Spartan Challenge

addictedtoshoes

Has anyone heard about this yet http://www.spartanchallenge.ie ? Read about it in the paper this morning, super idea! If you get the most votes, you get trained by the pros for the marathon and a running kit

mithril

I'll just post this quote from their web site and run away!

"Walking 26 miles is just as big an achievement as jogging or running 26 miles "

Krusty_Clown

I didn't think the spartans walked anywhere?! I thought they would rather fall on their own spears than have to walk.

addictedtoshoes

Maybe they'll walk while dragging boulders behind them!

Krusty_Clown

addictedtoshoes wrote: »

Maybe they'll walk while dragging boulders behind them!

Drag? They would hold them aloft, above their heads!

tunguska

mithril wrote: »

I'll just post this quote from their web site and run away!

"Walking 26 miles is just as big an achievement as jogging or running 26 miles "

Karl Henry and Paula mee are the coaches apparently. Has Karl Henry even run a marathon? And Paula mee's a dietician. Dodgy indeed......

Krusty_Clown

tunguska wrote: »

Karl Henry and Paula mee are the coaches apparently. Has Karl Henry even run a marathon? And Paula mee's a dietician. Dodgy indeed......

Wash your mouth out with soap! (though I beat him by an hour and 18 minutes in the ultra in Connemara, so he's not all that (smug smile)).. Seems to be a 3:45 runner, so I don't think he'd be quite up to the job of coaching you, Tunguska!

Runs:
Dublin marathon: 2001,2004,2005,2006
Rome marathon: 2004,2005
Belfast marathon: 2005
Connemara half marathon 2006,2007
Dublin half marathon 2007,2006,2005
Waterford half Marathon 2009
Mooathon
Connemara Ultra Marathon 2010 (6hr 33)

DULLAHAN2

tunguska What is wrong with having a dietician as a coach. Is Nutrition not important in a marathon training programme aswell as the marathon itself?

addictedtoshoes

By the looks of Paula's bio she is well qualified to advise someone on nutrition for a marathon, she used to operate from the Dublin Nutrition Centre so I wouldn't call that dodgy!

Rob!

Registered two days ago but after what I'm reading here, it doesn't sound as gr8 as I had originally thought. That said, I'm in 3rd/4th place so i might as well go along for the ride!

tunguska

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Wash your mouth out with soap! (though I beat him by an hour and 18 minutes in the ultra in Connemara, so he's not all that (smug smile)).. Seems to be a 3:45 runner, so I don't think he'd be quite up to the job of coaching you, Tunguska!

Runs:
Dublin marathon: 2001,2004,2005,2006
Rome marathon: 2004,2005
Belfast marathon: 2005
Connemara half marathon 2006,2007
Dublin half marathon 2007,2006,2005
Waterford half Marathon 2009
Mooathon
Connemara Ultra Marathon 2010 (6hr 33)

Damn you Krusty and your, eh, damn facts! You just ruined a perfectly good moan.

Website: http://spartan.spar.ie/


Seen an ad for it (on here, when I was logged out) and visited the site out of curiousity.


Just wondering what you guys think of it?

the fortunate four will not only get 'VIP training' from the pros, Paula and Karl, but will also be given an exclusive Adidas training kit packed with Lifestyle Sports goodies

Was taking a look around the profiles on the site though, and I think it's a bit odd. Pretty much every profile I've seen is belong to someone who's a regular marathon runner, who surely would have no use for the training or free gear that you can get out of this?


I actually registered, but have no idea why. Even if I were one of the four chosen, I don't think I'd have the balls to do it (I'm a fat bastard)


So anyway, was just looking for your thoughts on it as ye guys would obviously be more clued in on this kinda thing than me. Seems like an entirely win-win situation? There doesn't seem to be a downside or "catch" to it, except that you need to go to some screening (but only certain people will need to, i think? Only those who stand a chance of winning?) but it's in Dublin so hardly a killer for what seems like a great prize?

munsterbear

I've registered for it too. I'm the lad with the red Mohawk. I've never even run a half marathon so I was delighted at chance to get the training. But it does seem a lot of experianced runners.

