Surviving the Spartan Beast
I used to snicker at people who did Spartan Races. Quietly, behind their back. It tracks, for so long I was a finance girl, boujie, only respect for mainstream elite behavior. And there Spartans are, rambling around in the bushes, digging through mud, inglorious, ignoble, degrading. I was a different person before I came out as nonbinary, I was working so hard to minimize and erase parts of myself, it was easy to downplay others' accomplishments as well. I did my first Stadion last year, I can't even remember why. I think a friend of mine said they wanted to do one so I signed up, but then they didn't and I went alone. It's pretty easy to make friends at Spartan Races, even easier than at road races. They take longer, you're doing hard physical labor, none of us get through it without some encouragement and support from strangers. I suppose maybe the elite competitors do, though I suspect even they share some level of camarader...
