My First Spartan Race as a Mom!
Table of Contents
How it Started
For whatever reason the Spartan race has been a measure or test of not only my physical fitness but my mental fitness. I have taken on this race before in 2012 and had always planned on returning again. Life happened, I got a new job that took me far north and then I ended up meeting my future husband. After two children and a new country I was dead set on taking on this challenge once again. Finishing a “Spartan”race as a mom was a big “comeback” goal for me.
Signing Up For The Race
Making the decision to finally register for this race after finally feeling like my body had recovered from having babies. Having children is not something that can be taken lightly. I was active during both pregnancies and did what I was supposed to to prepare and be able to “bounce back”. No one really tells you what happens to your body during and after. So you feel like this is just how it is supposed to be. Your body feels soft and wiggly. Your joints feel lax and you feel out of alignment. You think ok, this is the new norm and it will be a struggle to do the usual kinds of workouts or activities I used to. I had pain, pain in places you don’t really talk about and struggled with my activities of daily living because my back and abdomen felt like it could not support me anymore. Last year when I completed my personal trainers certification I learned about how you can actually repair and recover postpartum. I started adding exercises into my routine to engage these deep muscles that seemed to be in disrepair. Slowly but surely I began to feel progress and I was able to level-up my training.
Training Like a Spartan
I started to train more seriously and regularly in November 2018 and finally after months of consistent work I felt READY!!! Ready to put myself to the ultimate test. SPARTAN!!!!
Time To Face the Challenge Head On
The morning of my first Spartan in 2012 I woke up to a sinus infection. Feeling feverish and basically like death I chugged on. I was quite fit but WOW was I ever NOT ready or prepared for this race. Add on being sick I was in for nearly 2 hours of HELL. The obstacles wore me thin and the summer heat had me melting on the spot. I struggled through that 1H50 minute race but was proud of pushing through it despite being sick. Having all of this in the back of my mind leading up to my Spartan this time around I felt that extra push with each training session. I needed to be ready for anything, I needed to be in the best condition possible to overcome any obstacle in front of me. I am so proud of my performance at this race. My style of training had me ready for most obstacles. I struggled with the upper body ones and had to do a total of 150 burpees. YES 150!!!! But I didn’t sweat it. I knew this is part and parcel of the race and I had calculated for that in my training.
Finishing Spartan Strong
As I crossed the finish line I could only feel proud of myself. I am so happy to say that I finished 13th/193 in my age group (35-39), 53rd/1181 of females and 560th/4065 overall. I could not have dreamed for such a successful performance. This is just proof that if you set your mind to something you can achieve it!