I also noticed on Register page it says entries close on June 8th and voting stops on June 15th but on Spartan page it says voting closes on June 8th. I've being tellin friends it was the 8th (people get tired of you hassling them every day for votes) so hope to God it's not the 15th. I've emailed the contact link anyway for confirmation.

stevendig

wat a good idea to get trained by the pros
i would love this opportunity so if anyone would like to vote for me my name is steven dignam you can find me on page 16 or around that area thanks all:)

pattimlin

Hi. I was in first place tonight at midnight, when I also expected voting to close. Did you hear from Spar? I've emailed them too.

munsterbear

Haven't heard anything from them. I've dropped back to 4th. Amazing surges in votes! Ha ha

James Howlett

godammit I only heard about this this morning.
I have my entry in but i doubt i'll manage to get 3500+ onto top of whatever else the top guys have all in one week...grr

munsterbear

I'll vote for you.

Stupid_Private

James Howlett wrote: »

godammit I only heard about this this morning.
I have my entry in but i doubt i'll manage to get 3500+ onto top of whatever else the top guys have all in one week...grr

How much time do you have?

vote - delete cache - vote *repeat until boredom hits*

therighthook

They have had the change in the sign off for the voting on the site for the last 2 weeks!! Some strange voting patterns going in last night, there will be a check done i believe on IP addresses and proxy servers, any misbehaving and that entry will be void haha :pac:

James Howlett

a week, gotta muster up a lot of will power...

therighthook

Stupid_Private wrote: »

How much time do you have?

vote - delete cache - vote *repeat until boredom hits*

Dosnt work!!

addictedtoshoes

Stupid_Private wrote: »

How much time do you have?

vote - delete cache - vote *repeat until boredom hits*

Doesn't work, I tried it to!

James Howlett

addictedtoshoes wrote: »

Doesn't work, I tried it to!

That's a shame I really wanted a cheater to advance through to a competition where endurance through physical pain is required :pac:

Stupid_Private

therighthook wrote: »

Dosnt work!!

Just tried it there on Chrome

Vote
Clear browsing data - last day
Refresh
Vote

I'd also like to point out that I'm not entered in this and have no vested interest in anyone that is taking part. I wouldn't have the time to bother going through all that to get 4,000 votes but it is a loop hole there that can be exposed.

I did find it interesting that they say on the homepage that the 4 with the highest number of votes will be chosen, but in the T&C it has no mention of highest votes. Instead it mentions a "screening day" where the final 4 will be chosen.

addictedtoshoes

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Just tried it there on Chrome


I did find it interesting that they say on the homepage that the 4 with the highest number of votes will be chosen, but in the T&C it has no mention of highest votes. Instead it mentions a "screening day" where the final 4 will be chosen.

I can understand this, it's 16 weeks of training! The top 4 are going to have to be up for that so I'd imagine they want to meet them first!!!! Of course they're gonna be screened.

therighthook

The first 4 will be given priority, I recieved an email response about this and was told that the first 10 overall in the voting will be screened to make sure that the person is mentally as well as physically able to run/jog/walk 26 miles!!! obviously, first 4 will be there unless one or two fail the screening, then whoever is next in line will come in!! bit like BB but without Davina Dont know why anyone would bother taking part in this unless they are going to run it, whats the point in having all this expert advice, etc if you end up walking the frickin thing!!!!

James Howlett

therighthook wrote: »

The first 4 will be given priority, I recieved an email response about this and was told that the first 10 overall in the voting will be screened to make sure that the person is mentally as well as physically able to run/jog/walk 26 miles!!! obviously, first 4 will be there unless one or two fail the screening, then whoever is next in line will come in!! bit like BB but without Davina Dont know why anyone would bother taking part in this unless they are going to run it, whats the point in having all this expert advice, etc if you end up walking the frickin thing!!!!

so theres hope for me yet eh?
Thanks for that update man.
I'm horrendously behind but trying to make it into the top ten now.

roisinbeag

My boyfriend has registered himself for this in the hope that it can help him get off the smokes once and for all, and to help us all as a family get more active. He really wants to get the chance to do the training as he has no past experience of running so we felt it was worth the try. We have everything crossed and friends, family and work colleagues backing us up to try get those votes in. Our aim is to get to the top 10 and so far we are at 13th position which we are proud of considering we found out so late about it.
If any of you do decide to randomly vote for someone, he is liam-mc

