The Spartans arose from the city-state of Sparta of ancient Greece. They were a warrior society that paid homage to the values of honor, duty, discipline, and endurance. Values that have led to their being regarded as some of the fiercest warriors history has ever known. And while their legacy still inspires and instructs professional warriors who are actually involved in armed conflict to this day; their legacy is equally as inspiring to everyday people. Why? Because we are all warriors. We all fight wars, be they internal struggles with motivation, our purpose, our relationships, etc… or external struggles like struggling for the flourishing of our careers, the survival of our businesses, or the advancement of our dreams (From The Strive).
Today I completed my first Spartan race. I hadn't really looked into what the race would entail until the night before. A few YouTube videos later I was feeling confident and prepared for the race. The Spartan took place at the Snow Basin resort. I had to miss our family pickleball, but the run was honestly a ton of fun. There are three races: 5K, 10K, and 21K. I signed up for the 10K ... and it kicked my butt. It was silly to think the 5K would’ve been too easy, when that’s maybe what I should’ve started with.For the 10K race, we had 26 obstacles, and I’m proud to say I only failed one! Said obstacle was a wall that you needed to move horizontally across using only grips for your hands; no support for your feet. I’m sure I would’ve figured it out if I took my time, but I was feeling rushed as this was one of the first obstacles. One aspect of this race that ended up being most challenging for me was the elevation. I believe it was 1,300 ft of elevation, which is insane. Somehow I ran the first mile of incline, and it about slaughtered me. From there I decided to hike the inclines and save the running for the declines.
Most of the obstacles were entertaining and genuinely fun. The obstacles that were the buggers were all the carries. Carry a sand bag from here to there. Carry an atlas stone from here to there. And carry a bucket of rocks from here to there. You get the idea. Something I learned from YouTube was the importance of keeping your hands clean for some obstacles. There are a number of monkey bar-like challenges. Unfortunately one of them ripped up my left hand a bit. I looked ahead hoping that the remaining obstacles didn’t require my hands. ... but that was not to be. There was even a legit rope climb! For being one of those classic PE class activities featured in movies, this was my first ever attempt. I saw others using a technique with their feet, but I just brute forced through it. My favorite obstacle was the Hercules Hoist. It was a sandbag attached to a rope and run through a pulley. The objective is to pull the other end of the rope to raise the sandbag to the top, and bring it back down softly. I quickly noticed that the technique was to use your bodyweight to hoist up the bag. You jump up the rope a bit, throw your body back, and repeat. I thought it was so fun (even though the previous obstacle had just ripped up my hand!) One of the final obstacles was a 5’ hurdle. Leading into the jump for the first one, my right calve almost cramped on me. Luckily I shook it off and finished the race.
For whatever reason I didn’t eat breakfast before, which wasn’t great, but nor was a real issue. Overall, I felt really good about the race. It was a challenge for sure, but I'm glad to say I conquered it.
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