The price tag on a Spartan Race seems pretty reasonable at first glance. Then the added fees come. You pay for event insurance, parking, shuttle, bag check and last but not least a spectator fee. When you add it up you are paying more for this race than you would pay for a prestigious marathon at which you would receive a swag bag that at least made you feel good about the price you paid. Spartan Race bases their price on the value of the experience...... I'm guessing I haven't found where the money would be legitimized elsewhere. This event is all about the money and lots of it. Now I am not downgrading the value of the experience at all, it is a race that you ultimately have to experience to really have any idea of what it is and what training it will take to be successful. The training I did leading up was a series of strength, explosiveness, strength endurance and mixed running. I watched many videos to put together a training plan and based on what I saw it didn't make sense to train too specifically for each obstacle because 1. you never know the conditions for which you will be competing and 2. the obstacles themselves are fairly short. Training a specific obstacle in my opinion would not necessarily be to your benefit. That being said practicing a few of the obstacles such as the spear throw and traverse wall would be helpful. These are more technique based obstacles rather than strength or endurance. Overall I felt pretty good about my training going in and prepared to post a decent time..... not going to be modest I was in it to win it!!
Race day started out like a lot of races, packet pickup, bag check, check the lay out and warming up. There was some added security because of the recent tragedy at Boston and also because we were on a military base. The bag check fee and shuttle fee were a little ridiculous for what you get. Pay $5 dollars to wait on a bus you may not get on because of the mass amount of people that are also wanting on the bus. Pay $5 dollars for them to toss you bag in a pile of bags that mostly look all the same with tag with your number and middle name..... unimpressed to say the least. One cool thing I really like about the race check in process was that they asked you if you wanted numbers written on you. You didn't necessarily have to have any numbers it was an option, a lot of races make you feel like you have to have numbers on your legs, arms, forehead etc. We also had a pretty cool head band in our race packet we could wear if we chose to, most did. When you get in to the start area you just get this jacked up feeling or at least I did. Everyone around you is nervous, not knowing what to expect. The stories over heard from the racers that already completed their respective heat and the "veterans" of spartan racing trying to give everyone pointers on the course. The PA announcers constant banter was very good at getting you ready to go! Every heat was the same thing but he was a great announcer and his enthusiasm made me feel like I was hearing it for the first time! My mind was racing the entire time I was waiting for my heat. I was having a pre race adrenaline rush that I couldn't shake and I knew it would not be to my benefit. The pride coming of the recent finishers was radiating in to the crowd waiting for their turn. The anticipation of the race honestly may have been the best pre race experience I have ever experienced and was most definitely the best part of this experience for me!
After the pre race spartan rituals and the smoke bomb filled the start with smoke we were off. Like any other race everyone is anticipating being the fastest in the heat. There were between 30-40 ahead of me to start the race. I didn't want to push my way threw to the front and didn't really know what to expect anyway so I stayed in the crowd hoping for an early opening. The opening came early for sure the first obstacles were 4 water/mud pits the first I estimate at 6-7 feet the middle two around 4 feet and the last was another 6 footer. I found an opening after the first pit and took off like a rocket sprinting and clearing the next two pits. The last pit I used my better judgement and just stepped in and climbed out with out even thinking about trying to clear. The mud was pretty slick and I instantly knew I had picked the wrong shoes to wear for the race..... I made up a lot of ground and sprinted to the next obstacle, a series of under and over obstacles varying in height. Probably the easiest obstacles on the course. After the series I was in 2nd place in my heat and this is where a major running portion of the race began. Running is probably my strength and that is what I was relying on. I took off for the next half mile of rugged terrain at my estimate of about 5:15-5:30 minute per mile pace. I quickly took the lead on the heat and started to widen the lead a little at a time. The next obstacle was the monkey bars. Easy enough but I took my time drying my hands in dirt... burpees were not on my to do list for this event!! I flew through the monkey bars but while I was taking my time 3 or 4 runners in my heat caught up to me and that is when my competitive juices kicked in. I was not matter what from there on out going to get passed by anyone in my heat. Determined I kicked up the pace after that. The obstacles seemed to fly by and really were not too difficult. There was a wooden structure that had to be gone over with 3 points touching at all time. Probably the shortest obstacle on the course but in my haste I dropped through two points, I recovered though and flew through to the next few obstacles. There was the Hobie Hop or something like that. With a rubber band around the ankles the idea was to run up hill, hop over a few wires, go under a few wires and take it off at the bottom of the hill...... pointless obstacle. Hope they don't keep that one. There walls that increased in height