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Health & Fitness

Spartan Race

Blogger runs an adventure race and lives to tell the tale!

I recently ran in a five kilometer obstacle filled race called a Spartan Race in Tuxedo, New York.  Spread into more than 20 “heats” over the course of the weekend, hundreds of athletes competed in the messy, muddy, physically challenging event.  I ran cross country in high school and still run recreationally, but this wasn’t like anything I had ever experienced. 

The five kilometers were straight up and down a ski mountain, through wooded terrain on boulder strewn paths.  Participants faced obstacles like barbed wire, mud pits, 12 foot walls, large fires you needed to jump over, while carrying five gallon buckets of rocks up and down the mountain.  The entire experience was exhausting, yet emotionally and physically rewarding.  Many of the obstacles were completely new to me (who has had to crawl in mud, under barbed wire, uphill for 200 yards?) and the camaraderie among the participants in the race was incredible.  A lot of “good jobs” and “looking strongs” were shared among the racers and the congratulatory support we received at the end of the race was very affirming.

So Patch readers, have any of you ran in anything like this?  Perhaps a Tough Mudder or a Warrior Dash? And for the runners out there, whether you’ve run any of these sorts of races or not, what are your favorite routes around Pelham?  It’s hard to beat running along the water by Bartow Pell Mansion or Orchard Beach Park.  But if you ever feel the itch to try one of these obstacle course type races, I would certainly recommend it.  However, I’d also recommend taking a day or two afterwards to recover; it truly is a physically demanding experience!  

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