The Spartan Experience

TL/DR: Trying to Trifecta the CO Springs Spartan Trifecta Weekend doesn’t go so well when you haven't trained for it.

Read on for a detailed account of the 2026 CO Springs Spartan Trifecta Weekend.

Last weekend we traveled up to Colorado Springs for the Spartan Trifecta weekend. As usual, we were a little overambitious with our plans of doing the Trifecta (21k plus 10k plus 5k) with next to no training. But it’s important to have ambitious goals. Read more for how it went and what we would do differently next time.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Clear skies, light breeze, highs in the upper 70s, no rain was very nice! The lack of shade was a bit tough but we wore our sun protection shirts (with hoods). We took an extra minute at a couple water stations to wet our shirts to stave off the heat and that helped tremendously. I’m very sensitive to heat stress after my experience on Mt Shasta a couple years ago (story for another blog).

The real challenge of this race was in the lack of training as stated above. It has been a hard year with my dad passing and different illnesses, not to mention building and opening the gym the last 3 months! We had already skipped the Spartan weekend in Phoenix last November and Bataan Memorial Death March earlier this year so I felt like I couldn’t skip another outing. And it felt really good to get out there this past weekend, even knowing it was going to hurt a little extra!

The Colorado Springs Spartan Trifecta weekend at Fort Carson is what I would consider a more challenging race due to a couple different factors.

1) Altitude: Right around 6,000ft above sea level so most people traveling to this one will contend with the acclimatization challenge. Even with us living close to this elevation in Albuquerque, we still felt the lung burn during the runs. If you don’t have the time to come in a week early to acclimatize, or somewhere you can train at altitude, just make sure you are extra well hydrated leading up to and during the race. Plan on running a little slower than you are used to.

2) Elevation Gain: My garmin watch clocked just over 2,300ft of elevation gain and the elevation is concentrated to a few very steep hills. The last two hills in particular are a bit soul crushing and this one had barbed wire crawl going into the last hill, which was a special kind of pain. For most Spartans, but this one in particular, it’s important to train for the elevation gain. If you don’t have a hill you can run near you, practice with box step-ups, incline treadmill and jump rope to build up the leg muscles and hill endurance.

3) Sun: The sun at 6,000ft should not be underestimated. We saw a lot of people with minimal amounts of clothing or no shirts and they looked like they were baking. Seriously, sunscreen is not enough - just invest in a good sun protection shirt with a hood on it. You may not look as cool but your body and skin will thank you. The benefit of having the breathable shirt and being able to cool off by wetting your shirt at the water stations is key.

We went out in the 10am Beast heat on Saturday morning and five and a half hours later we made it to the finish line! All of the factors above came into play. The layout of the course was very similar to last year with the exception of the last hill climb with barbed wire crawl going into the final hill.

We had planned on completing the trifecta weekend but we came to our senses the morning after the Beast. Both of us could barely move without inducing pain in our achey muscles and joints. Already bruised up from throwing ourselves at obstacles the day before. We decided to spend the day resting and checking out the sites around Colorado Springs (Pikes Peak drive, Manitou Springs Brewery, White Pie in downtown CO Springs for dinner).

List below of some of the highlight obstacles.

Rolling mud/dunk wall/slip wall: This is one of the more challenging slip walls due to the amount of mud that gets caked on the ropes. This was less a factor on Saturday before most of the runners went through but last year during the Super on Sunday morning this obstacle was next to impossible with most people needing help at the top. I can only imagine it would’ve been just as difficult this year on the later Sunday heats.

Chain carry: We didn’t see this one on the Super last year and this obstacle was new for me. Not a very difficult obstacle by any means.

Army crawl: This was another new obstacle for me and wasn’t too hard to conquer. Basically just a cargo net stretched out about a foot above the ground. The key here was getting head low and butt up to lift the cargo net up and bear crawl through.

Barbed wire crawl: This one was a brutal uphill crawl. Many people were skipping it. I settled into a good rhythm crawling on my back/butt sitting up between each set of barbed wire to give myself a little break.

Spear throw: Always fun and challenging…still looking to master the throw. I got the practice throw in the village on the first try but the throw on the course was twice as long and four times more challenging. I’ll be investing in a spear and foam block here at the gym to practice with the correct throw distance.

Obstacles that were missing from this weekend: pipe lair, helix, vertical cargo

Here’s our current race schedule for the rest of the year.

8/15/26 - Hawaii Spartan Trifecta Weekend

10/3/26 - Las Vegas Spartan 5k

Thanks for reading this far! Reach out with any questions about the CO Springs Trifecta Weekend or if you think I missed anything notable, I’d love to hear from you.