In spite of the pre-race anticipation, the Spartan Race went well. Possibly very well; I am not entirely sure, since race times haven’t yet been released. But regardless of what my time is, I can confidently say that I had a great time running it again, and that I might very well want to do this again next year.
I’d like to think my time this year was better than last year’s time, for no other reason than that I messed up on two fewer obstacles this year, and cut my total burpee count from 150 to 90. Last year’s Spartan Race revealed some physical weaknesses in my gym regimen, and I vowed to rectify them as best as I could, and it turns out that I did a pretty good job of doing such. The eight-foot wall that proved too difficult last year was something that I was able to overcome this year. The spear toss, however, still eludes me, as did the peg wall. The rope climb is something that I’m pretty sure I could do if the base weren’t in ball-freezing cold water, and it wasn’t pretty much the second-to-last obstacle on the course.
As for everything else, the mud crawl at the end has been made harder, by virtue of roughing it up with dips and pools and rises, eliminating the exploit everyone in prior years figured out, by simply rolling on their sides through it all. Needless to say, my knees and forearms are looking like raw hamburger while I’m writing this, and I’m going to be in a world of hurting tomorrow morning probably.
Otherwise, I will say that I am still proud in my capability to run. Being able to overcome obstacles is cool and all, but the biggest aspect of the Spartan, and any other mud run is needing to be able to run. There are people who blow past me at the start of the race, but by mile three and four, there are few people actually still running, and I’m passing them left and right. It’s times like this that I’m particularly prideful in my running, and serves as good enough reason to never give it up.
In conclusion, GG for the 2014 Atlanta Spartan Sprint. Had lots of fun, enjoyed spending some time with a bro on the drives to and fro, and most importantly, I picked up this awesome shirt. It’s pretty much the broey-est shirt in existence, and when I saw it, Lady in Red might as well have been playing, because nothing else mattered, because I had to have it.