James Howlett

Just sayin

http://spartan.spar.ie/spartans/seamus-kavanagh

Unfortunately I only know a small amount of people... goddammit

therighthook

I have thrown some votes onto you there now :cool:
I wouldnt be too confident though, i gave up on it as i was getting the votes through normal channels but an IT friend of mine was looking at one of the entries ( they are in top spot ), he noticed an amazing upturn in votes in the space of about 15mins, told me they had to be using some sort of IP masking software that enabled them to continually vote, anytime they slipped off the top position there was a quick turnaround!!! call it sour grapes but sure if u want it badly you can find a way to cheat although u cant cheat a marathon
looking at some of the posts above, it seems some others have noticed this as well but sure there is probably not a lot that can be done, coming close to midnight on monday night there was a few people that were doing this as well thinking the closing date was the 8th!! pretty obvious haha

James Howlett

well hopefully those that do cheat will be weeded out in the "screening test."
You are right though there does appear to be high surges in voting among the top participants.

I will remain optimistic though and hope to get through...

therighthook

alright james, whats ur link?? was looking through to send a few votes ur way!!

James Howlett

therighthook wrote: »

alright james, whats ur link?? was looking through to send a few votes ur way!!

Haha way to shoot myself in the foot, my real name isn't James...
http://spartan.spar.ie/spartans/seamus-kavanagh

:)Thanks Dude

therighthook

ah no worries, thought that was it! will keep voting and see if u can break the top 10, blast it out everywhere man

James Howlett

will do. if i can manage to get into the top 10 then the 26.2 miles will be no bother haha

roisinbeag

Any chance you could send some our way as well and get us into the top 10?? :P

http://spartan.spar.ie/spartans/liam-mc

James, at least if either of us can get in the proper moral way, I will be delighted. We were in 13th place ourselves and dropped to 14th when out of nowhere someone just overtook us. I was watching his votes, he has jumped up 600 since about 6pm yesterday. Is that possible or am I just assuming the worst of someone?


Best of luck to you too!

roisinbeag

oh, forgot to add...I just gave you a vote James

James Howlett

roisinbeag wrote: »

Any chance you could send some our way as well and get us into the top 10?? :P

http://spartan.spar.ie/spartans/liam-mc

James, at least if either of us can get in the proper moral way, I will be delighted. We were in 13th place ourselves and dropped to 14th when out of nowhere someone just overtook us. I was watching his votes, he has jumped up 600 since about 6pm yesterday. Is that possible or am I just assuming the worst of someone?


Best of luck to you too!

As mentioned above by therighthook there does appear to be a lot of foul play going on. However my take on this is that those that are "boosting" will be caught out and that although we may end up 13th or 14th we may still have a chance.

I read Liam's profile and if I was to lose out to other Runners I wouldn't object to losing out to him so yes I will throw some votes your way too.

Best of luck.:)

James Howlett

Yeah I have noticed that some guys have come out of nowhere and are just continuously gaining an unreal amount of votes. However like I said before cheating can only get you so far.

It will be interesting to see who makes it through the screening test though...

James Howlett

therighthook wrote: »

Hi, is there anyone else on that has applied for the Spar Spartan Challenge 2010 or know someone that has and have been voting for them?
Reason I am asking is that I had been doing quite well on it, I have been on it from the start and I have absolutely annoyed everyone I know to gain some votes!!
This is all a complete waste of time, there are people in it at the moment, some of whom only joined in the last week or so who are using some sort of web proxy ( according to a techhie who has been looking at this for another guy who is on it ), and have shamelessly totted up an amazing amount of votes!! I watched the top ten on the page yesterday, one girl made in the space of 4 hrs, about 1000 votes up on the top 2!! another 2 guys have in the space of about 4 days amassed nearly 5000 votes, yesterday they added about 2000 votes each and still rising!!!!
i know it may sound like sour grapes but come on, this is just ridiculous stuff, for people that have been on this challenge from the start and have gone about it the right way and will get nowhere due to this "flaw" that has been exploited by a few individuals!!!
any reasonable response would be greatly apprecieted :mad:

Post your link up here. I won't make it now but will throw as many as I can your way.

munsterbear

The voting on this is totally farcical. You could see the top four doubling their votes by the time it ends tomorrow. I've was on since the first or second day so had an advantage over people who didn't hear about it till later. And everyday I've hounded friends through email, text and facebook to rally votes. But it's plain to see the surges by some people. You'd think they'd try to be a bit more subtle about it. It's left a very bitter taste and if you got through you'd doubt would you want to be involved with them. The training and support would be great and I would have hoped the four people would be a support to each other but do you want support from someone who has cheated their way to get there.

