Muck and pluck: A grimacing but determined Catherine Carr slogs her way under the barbed wire.
I've always wished I were more athletic. Sure, I played some kiddie soccer and even did a stint on the crew team in my freshman year at college, but I've always struggled to get myself off the couch. Seeing people jogging along the Hudson River, playing basketball in the park, or heading to yoga class, I would think, "If only I were that motivated!"
Well, motivation came to me last fall in the well-developed form of a bodybuilder friend, who works for the Spartan Race, which sponsors challenging obstacle course events designed to test physical and mental toughness. When he suggested I do a Spartan race in the spring, I laughed. I couldn't even run for five minutes, let alone five miles while climbing over walls, crawling under barbed wire, and charging up hills carrying sandbags.
Yet, I did want to get healthier and in better shape, and I needed a goal to get me started, so maybe this was just the thing after all. Looking for moral support, I recruited some friends and RAND coworkers and formed a team, "Sparty of Seven." Instead of an impossible chore I now saw a fun challenge.
Our team signed up for the first level of Spartan Race—the Sprint, a 3- to 5-mile-long course interspersed with obstacles and drills throughout. For those brave souls looking for even more of a challenge, there's the Super Spartan (8 to 10 miles), the Spartan Beast (12 to 15 miles), and the Spartan Death Race (I don't even want to know).
Burning love: Sam and Albelisa Kemp leap over the Ring of Fire.
Seven months of training flew by fast, and the time to test our inner Spartan soon arrived. The Sprint took place on Sunday, June 2, at Tuxedo Ridge Ski Center, NY, about an hour north of the city. Our team arrived early to stretch, practice on some of the obstacles, and hydrate every chance we got. As our 3:00 start time approached, we were corralled into the start gates, bouncing with nerves and excitement. Race officials gave us safety announcements (rocks will be slippery; don't dive headfirst into water) and an inspirational speech. Then a smoke bomb was lit, and we were off and running.
After a short distance around the corner, we hit our first obstacle: running through a series of muddy trenches while Spartan employees sprayed us with cold water from a high-powered hose, shouting we'd thank them for it later. And on this hot, humid day, we did.
Next we had to run up a steep mountain trail, which made me realized my jogging on paved city streets was inadequate training. Within five minutes I swallowed my pride and walked most of the way up, saving my energy for the obstacles looming ahead. At the top of the trail, we turned and zigzagged back down the hill—only to turn around and run right back up again, this time hopping over low hurdles.
The next set of obstacles required climbing over a five-foot wall, under a barrier, over another five-foot wall, and under another barrier. We ran a little further until we reached the monkey bars, the one drill I was dreading. When my fingers started to slip as I was halfway across, I mentally screamed at myself to tighten my grip, miraculously making it to the other side.
Malik runs the gauntlet of gladiators on his way to the finish line.
The middle of the race was a blur of up-and-downhill running combined with various obstacles, the most difficult for me being the rope climb. I fought my way up the approximately 20-foot-high rope, struggled for a bit to reach to the top, but finally had to accept defeat. The penalty for failing to complete a drill is 30 "burpees"—an exercise in which you drop to your hands to perform a squat thrust then return to a standing position. By the end of the race I had grinded out 120 of them.
Next was tossing a spear so it stuck into a bale of hay. My spear bounced off the bales—30 more burpees! We then had to drag a heavy stone by a chain up a hill, and turn around and drag it back down again. During the drill I pulled something in my left shoulder, not so severely to make me quit, but enough to cause a nagging pain for the rest of the race. After dragging the stone, we carried a sandbag up a trail and (of course!) back down again.
After a rock scramble, we had to scale a seven-foot wall. Women were allowed to use a step plank on the wall, which I needed because I was too exhausted to get a running start. Once over the wall, we high-stepped through tires on the ground, like in football practice. A bit later we faced yet another wall—at eight feet tall, the highest of the day. Even with the two step planks and my six-foot frame, I needed a boost from a fellow runner.
More obstacles followed: Climbing across a cargo net suspended between trees. Lifting a large stone with a rope pulley, and then lowering it without dropping it. Running across a series of logs without falling off. Traversing a wall embedded with small wooden blocks, like horizontal rock climbing.
Then came the most strenuous obstacle of the day: A quarter-mile mud crawl—uphill and under barbed wire. Because of my height, crawling on my hands and knees wasn't an option, so I tried pulling myself while lying on my belly, but the rocky ground cut me too much. I also tried rolling, but that didn't work either. I ended up slinking up the hill on my back and butt like a worm, carefully tilting my head back limbo-style under each strand of barbed wire, incurring only one minor slice on my arm.
Once I made it out from under the barbed wire prison, I scaled a slanted mud-covered wall using an attached rope. Another rock scramble—the last of the day—lead to a waist-deep mud pit you had to slog across. Then came the final three obstacles on the final downhill: another angled wall, jumping over a ring of fire, and running the gauntlet of gladiators, who bashed us with big batons before we crossed the finish line.
Warriors to the end, RAND's Spartan Team celebrates their finish: Cesar Macias, Catherine Carr, Malik Ranger, Sara Tsiropinas, Sam Kemp, and Albelisa Kemp.
And finish I did, with a time of 2 hours, 37 minutes, and 45 seconds. Our Sparty of Seven team—which included my RAND coworkers Malik Ranger, Cesar Macias, Sara Tsiropinas, and Sam and Albelisa Kemp, all of whom finished as well—placed a respectable 190 out of 760, which put us in the top 25%. We were exhausted, sore, caked in mud, and covered in cuts, bumps, and bruises. But we were also proud having accomplished something amazing. And we have the Spartan medal to prove it!
As for my motivation to be more active and athletic, I've already signed up for the Super Spartan race in September.
