Running Mama Cooks

Yesterday, Zach and I participated in the Spartan Race at the Blue Mountain Ski Resort. It was awesome, and definitely one of the most challenging things I've ever done! It was 5 miles of running/hiking UP the mountain with 20 obstacles.

We should have known how tough it would be considering it was being held at on a ski slope!!! The race started with a huge climb, right after scaling a few walls. I was actually surprised at how well I could get over them without any help. After getting all the way up the mountain at the half way point, we were rewarded with the one and only water stop, but only after filling a home depot bucket with rocks and lugging it 100 yards down the mountain and back up!!

After the water stop, we had to make our way down which included sliding down steep muddy hills. Some of the obstacles included pulling a rope with a cinder block down a hill, through water and back up the hill, monkey bars, rope climb, and many more. If you couldn't finish an obstacle, your punishment was 30 burpees.

The best part was the huge slip and slide (also down a big hill) into a retention pond. We were so gross and sweaty that the cold muddy water actually felt amazing! Then we had to trudge through it to the other side.

The race finished up with a mud crawl under barbed wire the length of a football field. That is the one thing I was less then thrilled about. The mud was about a foot deep and it stunk! Not only that but after we got through it, we had to scale a big wall only to find 100 more yards of mud to crawl through!!

To go to the finish line we had to jump over fire, rope climb over another wall and slide down the other side. Then run through a few gladiators and we were finished! The whole thing took about 3 hours, and while moments of it were crazy miserable, it was a blast! We plan on getting a team together for next year!

This race was very intense and perfect for anyone looking for a big challenge. I wouldn't consider it a running race at all, since most of the terrain made running impossible. Since it took the winner about an hour to finish, we were pleased with out performance. It was a fun thing to do together. We have some scrapes, cuts, bruises, and Zach has a sprained ankle from the last obstacle, but we can't wait to do it again.

Our before picture


After!
View of the finish line