Here are the first few pictures of the Fort Carson Spartan Super my wife and I ran on Saturday.
As we got to the event we watched parachute drops and other military maneuvers and vehicles. I really enjoyed it because I haven’t been on an Army base since the 1990′s when I was still enlisted. I remember doing a lot of obstacle courses then, and this I think was even a bit more difficult (it may just be because I”m older!!)
This ended up being a 10 mile race with over 25+ obstacles and a total of 1,900 ft elevation gain. Our official time to do the entire thing was 3:49:28 which for me meant I was 1397 out of 2900 overall and 1050 out of 1920 men. Not the greatest time, but we started our Spartan journey jumping to the Super and this was our first time so we held back a lot in case we needed the energy!
This race had several parts of note:
First the area of Carson we were in was a large bowl with around (according to my Garmin) 600 ft+ elevation gain to get to the top with over 1900 ft elevation gain overall, and the trails went straight up!! There was a lot of going up to the rim, coming back down ect. Then to make it even more fun the Bucket Cary from Hell went up and then back down the rise. The downhill is what bugged me the most... I kept on seeing me slip and fall and sliding right off the mountain.
Next there were several obstacles that were feats of strength. This included the Bucket Cary (80+ pounds of rocks in a 5 gallon bucket going straight up to the top of a rise and back), the sandbag carry (45+ pound sandbag that we had to put on our shoulders and hike around), the ruck sack (100 pound ruck sack we had to carry up and down hills) and the sand bag hoist (150 pound sand bag you have to get to the top of a rig with a rope,) the sled drag which i’m guessing is another 100 pound plus you have to drag across the dirt... for me this one got stuck several times and I thought I wasn’t going to make it. Finally in the feats of strength there was the atlas carry (a 100 pound round rock you have to move for 3 yards drop do burpees and come back)
There is also a lot of climbing over things. Several walls of different heights. Luckily my wife and I helped each other when we just couldn’t get over a few. There were large cargo nets both slanted and straight up and down. There was a slick wall with a rope climb (an a frame with very muddy walls and only a rope to get up it.) I had watched a girl in front of me get to the top and not hook on and slide down hurting her ankle so I went into this one a bit freaked out. So when I got to the top and started sliding back down I guess fear and adrenaline let me cling to the top and pull myself over!! The other one I had fun with was kind of a jungle gym but the bars started at head height. It then was four bars up but slanted back so you had to get to the top and pull yourself over, overcoming the slant. I was able to do it (surprise surprise) but it was a bit difficult. Besides I have a huge fear of heights so I’m always a bit surprised when I do some of these.
There was some mud and crawling involved as well. The very muddy barbwire crawl was actually pretty long but there was a section you could slide down that made it go a bit faster. There was two sections -- a bit of a dry one and then one full of mud and water. I took the more muddy section I saw the big mud pit after the barbwire and new there was no escaping getting wet and muddy!! After the crawl you slid down into some very cold water to do the dunk wall and it was freezing!! Coming out of that obstacle was one time I really wondered if I was going to make it or not!!
The last main theme to the obstacles was the brachiation section. A lot of rigs, ropes, wall traverses and monkey bars! Most if not all of these was burpees for me!! I have been practicing way to much running and not enough upper body so I’m going to have to add a lot of grip and arm strength to my cross training for the next Spartan race this summer. My wife was able to make the wall traverse but I got almost to the bell when I slipped and fell. Oh yea and we both burpeed on the spear through!! That thing is hateful.
Finally the biggest obstacle at least at Fort Carson was the cactus!! It is everywhere!! On the trials up and down, on the bucket carry at every burpee station. Everywhere!! I’m still picking splinters out and I saw several people fall right on cactus and keep going!! Spartan Strong!!
They say you will know when you cross the finish line! They were correct. You find out just how far you can be pushed and still keep going. While my wife and I felt we weren’t prepared (I don’t think you can ever truly prepare for this) we did feel we could have done more!! I’m very proud of that. We do have some things we need to work on but overall I”m so proud of my wife and myself and I”m glad to finally be a Spartan!!
