Anne Greenawalt: This Is Spartaaaa!: My First Sprint Spartan Race

As an early birthday present, Brian registered us for the Sprint Spartan Race at Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, PA on July 18.

I thought it was a 5K race with a dozen or so obstacles. But after mile two, when I said, “Only a mile left!” he told me it was a 5 mile race, and there would be at least 20 obstacles. Yay.

The whole course was up and down the ski mountain. The running part through single-track, muddy trails that required some hands-and-knees climbing techniques to get up and down them were my favorite parts. I also liked trusting the traction on my trail shoes and running with long, loose strides down sections of the slopes. Swimming through the reservoir was refreshing. Climbing the nets was a fun, if slow for me, process.

What I didn’t like: the bucket carry, in which we had to fill a bucket with no lid or handle, with rocks and carry it up and down a ski slope. The barbed-wire low crawl wasn’t difficult, but it was soooo long and tedious that it became a low point of the race. The crawl was on gritty, rocky dirt for about 50 yards down and then 50 yards back up the slope. I had massive bruising on my hips and thighs and scratches on my knees and the backs of my shoulders.

The "before" photo. Behind us is the barbed-wire low crawl and the wall climb.

Climbing a ski slope with a 20 lb bag of sand slung across my shoulder. This was nearly an hour into the race.

Sand bag carry. Men had to carry 30-lb bags.

The wall between the downhill/uphill barbed-wire low crawl. I swear I wasn't trying to kick him!

The wall between the downhill/uphill barbed-wire low crawl.

These photos don't do the SMELL of the water justice. It was like they took the port-a-potties and dumped them here. Not pictured: the wall in the middle of the sewer pit that we had to swim under.