Finding the warrior within: Thousands test their mettle in Bigfork race

BIGFORK — Thousands of competitors took part in Montana’s first-ever Spartan Race on a warm, sunny Saturday near Flathead Lake.

Spartan Race Vice President of Production Mike Morris said approximately 5,000 runners registered for the race, a nearly 5-mile obstacle course that required rope climbing, wall scaling, tire flipping and trail running.

For Luke Opp, 34, of Columbia Falls, the race was the final stage of a 9-month weight loss program in which he shed 54 pounds.

“My journey started last August,” Opp said. “I decided to go on a diet, start losing weight and come November I signed up and decided, ‘I’m going to do it.’

“I’m a Marine Corps veteran, there’s nothing I can’t do, so why not do it? It was my last endeavor in this whole regime. It’s definitely something that everybody should do, I don’t care who you are. That’s what made me decide to do it, because it’s just determination. Everybody thinks you need to be physically fit and you don’t. It’s mind over matter, that’s all it is.”

Opp competed as part of a four-man team called “Death before Dishonor” and said the course lived up to his expectations.

“The hills were awesome,” he said. “I mean the hills made you suck wind. The traverse wall made you think and some of the eight-foot and five-foot walls made you work, but honestly the course was phenomenal.”

Opp said the sandbag carry was the most punishing obstacle.

“It tests your endurance,” he said. “You just have to pace yourself. If you don’t pace yourself, you’re going to suck fumes.”

Zachariah Diester, 23, of Whitefish, used the race to bond with friends and family, including his future brother-in-law.

“We thought it would be fun to do together and we like being outside, so we just thought it would be a fun time,” he said.

Diester spent the months leading up to the race running 5Ks in the morning and lifting weights to ensure he had the strength and stamina to finish.

“It’s hard to know what to train for as far as the traverse wall and the tire flip and all that stuff, but just general conditioning as far as cardio,” he said. “That was the biggest thing, the running between obstacles and the steepness of the course. Just a really significant elevation gain.”

Many of the competitors came from outside the Flathead Valley. Morris said 60 percent of the registered participants drove over three hours to attend the race.

“I was just talking to a couple people from Canada,” Morris said. “Idaho you hear a lot, Seattle. I was flying in from Denver and there’s a guy sitting next to me on the plane who’s coming in for the race, so people come from all over.”

Jessica O’Connell, 30, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, traveled to the Flathead Valley with 15 members of her crossfit gym and was treated to a gorgeous view of Flathead Lake from the top of the course.

“Oh my gosh it was awesome,” she said. “A lot more uphill than I expected, but it was beautiful and the obstacles were really fun.”

Morris said the logistics of the race went off without a hitch and he intends to make the Spartan Race an annual event in the Valley.

“The community support was so awesome that everything has gone off really smooth,” he said. “I think coming out of this a lot of our customers are going to say, ‘that was great,’ and I think the next few years can be really awesome.”