I am Spartan!

On Saturday 23rd June I became a Spartan alongside my team mates Karen, Matthew and Mark! 

All looking quite happy before the start of the race!

I completed my first Spartan Super at Aston Down in Gloucestershire, it was the hardest 9 miles I have ever done! 26 obstacles, 9 miles of brutal terrain, hills, single track, stoney uneven paths, a little bit of water (wading across a stinky pond) but  no mud... boooo!

It was brutal but amazing all at the same time!

I had my doubts a few weeks ago about whether I could complete this course, I was worried about letting my 3 team mates down, Matthew and Mark have both completed Half Ironman's so are good runners but Karen talked me round and said we were doing it as a team and no one would be left behind and they were true to their word and awesome team mates on the day!

We decided quite early on that we would walk it, Karen suffers with hyper-mobility in her ankles and cant run that well, I've got a grumbly knee which is fine some days and a pain other days!

It was HOT on Saturday, we were running at 11am and by that time the heat was intense.  We ran from the START line to the first obstacles, a series of 4' walls, we all got over those no problem, ran a bit more then started slowing down as the first few obstacles were in the open fields and the temperature was rising and after that we just started walking.  None of us were there to run to be honest, we didn't care about times, we were there to experience Spartan as a team and have fun, and we did!

We all helped each other over the walls, it was great having 2 tall men who were willing to give a hand up, a push and be on the other side to help me and Karen get down.  We all encouraged each other, high-fiving after we completed each obstacle!  Some of them we needed a little extra help from marshals, who were all happy to lend a hand, after all they want you to succeed and no one wants to do 30 burpees! 

I tried pretty much every obstacle, even though I knew my upper body strength wasn't good enough for the twister, rig etc but to be honest I couldn't reach them, I seem to have T-Rex arms! I could have completed the block wall if my arms were 6" longer but I just couldn't reach around the final external corner to grab the next block :( 

We were all starting to suffer towards the end with the heat and the gruelling hills, they don't call one section Death Valley for nothing! We all had to complete a series of burpees towards the end after failing the spear throw,  rope climb (Mark completed that one) and the monkey bars but it was great to all hold hands as we leapt across the final obstacle, the fire jump!

It took us 5:13 to complete the course, we were almost the slowest people out there but we didn't care because we started and finished together as a Team and we're all good friends now!  

I'm itching to have another go, sadly the others aren't quite as keen and would rather be doing a Half Ironman as it's easier apparently! lol

Ignore the time on Strava, it only shows moving time and even that isn't correct as according to my Garmin watch moving time was 3:42 and total time was 5:15

This was meant to be a course map, but a lot of the obstacles were in different places!

List of obstacles completed and failed..

1. 4' walls - completed 
2. U-O-T (over, under, through) - completed 
3. 4' walls - completed 
4. Inverted walls (3 of them) - completed 
5. Stairway to Sparta - completed 
6. Barbed wire crawl - completed
7. Twister - tried but failed (30 squats)
8. Block wall - tried but failed (30 squats)
9. A frame - completed 
10. Barbed wire crawl - completed 
11. Sandbag carry - completed 
12. Multi rig - failed (30 squats)
13. 6' wall - completed
14. Atlas carry - completed 
15. Herc hoist - completed 
16. Z wall - tried but failed (30 squats)
17. Plate drag - completed 
18. Block drag - completed 
19. Slip wall - tried but failed (30 squats)
20. Bucket brigade - completed
21. Balance walls - completed 
22. Monkey bars - failed (30 squats)
23. Spear man - tried but failed (30 squats)
24. Rope climb - tried but failed (30 squats)
25. 8' walls (2 of them) - completed 
26. Fire jump - completed

So out of a total of 26 obstacles, I successfully completed 18! I did all the walls, all the carries, I couldn't do the twister, bars, rig as I don't have the upper body strength yet and that's down to my shoulder injury from last year but I know what I need to work on for the future and I will be doing a Spartan Sprint in October so should have time to work on that.

A huge thank you to my team mates for all their support on Saturday, I couldn't have done it without them! I definitely have the Spartan bug now! :)