By Jeremy Hannaford (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: June 18, 2014
The Spartan Sprint is the first all-terrain race I have done solo. It is the shortest race in the Spartan series at over five kilometres, featuring about 15 obstacles. This year, it took place on June 14 on Mt. Seymour.
The idea of doing the task was both compelling and terrifying, but despite going solo I never really felt alone. My fellow runners and I traversed the course in the cold rain and bitter wind with great enthusiasm.
The last Spartan race I did was the Sun Peaks Beast in September 2013. What I learned from that race was that Spartan races consist of hills, hills, and more hills. As much as I tried to train and prepare for them, my outlook on hills is still the same: I hate them. So did many others, by the looks of it, as many were exhausted after only the first one.
While my training did give me an advantage, it wasn’t long before I, too, was struggling on the slopes.
Every time I thought I had reached the top, another peak would appear in the misleading fog. The fog played an interesting role in how Spartans saw the event unfold before them. Spartan race veteran and fellow UFV student John Gammater commented on the fog’s game-changing aspect.
“I actually really liked the fog on the course. It prevented you from seeing what was ahead,” he said. “Venturing into the unknown!”
After hauling up sandbags and dragging concrete blocks, we finally reached the top and the descent could begin — all in knee-high snow!
To move down with speed, I adapted a manoeuvre that mimicked skiers as I slid down the hill. Then came the monkey bars, which I had failed miserably at in Sun Peaks. This time, I succeeded and continued down the mountain with glee.
That is, until I tweaked my ankle — twice.
Once I recovered from that spill, I continued down through brush and watery mud pits. After traversing several more obstacles, the race took a turn heading back towards the finish line. The course passed right by the final rope-climbing obstacle. But victory was not in my grasp yet.
The road turned around and came down into a valley. I found myself working alongside other Spartans throughout the next set of obstacles, including balance beams, tire-flipping, and wall-climbing. I was wary of the wall obstacle, due to another unpleasant past experience, but with the help of runners I met along the way, I was able to climb over and continue.
It was then that another hill appeared, much to my and the other runners’ displeasure. After climbing that hill, we crawled down through barbed wire to reach the final hill. Now it was on to the final stretch.
When you fail a challenge during a Spartan Race, you must perform 30 burpees. So when the spear-throwing challenge appeared, I began preparing myself for that inevitable outcome. After that gruelling exercise came another challenge of crawling through wire, but this time it was through thick mud and cold water as well. Afterward came the final obstacle — the rope-climb.
I had tried to prepare myself for this challenge, but just like the last time, I had to drop down and do 30 burpees after not being able to attain the proper foothold with the rope.
After a leap over fire, I crossed the finish line.
In comparison to the Beast on Sun Peaks, the Sprint on Mt. Seymour was much more fun, and a large portion of that was because of the shortened distance. Sun Peaks was long, drawn out, and featured terrible obstacle placement. The Sprint was much more concentrated and organized.
If you want to experiment prior to taking on a Tough Mudder, I would highly recommend the Spartan Sprint next year.
