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If you enjoy challenging yourself as much as I do, then I highly recommend a Spartan Race. One day I was looking for a physical challenge, and when I googled things I found out about Spartan Races. Spartan Races are obstacle course races where you race against hundreds of other people while jumping, climbing, and crawling your way to the finish line. After browsing their website and watching a few videos on YouTube, 3I was ready to race. Luckily my friend took notice and paid for my way into my first Spartan Race.
The Spartan Race has three levels. There is the Sprint (3 Miles, X obstacles), the Super (8 Miles, X obstacles), and the Beast (12 Miles, X obstacles). Now, looking at the specs for each race and knowing that I can handle a 5K, I figured I’d shoot for the Super.
TRAINING
I had no idea what to expect with this race. The longest race I had ran before was the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, and that was only 6 miles. I registered for the race about 3 months out from the start date. At first, I wasn’t sure how to train. I continued to do my gym works out like usual and ran for my warm-ups. It wasn’t until a month before the race that I started receiving emails from the Spartan Race that had workout plans (turns out my friend added it to my package). So I was like great now I know what sort of things I have to do.
At first, I thought to prepare for the race I’d have to bulk-up and get ready to lift boulders like Atlas and throw whole trees across fields. I was wrong.. After the first workout in the Spartan training plan, I knew it was mostly going to be about the cardio. The first official workout was a lot of running around and doing weird exercises that I never heard of like the lateral ape walk.
From that point on I changed up my workout plan to include what I would normally do anyway plus the Spartan training program. This added another 40 minutes to my workouts. So for the last month before the race, my workouts looked like this.
Day 1 Gym: Chest & Tri Spartan Training
Day 2 Gym: Back & Bi Spartan Training
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 Gym: Legs Spartan Training
Day 5 Gym: Shoulders Spartan Training
Day 6 Cardio Active Rest
Day 7 Cardio Active Rest
For the most part, I still continued to do my own thing, but now I incorporated more of the Spartan exercises and cardio.
GEAR
Getting ready for race day I had done research on “must-have” gear, but I wasn’t feeling it. Personally I like to keep things simple. Most lists offered by Spartan and others were a bit excessive. In the end, all I carried was:
– Salomon Speedcross 4 Trail Running Shoes: They have small ridges/spikes to help in mud
– MudGear Premium Compression Socks: to protect my legs
– DRSKIN Compression Pants: Moisture Wicking
– Athletic Shorts
The socks and the trail shoes were lifesavers. The MudGear socks helped to protect my legs from the trail obstacles with sharp corners or rough rope. Since the race, the Salomon 4 trail running shoes have become my favorite. They also sell the Salomon 5 GTX Trail running shoes, which are weatherproof but costs more. I stuck with the 4’s. Some say getting water in your shoes could slow you down a lot, but I didn’t feel much of a difference during my race. I swam through the mud and was still ok.
RACE DAY
By the time the race day had came I was ready to rock. I woke up early had breakfast with water and headed to the park where the race was being held. I got there at 6 something and there were already a bunch of people warming up at the park. I was in the Men’s Elite group, and we were the first group to start the race that day. I warmed up a bit, stretched a lot, and before you knew it it was time to run.
This was my first obstacle course ever. When I tried to find the starting line, all I found was a wall. I asked someone how do I get in line, and they told me how the race starts here. I had to jump over a 5-foot wall in order to get in line to start the race. Awesome. I jumped the wall and prepared myself for whatever came next. After a lot of “AROOS” and the sort of beat your chest and yell routine. It was time to start.
The first 3 miles of the race wasn’t too bad. You run and every so often you come across and obstacle. Most of the obstacles were upper body-based. They were things like monkey bars with big stretches between bars. I didn’t find any of them to be too hard of a challenge. My desire to push ahead, and not do burpees were enough for me to keep going without messing up. If I had failed on any of the obstacles I would have had to do 30 burpees, and I was not willing to lose that time.
It was about the Five-mile mark when I really started to feel things. By this point, I had climbed over huge walls (highest 14 ft), climbed ropes, and swam through the mud. I was exhausted. Then came the hills. The hills, the hills, the hills. I was completely ignorant of the sheer amount of hills that were going to be on this race. If the obstacles and the distance didn’t get you the hills would.
Anyway, I continued on. I had a few cramps and only stopped once because I twisted my ankle on a rock. But bottom line I persevered. I ran the race with my best effort and finished a champion. I took on the obstacles, the trail, and myself. I won against myself and that is the greatest thing I got out of this race. No matter how much I wanted to quit and just walk the rest of it, I pushed on and finished. That’s something worth celebrating.
CONCLUSION
I ran my best race and loved it. The Spartan Race was the first obstacle race for me, but it won’t be the last. I look forward to continuing my training, building better endurance, and getting stronger for the next race. AROOOO!
