Tonight I finished watching three episodes of the 2014 Spartan Races – two regional races and then the final World Championship. Regional races are about eight miles with 20+ obstacles while the World Championship is about 15 miles with 25+ obstacles.
I know. Some of you are saying. They aren’t the same as a 50-mile or 100-mile race. Ultrarunners are tough and our events are hard. Spartan Races are much shorter.
You are right of course. But. And it’s a huge “but”, Spartan Races have obstacles that I’d bet most ultrarunners could not complete. Carrying a 60-pound sandbag up and down a long grassy hill, the barbed wire roll, rope climbs, the log carry, carrying a five gallon bucket filled with rocks up and down a hill, tire pull, water obstacles, and more. In the World Championships, the sandbag carry was not one but two 60-pound bags carried up and back down a quarter mile black diamond equivalent grassy hill!
At the end of the Spartan Race World Championships, one of the top runners said, “In a triathlon, you sometimes say, ‘Ah shoot, I’ve got a pebble in my shoe – it threw my race off. This is so much beyond pebbles!’” What he’s saying is that what you think is bad in a one race is nothing in another race. Pebbles are the least of your worries in a Spartan Race.
You have to be in the best physical shape of your life for these events. So do your feet. Between the grassy hills, slick with water and mud, the muddy trails and roads, the uphills and downhills over rocky trails and roads, jumping onto and over walls, down cargo nets, and other challenges, your ankles and feet take a beating. You get junk in your shoes, and while no one in the shows complained of blisters, I am certain many of the racers had them. Just watching the shows I could see there would be sprained ankles along with other injuries.
If you can’t complete an obstacle, you have to do 30 burpees. And that’s after you failed at the obstacle. Your heart is racing and breathing is labored, and you are exhausted.
The Spartan Race website has the full series of races for 2015. Check out the website and see if this type of race interests you.
In April 2014, I wrote a review of the Reebok All-Terrain shoe designed for obstacle races like Spartan Races. Check it out here: Reebok All Terrain Shoe.
In addition, Joe Desena, the founder of Spartan Races, has a book Spartan Up! about overcoming obstacles in life, and is starting a podcast also called Spartan Up! You can subscribe at iTunes or Stitcher.
If the challenge of doing a Spartan Race interests you, here’s a code that will save you 10% on any race: SPARTANBLOGGER
