I tried something new this past weekend.
I completed my first obstacle course race. Of the Spartan variety.
I know. Very exciting.
It was a Stadion version of their Sprint distance at the Nationals Stadium in DC. Super cool. 3 miles and 20 obstacles (or 21-22 depending on who you ask!), lots of stair climbing and behind-the-scenes access to the stadium. And no mud or jumping over fire. 😉
I was initially inspired by a social media post I saw by one of the 3rd grade teachers at my school. She mentioned she was training for a Spartan race and I thought “Wow! That sounds really cool. I could totally see myself doing something like that…” We chatted about it and I convinced my husband to do it with me. #becausemarriage as he likes to put it. LOL!
I really really enjoyed the training for it. I was looking for a change and this turned out to be exactly what I needed. It was a lot of functional fitness stuff with running in between. 30 mins tops for most of it. I subscribed to the Spartan workout email and basically based all of my workouts off of that.
Pretty straight forward, right?
I did all my running indoors (since I knew it wouldn’t be trail running) on one of those TrueForm treadmills that requires that you do all the work.
Love them.
A lot of the time I added more to the circuit but basically made sure that I changed things up and kept my heart rate up.
The workouts were not easy. I was quite surprised.
And burpees?
UGH.
If you can’t complete and obstacle, you have to do 30 burpees before you continue the race (though at this Stadion version it turned out to be 15 … no complaints here!).
So I had to practice those, too. Not a fan.
I felt pretty prepared going into it. My husband wasn’t really able to train for it but we agreed to stay together and finish together. So, I knew I might not be running my fastest, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to have fun in the experience. Which we did.
I really enjoyed the vibe, too. Everyone seemed super cool, very supportive. And the swag? Awesome! They even had pet food vendors! Roman will be a very happy cat.
If you’re not familiar with Spartan races, they generally come in 3 distances:
- Sprint: 3+ miles, 20+ obstacles
- Super: 8+ miles, 25+ obstacles
- Beast: 13+ miles, 30+ obstacles
(There’s also the Ultra, 26+ miles, 60+ obstacles … but that’s for really crazy people. And a few other additional crazy categories…)
If you complete a Sprint, Super and Beast within the same calendar year, you are considered to be part of the “Trifecta” club. Each medal comes with a 1/3 or “pie piece” of the Trifecta medal.
And you if complete all three, they complete the medal.
I’ll admit, the wheels are turning in my head.
Because I can’t do anything small. I mean, my first road race 14 years ago was a freakin’ marathon (I had never seriously run before).
(2005)
And I completed an Ironman within 15 months of getting into triathlons (and really learning how to swim and bike).
(2009)
I wanted to get stronger and competed in a figure competition (not having ever lifted before).
(2014)
This was my first obstacle course race. Will I complete my Trifecta medal?
Only time will tell…
Do what makes you happy.