Spartan Race Workout

I did the Spartan Race workout yesterday! They hold these all over the country and they're totally free. I have been meaning to do one for awhile. And this one was at none other than my very own gym! I showed up just before 0800, signed in and got my free shirt. After a quick shirt change I headed out to the turf floor to find everyone was in lines based on their number. I looked down on my hand to see someone had written a 5 when I checked in. I get in the 5 line and started talking to the guy next to me, come to find out he had come into my store last week while preparing for Tough Mudder. My world is getting increasingly smaller, it seems I can't go anywhere without running into someone from my gym or that I've helped at my store.

So the Spartan coach comes out and starts giving us instructions using the world's worst bullhorn. We seriously couldn't hear a thing he said, except for one guy who has laser ears and henceforth became known as our translator. So our warm up was a series of squats, push ups with holds at the bottom, burpees, and reverse lunges. Lots of "I am a Spartan!" and "Arrrooo!" 's throughout. I have no idea how we were still inside on the turf, there were so many people packed in there. Eventually we did go outside to do some more squats/burpees/pushups/lunges on the parking lot, and then ran a couple laps around the buildings. Back inside for some water and then back out to do lunges around the building! This kind of sucked, but we were all smiling and making jokes the entire time. Next we did more of that same squat/lunge/burpee/pushup hold circuit. The coach then asked "Is it anyone's birthday?" A bunch of us were shouting "No!!!!" but someone responded. "What's the birthday girl's name?" I shouted out "Ed!" because it was the shortest name I could think of. "How old are you?" A bunch of us were shouting numbers from 1 to 5. Alas, we did 25 burpees. Hey, it could have been worse because I saw some people that were easily 50+. The coach also separated the people who were doing Trifectas this year. There were maybe 10 people, myself not among them this year. I spotted my neighbor, it figures he would be at the workout. He did the Ultra Beast this year and we hadn't crossed paths since, so at some point I ran up to him and asked how he did. 13 hours. Screw that! I also saw Leon! He was just hanging out spectating, his knee is still bothering him but he will race again soon. The next segment we did was animal moves, A B and C. A was for Ape. The ape crawls are fine, I do them at the gym often enough. B was for Bear, and this was annoying because people in front were moving slow so I ended up hanging out in a plank for long periods of time. Can we say barb wire crawls? C was for Crab. These sucked because my arms aren't used to crab walks. Alot of people were lunging instead, I only took a quick lunge break then switched back. At this point I was starting to get quite tired.

Back inside for more crazy stuff. The 5 line was reassembled, and we took the line and formed it into a circle. There were 5 circle like blobs around the room

Adam was kind enough to take pictures. I'm pretty much in the middle of the room. 

So we locked arms and did a group sit up. My circle was more of a blob, and I was at a really weird angle because we were a bit too far apart. We tried to adjust it but I was still too far away from them, and the guy on my right was really sweaty so hanging on while doing the situps wasn't easy. Then we all got into a plank, held it, and one at a time we had to crawl under the tunnel of human planks. THIS. Oh my god. I am terrible at planks to begin with, so waiting for the entire team to crawl under me was brutal. I took breaks. Then as soon as I was done with the eternal plank it was my turn to crawl through. And after the 2-3 minute crawl I had to get back into the plank so the people to the left of me could go all the way through. It sucked but it was really fun at the same time. Next it was back into our lines and partnering up with the person next to us. First up for us was one of us holds a plank, the other does a burpee and jumps over the other person's legs. I'm so glad my partner was a small person. Next, burpees in synch with one another. Then, 20 mountain climbers while the other person did squats - this is where I really ran out of gas because I don't do well with mountain climbers. I'm trying to remember what the last one was, bicycles and flutter kicks or something. Then it was back outside for some sprints, and we were DONE! 2 hours of Spartan crazy. Arrroooo indeed. 

This was fun. It was a challenge for sure, but there were so many great people and all of us together kept up morale, we made each other laugh and smile throughout. I heard there were 400 people there - still not sure how we all fit on the turf, but that's ok. I left sweaty, sore, and bruised, in true Spartan fashion. And I'll be back for more - looking at the DC Sprint in a couple months