After a long hiatus from blogging, I’m back with a big announcement. As of February 15th, 2020, I became what seems to be the 50th person in the world to complete the Spartan Perfect Delta! If you haven’t heard of the Perfect Delta, you’re not alone. Spartan doesn’t promote it very much and many people aren’t aware of the boot-camp style endurance events that they offer in addition to their races.
The Journey
For me, my journey to the Perfect Delta started in mid 2016 when my girlfriend suggested I give the Spartan races a try. I had already tried all sorts of other races before, but I wanted something new. In my Spartan research, I discovered this Perfect Delta infographic:
It’s a little hard to see what the events are, so check out this other infographic from Spartan:
For me this escalating set of challenges was exactly what I was looking for in fitness at the time. I started with Spartan X and Spartan SGX (both classes), and then moved to the race trifecta. From there I started working on the endurance events: the Hurricane Heats, the Ultrabeast, and the Agoge.
Things Don’t Always Go As Planned
My original plan was to finish my Perfect Delta by completing the Agoge. You may be familiar with the “Agoge” from the movie 300. In the movie, the Agoge is the time that Spartan youth spent going through rigorous education and physical training. Once training is complete, they are cast out in the wild to survive and eventually earn their place as true Spartan warriors. Inspired by history, the Spartan Agoge is Spartan’s pinnacle event comprised of endurance and survival lessons for 60 hours straight mostly without sleep. Only the most highly prepared athletes even consider attempting this event.
Unfortunately for me, my plan to complete the Agoge last to finish my delta was derailed when I suffered some poorly timed injuries leading to a couple of event DNFs. Since I already had my Agoge scheduled at Spartan’s headquarters in Vermont (“Killington”), I ended up finishing the Agoge before the Ultrabeast and Hurricane Heat 12 Hour. The next year, after a second GORUCK HTL, I finished up the Ultrabeast, and then in February 2020, the Hurricane Heat 12 Hour.
The Last Piece, The HH12HR
For my Hurricane Heat 12 Hour, my event leader was Patrick Miles II, a GORUCK Selection finisher and finisher of multiple Death Races. I was stoked to have someone leading who is so successful in the endurance community, and who lives by the idea of “DFQ.” Also, since he’s no foreigner to endurance events, I was not surprised that he put on a great and very heavy event.
Fixing My Perfect Delta
Unfortunately, while I was in the middle of finishing my delta, the requirements and appearance of the delta began to change slightly every year starting in 2018. My perfect delta is based on the 2016 standard (when I started). What I ended up with because the delta kept changing was this:
Kind of a bit of a mess if you ask me
You may notice that this is a bit unsightly and the pieces do not match. After some careful consideration of the delta, it’s meaning, and my personal goals, I decided to fix it up with the 2016 delta design I started my path on. So I did some eBay-ing and a quick paint job, and got my Perfect Delta to end up with these bad boys:
Conclusion
This has been a multi-year long journey for me, and I wouldn’t take it back for anything. The classes, races, and events have made me stronger and more capable than ever before. That said, it has been a very expensive journey with many injuries, long workout sessions, and hardships along the way. Like I said, I wouldn’t take it back though, it was worth everything.
If you want to attempt your own Perfect Delta, you can see the current version on Spartan’s site here. Further, if you want to hear my tale of getting this completed, like me, follow me, or sign up for my newsletter, as I’ll be posting the story in the months to come.
For now, I’m going to be sitting in the hot tub a lot.