with that forward lean they come out of here there's an opportunity to open up and really let it rip on the run can they avoid the cramping can they get back to their rhythm but again just seconds separating these two good job keep pushing up to the top and over the last of the climb with the sandbag emma cook clark and right behind her andy dube we're in for a good one for the second half of this race only about five seconds separates them now who's got the legs when they come off this carry clark is fueling once again so we can see she's taking the time to do the little things for her body that she needs in order to maintain her energy levels and keep her legs for later in this race she may be new to obstacle racing and spartan race but she's certainly not new to being an endurance racer and to giving her body the things it needs to thrive but another pass by any dubi on an obstacle and then the quick dismounts as well those transitions in and out she's making up a lot of time there but again cook clark with so much success on these runs another pass these lead changes are constant throughout this race every run cook clark puts herself back in the lead in every obstacle it seems that doobie is able to claw some seconds back back on that loose rock all that nasty stuff easy to turn an ankle or bruise up a foot but cook clark is home in the mountains she's she's been a mountain runner she's very accomplished in this type of racing and you can see how smooth she is transitioning from rock to rock and along these twisty trails is alex walker also joining the descent still in third place alex walker right now [Applause] a little water down the back a refill of the bladder and then up and over the inverted wall these small breaks are gonna help significantly in the later parts of races that are this long it's worth it to take a couple seconds if it might on the back end gain you a whole minute annie doobie doesn't really have that luxury today she has to keep pushing hard she has to make every second count the same for alex walker here she's got to keep driving not just to try and catch second place but also to hold off a charge from raya coble rhea koble is coming we know her ability there she is right there we know her ability to descend and to grind out these longer races and the question is how far is that gap right now keep fishing and this is the second of two major climbs in this race dubious switch to that power hike maybe you'll see a little bit of that on off maybe that 20 seconds on 10 seconds off kind of technique a little bit of tabata style that's gonna be really effective for conquering one of these steeper longer climbs later in the race let the legs recharge change the muscles you're using you did it yep and you know these athletes are tired when they're walking into the wall using that kick plate doobie's up and over the eight footer [Applause] now this is a steep grind this could be one of the steepest parts on the course the steepest portion of this race is about 29 gradient and when you're going to that hands on the knees power hike it's just telling you you're losing your running economy at something so steep it's just helpful save energy you have diminishing returns to keep running in those situations so if it gets really steep that hands on the knee technique just drive those legs to extend that height can be so effective and this is an obstacle right here the stairway to sparta that has cost a lot of races a lot of time it's very difficult it's a little bit slicker than it used to be it's made of a different material that's slippery plastic it's very hard to get your footing but cook clark made good work of that you could tell she's been practicing her rock climbing she walked her feet laterally up that wall locked in her hand position locked in her shoulders and cleared that thing very nicely a totally different technique from duby who just purely muscled it so smooth great strength there for manny dube getting over that stairway so easily but now she has a huge kick home she's a bit tentative on this descent you can see she's breaking a lot that's using a lot of quad but also she's not moving down this descent with nearly the same speed that emiko clark did and she's gonna need to start to open up and really roll yes and up and over the vertical cargo net you can see improved technique on each of these obstacles from the last time we saw code clark you guys let's go let's go just her running speed on display so dominant when it comes to purely covering ground on these trails now we're seeing annie dooby hit those runs the way we need her to she's starting to lean in open up that stride a bit more but look at how smooth cook clark is very little breaking in that run she's really allowing the mountain to take her right down going with gravity come on goodness and believe it or not we are now back at the base of the mountain and this is the last heavy carry of the race the sandbag carry it's been a long way back down no more one last major opportunity for duby to get herself back into this race there's not a huge amount of running room left but there's plenty of obstacles to go maybe not necessarily failable obstacles but obstacles that she could eat into that lead that cook clark has some words of encouragement between the two yeah and you can see some of those athletes in purple that are going by those are ultra racers that started it about an hour and a half earlier and are on the first of two laps oh clark done with that heavy carry now it's really just the obstacle gauntlet the rest of the way and he has a lot of work cut out for her now she's got to be perfect through a lot of this to get herself back in this race nice well done eight foot box a great place to start but again not a rookie anymore emma cook clark learning the little techniques to get through these things quicker and she could smell that wind you could see her pushing hard on these flatter runs as she enters pipe layer he can't have now let's go let's go ray kobel coming into the carry right as doobie's coming out [Music] [Applause] over