Spartan Quest 2019: Orte Beast

Italian town Orte and Beast race as the part of Spartan Italy National Series. Far far from home... 1200 km by car was a quite long trip, but we managed to be there in about 14 hours of non-stop ride. After short "inspection" of festival area we left and visited Orte town above it and then drove another 20 km to accomodate and fall asleep.

Next morning we woke up into the sunny day but when driving down from mountains to Orte, there was laying a thick mist in the walley. So no bright blue sky but misty mood. But shortly after the race started, the mist have disappeared and sun started to shine (more than we needed :). My burned hands and back are pretty good evidence.

I would split the race itself into two halves. The first one was very fast and smooth. On the other hand, the other half was lengthy and also very exhausting.
At the very beginning I was surprised with the density of obstacles. One obstacle after another. There were at least ten of them within the first three kilometers. If I were to say what was special about Orte Beast I would say great number of walls. They were everywhere. I don't remember a race where we would climb so many walls... Quite quickly, the track led us directly to Orte town. I´ve liked this part very much. Orte is a beautiful historic town built on the high rock. I´ve enjoyed really spectacular views of the countryside.

 Multirig in the center of Orte

From Orte we ran down to the valley and then pure trail race took us many times to the Rio Paranza River. But I liked it because the water was quite shallow and not so cold. So far everything went good, but there was somenting I would call "overturn" exactly in the middle of the race. I have failed in very easy obstacle (ballance bench) and in addition to getting a bit tired, in the very same moment I started to have serious problems with my right knee. It hurt me in such a way that I had to slow down significantly. Moreover, I started to fail in other obstacles and many burpees have only raised the knee issues. I have failed on slackline balance, Olympus and even Twister! The worst moment for me was climbing the rope in festival area. I can rope climb and it's not a problem for me. But here, almost at the end of the race, I simply had zero grip. I climbed about a meter below the bell and I was absolutely exhausted. With all the remaining strenght, I climbed to the bell, but my hands trembled so terribly that I couldn't ring the bell! Instead, I ran out of power and began to slide down with fear of falling down. The rope have burned my hands and I let it go high of the ground. I fell onto the straw pile and almost broke to cry. But finally I got up and went to do another 30 burpees. I've never experienced such critical situation before. Then I slowly completed the last three obstacles and finished the race. At that moment I was very surprised that, despite all what happened, I´ve manged to finish the race in less than 4 hours. At least a little joy for me :)

 That face like "Just let me die, dude..."

Final score:
21,6 km + 180 burpees = 3:51:58 finish time.
Rank: 13th place Age Group

My personal evaluation:
Well organized race. First half was fast, the second one just ridiculous and exhausting.

The next stop:
Spartan Race Madrid, Spain, Super (Spain national series)

Im interested in your comments and opinion. Leave me comment below :) 

Related articles:

Spartan Quest 2019 (1): Nagykanizsa Super
Spartan Quest 2019 (2): Kutná Hora Sprint 
Follow my Spartan Race Quest 2019
OCR races in Czech Republic - English

Official race photos: