On Saturday 5th September five of our supporters, including our Admin Assistant Eve, took on the Spartan Race in Cambridgeshire. In today’s blog Eve tells us all about her experience of this 5km obstacle course!
Arriving at the Spartan race at Elton Hall, we were excited, nervous, and unsure of what to expect. It was my first ever Spartan Race, and I managed to persuade Sam to join me on the adventure. I had always loved the idea of doing a Spartan Race. I am not the strongest runner, but the obstacles and challenges looked like a lot of fun, and I thought training would be a perfect opportunity to work on my running fitness. Unfortunately I hadn’t done quite as much running training as intended, but I was full of adrenaline, and excited to get going!
We met our photographer for the day, Sorsha, and 3 fellow AKU Spartans at the entrance, before Sam and I rushed through the queue to make the starting point for our 12.20pm heat. We were motivated at the starting point by our very own Spartan, who also introduced us to the dreaded burpees. A burpee involves doing a press up, followed by a jump into the air, and all Spartans who fail or miss an obstacle are required to do 30 burpees as a punishment. After practising a few burpees, I was determined not to miss any obstacles!
The claxon went and we were off! There was a short run before we arrived at the first obstacle: a series of large wooden walls to leap over. The walls got steadily larger, and by the last one I was in need of a leg up to reach the top. The walls were followed by a series of wet, muddy ditches. A big run up was needed to reach the top of the ditch, and the wet mud made the climb to the top a slippery one!
After running through a brambly forest, we found ourselves waist deep in mud, wading through a large mud lake, where we had to clamber under several big branches. The lady in front of us lost her shoe in the squelching mud, and we helped her to the side to rescue the lost shoe. We continued to wade through the muddy lake until we reached a small tunnel. We ducked under and waded through the dark tunnel for a few metres.
After getting us as muddy as possible, the lovely Spartan organisers decided to clean us up, and we slid into a freezing lake and swam along the bank for a few minutes. After pulling ourselves out of the lake, we grabbed bags full of stones and carried them through the next part of the course.The next obstacle was a very large rope which we had to pull ourselves up. It was definitely a challenge, and after a couple of failed attempts I admitted defeat, and resorted to the 30 burpee punishment!
The final part of the course involved carrying logs, crawling under barbed wire, javelin throwing, and climbing over 8 ft walls. I was definitely exhausted as we jumped over the fire and ran through the finish line. Luckily Sorsha was on hand to photograph our moments of glory! We were so busy celebrating on the finish podium that we almost missed our fellow 3 AKU spartans who were close behind. We finished the day with a few group celebratory photographs.
The whole Spartan race experience was a lot of fun! There were a lot of challenges and my body certainly felt the effects, but it was really rewarding to raise money for such a fantastic cause.
There is still one more Spartan Race to go! On 19th September our supporter, Ian, will be taking on the South England Sprint for us. If you would like to sponsor him, please head to his JustGiving page.