In August, Dante, Brian and I worked as volunteers for a Spartan Race in Washington. That weekend was a Spartan Sprint, which is a short (~5k) race with lots of obstacles. Volunteering got us free race entry. We didn't run the race together like we had during the Tough Mudder. Instead, after the first hill climb, I got in stride and took off. None of the obstacles required teamwork, so I was able to move at my own pace and really push myself.
The race had a lot of challenging obstacles and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I finished the course in just over an hour, significantly slower than racers in the first heat that got to run before the course got muddy, but overall a fast time. I spent about half of that time on one obstacle, trying to crawl under barbed wire up a 100 yard long hill covered in mud that they were constantly spraying down with hoses. Dig fingers in to mud, climb up two feet, slide down one foot (sometimes slide down three feet), repeat. At one point I teamed up with another racer to make better progress up the hill. We'd act as human ladders for each other. One of use would cling to the mud while the other would climb up him. We'd trade positions and keep going. It was tough work, but eventually we made it to the top. We got to slide right back down the hill on a giant water slide, definitely the most fun part of the course.
I managed to keep running during the entire race. Except for one section; carrying this heavy sandbag up a long, steep hill.
Clearly the guy behind me has the right strategy. I was a rookie for this race. I'll be back.
