April 26th was a long awaited date for this family. I had given Josh the gift/challenge of entrance in the Indianapolis Sprint Spartan. The gift was that I would train with him and run with him, the challenge was for us to train together (he is a morning man and I am not). We fit it all in and planned an extra special day for the whole family. My parents scheduled their annual trip out to visit us that same weekend so we could take the kids down and they could be the official photo takers. My sister Jill joined us as well, she is going for a Trifecta of Spartans this year and we kicked off the season together. It was my first race, Josh's second. Our first Spartan race we signed up for in Arizona I got sick two days before so my older brother ran with Josh. I have been jealous ever since.
It was honestly the most perfect weather or a race day. It was not too hot, not too cold. We certainly were not racing anywhere near Indianapolis, but if they had published the real podunck Indiana town in which we raced the whole world would have had no idea what region we were in (Midwest folks). We raced at an ATV park, which is a perfect location for a Spartan! Plenty of hills and mud.
Our starting coral time was 9:45am. We got there barely in time since we had driven down from Fort Wayne that morning. I hate waiting for race starts anyway so I was grateful. Jill was right to advise us to go at an early starting time so the course would not be as sloppy. I loved it! We started out running up and down wooded hills. I felt like I was back home in the mountains. As a kid our parents took us on tons of hiking trips, and like most kids, we got bored just walking so would often run the trails just to get the hike over with. I still had the latent mountain goat skills for hopping up and down the slopes on sure footing. We then swam through a creek and army crawled up a muddy hill under barbed wire. Once past that obstacle course we headed over this bad boy:
It gets a bit tricky walking on 2x4s when your shoes are sloshing, but on we went. Around the lake until we got to this spidey thing:
After that we were in the hills for a good while running up and down creek beds and ravines, climbing over 10 feet walls, dragging cement on a chain, carrying 25lb sacks on our back, more walls, flipping over tractor tires, then back around to the main area where we tried to throw a javelin into a hay bale, which was the first obstacle I missed and had to do 30 burpees for, then hoisted 30lbs up to the top of this tower (which I thought was fun and finished before Josh and then went to help him):
Finally we ran past our kiddos, at the end of 4 miles of running and such, just to the last 3 obstacles; climbing up a rope, which I gave up on and just did the burps, then this wall, which I shamelessly cheated on by using the top of the wall and did not do burpees (using the excuse in my head that the kids were going to start their race soon).
And lastly over this wall. This was the only part of the race where I really just felt like crying. Really, you want me to grip this slimly rope and walk up a slippery wall just so I can jump over fire on the other side?! No way! I am exhausted. I attempted once and then just waited and whined until Josh was on the other side and came to pull me over.
Josh and I ran the whole race together which was a great push-me-pull-you collaboration. I have much better endurance and he better strength. I was happy to run through the middle and pushed him to run and he helped me get over big walls. I can proudly say we did not walk any of the parts where we could run (sometimes you are bogged behind people and you can't help but walk) and we stayed together. I think our finishing time was around 1hour 35minutes. I set that as something to meet or beat someday but really don't care about our time, heck, we finished!
Jill lost us back in the swamps and finished like a champ and 5th in her age division.
Not long after we finished our race, the kids were to start theirs. I had to promise Josh that I would not talk about taking the kids to Disneyworld for a full year if he let me spend the money to enter them into this race. I am glad I made the bargain because the kids absolutely adored this race and all the anticipation that surrounded it! I signed them all up for the mile course, even though the official entry said only kids 7 and older could do the mile. It was a half mile course repeated twice so I figured I would get them all starting together and if Danny and Viv wanted to opt out after the first lap, they could.
Faith got herself literally at the front of the pack at the starting line. There were kids up to 12 years old, but she figured since she was one of the 5 seven year olds, she should have an advantage at the front. She didn't remember that she had been instructed to stay with her siblings. Ah well. Let her take the advantage! Josh was in charge of keeping an eye on Faith around the track and I went alongside Danny and Viv. The two were so cute at being encouraging and helping each other. Danny was a bit hesitant with the obstacles the first time around, but was totally fine the second time around.
These mud pits were by far the kids' favorite part! They would not stop talking about it, and I get it, I liked playing in the mud on purpose too!
The second time over, the mud was so sticky that Danny lost his shoe. It did not phase him at all! He went right on running. Lucky I was there where he left the shoe and dug around in the mud until I found it and put it on him later in the race to prevent puncture wounds.
Here is their last obstacle - You can see that Viv is eying the finish line but being a supportive sister and waiting for Danny to get off. They had gone around the course twice, what no other 5 and 6 year old would do! I was mega proud of them.
It was a fun day for us all as a family! The kiddos loved that they got their own medal and head band and completed their first race. We could all talk together about the shared experience and it was AWESOME! I might even say more fun than Disney (but I will reserve that judgement until we get to go all together in another year).
At the end, for all the racers, they have a spraying station. Just a lot of hoses and a lot of mud coming off people. I skipped the power wash option and went back to the calmer hoses to strip my kids to their skivvies and wash them off. I was glad to have Josh to tag team, as I got one down to the undies he would rap them in a towel and whisk them away behind a tree to clothe them, not that anyone cared about muddy little kids on this day.
Here we all are, all finishers! What a Spartan Fam!
making felt puppets for Viv's class, our contribution to fundraising along with my time spent planning the event. Honestly, I am so grateful for a creative outlet right now that does not involve the creation or consumption of text. We, yes Josh is helping me, the entire cast of animal characters for two Jan Brett books "The Mitten" and "The Hat." more to come on that....
