Garnet's Life Adventures: Dallas Texas Super Spartan Race December 3, 2011

Tuesday, December 6

Dallas Texas Super Spartan Race December 3, 2011

A Super Spartan race means approximately 8 miles with 25 obstacles . . . turns out ours was 8.5 miles with 36 obstacles. Here we are pre-race!

One of those obstacles was a 75 yard wide lake we had to swim across, the water temperature was 55F and the water was muddy with lots of braches and very deep in the middle. This lake was at mile 3 so after this we still had to run 5.5 miles in water logged sneakers & wet clothes - it was so much fun! Here I am crossing the lake:

For those of you not familiar with these type of races, the thing I like most about them is the friendships I have made - yes, they are called races, but they are not necessarily for the fastest time (unless you're my friend Lynn who came in 3rd place with a time of 1.5 hours) but they are about personal accomplishments, about being able to say you finished.

It's hard for me to explain unless you've ever been out on the course, but imagine Mies & I arriving at a 10 foot wall which we cannot jump up & over alone, within seconds there are total strangers offering to give you a boost or pull you up from the top, you may never see that person again, but they did it without even a second though. And when Mies & I get to the top of a 6 foot hay bale we return the favour to others who are behind us or sit and cheer on those who don't need our help. Everyone is super friendly - it's amazing.

Here we are just before the finish line, just have to jump the fire & pass the Spartan:

So on Saturday morning as I was having breakfast in the hotel, a guy we'd met on Friday at the airport named Tim (from IL) was talking about how he was just going to volunteer for the day as he couldn't keep up with the group (34 of us from New England) and I explained that the group stays together for 3 miles & poses for group photos, but after that we break into smaller groups of similar speed. Mies & I always run together! I told him that we wouldn't be running that often and when we did we wouldn't be running fast. I offered that if he came with us, we wouldn't run fast if he would help get us over the walls - he smiled and said deal!

So at 10:15am, the Storm Chasers crossed the start line, we know the founder of Spartan races so we didn't start with an official race heat - ha ha! Three hours and 23 minutes later Mies, Tim and I crossed the finish line together - all still smiling and having had so much fun!!

Here we are just after crossing the finish line covered in mud and the second from later that night after a shower & some food!

Mies, Tim & I have already signed up for the Spartan race in IL and also here in MA next year so team three can run together again :) Team Three as we call ourselves are gonna try to put this on our next shirt: