The SoCal Spartan Races were held in
Temecula, which was about an hour and a half drive from us. The drive was easy and the only traffic we
hit was to get into the event parking area.
The event was a three-quarter of a mile walk (uphill) from the parking
area, and once there, we checked in and received
our bibs, timing chips, headband with
number, and free beer ticket then checked our bags at the bag check. My cousin and I did the Spartan Sprint (3+
miles) and my cousin’s husband, my brother, and my brother’s friend did the
Super Spartan (8+ miles).
 |
| Me and my brother |
 |
| Me and my cousin |
 |
| My cousin and her hubby |
My cousin and
I were in a wave nearly an hour before the boys, so we said goodbye, wished
them luck and were off to our corral!
The Obstacles!
If you are unable to complete an obstacle, you have to do a set of 30 burpees. To do a burpee, you squat, kick your legs out
behind you so you’re in a plank position, do a pushup, jump your legs back to
your hands, then jump up with your hands over your head. If you’re a visual person like me, check out this video to see a burpee.
Mud pits
Run through
sludge! The first obstacle was a thick
mud pit and my shoes actually got stuck and slipped off! I was able to retrieve them and put them back
on. I tied them so tight, there was no
way they would come off again!
Wall climb
The walls varied in
height, and they seemed to start out short and became taller and taller as the
race progressed. There was even a 5 ft
wall to jump over to get into your race corral before it even began! It was pretty awesome.
Hills
More like
mountains! Temecula is quite hilly, so
there were constant running up hills then coming back down. One was so tall and steep, and that was the
most challenging obstacle for me. Gotta
do it though!
Wading through
rivers with waist deep holes
There was one part
near the beginning of the course that was a gamble…you could go left for the
“Harder but Shorter path” or right for the “Easier but Longer path”. We opted for harder and shorter and it was a
narrow river we had to wade through. It
looked like no big deal until splat! I
fell right into a hole that went waist deep in mud. I wiggled myself out and
then my cousin fell into another hole waist deep! After the river, we had to run through a
forresty-area and then back to another hill where the other shorter/easier path
met up.
Monkey bars
I
haven’t done monkey bars in probably 20+ years.
Hanging, my feet were only 6 inches off the gorund, but man was I scared
for that first swing! I would almost start,
then hold myself back because “what if I missed the next rung and fell?” Well, then I’d drop those 6 inches, no big
deal. So I pushed myself forward and
grabbed the second rung. Then I swung my
body and grabbed the third..and so on. I
made it just before the last rung when I fell, but I got back up from the end
point and swung two rungs to make up for it.
Swamp running in the lake in neck deep muddy water
Part
of the lake was blocked off for us to “wade” through. The water was as dark as coffee and the mud
on the bottom was like wet cement married with quicksand {thankfullly I had
tied my laces super tight after the last mud pit!} It was waist deep sludge, then it got deeper,
and deeper, and finally came up to my neck.
At that depth, it was hard for me to get leverage to rip my feet out of
the mud below the water, so I ended up swimming the rest of the way. By the way, the water was absolutely
FREEZING!!! My legs went numb. After the swamp running, of course there was
another hill.
Ladder climb up then down
The
hill led to a ladder climb over a cargo container then back down. The bars were pretty spaced out, so you had
to make sure not to slip with your muddy shoes and fall.
Barbed wire crawl
Then
there was the barbed wire crawl over wet muddy gravel with small muddy water
holes throughout. The length of this
obstacle was long…probably about 50 feet.
I first started to army crawl, but my elbows were getting ripped
up. I saw someone roll, and followed
suit, which made it much easier. I’d roll
under some wire, then plop down under another wire into a muddy water hole,
then climb up trying to avoid the next line of wire, then roll again and
repeat. My cousin, who was with me,
opted for a back bend/crab crawl style that worked very well for her! There were also volunteers along the sides
spraying us with fire hoses!
 |
| Me in the background sliding down a mud slope in between the barbed wire |
Over-under-through walls
And
then there are the three back-to-back walls.
The first 6 ft wall we had to climb over, the second we had to
roll/crawl under, and the third had barbed wire on the top and a small square
hole in the center that you had to jump/crawl through. These were fun and very simple.
Ladders up to the bridge of planks to walk across then climb
back down
Similar
to the ladder climb up and down I mentioned above, this obstacle was double the
height, and the top was just planks going across length-wise. There was no solid bottom at the top to walk
across, so we had to walk the planks (literally) to get to the other side to go
down. Once my cousin and I got to the
top, though, we noticed an older woman struggling to make it. She voiced she was afraid of heights, and we
responded with “you’re awesome for doing this” and gave her our hands to pull
her up and over. She made it! Sidenote: There is such a sense of commraderie,
teamwork, and encouragement at the Spartan Race, which was apparent the entire
time! Every participant was willing to
help orthers, and it was so heartwarming to see and experience.
Carry 50lb bag of rocks up a mountain
This
obstacle was no cake walk. We had to
grab a 50lb sack of rocks (not the most comfortable thing to carry since they
dig into you) and carry it up a very steep, rocky and sandy mountain. The bag was hard enough to lift from the
ground up to my shoulder, and now I have to carry it up this unstable
mountain? Ok, let’s do it! I first put the bag on my right shoulder, and
the rocks were digging into me, so I readjusted and ended up carrying it in my
arms in front of my stomach. I was the
only one carrying the bag this way, but it made it so much easier for me. At
the top, my cousin had to readjust so she dropped her bag. I dropped mine to help put hers on her back
across both of her shoulders to distribute the weight more evenly, then picked
my bag up, and down we went. This one
definitely made my heart rate skyrocket!
 |
| At the top of the mountain |
Tire Toss
There
were monster truck tires lined up and you had to flip it 3x one day and 3x back
to move on. I guess my biceps are quite
strong because this was super easy for me.
Done! On to the next!
Lateral wall climb using 2x4”s as hand and foot holds to get
across
This
obstacle was an insane forearm workout!
It was a long wall we had to climb laterally (side-to-side) using only
little 2” by 4” wood planks at eye level and foot level to grab onto and step
on. And no grabbing the top of the
wall! This was super challenging, and my
midget legs struggled to reach the next pegs, but I did it without falling! My forearms though were screaming at me.
Inverted wall
Of
course once my arms were on fire from the lateral wall climb, we had to run
down a hill to a very tall inverted wall.
That means the top of the wall is closer to you than the bottom. There was a plank near the bottom to step on,
making you inverted, and yet I still couldn’t reach the top to hoist myself
over. Then I hear a guy yell “Get your
footing, I’m giving you a shoulder boost” and I felt this guy use his shoulder
to push me up so I could grab the top. I
pulled myself up, threw one leg over for leverage, and pulled the rest of my
body up and over while profusely thanking this guy. He then did the same for my cousin, and I ran
back up the wall (it was inverted away from me now so I was able to run up it
and grab on), grabbed my cousin and pulled her over. Then we both jumped down, and it was a high
jump!
Herculean hoist
After
the inverted wall was the Herculean Hoist!
The obstacle was to hoist a 60lb cinder block off the ground about 20
feet using a rope pulley system. I was
waiting in line to complete and saw many women struggling. Then I saw the woman in front of me walk up
to it and beast it out! I looked at my
cousin and said “Im going to do what she did” and I walked up to the rope and
grabbed it and thought ‘holy shit it’s heavier than I anticipated’ and pulled
like hell, one hand over the other using my body weight to pull down, and
ta-da! I was at the top in 10 seconds! Beast Mode Engaged! The hardest part was actually letting it back
down because you couldn’t just drop it or it would shatter and cement pieces
would go flying everywhere. So you had
to slowly release it, and that rope wanted so badly to slide through my hands,
but I wouldn’t let it.
Mount Everest
After
the Herculean Hoist we thought we were nearly done because this was just after
the 3 mile mark. Afterall, we were doing
the 3+ mile Spartan Sprint. Nope. (The course ended up being 4+ miles.) Then there was a mountain. A very steep, rocky mountain, that we thought
was only for the Super Spartans (8+ mile course). Up we went!
My cousin was killing this one!
I, on the other hand was struggling.
“Almost to the top” my cousin would say.
“We’re not even half way” I’d respond.
Panting, we were at the top.
Very tall wall climb
Of
course while we, er, I was out of breath from Mount Everest, there was a really
tall 10 foot wall we had to climb over.
I got a running start, jumped and reached the top, pulled myself about
half way, then fell. Round two, over the
damn wall.
Log jump
The
log jump wasn’t so bad. It was a line of
maybe 10-12 logs sticking out of the ground, all different heights, that you
had to jump on to get to the other side.
I stepped from the first one to the second, and realized my stride isn’t
long enough to maintain a strong balance, so I jumped faster without pausing,
and made it to the other side without falling.
Phew!
Tractor pull
Once
again, we thought this obstacle was for the Super Spartans, and once again we
were wrong. There was a hill, and we had
to drag a 50lb cinder block tied to a chain up this hill and back down. My cousin and I teamed up, and thank god we
did. This was so hard! The hill was covered in loose dirt, so the
cement block kept getting stuck. There
were people who stopped and broke down in tears, this obstacle was so
hard. My cousin and I worked out a
system though, and through great teamwork, we completed this obstacle.
Javelin toss
This
obstacle was a crap shoot. I have never
thrown a javelin, but I’ve seen a lot of movie and shows where they do through
javelins and tried to channel their strategy.
Arc it, don’t through it straight or it will nose down. Mind you, the woman monitoring this obstacle
was giving out 30 burpee sets like she was handing out free candy at a candy
store. One guy missed and asked to go
again, and she said “you have 30 burpees, ifyou miss again, you have 60, and
I’m counting.” Well, he missed, and she
literally counted each of the 60 burpees this man had to do. I hadn’t done burpees yet and I wasn’t going
to start now. I threw my javelin and it
landed at the bottom end of the haystack, but it stuck! I was allowed to move on, no burpees necessary.
Rope climb straight up to ring a bell
We
could see the finish line now, but there were still a few obstacles to
complete. One of which was a verticle
rope climb the height of two cargo containers with a bell at the top to
ring. I looked at this, looked at my
cousin, looked at the beer tent past the finish line, and we both said
“burpees?” and laughed. 30 burpees it
was!
Slippery wall
Then
there was a wall built at a 45 degree incline covered in mud and water. There were ropes coming down to grab onto for
assistance in getting over this one. I
grabbed the rope and made it to the top but couldn’t figure out how to get over
because the rope ended. Still holding
the rope I put my knees down {bad idea because the gritty muddy water cut them
up}, and a guy from the other side reached his hand over and gave me the
leverage I needed to get over the top.
Then it was an easy climb down with plank rungs.
The final mud hills/pits with one last wall climb swim
There
were several 10 ft incline mud hills with muddy water pits on the other
side. It was a lot of up-and-over,
trying to maintain footing so as not to slip.
The water pits that we had to wade through were deep and freezign! After three up and overs, we stood on top of
the last mud hill to see a wall in the muddy water pit. At first I thought we had to jump over, but
then I noticed the top was laced with barbed wire. How do we get over this? Then I saw someone swim under the wall. We had
gotten this far without having to swim through muddy water so it was completely
unexpected. I knew I couldn’t think
about it too much {bacteria getting into my ears?} so I slid down the mud
mountain into the water, plugged my nose, and went under. It was pretty gross, but the coldness of the
water felt very refreshing. We did it!!!
Jump over fire
I have to admit, the fire pit we had to jump over was much
smaller than I expected, but it was still pretty cool. My cousin and I held hands, ran, and jumped!
Battle three
gladiators with the foam
The very last obstacle was to pass three gladiators who try
to knock down runners with pugil sticks.
We ran through and dodged them all! Woohoo!
After crossing the finish line, there was an option to do 40 extra burpees for a second medal. After all of that, who can say no to 40
burpees for a SECOND medal! Of course we
did it :)
After earning our burpee medal, I noticed my knees were
bleeding from the slippery wall at the end.
BATTLE WOUNDS!! But a shower,
clean clothes, and bandages could wait…a celebratory beer was the
priority. We got our free Sierra Nevada
and it went down so easily :)
 |
| Cheers! |
 |
| Bloody knees from the Slippery Wall |
We then
headed to the bag check for our bags with towels and clean clothes, then hit
the showers.
 |
| Ice cold outdoor "shower"- a line of hoses with nozzles |
I was about to change right
there in the middle of everyone using my makeshift towel shield until I saw a
tent that read ‘Women’s Changing’. After
an ice cold outdoor shower in my underarmours and tank, we ventured into the
tent and changed into clean dry clothes, then grabbed another beer while we
waited for the boys to finish.
When they
finally crossed the finish line, they looked exhausted yet very
triumphant! They did it! They are going for the trifecta (sprint of 3+
miles, super of 8+ miles, and beast of 12+ miles all within the same calendar
year).
The Spartan Race was one of the most challenging things I’ve
ever done. It made other mud runs and
obstacle courses feel like child’s play.
I am so proud of myself, my cousin, and the boys for dominating this
race. WE ARE SPARTANS!! AROO!!!
![]()
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
