Spartan Sprint Part 3 - Picking and Carrying

Part 3 – Picking and Carrying

I’m guessing on the order of things now but I think the next part was where we had to choose a path without knowing what to expect.  To the left was a steep, muddy hill that people were slipping and sliding on.  To the right was a flat trail that went around a corner.  My guess was that one path was shorter with more challenging terrain.  That’s the one I chose because my shoes were AWESOME and I knew that any path involving extra distance was not my friend.  I’m pretty sure I made the right choice because I passed people easily while they were grabbing trees to avoid sliding back down.  It was also an odiferous path, thanks to cow waste somewhere nearby.  Praise God I don’t have a good sense of smell – it must have been TERRIBLE to others.

After a little bit, the paths connected and we came to mud pits either waist or chest deep.  We had to wade through and then climb the slippery mud on the other side.  And repeat through two or three more pits.  My shoes helped me cruise right past a lot of racers.

Me!!  Thumb's up!

Somewhere along the way was the sandbag carry.  Men took one weight while women took another.  We carried the sandbags down a hill and then back up.  Not a long distance.  I saw one of the photographers and gave her a grin and a thumbs-up.

Another obstacle somewhere involved pulling a rope attached to a tire until it touched the stake right in front of you.  Once it touched your stake, you had to drag the tire back to its original position leaving no slack in the rope.  I found it easier to lift one end of the tire and almost run with it instead of bending all the way over to drag it.  Done in no time.

More running of course.

At the top of a hill, there was a boulder challenge.  Again, men had one weight and women had another.  That one was heavier than I expected so I didn’t pick it up on the first try.  But I put in more effort with the second try and was able to carry it to the designated point where everyone had to do 5 burpees before picking it back up and returning to the starting point.  I was glad I wasn’t carrying THAT boulder up and down a hill!!

From this point I headed into the home stretch...