We are Spartans

To me, there aren't too many things better than when I know I have impressed my husband.  Whenever I do something that he thinks to himself "Syd would never do this" and then I do it  -  BEST FEELING EVER!  I always feel so accomplished!

 Let's rewind to about a year and a half ago.  Preston somehow discovered the Reebok Spartan Races and began watching youtube video after youtube video of footage of the races.  The Spartan is an advanced obstacle race of sorts.  It is a combination of a trail run and army training type obstacles.  Well, he immediately fell in love and had his heart set on doing one.  And when that boy gets his mind on something, he won't give up on it until he makes it happen.  So we signed him up and he trained his little heart out. 

On the day of the race (June 2012) he was pumped and ready.  I went along to watch him of course and I remember thinking at first that there was no way I would ever do something like that. (And let's face it, Preston thought the same thing.) Rolling through mud, jumping through fire, climbing under barbed wire - not really my thing. I was more content to just watch something like that and stick to my races that didn't involve getting so dirty.

Preston did what is called the "Spartan Beast" which is the most difficult of the Spartan races and what Spartan likes to call the "obstacle course race from hell".  It is comprised of 12+miles and 25+obstacles.  As you can imagine, a race like this takes a while to complete.  Somewhere between 3-4 hours on average.  Naturally, I had plenty of time on my hands to watch racer after racer cross the finish line.  And slowly but surely I was convinced that if all of those people could do it, then so could I!  As soon as Preston crossed the finish line, I was so excited that I signed up for next years race right then and there.  I had a whole year to train for it, MORE than enough time to train (I thought).

As you can probably guess, I procrastinated and didn't train hardly at all! I think I have mentioned before that we are a bit of procrastinators at times and this time was no different.  We trained (occasionally) but not nearly as much as we should have.  But we had paid for it and talked about it so much that there was no way we weren't doing it! And I am so glad we did!  It was an absolute blast!  I had no idea I could have so much fun slipping in the mud and hauling tractor tires.  And the best part by far was that we got to do it together.  We had never done a race together before and it was such an awesome experience.  He helped me jump over the walls that I didn't have the upper body strength to get over and I, well I wasn't much help to him in the strength department, but I did help him get mud out of his eye when it was trapped behind his contact. :) That has to count for something!  And the feeling that came as we crossed that finish line after four hours of completing exerting ourselves, I can't even put into words how good it felt.  Our bodies are capable of so much more than we give them credit for.  I can't wait to do it again!  Next time with a little more training under my belt. :)

^^About to take on some serious gladiators ;)^^

^^Love that boy!^^