Every athlete has that one race or accomplishment they want to check off their bucket list.
For Brian Moussally, who has a passion for obstacle course racing, it just happened to be arguably the toughest of those events.
The 38-year-old Hampden resident, who has participated in Spartan obstacle course races over the last four years, conquered the mother of all such races last month: the Ultra Beast at Killington Mountain in Vermont.
The Spartan Ultra Beast consisted of a 30-mile obstacle course run on Killington Mountain with a whopping 60 obstacles.
Participants are given a 15-hour window to finish the event, and only 28 percent of the field, Moussally included, completed it. He finished it in just over 13 hours. Competitors are required to wear headlamps to see in the dark.
“It’s definitely a bucket list thing,” Moussally said. “It’s very humbling. If your mind is not there, forget it.”
The Spartan Ultra Beast at Killington is run alongside the 15-mile Spartan Beast, which nine of Moussally’s fellow Spartans from Union Street Athletics in Bangor, where he trains and takes fitness classes, completed.
In addition, three other racers from the gym, including Moussally’s girlfriend, Lori Perley, completed a Spartan Sprint event at Killington, which has a course of just over four miles.
“The ultra is something in itself,” Moussally said. “It’s the most difficult race that they have.”
He noted that the toughest obstacle on the course was known as the “Death Climb,” which consisted of a very steep hike up a ski trail.
“You’re hiking up a double-black-diamond mountain ski trail, and it’s extremely steep,” he said.
Moussally said another challenging obstacle consisted of bucket carries in which participants must lug two 5-gallon buckets of rocks during a quarter-mile hike.
One difference between the ultra race and the beast and sprint races is beast and sprint racers can get assistance from teammates and other racers in ascending and descending walls. Ultra racers cannot.
Failing an obstacle results in a participant doing 30 exercises called burpees. Moussally couldn’t recall how many he had to do.
“Probably hundreds,” he said, noting he was challenged by monkey-bar obstacles and a spear throw, in which participants have to hit a target with a javelin-like spear.
“I’ve never landed it once, and I’ve been doing it for years,” Moussally said.
In addition to Spartan racing, Moussally has also participated in Tough Mudders but noted that the Ultra Spartan Beast was the most challenging and gave him the greatest sense of accomplishment he’s ever felt.
“I gave my [USA Gym] teammates a hug, it was the most emotional experience,” he said. “You connect with so many people at their limits, physically and mentally.”
USA has an outdoor mini Spartan course on which its members can train. It consists of a climbing rope, monkey bars and a climbing wall, among other things. The gym’s Spartan athletes at the gym generally train together once per week.
Moussally, who is a coach in the Hampden Youth Football league and has two sons in the program, found time to train on his own, even occasionally going for runs at 10 p.m.
“Doing whatever you can whenever you can, long runs, bucket carries, hiking up mountains with a weighted vest [or] taking all the [group fitness] classes at the gym,” he said. “You train when you can where you can.”
All the hard work, discipline, perseverance and determination led to Moussally conquering arguably the toughest event in all of obstacle course racing.
Editor’s note: BDN sports reporter Ryan McLaughlin teaches “Body Pump” classes at Union Street Athletics, where Moussally is a member.
Follow Ryan McLaughlin on Twitter at rmclaughlin23
