I am Spartan

Remember way back in November when I entered the Spartan Race? 

Well the race was yesterday here in Ottawa.  In the week leading up to the race, I was quite anxious.  I would have been anxious way before a week, if I hadn't run a half marathon last week.  I was running with people I didn't really know (actually, I didn't really know two of them, the other 4 I had never even met before). 

If I haven't said it before, I tend to be quite shy when I first meet new people.  And perhaps a bit socially awkward.  But, once I get to know someone I come out of my shell and do almost a complete 180 and shy is not the word people would use to describe me.

So meeting new people AND facing a physical challenge?  That's really pushing the boundaries and gets me out of my safe zone.  I would be lying if I said that I hadn't thought about maybe not doing it - only briefly though.  I'm not one to back down from something I have committed to.  

All of a sudden I was waking up and it was race day.  And it was rainy.  And it was cold.  I went and met my team and got psyched for what we were about to do.

The gun went off and so did we.

Rather than give a complete play by play, I will list the obstacles (in no particular order)
- jump over a 5-ish foot wall

- there was A LOT of running through mud.  Thick, heavy, wet mud.  Every once in a while there would be a ditch/area where you had no choice but to wade through the water/mud.

(That's me climbing up out of the ditch!)

- pull 40lb kettlebell up a rope 7 feet.
- carry a stone (big concrete stone) through a trail in the woods

- crawl under barbed wire in mudy water about 1 foot deep.  This was probably about 150 m long.  By half way I finally realized that the best way was to use my forearms to pull the rest of my body - I just let my legs float behind me

- carry a sandbag through a trail in the woods (over logs, under trees etc..)
- rope climb.  Rope was probably 8 feet, no knots to pull yourself up.  I opted to do 20 burpees, as did most people.
- javelin toss - through the javelin to hit bale of hay suspended on wire fence
- 15 foot wall (straight up) climb.  I got up using the hands of two of my teammates - then dropped down on the other side.
- rope climb - 8 foot high rope ladder (everyone waiting in line to do it held down the ladder to make it tight for those climbing)
- crawl in narrow low tunnel (my elbows are skinned from this!)
- rope ladder up about 20 feet - to the top - and over.  So many people, the ladder was twisting every which way.
- crawl through plastic tunnel filled with ice cubes.
- pull "wagons" around a course with sandbags attached to them (1 sandbag for the ladies, two for the men)
- crawl underneath ELECTRICAL barbed wire fence (ha! By the time we got there, the battery was dead so it wasn't on!)
- up and over a slanted wall using a rope (I did burpees, the line was long and I figured I could finish the burpees before I got a turn... and I was right!)
- through the gladiators... and then

We were done!

 Am I glad I did it? YES
Will I do it again?  DAMN STRAIGHT

I love doing things that push my limits, where I have to challenge myself, where I will think "christy you are awesome" afterwards.