I'll still be doing the marathon regardless. It's one of seven races I'm doing this year for Irish Cancer Society. I'm Mark on it by the way.

James Howlett

munsterbear wrote: »

The voting on this is totally farcical. You could see the top four doubling their votes by the time it ends tomorrow. I've was on since the first or second day so had an advantage over people who didn't hear about it till later. And everyday I've hounded friends through email, text and facebook to rally votes. But it's plain to see the surges by some people. You'd think they'd try to be a bit more subtle about it. It's left a very bitter taste and if you got through you'd doubt would you want to be involved with them. The training and support would be great and I would have hoped the four people would be a support to each other but do you want support from someone who has cheated their way to get there.

I'll still be doing the marathon regardless. It's one of seven races I'm doing this year for Irish Cancer Society. I'm Mark on it by the way.

I've seen your profile (and by chance your posts on munster fans).

Allow me a small rant:
I won't lie I am disapointed I only heard about this last week but that can't be helped. I wouldn't mind but I'm in two SPARs every day, you think they could have advertised the damn thing in-store! In the end I, like yourself, will be doing the marathon regardless.
Rant over.

As for today and tomorrow I will be throwing all my votes on your profile and therighthook when they post their link up. It is a farce the way things have gone but I saw you among the top last week and will do what I can to get you back up there. Best of luck.

I too will be doing the marathon and also for the Irish Cancer Society, I unfortunately lost my Mother-in-Law to that rottne disease only a month ago.

munsterbear

I was delighted when I heard about competition. As I'd already committed to doing the marathon for the first time. I've done the Great Ireland Run, Dublin Docklands Run and Woman's Mini Marathon with 40DD boobs haha. And sure roll on the Dublin Race Series and finally the marathon. And when I read about the online blog thingy, I thought that would be a great way yo help spread the word about my mycharity page.

I got massive response from so many people and I feel more for them than I do for myself. I've being chatting to some peopple and they've being telling me how their friends in work really rowed in behind it. It made people feel good to be helping a good cause. Even my Dad was back in Limerick for the week and went to an internet shop so he could cast his vote. But with these muppets throwing on what they like, whenever they like it is a slap in the face to other. Especially those you are waiting for the 24 hours to be up to get that one vote in again.

I actually started a page on FB to be like a blog, its called Papabear and Dublin City Marathon. I've being terrible writing anything on it over last few weeks with this voting malarky. It's at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=105838289457639&ref=ts if you fancy a look.

munsterbear

therighthook wrote: »

haha, very good, i done the mini-marathon before in all sorts of womens clothes and the wig!! the sweat was pumping out of me with that yoke on my head!! fair play to you, good charity and well deserved
i am doing it for Autism, my nephew is Autistic and his school in rathmines is amazing, the amount of work and care they provide and they got very little if anything from our proud govt!!
i hear ye on the voting, it is everyone that has been doing it for i am more sorry for as well, even one of the lads in the company i worked in setup a link for all the lads in there to vote through as they were having trouble trying to access it!! then he sent to all the global offices!!
its a frickin farce, weeks of doing this and literally in the space of 3 days they have bypassed me from nothing!!
we should set up our own team, call it Spar Spartans are losers!!
seriously though, we are more than likely going to be called for the screening on sat., i am going to go down early when it is announced, i am going to have a work with 3 of them and it wont be a quiet one!! ur wan done the same last mon nite when she thought the voting was being closed off, huindred of votes going through her in less than an hour, not even trying to hide it!! I am going to lash into Spar as well about this as well, **** it!! by the way, ur man kevin is coming up behind ya lol he is trying not make it obvious as the other two but like yeah thousands of votes in the last 2 days, who u trying to fool haha
good luck with it anyway man, the FB page is cool as well

Oh hear ya about the sweating with the wig. And sure wasn't I delighted that the lovely firefighters in Donnybrook soaked me! It was grand last year when it was roasting but with all the rain this year.

