Recently I participated in the Spartan Race. The Spartan Race is a 3 mile obstacle course run and is all about endurance, perseverance, pain and a ton of fun. The one I participated in recently took place in New York at a ski area…yes, hills were involved!
I had never planned on doing such a race thinking of the toll it would take on my legs during the running season. I didn’t want my running plans interrupted by a sprained ankle, a twisted knee or worse. However, the day before the event I received a call from a friend who asked me if I wanted to participate because a member of her team, The Dirty Girls had dropped out due to illness. I gave it some thought and with a month to go until my next road race I officially became a proud “Dirty Girl.”
The Spartan Sprint race brought out all sorts of characters; some dressed in costumes, ties and dress pants and even one dude dressed as Batman. Individuals and teams participated and thankfully I stuck with them them…they helped me when I needed them.
The race had some 10 obstacles that included carrying a 60 pound bucket of rocks up and down a ski slope, climbing over an 8 foot slippery wall, crawling uphill through 400 meters of mud under REAL barbed, jumping fires, and rolling through ice downhill again under barbed wire. And to finish: running a gauntlet of 3 Spartans with jousting poles trying to trip you up, knock you down right before the finish line.
As you can tell from the pictures, it was great fun! After it was all done a cold beer helped deal with the scratches and bruises. Every Dirty Girl…including me…finished muddy and happy and with no serious injuries.
Events like the Spartan Sprint run all over the United States and Europe, with names like the Tough Mudder, Warrior Dash and Down and Dirty Mud Run. They are fun but serious races, with serious consequences if you push for time. While the winner of the recent Spartan Sprint event finished in less than 40 minutes, The Dirty Girls took about 2 hours and 10 minutes and had a lot of fun along the way.
While I will definitely do this again, I also longed for the open road of running without somebody trying to knock me over. With that in mind the Reggae Marathon this December in Negril will be a walk in the Caribbean!!
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This week’s post is from Guest Blogger, Larry Savitch of New York. He is a dedicated runner and trainer (Facebook Fan page) and is coming to the Reggae Marathon this December with his group.
Until next time…
Reggae Marathon RunninGuy
