Spartan Sprint at the ATT Stadium

BRAG ALERT. Just wanted to warn you..

My husband and I (and our little lemon, too!) ran the Spartan Sprint this past weekend at the ATT Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Talk about WOW, that was so cool!

I was super afraid that I would have to do about 300 penalty burpees throughout the race... not because I'm pregnant, but because of my shoulder. Well, I'm happy to report that I only failed TWO obstacles for a total of 60 burpees! Woot woot!

Here is my opinion on this race:

• It is definitely a Spartan. This race is not something I recommend to someone who's just looking for something fun to do: it's very challenging! And any obstacle you fail earns you a 30-burpee penalty, so don't just show up expecting to skip anything that looks too hard. You'll pay. And burpees are not easy, either.

• I loved the experience of running out on the football field, doing pushups in the Dallas Cowboys locker room, and crossing the finish line in (on?) the end zone. BUT... I will always prefer an outdoor obstacle race for its scenery. I did, however, really appreciate how clean I was afterwards! Although caked in several layers of sweat, it was very nice not having to coax mud off my body with a baby wipe!

• There were SO many stairs. Luckily, I'd prepared for this by doing a ton of workouts at the amphitheater, but still, there were SO MANY stairs. And not just running/walking up/down stairs, BEAR CRAWLS. I'd say we bear crawled up at least 20 flights of stairs. 

• I could not have picked a better race to run at 12 weeks pregnant! Two words: AIR CONDITIONING! There were a few obstacles outside, but for the most part, we were in the stadium where it was pretty cool.

• The obstacles were considerably easier than what I've done at the Beast or Super. That could be because of it being mostly indoors, or maybe it's intentional since it's meant to be more of a "beginner" Spartan race? I have no idea... just an observation! Maybe instead of the term "easier" I should say "less hard"... because it was still hard. 

Speaking of obstacles, here is a list of some that I remember:

Jump rope with a heavy heavy rope x25

Box jumps x25

Slam ball x25 

Pushups x25

Stone carry down, 5 burpees, stone carry back

Several wall climbs (Side note: I could not have done these without my husband giving me a boost each time!)

Rope Climb (NAILED IT! I haven't tried climbing a rope since shoulder surgery. I was certain I would fail. Turns out... I don't really rely on my arms for this so I had ZERO problems! It was awesome!)

Spear Throw

Some weird rolling thing you put your feet on and then pull yourself with your arms down and back

Sandbag pull (that sucker was so heavy... again, couldn't have done it without my husband)

Sandbag carry

A-frame cargo net climb

Monkey bars (they weren't bars though, they were rings)
LOTS of bear crawls

The two I failed were:

• Spear Throw (because of my shoulder still not being recovered, I had to throw with my left arm! It wasn't a terrible throw... the spearhead went straight and would have stuck IF I hadn't missed my entire target by a full 3 feet)

• Monkey bars/rings (again, my shoulder is stupid. I couldn't even hold my body weight on the first ring, so I bowed out and did my burpees) 

My next race: Fireball Classic! I LOVE doing the treacherous 10K, but I always KILL myself trying to finish in under an hour (which I still have never done). Since I'm pregnant I'm going to scale back and only do the 5K this year and I'll TRY to just jog it slowly. I'll be about 15 weeks at that point so it shouldn't be too terrible. We'll see!