Hordes of Spartan Racers were released in waves of 200 participants every 15 minutes to face about 15 obstacles involving watery ditches, ropes, steep climbs, high walls, fire and barbed wire in the 2014 Montana Spartan Sprint.

Saturday, thousands of Spartan Race participants flocked to Bigfork to try a course designed by Spartan Race founder, Joe DeSena. This was the second year the town hosted the race and many participants were facing the extreme obstacle course for a second time.

With his hair spiked up in a pink-tinged Mohawk and wearing a neon pink shirt, Mike Mitchell, 38, of Bozeman boarded a bus to the race with his friend Nate Orlowski, 24, also of Bozeman.

Mitchell said he’s sporting the pink shirt in his mother’s memory and to raise awareness for breast cancer. His mother survived breast cancer, but died of a heart attack in 1999. Her name, and the names of other women who have served as mother figures to him, were scrawled across the back in permanent marker.

“It’s fitting that it’s mother’s day weekend. Mother should be appreciated and honored for more than just a day,” Mitchell said noting that when he finished the race he planned to place his finisher’s medal at his mother’s gravesite.

Mitchell also wore a wrist brace to ease muscles inflamed after a snowmobiling accident, but didn’t seem fazed by it. This was his first Spartan Race and he wasn’t sure what to expect other than what Orlowski, who raced at last year’s sprint, had told him.

“I rolled my ankle in the first 100 feet last year, so I took two hours and had to walk through it,” Orlowski said.

“I’ve heard his stories last year and I just wanted to challenge myself,” Mitchell said, hoping for a tough road ahead. “I wouldn’t want it to be easy my first year. My first goal is to finish it. The second goal is to finish it without injury.”

Once at the race site, racers got off the bus and began walking down a muddied path — a glimpse of what lay ahead. Sporadic rain showers made obstacles slicker and muddier.

Racers on their way in walked past muddied finishers on their way out.

“Made it?” one racer asked a finisher.

The finisher replied, “Yes.”

“Then, there is hope,” the racer said.

Before racers could even reach the starting line, they had to clear a more than 5-foot-tall wall, a sample of the obstacles ahead. After jumping the wall, racers were corralled together at the starting line as an announcer’s voice boomed over a loudspeaker.

“In order to prepare you for today’s battle, today’s challenges, today’s task at hand, I will ask you ‘who am I,’ you will respond in a loud, thunderous voice ‘I am a Spartan,’” the disembodied voice proclaimed.

“Look to the Spartan on your right, on your left, in front of you and behind you. Give them a high five. These are your fellow Spartans.

“You will not retreat. You will not surrender. Who am I?”

Racers yelled back, “I am a Spartan.”

Above the finish line, onlookers watched racers zigzag around rocks embedded in the muddy paths as they maneuvered down a final hill before facing the last wall that blocked their path to victory.

Allison McKee, 40, of Claresholm, Alberta stood behind a guardrail cheering on team members. McKee had finished the Spartan Sprint earlier in the morning after participating in what is called the Hurricane Heat at 5:30 a.m. The special heat paired runners with Spartan Race founders and staff through an untimed course run.

“You got this,” McKee shouted. “Go Grant.”

McKee is the owner of a gym called Body Integral. She said a team of about 60 members from the gym was racing and that interest had grown from last year’s team of 27.

McKee, along with team member Sally Llyod, 41, and husband Shawn Ryer, 42, are aiming to complete the Spartan Trifecta for a second time. To complete the Trifecta, racers must finish all three levels of the Spartan Race including the Spartan Sprint, Super Spartan and Spartan Beast. More miles, more obstacles and more extremes are added to each level. The Spartan Beast is more than 12 miles and 25 obstacles.

“While it’s much shorter than the Beast it’s still technically hard,” Llyod said.

After jumping the final obstacle — a semicircle of fire — Juyoung Scott, 32, and Ryan Scott, 35, join up to hold hands and cross the finish line together.

The Lethbridge, Alberta couple also ran last year’s Spartan Sprint in Bigfork and said extreme obstacle races are great for people who aren’t necessarily athletes in a particular sport such as running, but want a fitness challenge.

Juyoung said she doesn’t normally run but, “I run so that I can do this.”

“The obstacles make it fun — just not knowing what’s coming next,” Ryan added.

They agreed that it is helpful to have a partner or a team to get over wall obstacles, for example, or provide encouragement through burpees.

“Even the training leading up to it,” Ryan Scott said.

The couple plans to return if the race is held in Bigfork again.

“We come down to this one because it’s so beautiful,” Ryan Scott said.

After racing, finishers discuss the obstacles and strategies.

Tim Price, 41, of Kalispell estimates he took 52 minutes to complete the sprint. This is his second year participating with a team from the gym he owns, Flathead Health and Fitness.

“I felt it was a shorter distance, but more aggressive terrain and steeper hills,” Price said.

On the way to the buses taking racers back to their vehicles, one finisher said, “There was a little more barbed wire than I wanted.”

One weary finisher stopped and looked up before boarding the bus. With a smile, she sighed, “Oh no — steps.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.