Every year, the event returns to Mont-Tremblant, the place she calls home. One year, she signed up without fully understanding what she had started. She only had one-third of the medal, and once she realized there was more to complete, she wanted the full Trifecta.
That curiosity became something bigger.
Spartan became a community.
Every year, familiar faces return. New racers arrive. People come back to the same mountain, the same challenge, the same shared experience. For Serena, that rhythm is part of what makes the sport meaningful.
But Spartan also helped her reconnect with a part of herself she thought she might have lost.
Serena used to be a professional athlete.
Then life changed.
Spartan helped her find her spark for sports again.
She is training now for herself, for the shape she used to have, for resilience, and for her faith. The races are not only about performance. They are about rebuilding something. Reclaiming something. Remembering that strength can return in new forms.
One of Serena's most unforgettable moments came at the rope climb.
For years, it was something she had never been able to do, even when she was younger. She trained hard for it. She worked at it. She carried that goal with her into the race.
Then, near the end of the course, while already tired, she climbed the rope.
That moment was not just about getting up an obstacle.
It was about proving that something that had always felt out of reach could become possible.
That is the kind of victory that stays with you.
Not because everyone else knows what it took.
Because you do.
Another race tested Serena in a different way. At kilometer four of a 10K, she sprained her ankle. She told herself she had to walk to the end of the forest anyway to reach medical care.
So she walked.
When she got to the staff, something shifted.
She had made it that far.
So she kept going.
She walked and ran the remaining six kilometers in pain. The finish line that day gave her something bigger than pride. It gave her proof that she could keep moving when the easy answer would have been to stop.
That is Spartan in its most honest form.
Not clean.
Not perfect.
Not always smart in the neatest, safest, most comfortable way.
But revealing.
Serena learned that the body can hurt and the mind can still choose the next step. She learned that a finish line can mean more when it costs more. She learned that sometimes the moment you think is the end becomes the place where the real race begins.
Her advice to someone thinking about their first race is only two words:
Do it.
No overthinking. No speech. No complicated framework.
Just do it.
That advice fits her story.
Because Serena did not return to sport through theory. She returned by stepping onto the course. By trying the rope. By walking through pain. By letting Spartan remind her that the spark was still there.
Next, Serena is taking on Everesting 29029 in Mont-Tremblant, then enjoying the summer before returning for more Spartan races.
But the real victory has already happened.
Serena Bellocq found the part of herself that still wanted the challenge.
The athlete was still there.
The fire was still there.
Spartan helped bring the spark back.
