Spartan Race

Mink

Anyone else on here do the Spartan Sprint or Super in Punchestown on Sunday? If so, what did you think?

I did the Sprint (5-6km) and it was a great experience, albeit very humbling.

I'm not a fast runner but at least I didn't stop running. Flew through the heavy/grunt work stuff - sled drags, atlas carry, sandbag etc.

Thought I was doing great and had passed some people. Then came to the tail end of the race and there were 6 tough obstacles back to back right before the finish line. Upper body strength not great so failed twister, monkey rings and the rope. Another girl and I paired up to get each other over the 8 foot walls. I did nail the spear throw though!

So if I'd stopped dithering and psyching myself out and moved through the 3 sets of 30 burpees faster I would have moved up about 15 places in the rankings.

Lesson learned and I certainly came out of it knowing my weaknesses and also I need to build more confidence in myself.

Great atmosphere, competitive but everyone still smiling and helping each other out.

Transform

Mink wrote: »

Anyone else on here do the Spartan Sprint or Super in Punchestown on Sunday? If so, what did you think?

I did the Sprint (5-6km) and it was a great experience, albeit very humbling.

I'm not a fast runner but at least I didn't stop running. Flew through the heavy/grunt work stuff - sled drags, atlas carry, sandbag etc.

Thought I was doing great and had passed some people. Then came to the tail end of the race and there were 6 tough obstacles back to back right before the finish line. Upper body strength not great so failed twister, monkey rings and the rope. Another girl and I paired up to get each other over the 8 foot walls. I did nail the spear throw though!

So if I'd stopped dithering and psyching myself out and moved through the 3 sets of 30 burpees faster I would have moved up about 15 places in the rankings.

Lesson learned and I certainly came out of it knowing my weaknesses and also I need to build more confidence in myself.

Great atmosphere, competitive but everyone still smiling and helping each other out.

insta was packed with pics from that over the weekend, looked like great fun and more of a proper challenge than getting all muddy and wet at hell and back

gizmo

I thought the burpees for obstacle failure was only for the folk doing the Elite version of the race?

RTighe

Did the super on Sunday. Had a ball. Definitely.more technical than hell and back and tough mudder. Had to do burpees as an open competitor bit didn't see that as an issue as it seems to be a standard penalty. Would happily do it next year

Mink

gizmo wrote: »

I thought the burpees for obstacle failure was only for the folk doing the Elite version of the race?

No, they expect them of everyone. I think possibly some people don't do the full penalty in the open heats. The competitors in Elite and Age group are watched like a hawk to ensure they do the full 30. My friend did Age group and they were being video'd!

Mink

RTighe wrote: »

Did the super on Sunday. Had a ball. Definitely.more technical than hell and back and tough mudder. Had to do burpees as an open competitor bit didn't see that as an issue as it seems to be a standard penalty. Would happily do it next year

Wow well done! I hope to work up to Super next year. How many km was it?

gizmo

Mink wrote: »

No, they expect them of everyone. I think possibly some people don't do the full penalty in the open heats. The competitors in Elite and Age group are watched like a hawk to ensure they do the full 30. My friend did Age group and they were being video'd!

Hmm, planning on doing the non-Elite Beast run later in the year and hadn't really considered that.

dastardly00

Mink wrote: »

Wow well done! I hope to work up to Super next year. How many km was it?

The Super was 14.5 km according to my Garmin

Mink

gizmo wrote: »

Hmm, planning on doing the non-Elite Beast run later in the year and hadn't really considered that.

Hadn't considered what? The burpees? Surely if you're running a Beast then a few sets of 30 burpees will be nothing to you. Whatever you do, do the full 30 and don't skimp. I didn't see anyone cutting them short the other week which was great.

dastardly00 wrote: »

The Super was 14.5 km according to my Garmin

I daresay I better train for longer runs over the next 9 months then!

gizmo

Mink wrote: »

Hadn't considered what? The burpees? Surely if you're running a Beast then a few sets of 30 burpees will be nothing to you. Whatever you do, do the full 30 and don't skimp. I didn't see anyone cutting them short the other week which was great.

Just hadn't considered having to do them based on what I'd read online from other competitors in the non-Elite heats really.

But yea, if they're the rules then so be it. Guess it's just something else to look forward to.

dastardly00

I enjoyed the Super (Open Category). I was doing it with a group and we had agreed to stick together. I was by far the fastest runner so I found our pace quite slow, and I wasn't too fatigued by the end. I'd definitely do it again, and I'd like to do it more competitively to test myself (in the Open Category).

I found all the heavy grunt work relatively grand eg. Bucket Brigade, Sandbag, Sled Drag, Atlas Carry, Hercules Hoist.
Climbing over the walls, inverted walls and cargo nets were easy.
I'm well used to burpees and rope climbs in CF so they were grand (still hate burpees though!)
I really enjoyed the barbed wire crawl for some reason

I absolutely sucked at Twister, Olympus, Monkey Rings, Traverse Wall (with the chains and no foot holds). My upper body strength and grip strength are pretty okay so it was technique more than anything that let me down. If I had watched some of the tutorial videos prior to the race I may have done better. I had to raise my legs a lot during Twister and Monkey Rings so that made it very difficult to create any sort of a swinging movement.

I failed the four obstacles mentioned in the previous paragraph along with the spear throw (it hit the target but didn't stay in!)... so 150 penalty burpees in total for me :pac:

Overall the event was pretty well run and set up. I did hear of some people doing the Super who took a wrong turn and ended up accidentally skipping nearly all the course. Finisher's t-shirt and medal were cool.

The Spartan Race really exposes your weaknesses... which is a good thing!

dastardly00

Regarding the burpees, I had understood that they are for all categories. The Spartan dude at the start (the guy who was ripped!) said that we had to do them. I think it devalues the race if people skip the burpees. You can fail some obstacles literally within a few seconds of starting them so without burpees, it just turns it more into a cross-crounty run. You also learn to concentrate more when doing an obstacle because you don't want to end up doing more fcekin' burpess! :pac:

Mink wrote: »

Hadn't considered what? The burpees? Surely if you're running a Beast then a few sets of 30 burpees will be nothing to you. Whatever you do, do the full 30 and don't skimp. I didn't see anyone cutting them short the other week which was great.

I saw a good few people doing half-ar*ed burpees or just skipping them completely near the end of the race. A lot of people, including myself, failed Twister, Spear Throw, and Monkey Rings. In fairness it was 3 sets of 30 burpees in quick succession, but those people who skipped them didn't look very fatigued or anything.... they just weren't bothered!

guile4582

i did the 5k sprint..doing CF for 6 months and I run a bit so I generally found it easy enough bar the twister (got halfway, was a tough old challenge) and rings (i was too tall and once my foot hit the ground i kind of lost it all)


as for the burpees I didn't really like the way they weren't supervised (not suggesting someone count everyone) , i did them but i could see why people who weren't generally fatigued weren't bothered

think i would take on a different race next time

RTighe

Mink wrote: »

Wow well done! I hope to work up to Super next year. How many km was it?

8 miles.

dastardly00

Anybody do the Super event today?