on the helix obstacle you have to watch out for a little bit of mud on that plexiglass and how risky that can be but for the most part this is just a question of how many seconds will this obstacle take and you could see tremendous growth and acceleration from cook clark from where she was before she's getting through these obstacles much cleaner much smoother much quicker and that is trouble for the rest of the women's field emma cook clark is about to enter the village a-frame cargo net for her helix for doobie [Music] [Applause] it's all pavement the rest of the way from here cook clark is gonna open up and really start to roll go in here [Applause] work work we got eyes on ray coble right now the question is where's alex walker oh that was her right there heading up so ray cover with a huge downhill charge in this race to put herself into third position and a very good chance of keeping it because she's almost a full sandbag length ahead of alex walker using the knot at the bottom of that rope so she could stand through find the grip on that box it's an obstacle that's tough for some of the shorter athletes just because you have to have such a long reach over the top that's it [Music] [Applause] clerk making quick work i love that tire flip and now olympus opting for the holes it's much more slippery than it used to be there's that different plastic that they use on it now as opposed to wood and your legs are essentially useless on it that's it you got this there you go there you go there you go there you go a lot of slipping now she's using rock climbing holds as well [Applause] this is the race right here and cook clark is through it and you can see the relief on her face as she approaches the rope climb and the hercules her final two obstacles of this race come on [Applause] emma cook clark trying to claim the north american championships and we said if she ran a solid race solid on the obstacles she had a chance to join the upper echelon of athletes in this sport and here she is just a full few pulls away from her first championship in the sport of obstacle racing [Music] one more poll lowering down with control and ladies and gentlemen your north american champion emica clark has taken the day and she will cross the line victorious [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] still in second with a couple failable obstacles left any doobie just needs to close this thing out there you go there you go [Applause] [Music] [Applause] using just the holes but the crossover technique that arm over arms annie tooby made quick work of that one and now a rope climb into her coist and second place is hers in the north american championships [Music] always that same expression on her face always so calm so stoic annie dube is moments away from second place today okay take a breath got it nice [Applause] hey [Music] hi danny [Music] [Music] your legs [Applause] to be second place in the north american championships what a phenomenal effort a great battle between two champions and rhea koble rounding things out here can she hold it all together can she hold off alex walker [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as she walks into olympus you can tell rhea understands the significance of completing this obstacle there's a lot on the line third place when you're being chased going for the chains [Applause] three athletes three completely different techniques chains and holes for ray coble just holes for any doobie and holes and rock climbing grips foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] is moments away from claiming third place in the north american championships [Applause] foreign foreign [Music] one deep breath and here she goes [Music] it's been a long day of massive efforts from each of these athletes and right now you're seeing the last bit of juice that rhea koble has left and there you have it third place is going to go to rhea coble an ecstatic ray kobel your third place women's finisher raya komal has managed to sneak back in there and take down in your north american championships raya koval ecstatic with that finish alex walker closing things out today fourth place certainly a great showing here [Music] you always want to be on the podium if you can but certainly there's nothing to be disappointed with for alex walker right here fourth place an amazing showing from her we're here with your women's north american champion emma clark am i right this is only your third spartan race ever okay you're joining the like legends of the sport right now how does that make you feel yeah i mean i'm just really excited that i came and that this year went through with uh everything going on this year with buyers and kovitz and la de da it's like pretty special to be here and with nicole supporting us so much and you guys putting on such an incredible venue it's like it just i feel i feel fortunate to be here so it was like the least i could do to put out a hard effort and to run with annie like leapfrogging and all these other super strong women behind it is really special second place the north american championships your third second place finish in major races this season and i mean take us through this obviously you must want that win but it must feel so good to perform at such a high level and such a huge race yeah i'm i'm super happy with how it went like i ran clean for so long and complain and i felt really in control the whole time i like kind of messed up my toe uh coming well thank you all so much for tuning in for this absolutely incredible race here at the north american championships but don't forget we will see you all in tell your ride i'm david magee for spartan race we'll see you then [Music] you

Channel: Spartan Race

Views: 17,693

Rating: 4.9344263 out of 5

Keywords: Spartan Race, Spartan, OCR, Obstacle Course Racing, lake tahoe, spartan lake tahoe, spartan north american championship, spartan north american championship 2021, 2021 spartan north american championship

Id: j1X-SMWeApg

Length: 48min 44sec (2924 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021