Spokane’s Alyssa Hawley takes bronze at Spartan World Championship

After a grueling three-hour trial through an arid, obstacle-laden swath of California’s Olympic Valley, Spokane athlete Alyssa Hawley, 27, claimed the bronze at the Reebok Spartan Race World Championship on Saturday.

She finished the course of 40 obstacles – including uphill paths, low-strung barbed wire, a near-freezing lake, walls, ropes, weights and bars – with a final time of 03:15:19.

Hawley’s third-place finish out of a field of elite competitors fell just nine minutes shy of the 03:06:10 recorded by gold medalist Lindsay Webster. Silver medalist Zuzana Kocumoca finished with a time of 03:07:53.

The event drew more than 15,000 athletes and spectators to a rugged, mountainous stretch near the northwest edge of Lake Tahoe, and culminated in the 16-mile “Beast” heat to determine the reigning world men’s and women’s champions from among elite athletes from nearly 50 countries.

Winners share in a total purse of $100,000 in cash and prizes.

Hawley was profiled by The Spokesman-Review earlier this week. In an interview by phone for that article, she said she was eager to see her training in action.

“This is what I’ve trained for. This is what I’ve worked on for months,” she said. “I’m just ready to go let it out there, and trust that my training has been enough.”

Her training is already well-tested. The world championship was the 11th Spartan race she’s completed this year.

Saturday’s win was Hawley’s second appearance at a Spartan Race World Championship. Her debut came in May 2015, when she took fourth place.