Spartan Update

Mission: complete.

This weekend  I competed and survived my first Spartan Race. I did the Spartan Sprint at Mohegan Sun with some members from my CF box and together we worked as a team to take on the challenge. It was 4 and a half miles of strategically designed torture, but surprisingly I had a blast.

I woke up at 6 am, hopped in the car with my friend Jess and my mother and we headed up to the casino, a place I had never dreaded before. I was nervous, but not as nervous as when we pulled up to the entrance and saw runners already going up hills and climbing over walls. At this point, I was ready to jump out of the car.

I registered and met up with my team, and checkout the last obstacles at the finish line. Panic set in. I had a million doubts racing through my head, including “Why am I here? I am not ready, I can’t do this? “What was I thinking?” ect. I only got more  nervous as our start time approached and seriously considered backing out. The warning signs on my race packet were no consolation. “You may die, or catastrophic injury may occur during this race” Catastrophic injury? What am I doing here.

One of my fears before the race began was holding back my teammates. I had already made an deal in my head that I would finish this race on my own and not slow down or hold anyone back. However, my teammates had other plans. As the race began, they helped me climb that first wall, and we stuck together the entire time. Nobody was left behind, it was amazing teamwork.

I was tested not only physically but mentally and really surprised myself. There were only a few obstacles I could not do (and my team gracefully did my 30 penalty burpees with me). The greatest moment or me was climbing over the 20ft (I could be wrong about the height but it was close to that) net. I was never more scared and when I got to the top and looked I literally stopped breathing. I thought for sure I’d fall and be seriously injured. “There goes my neck” I thought. But with the support from my teammates cheering me on I snapped out of my panic attack and climbed over and down. I can’t describe the feeling that came over me when I made it down, it was pure victory. (If you want to see what I’m talking about reference 1:24 below 1:32 was just about where my panic attack ensued.)

I laughed, cried, doubted myself, and totally beasted it. I was so happy in the end and crossing the finish line (even though I stepped on the flaming log instead of gliding over it gracefully) was truly one of my proudest moments. I am bruised from head to toe, the most sore I’ve been in my entire life, but it was totally worth it.

If you want to see exactly with the course looked like..check out more videos below! 

or the shorter one..