Train & Pain The Long, Strange Trip To Iceland

How a guy who hates to run or get dirty, wet, or cold ended up running three Spartan Races in three countries in three months.

- Zack Zeigler

I  LOVE TO TRAIN. BUT, holy shit, do I loathe running— especially running long distance. I’m also not fond of being wet, hot, cold, hungry, dirty, or tired. So, no, before last summer I had zero interest in forking over $100 (or more) to crawl through mud under barbed wire; lug stumps, blocks, and rock-filled buckets up steep inclines; or inch my way up a slippery Icelandic mountainside amid a wintry mix of snow, sleet, and awfulness. 

That changed last July. 

I was on a call with a PR rep, fielding a pitch about covering the 2017 Spartan Race World Championship in Lake Tahoe, CA. I was zoning in and out, picking up bits like “Spartan Races are in more than 30 countries” and “more than 1 million people ran one in 2016.” Blah, blah, blah. I was about to pull out my go-to call killer—“Oh, man. I’m late for a meeting, let’s catch up soon!”—when I heard “debut events in Greece and Iceland.” I quasi-sarcastically blurted out, “How about you get Spartan to send me to run all three, and we’ll film it and make a video series out of it?” 

It must have sounded like I hadn’t just thought of the idea, because the conversation came to life. Over the next few weeks, we worked out the details, and then boom: In October, November, and December I’d take on an 8.5-mile, 25-obstacle Spartan Super in Lake Tahoe, an 18-mile, 30-obstacle Spartan Beast in Sparta, Greece, and a 24-hour, nonstop, 50-plus-obstacle Spartan Ultra in Hveragerdi, Iceland. 

“Are you sure you want your third race to be an Ultra?” asked Jonathan Fine, Spartan’s global head of communications. “Not really, but that’s how it’s going to play out,” I replied, feigning confidence.