Spartan Race

Last year, I signed up for and completed my first Spartan Race.  It was amazing.  Hard as hell, but amazing.  I was scared to death from the moment I registered last December until my race on July 13th.  I didn't know what to expect.  I was afraid of jumping over fire, and climbing the rope, as well as climbing everything else, since I'm terrified of heights!  But it's funny, my nerves completely left the day of the race, and I just went and had a great time.  I swam through a lake, that normally would have terrified me, I tried every single obstacle and did every burpee for the ones that I failed. This upcoming year, I am planning to go for my trifecta.  And that scares the crap out of me.  I am not a long distance runner, so thinking about running 13+ miles on top of doing obstacles has me shaking.  In honor of the Blue Mountain PA Spartan Race opening up for registration for 2015, I thought I'd post my review of last years race:

In order to get to the start line, we had to climb over a wall. I was expecting the walls to be difficult, but they turned out to be pretty easy for me (there were several). We had to go over, under, and through some. 

The first part was all up the mountain. There were some steep parts that required ropes to assist you up. I was surprised how easy the climb was for me, since I don't run as many hills as I did in VA, and I haven't hiked up mountains since living in Hawaii. There were several times where we had to go down a portion of the mountain, then back up. 

There was a cargo net wall we had to climb up and over. At one point, we had to carry sandbags a good way down the mountain, then back up again. That was the first place you saw a lot of people struggling. I had to stop a couple of times for a few seconds going back up and shift the sandbag from one side to the other, or in front of me. 

The spear throw is where I had to do my first set of 30 burpees. The way the Spartan Race works, is you can choose to not do a challenge and do 30 burpees instead, or if you fail at a challenge, you have to do 30 burpees, even though you tried. I never threw a spear in my life, so not surprisingly, it was no where near the target. 

Right after that was an obstacle where you had to pull sandbags attached to a rope and touch the top of the pulley with the sandbag and then slowly guide it back down to the ground. I read that the girl's sandbags weighed 85 lbs. There was of course barbed wire that we had to crawl, roll under, as well as some water in the mix there to crawl through. Oh, and we were getting sprayed in the face with water while doing it. 

We had to walk/swim across a pond, going under tubes that were across the pond (up and down several times). There were metal monkey bars that were completely different than the monkey bars at the park. To me, I feel like they're not really fair to short people.  It seems impossible to be able to reach for each bar if you're my height.  Luckily Bart was allowed to help guide me there, as I didn't practice enough to try it on my own. 

Anyway, one of the worst parts for me was going down the mountain. I always hate going down, because of my fear of falling. I fell twice, once with my butt landing on a sharp rock. Ouch!  That hurt for days :-)  But we made it. 

The rope climb is where I am disappointed. I didn't have a rope to practice on, and I let my fear get in the way with this one. I tried, but chose to just stop and do burpees, because I didn't feel I had it in me to do it without falling. Right after that was a bucket carry. We had to fill a 10 gallon bucket with stones, then carry the bucket up and down a hill. This was the hardest challenge by far. You could literally only take a few steps before you had to stop and rest. Carrying the bucket on your shoulders was not allowed, and there was no handle. Downhill was much easier than up, then you had to lift the bucket up and dump the rocks at the end. I was most proud of myself here, because not once did I want to quit or cry. 

We then had to walk back up a portion of the mountain. The traverse wall is where I did my 3rd set of burpees. I tried, but didn't make it very far. Again, I've never even attempted this before, and nowhere to practice. There was a cargo net monkey bar obstacle over water that also forced me to do burpees. I tried and fell, getting a mouthful of water. It seemed like the majority of the people were falling there. There were several other obstacles, too, but these are the ones that are still on my mind. 

It took us awhile to finish, because Bart was dealing with some nasty leg cramps the entire time. It seemed like a lot of men were dealing with those cramps. Bottom line, the Spartan Race was amazing. I'm extremely proud of myself for facing my fears, and not letting the thought of quitting cross my mind even once. I am proud of trying every single obstacle, even though I was stressing over them for months prior. I find it funny that when it came time to race, I didn't even think about what was in front of me, I just did it. I am thrilled to have jumped over the fire to the finish line with my best friend, my husband, by my side. 

Getting that medal around my neck was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. This race was more of an emotional challenge for me than anything. I trained, I fought, and I did it. I am a Spartan. It was my first Spartan Race, but most definitely will not be my last.  AROO!