Spartan Race Review: Pacific NW 2012

Last Saturday, I just completed the Spartan Sprint on June 16th, 2012 at Washougal Motocross Park (Pacific Northwest).  The length of the race was about 4 miles of hills, obstacles, and lots & lots of mud.  We formed a team of 10 guys and attacked this course.  Being a competitive group, we trained pretty hard for the event.  None of us have ever done an obstacle course race before so we really didn't know the appropriate way to train.  Now that I've completed the race, I want to give a recap of the race and some tips I've learned from this experience.

Pre-Race Team Photo

First thing I suggest is to get to the start line early.  The race heats have as many as 250 - 300 people and you don't want to get stuck behind the pack if you're goal is to get a competitive time.  The first part of the race was tough.  We ran 3/4th of a mile uphill.  A lot of my training consisted of running, but most of it was street running.  Trail running is an entirely different beast.  And while I ran hills, I never ran hills for that length of distance before.  After the uphill climb, we ran through some forest trails and started to make our descent down the hill we just climbed.  Running down hill is equally as tough.  Some psychos full sprinted down the hill with no fear.  Getting comfortable with that aspect can really improve your time.

The first obstacle we encountered was a vertical rope pull.  At this obstacle, you pull a rope with a 75 pound cement block attached up 30 feet in the air and need to control the block on the way down as well.  If you're unable to complete an obstacle, the penatly is 30 burpees.  One of the keys to getting a good race time is to not do burpees.  I did really well on this.  Pulling up the cement block was a lot easier than controlling the weight down.  I just leaned back, bent my knees and went to work. 

After the vertical rope pull, I did some more trail running until I encountered a set of four foot walls that you either and to go over, under, or through.  Not too hard but I was a little tired from all the running.  So I found these obstacles zapped a good amount of energy for not being that difficult.

Now something you need to know about me.  I don't know how to swim.  So the next obstacle raised my blood pressure quite a bit.  It was a giant water slide!  I saw a pool of water at the end, but was unsure of how deep it was.  No time to think.  Just crossed my fingers I wouldn't drown!  "Please don't die...please don't die" were the words coming from my mouth as my body flew down the slide.  I started picking up some serious speed prior to hitting the water.  Once I hit the pool, I was fully submerged but was able to stand up with the water being higher than waist deep.  Scratched off one of my nine lives, climbed out of the water, and raced off.

The next obstacle was a strength & endurance challenge as we had to carry 60 pound sandbags for about 100 yards.  The placement of these sandbags was very strategic.  I started to let it rest on my shoulder, but that shifted my weight to one side and made it tough on my core.  So I just rested the sandbag on my head and used my arms to balance it.  This was soooo much easier and gave me a chance to rest. 

I thought they said this race was suppose to be muddy???  Opened my mouth too soon because the next obstacle was a 150 yard mud crawl under barb wire.  You really have to embrace the mud to do well in this challenge.  I made up a lot of time finding my spots to pass others.  They told us at the beginning to not log roll through the mud pits, but lots of people were doing it anyways.  I stuck with the standard crawl since it was working for me pretty well.

After the mud crawl, you a hit a series of 6 feet walls and 8 feet walls.  Some people used the teamwork method of getting up and over these walls.  I just jumped up, got my elbows over the wall, and lifted myself over.  The 8 foot walls had a couple steps on the side to help get you closer to the top.  I utilized these steps as I found trying to use another individual for leverage was unreliable.  I got some nice scrapes under my armpit with this way of attacking the walls.  But I also cleared these walls in just a couple of seconds which really helped out my overall time.

The next obstacle was a cinder block drag up a hill for about 25 yards and then down a hill for another 25 yards.  The cinder block probably weighed about 50 pounds.  I felt the best strategy was to face forward and drag the block behind my butt.  At this point, my legs were fatigued so I just walked up the hill with the block.  Gripping the chain was a little challenging because of the wet mud still on my hands from the mud crawl. 

For those who love getting muddy, this next obstacle was just for you.  We had to clear 3 big mud puddles that went up past your waist.  Again with my fear of water, I entered these mud puddles cautiously.  Some dudes tried to clear the puddle quickly by jumping in as far as they could.  That's a great strategy to save time, but I'm not a mutant so I took my time.  Probably cost me a extra minute or two for being such a nancy.

The Spartan Race has a military presense to it and at the next obstacle, military personnel were volunteering with the tractor tire flips.  I had a lot of difficulty being able to lift these tires by myself.  You were given the option of lifting the big tires in teams of two or lift a smaller tire by yourself.  After not being able to budge the big tire, I went over to the smaller tire and flipped that over twice.  Took a little shot in the manhood, but after talking with others after the race...it looks like a lot of men had the same "weakling" issues.  But give us a break.  Look how much distance and obstacles we've convered so far before reaching this point. 

Next was a 25 foot rope climb with a huge mud puddle at the bottom.  Thankfully the rope had knots in it so I was able to rest my feet as I ascended up the rope.  But it was still pretty difficult because the rope was swaying so much.  At the top of the rope, you had to ring a bell.  I'm almost 6 feet tall, so I didn't have to reach far to ring the bell.  I feel sorry for the little people.  Like the rope pull at the beginning, climbing down the rope was a lot harder.  I just didn't want to get a rope burn.  That would of ended my race real quick.  Luckily my hands were saved and I made quite a big splash at the bottom.  Funny thing is that I had a hell of a time getting out of that mud puddle.  Took me longer than the rope climb itself...lol.

Ever throw a spear before?  No?  Well guess what...neither have I.  You're about 10 yards away and you have one chance to stick this spear in a hay bail about 8 feet off the ground.  The guy right before me stuck that spear in the hay bail with ease.  What a show off!  Now the pressure was on me.  I hit the hail bail too....with the side of the spear!  I suck at throwing!  So this was the first time I had to do burpees.  Not too bad.  Probably did 30 burpees in  2 1/2 minutes.  Didn't have high hopes coming into this obstacle.  Don't have any spears and hay bails lying around at home for me to practice on.  I live in the burbs!

Immediately after the spear throw is a horizontal wall climb.  I kept on being tempted to grab the top of the wall but that was against the rules.  At one point, I caught up with the guy who went ahead of me.  I was losing my grip position and had to put my hand on top of the same grip hold he was using.  Kind of an ackward moment.  But when it comes to holding hands with a complete stranger from the same sex or doing 30 burpees (after just completing a set of 30 burpees from that stupid spear toss), well I'm going to get friendly!  The wall was probably 15 yards in length and you ring a bell at the end once you're finished.

 
Now here is where the real nightmare of the course begins.  300 yard mud crawl under barb wire....all up hill!!!  It was so slippery that I had to gravitate toward the edges.  Well so did everyone else.  I hit a major traffic jam and lost tons of time here.  In hindsight, I needed to get over into one of the middle lanes but couldn't find my opening.  Also my elbows and knees took a beating from this obstacle.  I have major cuts, abraisions, and scabs from the rocks and gravel mixed in with the mud.  If I do this again, I'm wearing elbow and knee pads.  I like being able to walk the next day! 

After at least 15 minutes...seriously....I made it to the top.  At the bottom of the hill with wet slippery mud all over my hands was....monkey bars.  I tried to dry my hands off the best I could, but to no avail.  I slipped off those bars immediately.  Oh well, another set of 30 burpees.  I later saw a technique of a guy using his legs as well as his arms to get across the bars.  Very smart.  Something to remember for next time. 

Surprising after the long mud crawl and the monkey bars, my cardiovascular endurance tank was full again.  So I started sprinting toward the next obstacle.  Up a small hill then quickly down awaiting me was a 20 foot high cargo net.  I used a reverse grip (like doing a chin up) to get up this net.  The technique was quite effective.  Getting over the net was a little challenging and I racked my groin pretty good.  But since the rest of my body was numb, I didn't feel it (then). 

I was nervous when I saw the next obstacle.  It was a ten foot slippery wall that was slanted at an angle with a rope to help climb yourself up on.  I thought this was going to be pretty hard, but it was probably the easiest obstacle of the entire course.  I scaled it with minimal effort.

Shortly after the slippery wall, I encountered a balance walk on posts.  I do a decent amount of Yoga and other balance strength routines so I thought this would be pretty easy for me.  Thought wrong.  About half way through, my leg starting chicken winging it to the right and only a miracle Karate Kid crane kick could of saved me from falling.  Well I trained hard, but not with Mr. Miagi...so I fell down and had to do a final set of 30 burpees.

Home stretch was in sight.  I had to jump over a set of burning logs and take on some gladiators to cross the finish line.  There are 3 gladiators equipped with padded jousts waiting to beat on spartan racers as they race to the finish.  At this point, I was just by myself with no other spartan racers in shouting distance.  I'm saying to myself "Great, no one else to pound on but me.  Here comes the pain".  Well maybe they felt sorry for me or one of the gladiators took it as a personal challenge but the other 2 sat down.  And the showdown began.  One on one.  Like in "Thunderdome", two men enter, one man leaves.  As I was sprinting down the gravel road, the gladiator squated down in his athletic stance ready to smack me with his joust.  I juked left, he slid over.  I juked right, he mirrored me the other way.  Screw it.  I just hit him head on.  As we collided, I grabbed his weapon and spun off to the finish line.  Victory is mine!!!

I finished the race in 1:03:07 (1 hour, 3 minutes, 7 seconds). 67 out of 429 in my age brackett (16%). 494 out of 2800 out of all males (18%). 534 out of 4036 overall (13%). Not bad for my first time.

Our team did even better.  Team Achieve finished 15 out of 249 teams (6%).  Proud of what I did and proud of my boys.  Can't wait to do it again and improve on our time.  If you have questions about the Spartan Race, comment below. 

Post Race Photo

Youtube video of the race we ran (different team though)