Spartan Super

This year one of my goals was to earn myself the Spartan trifecta. The trifecta is earned when you complete the Sprint, Super and Beast races within the space of one year.

The Sprint is a minimum of a 3 mile run with at least 20 obstacles.
The Super is a minimum of an 8 mile run with at least 25 obstacles.
The Beast is a minimum of a 12 mile run with at least 30 obstacles.

Having completed the sprint earlier in the year I had two to go and this weekend saw the second, the Super. I was slightly nervous as it is the first event following my epic head plant on my recent bike event Newcastle to London and I am still not 100% but I had signed up with my two lovely friends Helen and Stacey and so off we set.

This photo was taken of me at the start and you can see I do look a tad concerned.

Being part of the Mudd Queens you always get lots of support at obstacle races whether it be from organisers, to marshalls or even other people taking part and of course I was taking part with two friends and we were doing the whole thing together so I had no need to worry. This is good as there are some obstacles I cannot overcome alone such as the 8 and 9 foot walls – Stacey on the other hand was in a league of her own and upper body strength is something she has in leaps and bounds!

There is a range of obstacles from walls, carrying atlas balls and logs, climbs and wading through a lake so this does of course include mud and water and lots of fun!

I give everything a go even if I cannot complete it like monkey bars – don’t go there, I’m useless! Got all the way to the top of a cargo climb between two trees and some guy hurtled up it and with the whole thing moving I lost my nerve then was bugged at the end I had not given it a second try. I also got up a climb on a wet, muddy wall and lost my footing and slid the whole way down. I was told this was graceful but I had other words to describe it.

Also face planted in the lake tripping over I’m not sure what and turned to two guys who were trying not to laugh and just saying ‘watch that there’s something in the water’ as I turned around and giggled myself.

Managed to rip my amazing mudd queen leggings on one of the barbed wire crawls but that is what I have them for and I had fun in the process!

The running on this course was more like fell running in places with very steep descents in the woods, which I will admit I didn’t have the nerve to hurtle myself down – much respect to those that did, very impressive!

Loved seeing other Mudd Queens around the course especially the marshalls who always have a jelly baby or two, even nicer when you see one of your favourites at the end giving out the medals! I think people forget how much people put into the event by volunteering but I will save that for another blog post.

Hardest obstacle for me I think would be the bucket carry of rocks which sounds odd but it was so heavy and the walk in the heat seemed to go on forever! But I am so pleased that with the help of my friends I managed every wall! Even the big ones as I mentioned earlier. My bruises tomorrow ill be epic OCR kisses I am sure!