Spartan Race Recap

 

 

 

Top row (standing), from left to right: Alex, Ernesto, Mino, Zach, Marco; Middle Row (squatting): Jill, Chelsea, Lil’ JB, Sharon; Bottom Row (getting low): Audrey.

By: Jessica “Lil’ JB” Brown

This past Saturday, ten CFEB-ers donned matching shirts and glittering headbands as they completed the longest WOD ever: Monterey’s 12-mile Spartan Beast Race. Running as the “Wildlings of the East Bay,” we scaled walls, carried heavy buckets and sandbags, flipped tires, crossed monkey bars, climbed ropes, threw spears and crawled through the mud under what seemed like hundreds of meters of barbed wire. While a couple of us were experienced mud-runners, most participants were newbies to a course like this. Not only did everybody kick butt, but also, as you can see from the picture above, we still looked pretty darn good at the end of it all.

With a combination of walking, running and resting, the “race” took the group a little more than five hours to complete (5:05:41, to be exact). Though the obstacles were tough, many required movements similar to those we do regularly in CrossFit, and everybody felt pretty well prepared for them (if you couldn’t complete an obstacle, you had to do 30 burpees. At least we are familiar with those!) Undoubtedly, the hardest parts were the endless hills. Just when we thought that we were done climbing, we would see another steep hill off in the distance, mocking us and the pain we felt in our glutes, hips and hamstrings. Like CrossFitters, we accepted the challenge and powered through, keeping our minds on the non-paleo treats that awaited us at the end of the course.

While the Spartan Race revealed how well CrossFit has prepared us to overcome physical obstacles, it also highlighted what a strong community we’ve built at CrossFit East Bay. All of the CFEB-ers who started the race together finished the race together. We gave each other boosts over high walls, carried snacks for one another, cheered our teammates through tough obstacles, and raced other Wildlings up hills when it looked like they needed a little extra motivation. When it was all over, we shared mobility toys and tricks with one another to ensure that we could all hit it hard together at the gym come Monday.

Though we are still a little traumatized (and sore) from all those hills, it’s likely that there will be another mud-run in CrossFit East Bay’s near future. Truly, Spartan was an awesome experience and we would love to have even more CFEB members join the Wildlings next time!

 

Spartan Race Recap