Spartans!

Last Sunday, B participated in the Spartan Race while Elina and Eli participated in the Jr. Spartan Race.  Boy, was it a fun time!

B's heat started at 11:35am and the kids didn't start until 12:30, so while we waited for the kids to begin, we watched some of the events...and, of course, the kids found a stick bug...

It took B about an hour and a half to complete the 4 mile course.  B said that since he wasn't in very good shape, it just took him longer.  He said that the Tough Mudder was WAY more difficult (since it was a 9-10 mile course) and way more miserable, so he preferred the Spartan Race.  The toughest obstacle was crawling through a narrow, 40 foot long pipe.  He said the pipe was really narrow, about the same thickness as his body, so it was really hard to shimmy through it.  You could only use your shoulders, elbows, and toes.  B definitely got a lot of scrapes and scratches all over his elbows and shoulders because of this one.  Other than that one, he said it wasn't all that bad.  Towards the end, they had to roll under barbed wire for a pretty long distance and some racers complained about getting dizzy.  B was ok under there, but his face got scratched by a barbed wire.  Yikes!

Here are some shots of B.  In the picture of people climbing over the wall, he's the one towards the right side that is almost over the wall.  He was so quick on that one that I barely got a picture!  The rest of the collage has pics of him under the barbed wire since that obstacle was SO long.

Right after the barbed wire, B had to face the guys at the very end with the pugil sticks.  These 3 guys were there just to knock you over...although I think they would go easy on some people if they just felt bad for them.

Unfortunately, because of B's starting time, he missed the kids' race.  It was really too bad because they did a great job.  I wished I had known ahead of time that parents could run alongside their kids because I totally would've followed Eli along the race.  He slowed down at the very first obstacle, climbing over 2 wooden walls.  I felt so helpless because by the time I realized I could have gone with him, he was very far away and couldn't hear me yelling for him.  Plus, I was bogged down with a bag and with Evie, so I couldn't run over there quick enough to help him.  And where was Elina during all this?  She had already left Eli in the dust and was working on obstacle number 3 at this point.  I couldn't really blame her though...the adrenaline and all...I didn't really expect her to wait for Eli at each obstacle.  SOOOOO, I also couldn't blame Eli for accidentally skipping a few obstacles on the course.  He was so confused that he thought this one mesh net (that you were supposed to climb over) was a tunnel.  So instead of climbing over it, he ran through it and ended up missing 3 obstacles--one of which was jumping into muddy water and climbing over muddy, slippery hills afterwards.  This is how he finished the obstacle course faster than A and Elina...AND he wasn't half as muddy as they were!  But who could blame him?  No one guided him or anything, so he just did his own thing.  He still did a lot of the obstacles....just not the muddiest one!  (I was also sad that I wasn't able to get as many pictures of Eli since he was so far away and then he cut through some of the course.  Oh well.  Live and learn.)

Elina, on the other hand, did an amazing job!  She completed the whole entire course and didn't shy away from the dirt and mud at all.  I was impressed.  Although at the end, when she saw Eli, she said, "Hey, how come Eli isn't as muddy as I am??"  It was hilarious!

Here are our racers before and after the race...

It was cute because right after the race, Evie didn't even care that B was super muddy, she was about to give him a huge hug!  But B felt bad so he just asked for a little kiss.  The older kids, on the other hand, did not want to touch B at all!  It was hilarious!

Here are the muddy legs and sneakers...then they all jumped into the lake to rinse off!

I definitely need to write a letter to the Spartan Race people because I felt like the kids' race wasn't handled really well.  I feel like if you're going to have a race for kids, you need to have official Spartan Race people at each station to give instructions, help kids who need it, and tell them where to go next.  It was just kind of a free-for-all.  Even so, the kids had fun racing and I had lots of fun watching them.

This race was also not setup as well as the Tough Mudder.  At the Tough Mudder, I could watch a lot of the events, but for this one, you couldn't see anything at the beginning and could only catch the tail end of it all.  That's why most of my shots of B are while he's under the barbed wire, which was the 2nd to last event.

It was also hard to get around at the Spartan Race.  You always had to wind around booths and other things in order to watch an event.  I think the Tough Mudder covered more area, so it was easier to get around to watch things.  RM and I felt like we were wandering around a lot just trying to find things.  By the end of it all, even I was tired from all the walking!

Overall, we had a great time!  But here is what Elina said...
Me: Did you have fun?
Elina: Yea!  It was SO much fun!
Me: Would you want to do it again?
Elina: No, I don't think so.

So there you have it!  (Although I'm still going to secretly try to find another one for Elina and Eli to race in again.)  We'll have to try other mud-type races to see which B likes the best.  But I thought it was awesome that the kids could be included in this one.  I'm so proud of my Spartans!!