Fenway Spartan Race!

[The Tin Man]

This is copied from my challenge thread but I am excited enough to share it here too! I'm mostly excited thinking about the bit at the end of this very wordy update.

Did the Spartan Sprint in Fenway Park last night. It. Was. Amazing. I'll steal from Seth because he was able to remember a good amount of obstacles and add in my comments. Here are some photos of the obstacles. I'll link to the relevant pictures.

obstacles, probably not in order (* means I failed) If you fail you do 30 burpees.

- lunging burpees under bungies going up a ramp. This was terrible.

- crab walk/ducking under about 100 yards of bungies going up the ramps to the seats (there were walls to jump over too)

- stairs

- 20 rep 25lb "wall balls" (more of a clean and push press with a throw to the ground. There was no wall)

- ~65lb atlas stone 10yd carry to a table, 15 burpees, carry back

- 3 8' wall climbs

- 3 flights of stairs carrying 2 ~40lb jugs of water

- more stairs and running

- 500m row in under 2 minutes or else you fail*

- 20 hand release push ups

- 3 stages of 20 foot ladder climbs

- 25' rope climb*

- 80lb weight pull(big ol' weight on a pulley system, get it about 50-60' in the air then bring it back down slowly)

- spear toss

- 20' wall traverse (on hand hold thingies)

- ball toss* (thow it into a 5 gallon drum, way too tired for this accuracy)

- over/under/through 3 stages of 6' walls

- 50 rep thick rope single unders

- 6 flights of stair hops

- 60lb sand bag walk... up and down stairs all over the center field bleachers. stupid stairs

- over and under some tube thingies

- 12 foot wall climb

- 30 burpees

- 30 foot cargo net climb, up and down

- 10 up and over box jumps, 36" maybe?

- gauntlet (dudes hitting you with those foam jousting sticks)

You guys. This was awesome. It was 2.75 miles, I did it in 1:12:18. I know I could have done it faster because I was unsure about pacing. Not know what obstacle was up next and how soon it would be made me over-cautious in conserving energy. Running more would have helped in the prep.

Also sweet zombie Jesus so many burpees. I had done probably 50 cumulative in my life before today.

Other things of note:

- The lunging burpees under ropes up a ramp were made so much worse by the fact that the ramp was rough, textured concrete. It tore up my hands pretty well at the very start.

- The 500m row. I had no idea my pacing and had kind of given up at one point in it. Then I saw I was almost done. Then, 16m from the end, time was up. They had custom software that only showed the remaining distance and yelled at you to do burpees once two minutes hit.

- Strength training helped so much with the atlas stone and the sand bag carrying. Once I got the sand bag comfortable on my back in a squat position I was just cruisin'. Strength work definitely helped with the last wall climb and the horizontal wall traverse as well. I motored through the traverse and got the tall wall climb on my first jump up.

- Good squat depth mobility helped with the burpees because I didn't need to push myself up very far before I could get my legs underneath me for the jump.

- Apparently my getting the spear to stick was super impressive, nobody I talked to after got it. Just had to channel that one spring I did javelin in track 11 years ago! It was depressing getting that, destroying the wall traverse, then failing to throw a baseball into a bucket.

- I fell getting off the cargo net near the very end and banged up my knees a little bit. I'm a little limpy but I'll be fine.

If you didn't feel like reading all that read this. I had an awesome time. If I tried this a year ago I couldn't have done it. Or else would have taken a lot more time because I would have failed many more obstacles. One year ago I could have run the 2.75 miles on the road that that'd be about it.

[LRB]

Woot!!!!! Good job!!!!!

[Wicked Pixie]

YOU ARE A SPARTAN!

Dude, that makes Warrior Dash look like it's for sissies!

Hammlin just said that those aren't obstacles, they're mini WODs packed onto a course

HOLY SHIT MAN, that is all!!!

[This is Seth]

This thing was so much fun. My dogs are definitely barking this morning though.

If anyone is interested, we were given a 25% off coupon for next year. I can send it out to whoever wants it.

Will be back when they post photos, as I'm a camera *****...

[Maledictus]

Congratulations! I did a sprint back in June and I have a season pass for 2013 so I'll be getting me some of that

Looks like a lot of fun.

[Niccolo]

That's awesome! Congratulations on your time!

I really want to do the race when it comes to the PNW in August.

[jimmie65]

Damn. And a few other choice words.

I am seriously impressed.

[The Tin Man]

Thanks all! Got some photos from the race.

_____________________________

Me, looking surprisingly photogenic at the end of the 60 lb sandbag carry around the center field bleachers.

Me, looking much less photogenic running through the gladiator gauntlet before the finish line.

[Jonesy]

I'm pretty speechless and incredible impressed. Awesome job!

PS That "obstacles" list made me tired just reading them.

[AgentsSka]

Hey man.  Congrats on doing the Spartan at Fenway.  

 

I completed it, as well.  Slower than I would have liked at 1:06 - but, that's what I get for slacking off on the training before the event!

 

Tin Man, the sand bags were the death of me.  That told me all I needed to know about how desperately I needed to get back to the gym.  And, why can't I throw a damned spear?!  It should be so basic.  Grr....

 

Also, I don't do any of these races without these Mad Grip gloves.

See?

 

 

Pixie, you mentioned that Spartan makes Warrior Dash look like it is for sissies... Well, I will agree that it is definitely much harder.  Last year, I did a Warrior Dash, then a Tough Mudder, and then two Spartans.  Granted, my training was slacking for the Spartans, but I thought they were definitely tougher.  And, they were 6+ miles shorter than Tough Mudder!  

 

This graphic says it all:

This year, my friend and I are looking to become a member of the Trifecta Tribe, completing races of all three different distances this year.  And, I plan to drop some serious time from my sprints this year.