Sane People Don't Do This - Super Spartan Race Report

My sister, Jamie, and I ambled through Rawhide trail dust town at 8:15 on Saturday morning.  As we crossed near a drainage ditch, Jamie and I noticed a line of wood and other objects across the expanse.

 "What's all the Duraflame for?" Jamie asked.
 And that's a pretty good summation of this whole race...

I signed up through the Super Spartan Race through a post on the Landis tri-club website.  The race was billed as 8+ miles of hell, but I thought, it can't be that bad.  Thinking back to Muddy Buddy, the obstacles were easy and fun.  Plus, they broke up the monotony that can sometimes accompany distance running.

Spartan sisters in the flesh.

We lined up at the start with the other 350 people in our 9:00AM heat.

As we started off, a cloud of white sulpher smoke filled the air as we ran down a hill, up a hill and down the steep other side.

Running + inhaling smoke = fun times

  I worried a little about my footing.   We turned a corner and were immediately confronted with hay bales which we climbed easily.    See... easy.  As we made our way around the aluminum sided event arena we were confronted with this:

Massive smoke cloud.  The fire jump has been lit.

And now I know why I had to sign a waiver to compete in this race. We made our way into the ditch.  As I approached the fire jump, I concentrated on my steps.  I better make this a good jump. 

My new skill: fire jumping!  Very marketable.

While airborne, I could feel the searing heat of the fire against my calves.  A race official with a fire hose stood on the side, spraying people as they exited the flames.  I was fine over the fire, but the water pressure of the hose almost knocked me over.

In shock, looking at the obstacle planned for us up ahead.

From there we crawled through storm drains, swam through a river, crawled through a mud pit under barbed wire,

"And the mud is right... there."

Just a little tunnel running.

Traversed a horizontal wall, chose the 50 push ups over solving the Rubik's cube, dragged 50 lb concrete blocks along the dirt, climbed over 15 ft walls, battled gladiators... it really goes on and on.

"Haha Gladiators, you can't get me."

"Ahhhh, you got me!"

Not to mention, I ran 8 miles in between all of those obstacles.

In the end, I got my bling:

Super Spartan Race was fun and challenging.  My abs and chest are still a little sore.  I finished the race 5 days ago, if that tells you anything about the intensity (or my fitness level).

Ahooooo!