It's a damm shame about the voting. It had me near demented, checking on my itouch even half hour to see how I was doing. At this stageI don't really give a toss. Don't think Spar really thought things through. But sure people will always find a way to get around things. I just hope they put the same effort into raising money for charity. It was a good idea to use the votes to see if people could generate a following so the blog pages would get popular and sure that would be more advertisment for Spar. But instead they may get people who may get a whole bucket load of votes but not actually from a lot of people (if that makes any sense).

munsterbear

therighthook wrote: »

nah, it makes perfect sense, everyone that has been voting and blogging and posting my link for the last month have a big interest in this, but i have sent more emails and posts this morning advising what is happening on the site and it has been basically hijacked by these guys!! the interest alone for Spar was huge but by the time I am finished, there will be some much negative publicity!! they probably wont give a damn, i am looking for ward to this screening, i hope we are all called for the same time and not staggered cause that will be very funny!!!

Will we all have to line up and they'll do a Simon Cowell act? ha ha I'm very disappointed with your promotion. Lacklustre profile haha.

Shame to have to now pay out €60 to doctor to go stand there just in case one of the top four getting kicked out.

pattimlin

The whole thing is a complete farce. I've been posting my links on Twitter and Facebook and any bleedin site that I can. I've done posters and put them up in pubs and clubs, and I've hounded friends from all over the place to get votes (I think half my friends have hidden me on Facebook at this stage cos they're so sick of me!).

As much as I'd like to get through (whatever way the screening process might work), the thoughts of having to work in a team with some of the people in the top 6 right now (you know who you are) just puts me off.

That said, anyone that feels like voting for Pat should feel free to do so! lol

James Howlett

therighthook wrote: »

nah, it makes perfect sense, everyone that has been voting and blogging and posting my link for the last month have a big interest in this, but i have sent more emails and posts this morning advising what is happening on the site and it has been basically hijacked by these guys!! the interest alone for Spar was huge but by the time I am finished, there will be some much negative publicity!! they probably wont give a damn, i am looking for ward to this screening, i hope we are all called for the same time and not staggered cause that will be very funny!!!

Maybe give SPAR the benefit of the doubt for the moment, they can't really help people cheating and I'm sure they have been monitoring the process from the start.

Perhaps at the screening they will out-right ask how people campaigned for themselves/ look for evidence of e-mails sent etc...

You may still be picked as a SPARTAN.

In any case please let post back here about how the screening process goes, I am very eager to know how that goes down.

TempleStreet Neurosurgery Appeal

therighthook wrote: »

ah ur grand mate, i am throwing my hat at it!! the voting has just got out of hand completly lol look what they are on now!! that guy adrian was on just over 3000 yesterday, not he is at 6,500+???? the other 2 ahead of him are the same, when they need to, they are putting up 1000 in a few hours!! f**k it, it is not worth bothering with, spar can go and f**k themselves, lets start a boycott off their shops haha

I have been getting plenty of votes because I have contacts worldwide. I have friends getting friends to vote. I have friends posting it on their facebook, twitter,bebo,myspace,linkedin pages. I never went up 3500 votes in one day. I'm not even on 6500 votes. That is just a lie. I am doing this for a good cause. It for my daughter. I don't like the fact that you are casting false accusations about how I am getting votes. I have been onto the local radio too and they have been advertising to get me votes. I couldn't tell you how many people have been in support of me and helping me get votes. I have been onto my past workplaces as well getting votes too. Local schools too. I'm sorry you feel this way about but I have done this by putting in hard work. It shows in my votes that my campaign for support is bigger than yours. If there has been foul play, it wasn't by me.

RayCun

I'm just amazed people are putting in so much work for not much of a prize. The kit is only worth a couple of hundred euro, and if you join a running club you'll get coaching for free. If people put half as much work into their running as they do into getting votes...

munsterbear

RayCun wrote: »

I'm just amazed people are putting in so much work for not much of a prize. The kit is only worth a couple of hundred euro, and if you join a running club you'll get coaching for free. If people put half as much work into their running as they do into getting votes...

For me it wasn't the gear, or even the training. More the nutritional advice because it would be personalised. But the biggest prize is the blog. I would say a lot of people like me would use it to help promote the charities we are already fundraising for.