Putrajaya Beast 2016: First Trifecta

After becoming a human popsicle in Melbourne, it's great to be racing in the tropics again, in what is best described as my native element. First of all, a big kudos to the organizers for a great job! Everything was where it's supposed to be, the bag check area was well managed and secure, and the staff and volunteers were great. This is my first Trifecta and the first along my route to finish a triple Trifecta and fund raise for Club Rainbow.

The race was held in a jungle/natural reserve right next to the Nexus International School Putrajaya (where the race village is located). This was the first Malaysia Spartan Race held in a true jungle after the previous two was held on pre-construction sites.

One of the many hills along the long. Not a good photo.

Depending on how sadistic you are, the terrain is either a dream come true, or your worst nightmare. Regardless of how sadistic you are, you will finish the race feeling victorious. Elevation of the venue exceed 100m, and the organizers certainly made full use of it, with numerous hill climbs throughout the 19.6km route. There was good variety in the running route, with great technical single tracks cutting through the dense forest, mud tracks (both intentional and unintentional due to the rain at noon), open grass plain, shallow ditch to waddle pass, and a few tarmac track to remind you that you are not that far off from civilizations.

Bringing the flavor of jungle warfare to Spartan Racing

Obstacle wise, you have the usual fare of Atlas carry, rope climb, wall climb, sandbag carry, barbwire crawl and more, but upsized (or beast-sized). This resulted in participants slow-down at some of the obstacles. The first major choke is the tyrolean traverse (horizontal rope climb) located near the start of the race. Just like during the March race, there was a long queue to cross the tyrolean traverse, but made a lot worse due to the increased length of the obstacle itself. Participants were told that they could simply do forfeit burpees to skip the obstacles, I waited since the obstacles are the fun part.

Another obstacle that was too long was the barbwire crawl. This is definitely the longest barbwire crawl I seen, and it was packed from start to finish, resulting in slow flow of participants, once someone at the front stopped for recovery, there were no alternate route and the ones behind could only wait. I reckon the choke would be greatly eased if the crawl was divided into two crawl of shorter distance (but equal or greater in total to that one long crawl) at different part of the race.

The A-frame net climb. Queues here too!

The last few obstacles is best described as upper body intense. You start with a simple monkey bar and a short run towards the race village. You reenter the race village by rappelling (new obstacle!) down an almost vertical and muddy slope. And right in front of you is the multi-rig (a monkey bar with gymnastic rings instead of simple bars). The Hercules hoist immediately follows, which squeezes out every last drop of upper body strength you have left. Only after are you allowed to challenge the slippery slip and do the traditional fire jump to mark the end of your race. This series of obstacle literally burned me out as I suffered rope burn when the Hercules hoist slipped from my hand for a moment.

Here with Philip, who serves in the SAF Volunteer Corps. Got to know him at the lobby of the hotel and split a cab with him to the race village. He ran the Beast in frontier boots.

Obstacle wise, it lacks the creativity and variety of the Melbourne races, but made up for it with the terrain and natural running obstacles. The staff and volunteer were hard at work to ensure everything ran smoothly for the participants. There was no chaos at the obstacles or at the bag check-in this time. The medal strap is beautiful, with the Malaysia flag designed into the strap on the left and printed proudly on the right. Overall a great race! Now we wait for the Singapore organizers to see how the Bintan Beast will stack up.