starting at 5' all the way up to the monster 8' wall. Some people were struggling and there were plenty of people helping each other over the more difficult walls. I was still in compete or die mode at this point and passed by all the people needing help and flew through the walls. The upper body strength was not really the key to the walls like I expected, the key was to never lose momentum. Run, jump, grab and climb your way over never stop and try again. I think that is when a person would struggle. The log hop was next and this is where I committed my first stupid mistake. I chose the obviously worst row. There was a line at all the other rows and nobody was choosing this one for a reason. It had one log sticking up higher than all the other rows. I stopped and thought for a second. I was probably a mile and half in and I had already passed maybe 150 people from the heats that started before me. Instead of being happy with that I thought..... I better keep this train a moving. Went to the lemon row of logs started off well was flying through lost my footing and found out the hard way choosing the right shoes and taking your time on certain obstacles is much better than 30 burpees. Soul crushing at that point I had been flying through passing people like crazy feeling pretty damn good about myself and I had to stop and complete 30 burpees watching a lot of the people I just passed smiling as the ran by me...... Confidence and arrogance, there is a fine line separating the two and when you cross that line you pay the price, in this case I paid the price with burpees! (30 of them)
There were a couple minor obstacles before I came to the end of my race. It wasn't the end of my run but my race was over. The mud crawl, consists of about 50 or 60 yards of mud, hills, trenches and water pits that you crawl through while staying under the barbed wire that stands about 2 and half feet above the surface. The was just a terrible experience. The rock in the mud tears in to your legs and chest and for me the worst part was the crowd of people. It was nearly impossible to navigate through all the other competitors and it was impossible without being a little bit rude. I was still in race mode so rudeness wasn't really a problem for my so I crawled, swam and pushed my way through the pit in decent time. As I was running toward the next obstacle the spear throw I looked down at my wrist in complete dismay........... I had lost my timing chip!!! From there on out no matter how fast or slow I ran I can't even prove a finish because I was now on the list as DNF did not finish. I honestly thought about walking off the course at that point, going to the port a potty and throwing up. My competitive nature was tearing my apart. I knew all the hard work was for not.
I had a dilemma on my hands. Do I still finish the course as fast as possible or just cruise through and have fun....... Fast as possible and hopefully I can get some sort of idea how fast I completed the course. I was too pissed to even think about taking time on the spear so I chucked it as hard I could and did 30 burpees, traverse wall next real muddy, said screw it 30 burpees. I got more mad at each ensuing obstacle the next was the slick wall. Walking up to the obstacle there was a mob of 50-60 people stuck at the obstacle. These were all people that had started way before I had and who knows how long they had been stuck here! I pushed my way through got over the wall and sprinted off in to the distance. This portion of the race became sprint-obstacle-sprint-obstacle. The obstacles were short and simple pull a rope here, drag a tire here, flip a tire there nothing exceptionally difficult. Then I came to one of the more difficult obstacles carry a sandbag up the mountain and back down, not too bad but I vowed to sprint that mountain at all costs I was not stopping. I didn't have a problem until getting to the top and yet again hitting a mob of people sitting and resting or slowly moving forward. I took the long way going off course and running around the group. I told myself I was going to be encouraging to everyone no matter how discouraged I was after losing my chip. I cheered everyone on along the way even offered to carry a couple of people's sand bags but my offer was declined. A few more steep hill climbs, lots of mud and a couple of very easy obstacles later I came to what I will call the "beast" obstacle. A backpack up the steepest climb in the course. The word on the course was that the men's backpack was 100 lbs and the women's 50lbs. That is a heavy ass backpack. Still determined to run up I put the pack on and started on a trot up the hill, quickly stopped yet again by a dense group of people sitting, walking backward and slowly inching up the hill. At this point I knew there was less than a mile left in the race so I just made my own trail and took off up the hill, helping a few people up that had fallen on my way up and acting as balance for an older gentleman on the turn to down hill and then off down the hill I went. At the bottom of the hill I was really figuring out the difficulty of the race my quads were on fire. Despite the burn I dropped the pack and took off sprinting down the course. I reached a few short walls and jumped them with ease. With less than half a mile left in the race I got to the final mud pit, a series of holes full of mud followed by a mud hill to climb. The series went on for 4 or 5 hills and ended with a log over a final water pit to cross. Again waiting in line otherwise the obstacle itself not too difficult. One final half mile jaunt and then the last two obstacles. Rope climb and cargo net. I came up to the last two knowing the finish line was just on the other side. I though to myself I could finish but I would be waiting on everyone else to finish at the same time getting more and more mad that I had lost my timing chip.
