Spartan Beast

It started out with my own personal wake up call at 3:45am because I had to be in Winnsboro, SC at 6-6:15am.  It was an hour and a half drive from my house.
I signed up to volunteer for the Spartan Beast last year after I had done the Spartan Sprint.  All the volunteers stood in line for about 30min so we could get told what our stations were.  In line I started talking to two guys and a girl named Rebecca, who ended up working my station with me for the rest of the time.  It was freezing outside while waiting to sign in and it didn't seem like the line was moving at all.  Because I had signed up to volunteer all day I was assigned as a Captain (which gets you paid as well, plus free race entry to a future race).
There are 3 races in the series - Spartan Sprint(3-5mi), Super Spartan(8mi), Spartan Beast(13+ miles) plus obstacles.
I was assigned to the Atlas Lift with Rebecca.
www.spartanrace.com


"I pick it up, I put it down!"
No matter how many times I heard the saying above, it never got old.  
My station was the Atlas Lift.  The assignment...carry/roll the cement stone from the square podium to the corresponding flag.  Place the stone that was carried/rolled at the flag and exchange it with another stone at the flags.  Take the exchanged stone and carry/roll it back to podium in which you started.  The men's stone was 70lb and the women's stone was 40lb.  Because you could carry/roll the stone, burpees were not an option for this obstacle.  
If you are unfamiliar with Spartan races, if you choose not to or fail an obstacle 30 burpees are mandatory.

It was a fun day with Rebecca always laughing, rolling stones back to the flags since the seemed to get more thrown down rather than placed and would roll down the hill that we were stationed on.  We would always have large groups of people and then random people come through.  We were brought lunch, which was nice of them to provide.

Monkey Bars station.  This station was right up the hill from where I was.

*Most Humbling Experience Ever!*

My partner Captain Rebecca's husband was racing that day in the Hero Heat.  Her husband was racing with a group called T.E.A.M Xtreme.  This group races in full Army ruck gear (including gas masks), and with wounded soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan.  On this day were racing with a very special wounded warrior, which I found out the story of as they were doing our station.

If you look closely at the picture posted you can see two gas masks that are facing opposite directions.

The Story...

This young man step on an IED during active duty and lost everything from the waist down, and half of is left arm.  He is/was not even 21 or 22 years hold.  In order for the young man to do the race he was strapped to another soldiers back almost like he was a backpack.  Rebecca told me that it is hard to not be inspired by this kid because he always has such a positive attitude even after all that he has been through.  So it really makes you think, what do I have to complain about.  This story still hits me today.  

To complete the Atlas Lift, one or two other team members lifted the stone and put it in between the head of the soldier carrying the boy and the boy's head.  Another member of the team walked beside them the whole time to make sure that the stone didn't fall.  Not only was this additional member walking with a hand beside the stone, but the injured young man also took his hand and put it behind his head and place it on the stone.  And they completed the obstacle as required.

Describing this doesn't do it any justice as seeing it in person does!

After completing each obstacle they would wait as a group and then regroup and move on to the next obstacle.  The other members of the team had to complete the obstacle as well.

Wounded Wear was also another team that was apart of the Hero Heat.

Finish Line

We finished manning our station at 3:45pm and were taking back up to the start/finish line and watched the racers finish.  Rebecca's husband's group was on mile 11 when we started getting to the front.  We had someone drop us off and pick us up from out stations since we were in the middle of the woods.

The last 4 stations were 2 wall climbs - not sure of the height, javalin thrown, upper barbed wire mud pit and 10' over the wall, fire jump, jousters and then the finish line.  The mud pit onto the 10' over the wall was probably the hardest part because the wall was so muddy from all the people being on it!  I hung out with Rebecca for about 30 extra minutes because I wanted to see her husband's team finish.  I didn't end up staying the rest of the time.  I was completely exhausted, but I hope to see her at the next race!

Mud pit with barbed wire.

10' wall to climb over!

Spartan Beast flag!