Spartan Sprint Race Recap

How can you describe a Spartan Sprint? Honestly I have been wondering how I will recap it to you for 2 days now and am stumped.

I have been running for about a year now and have completed many 5Ks and even 5 half marathons this year, but nothing compares to a Spartan Race. Yes running on pavement is a challenge and yes adding distance increases that challenge. But what comes beyond that? For someone like me who is always looking for a new obstacle a Spartan Race seemed to be the next best thing. It is not just a running race, it is an all out mud bath of obstacles and challenges.

The day was beautiful out not too hot not too cold. I was ready to go with my number sharpied on my arm and home made number head band. Why that? Well if you want race pics and to be identified you should do this because yes a paper race bib does not last long on that course.

That is me and Meghan before the race! She is a kick ass mom who I have been working out with at the Y Fit classes! She was in the 2:30 heat.

I got ready to go and got into my group. Spartan divides the race up by heats of about 250 people and my time was 3PM. I was ok for a few minutes and even gave T back the thumbs up when he smiled at me and gave me the sign.

But as I stood there gazing at the looming course in front of me:

I guess I got nervous because T got a good shot of this:

But you know me and no matter how nervous I am I do not back down hehe. So that horn went off and away I went! You begin the race running up a steep hill and then head into the woods. For me this was the annoying part of the race. The trails were so tight that it was single file and I wanted to run faster than I was able to. I knew I may be slower at the obstacles and that the running would be the easy part for me so I wanted to gain as much speed as I could during the running stretches.

I began to gain speed and get ahead in the running when people realized I was passing them they began to move out of my way LOL. There is a saying you have been chicked when you pass a guy on the course and I certainly was chicking many guys!

The obstacles were not too bad in the beginning there was mud pits we ran through, steep hills and rocks to run over, and a cargo net to climb up and over. Those things did not bother me much. Then we came to a wall with a rope on one side but nothing on the other. T got some great action pics!!!

Next obstacle was to fill a bucket half way full of pebbles and carry it up and down a big ass hill. I am proud to say I did not stop once!

I love this pic! I had slammed down that empty bucket and felt so strong after doing that obstacle :)

The rest of the obstacles were in the woods, there was walls to climb over, a swamp to wade through, a rope pulley, bear crawling, cinder block carry, leaping over fire, and more. The worst part was the barbed wire. I think this is where most of my cuts and scrapes came from. You are rolling under barbed wire for what seems like forever and then you have to scale a wall. And then more barbed wire. And it is the second to last obstacle so you are dog tired by this point. The final stretch of barbed wire was going uphill at the same time. Watch the videos at Spartan TV it is pretty insane! But I loved it!!!

In a spartan race if you cannot do an obstacle you must do 30 burpees! I had to do burpees 4 times. Once for the rope climb, coming out of the swamp are ropes and you have to climb up. I simply could not do it. Then the spear throw. I hit the bale of hay but it bounced off and you only got one shot! Then I had to do burpees on the tree stumps. my legs were not nearly long enough to jump through them. But I did make it all the way through the adult monkey bars which I was proud of because I have a weaker upper body.

The final obstacle was a side ways wall. I tried my best but I slipped off so i had to do my final set of 30 burpees:

And that was it!

Meghan and I post race! Much different than pre race LOL

My time!! By the way the number 1 female who "beat" me in the heat was named Robert, so I am thinking I was number one female to finish in my heat.
The one problem with the race is they do not have rankings of over all how you did for the day. They only rank you within your heat, so I am not sure how I ranked out of all the participants in the day. But I am pretty darn proud of my time!