I made a quick decision asked the worker at the rope climb what time it was. I was about 50 minutes in to the course. I looked at the waiting line ahead of me waiting for the cargo net.... easily 100 plus people. At the moment someone was stuck on top afraid of heights not wanting to climb down, I talked to the worker for a few minutes and asked if I could go back through the course backwards? He just looked at me and said sure just don't tell anyone I said it was OK. My decision was made I took off back through the course, I was going back to finish with my wife. With no time on my mind it was time to try and enjoy the race. I passed all the participants I had traveled with a half to three quarter miles back. I kept running cheering on all the competitors along the way. I finally found my wife right before the back pack obstacle. She was distraught and passed ready to quit. I through her pack on my back and we pushed on through the course. It was a challenge to keep her moving at times and the difficulty of the course became more apparent at every obstacle. To me it wasn't too unbearable but she was in a serious struggle. I was determined to have a good time so we carried on toward the finish. As I passed the obstacles again I had a different view of each one seeing it for the second time. I was starting to appreciate the course and how it was set up. We reached the cargo net and opted for the 30 burpees rather than waiting 30 minutes to get to the front of the line. We jumped the fire pushed through the Spartans to the finish and received what we had come for..... our finisher medal. The piece we can put on display forever telling everyone "yep i did that!"
As soon as the race was over I was upset, a little bit tired, cold, muddy and still full of energy. I went right over to the pull up challenge and cranked of 27 pull ups burning off some much needed anger. Walking over to get washed off I had a moment to regroup toss my shoes in the charity truck and really think about the race. My main negative thoughts on the race, TOO many people. The crowding at the obstacles was just too much to handle. For someone wanting to go out there and race this is NOT for you. If I had to do it over again I would have signed up for the elite heat. The first heat of the morning when the Elite runners race. I don't consider my self elite but I would like to give myself a fair shot at the course. Less mud, less people and more speed. If you are out for fun and need plenty of rest don't worry about the elite heat but I still recommend an early heat before the course is completely destroyed.
Biggest Advice:
Shoes are a big factor, you will want something with good traction on the bottom but also something that doesn't hold water. You can not avoid water and mud there is just no way around it. In shoe choice I would also test a few pair out something that is going to let the water out is good but I would also look for something that will keep the rocks out. Rocks in my shoes made me so uncomfortable and foot health is important in any kind of race.
Go in to the race either looking to just have fun with a group or enter the elite heat. The course is too crowded for any racing during the day. I honestly passed 500+ people during the race, there are just too many walkers and people of low fitness level to navigate through to have any sort of success at really getting in to a race mode. The groups/couples on the course were having a blast the individuals were just as frustrated as me.
Don't expect to get your money's worth if you are a regular "fun runner" or if you regularly compete in 10k plus distances. Even the bottom of the barrel road races usually try to provide a great package for you at the race. Post race food, drink and camaraderie. The spartan race doesn't even provide a specialized event shirt. You get the same shirt as every other race in the world, you get a banana, cereal bar and a beer. For 100+ dollars this is a little weak especially because you pay for shuttle, bag check and spectators on top of all that it is pretty lame in the swag department. But you do get a finisher medal..... pretty lame as well to be honest.
All in all I have a bad taste in my mouth after this Spartan race. I don't want to discourage anyone looking for a fun and different event. Especially if you are out there for fun only. Sign up early and avoid the added cost later in the season. Get to the course early and enjoy the environment. I know what is coming now and what to look for. I would not train any differently but maybe train with less strength emphasis and more on running in water, mud and with wet feet in general. I will try another spartan race but it will not be the fort Carson race. This race had 28 obstacles in a sprint rather than the normal 15. After a couple months of sitting on it I know for sure I will sign up again but I will chose a better location and sign up for the Elite heat as well. The extra $30 will be worth it to deal with less of a crowd. Yes an extra $30 to compete they stick you every way they can. They are in it to make money and they are good at it. If you want the status of being a Spartan do it. If you are a serious runner pass. If you are a runner that just wants something different this is for you. Final words, it's not that fun during but when you look back it was a whole lot of fun, secure your timing chip losing it will really piss you off!!
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