Super Spartan Race – been there, done that, got the t-shirt

Becca and my parents are relieved that I survived the Super Spartan Race this Saturday. It was 8.5 miles including 30 obstacles of climbing, crawling, jumping, pulling, lifting, and lots of mud. Any obstacles that were not successfully completed on the first attempt required penalty drills. I was pleased that I only failed on 2 obstacles, though one of them was the rope climb and I was pretty upset with myself on that. My excuse on this was that it came after two other obstacles that required a lot of hand strength, and my grip on the rope wasn’t confident at 20 feet up.

My final time was 2 hrs 9 mins. This being my first time through, and also considering I’ve never run further than 5 miles before, I ran kind of conservatively. If I could do it again I think I could have gotten under 2 hrs. It definitely helps to have a good partner that can push you and make the time go faster with conversation, thanks Doug.

In my age group (30-34), I was in the 60th percentile. In my gender, I was in the 62nd percentile. Overall, I was in the 68th percentile. (I don’t think these stats include the 300 competitive racers in the first heat.) I was hoping for a little better, but considering this was my first obstacle race and my first kind of physical endurance competition of any kind, I’m pretty happy. I showed up, met the challenge, and did better than 68% of the people there, not bad. I beat the average time by 15 minutes.

Part of the reason I wanted to do this event was to compare my new found fitness with other people’s fitness; am I really an athlete again or do I just think I am? Kind of hard to tell when you always work out alone (usually in front of the TV) and do very little athletic activity with other people. I’m pleased with my result and now I know I can push even harder. At the end of the race I felt good, maybe too good. Maybe that was just the adrenaline talking, or the elation to be done, but I felt like I could have kept going or pushed harder.

Unfortunately the Spartan Beast (the next level up) is not offered in very many locations, the nearest is Utah. Next year we may try a different local obstacle race like the Tough Mudder, might as well start a new t-shirt collection.

When I finished the race I was completely caked in mud except my face. When you cross the finish line they gave me a medal and the black t-shirt that you see in the pictures. I did not race in the black t-shirt. The mud that you see on the black t-shirt was only the mud that transferred from me to the t-shirt through incidental contact until I was able to get cleaned up, that’s how muddy I was. I thought it looked pretty darn cool, I wish the shirt was designed with that mud splatter effect.

Something to remember about Arizona, however, is that our dirt is very rocky. The mud is not smooth and silky, it’s like sand paper with tiny rough rocks in it. Next year I will definitely run with gloves to protect my hands on the obstacles. This alone probably would have saved me a couple of minutes. The most uncomfortable thing about the mud, however, is getting rocks in your shoes. By the end of the race it was starting to hurt to walk because my shoes were full of rocks and mud, fortunately most of it was conforming around my toes. But I was glad to be free of them at the end.

This has been an excellent experience and motivator for my daily work outs. I will be looking for more challenges in the future. Care to join me?

Here are the pictures.

Thanks to those who expressed concern and celebration with me,
Nate