Weekend events expected to attract 7,500 people

This weekend, competitors from around the world will run, jump, crawl and conquer in the Flathead Valley’s annual Spartan Race.

Known formally as Montana Beast and Sprint Weekend, the event features racing Saturday and Sunday.

Previous Montana Spartan Races have drawn competitors from 48 states, four Canadian provinces, Japan and New Zealand.

While this is the fourth annual Spartan Race near Bigfork, Saturday’s Spartan Beast race will be the first of a new class, call the Spartan U.S. Championship Series, to be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.

Diane Medler, director of the Kalispell Convention and Visitor Bureau, said the race draws competitors looking for a new challenge.

“They enjoy running and racing and competing, but they’re always looking for something new,” Medler said. “[Spartan Race developers] are always offering some new challenge.

“It’s about how to confront something you never thought you could do and make it through.”

Reebok, the shoe company that developed the race, holds over 130 Spartan races around the world each year. The race features an obstacle course varying in both intensity and length.

The Montana races at Averill’s Quarter Circle Ranch begin on Saturday with the most grueling class, the Spartan Beast. Competitors will work their way through 14.2 miles of terrain and up 5,000 feet of elevation gain. The course contains 38 obstacles, including natural obstacles such as steep hills and rock formations and installed obstacles such as a tractor pull and barbed-wire field.

“It’s really intense,” Medler said. “Each year the obstacles are a little different and they add new things.”

On Sunday, the Spartan Sprint challenges competitors to a 4-mile course including 24 obstacles designed for all skill levels. Spartan Kids races take place on both days, providing a 1-mile event for children aged 9 to 13 and a half-mile race for children ages 4 to 8.

The televised race, which will air on July 20 on NBCSN, will be the first of a five-race U.S. Championship Series, known also as the Big Sky Sprint. The series travels next to California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Colorado before concluding with the final race in Lake Tahoe, California.

Medler said this weekend’s races are expected to draw about 7,500 competitors. The Spartan Race had the second-largest economic impact of any event held in the Flathead Valley in 2015, bringing in $4.1 million, according to the Convention and Visitor Bureau.

Medler said the Beast race brings in the highest numbers of travelers from beyond a 100-mile radius of the event. Last year, 86 percent of the Beast racers came from outside that radius, primarily coming from out of state. According to Medler, this class of racers continues to grow at Beast race events around the country.

“This year what we’re finding is the numbers of the Beast are increasing a lot, which is great because that will bring a lot of people from out of the area,” Medler said.

This is good news for Flathead Valley businesses, she said, because many racers are likely to relax in the area after the race.

“The race is a reason to take a vacation for them,” Medler said. “That’s why we bring these destination events. It gives them an excuse to travel somewhere they always wanted to see.”

Registration is still open for the weekend races at spartan.com/montana. Entry fees range from $129 to $199.

General parking will be located at the corner of Montana 35 and Montana 82 in Bigfork. Parking rates are $10 per car, $20 per van or $50 per bus; only cash will be accepted for parking passes. Free shuttles run all day between the race site and the event parking.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at [email protected].