Last night, we drove down to the Farm to spend the night since Tim & I were doing the Spartan Super today. In an attempt to describe this race, I Google'd it and this is what it gave me:
A Super Spartan: 8+ MILES / 20+ OBSTACLES: The Spartan Super obstacle race provides an 8+ mile/20+ obstacle riddled battlefield of insane terrain, combined with obstacles to test your physical strength and mental resolve.
Our race ended up being 9 miles and 24 obstacles. Still fits with the description but it was a tough 9 miles!! But back to the beginning....
This all started because of my awesome friend from High School, Joheliah. She had done some obstacle races and was ready to step it up to something bigger. She sent me a message about it, which I promptly ignored. Then, when I didn't respond, she texted me. I tried to politely decline but she was having none of it. When I told Tim about it, he got all excited and it was then a done deal. All that was left was for me to sign us up and make sure Grandma wouldn't mind watching the boys. To date, we had only done the Warrior Dash which was much shorter and I would offer "easier" since there are no burpees involved for failed obstacles. For a Spartan, a failed obstacle carries a penalty of 30 burpees - yes that's right THIRTY BURPEES!! We'll later discuss how many burps I did (or did not) do. ;-)
So anyway, we got to the Farm Saturday night. Tim and I got up early Sunday morning to make the hour-ish drive to the race site. We got the "lay of the land", got parked, checked in and thankfully, quickly found Joheliah, her cousin and her cousin's husband.
We saw the legendary rope climb as we walked up.
After the rope climb, you climb up and over this "bridge". It really looks easy but it was not! The slats were far enough apart that you could trip / fall / get stuck in them, especially after being muddy!!
A better look. Some ropes had more knots than others. Presumably easier but that didn't prove true for me. =)
Soon-to-be Spartan Couple
Um, yes....I'm really going to do this!!
Spartan-to-be Mommy & Daddy!!
After the "bridge", you climb up a wall, over the mud mound, under (like submerge and go under!) the vertical wall, though some mud and muck to the fire jump and the finish.
Sounds easy right? Just the last 2 obstacles after the bridge.
Race number, bracelet and timing chip. Yikes!!
Venue
We hung out and watched for a while. Got to see the first male come through for the rope climb.
He ended up kicking the bell with his foot, then dropped back down into the muddy water.
Pre-Race, still clean - Joheliah & Me. She went all hard core on me and had built obstacles at her house!! I was definitely at a disadvantage trying to keep up!!
Fire Jump
The whole gang.
Course map and obstacles. I'm going to try to find some of the official race pictures of us but it will probably take some searching through their pictures. Fingers crossed I find some!
The race was a lot of fun. They had us start in a corral. When the horn went off, they set off a smoke bomb as we started running. It fogged our vision and hid the big trench right in front of us! So many of us fell down. I stumbled and I think I grabbed the guy (not Tim) next to me. It wasn't long after we started that I really had to go to the bathroom. I told Tim & the others to go ahead and I'd catch up. Well, I used A LOT of energy trying to catch up. Bad idea...not the nature break, but the sprint to catch up. I was the slowest of our group and at one point, we got hung up on something and thankfully Joheliah and the others (not Tim) went ahead. I ended up very much enjoying it just being me & Tim. I didn't worry as much about my pace and we had a really fun time. Funny enough, of all the obstacles, the ones that required carrying strength (bucket carry, tractor pull, atlas carry, hercules hoist) were my favorites - I guess I have Eli and Cole to thank for that! The ones that required you to hoist or pull your own weight....not so much! I did terrible at monkey bars and the rope climb. I don't think I even got up one knot! Tim, on the other hand, made it up the rope climb and rang the bell!
Obstacle run down:
1. U-O-U-O-U. Under-Over-Under-Over-Under.
2. 6ft wall
3. Classified (Mud Roll under Barbed Wire)
4. Balance Beams
5. Tractor Pull
6. Classified (Atlas Stone)
7. Log Hop
8. Tire Drag
9. Classified (Balance beams over ditches)
10. O-U-T. Over-Under-Through
11. Monkey Bars
12. Traverse Wall
13. Inverted Wall
14. Spear Throw
15. Classified (Sand Bag Carry)
16. 8ft wall
17. Classified (Bucket Brigade)
18. Swim
19. Herc Hoist
20. Classified (Mud Pit)
21. Rope Climb
22. Lattice Bridge
23. Slip Wall
24. Fire Jump
FINISH LINE!!!
AROO!! AROO!! AROO!!
The obstacles were much tougher than the Warrior Dash and I owed WAY more burpees than I actually did. If you had an orange band on your wrist and were "competing", they watched you. For us mere mortals, they didn't really care too much. I'd probably still be out there if I had to do over 100 burpees.
There are three distances to Spartan Races - Sprint, Super and Beast. If you do all three in the same calendar year, it's called a Trifecta and you can put all of your individual race pieces into one HUGE medal. We did the Super this time but Tim (and Joheliah!!) has his eyes on the Trifecta. 2015 may just be the year of Tim the Spartan. =)
Joheliah & I after the race. She finished 30+ minutes ahead of us.
Good old fashioned marriage therapy. Getting muddy and getting over obstacles. We had so much fun!!
Love doing these things with my HB!
Not the best time but I'll take it! A Finish is a Finish!
Tim would have been WAY faster, I'm certain!
Our fun today would not have been possible without Grandma! She watched the boys while we took off and did the race. Thankfully the boys behaved. =) Notice how Eli already has his Spartan shirt on and commandeered a finish medal? He can not wait to do Spartan Kids next year. And the foam sword....yeah, I'm a sucker for a good foam sword. The boys loved them!
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