9.20.12 We Are SPARTANS! - FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports

9.20.12 We Are SPARTANS!

Two-thirds of the SkyTracker weather team will be putting their physique and mental ability to the test Saturday, September 20.

Chief Meteorologist Kerrin Jeromin and I are racing in the Spartan Beast at Killington. Oh and guess who else is doing it too?

SAM LAZUR

That's right, your local sports anchor and reporter is going to attempt the 12-mile, 20-obstacle, 100%-ridiculous race as well.

This will be Sam's first attempt. I can vouch for Jeromin and myself saying that we are already Spartans. We successfully completed the race last year, August 6, 2011. Let me just say it lived up to its ridiculousness.

This year is a little different though. Instead of the race taking place in the middle of summer, the Spartan Beast is the first weekend of fall. In fact I will start the race Saturday when it is still summer, then finish the race when it's fall (Autumnal Equinox is technically Saturday morning).

In the closing months prior to this race, I admit I was slightly concerned about the weather. Having this 12-mile obstacle course race outside for the beginning of fall can be very dangerous. I don't mean really dangerous, but rather more difficult for me. It could be cold. It could be windy. It could be wet and slippery. Heck it could snow! However I think we're in luck this weekend.

The weather looks good for the start of the race Saturday. It will be partly to mostly cloudy with temperatures around 55 degrees to start. By the afternoon though, we'll have a few showers increasing from the west. The timing on it looks like it will be mainly after 3 p.m., with the heaviest moving through around 7-8 p.m. So hopefully all of us are down, off the mountain at that point. The temperatures will be very comfortable for the race, which I'm thankful for. Peak temperatures look to reach around 70 degrees. The wind will be interesting. The race last year took us up, down, up, down, up, down and up again down again on Killington. The winds will be cruising between 20-35 mph at 5,000 feet. So some of that may mix down to Killington's higher elevation which reaches up to around 4,000 feet.

I'm glad the weather is good for the race. You know why else I do? Because on Sunday night and early Monday the temperatures will be cold enough to support snow flakes at the peak! If there's enough moisture around it could happen.

-Meteorologist Steve Glazier

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