This past weekend I had the amazing fortune to volunteer at the 2015 Arizona Spartan Sprint at the Fort McDowell Casino & Resort grounds. Some of you who know me in real life know that I’m working on being fit enough to complete my Spartan Trifecta medal, but I know there’s a lot of people out there who don’t really know what a Spartan Race is.
The Spartan Race is an obstacle race designed to push your body to be the best it can be. There are three different race types; Sprint, Beast, and Super. The Spartan Sprint is a 3+ mile run with about 13 obstacles, the Super is 8+ miles with an according number of obstacles, and the Beast is 12+ miles again with an according number of obstacles.
Spartan Races also have something called the Hurricane Heat, in which you are grouped up randomly to bring you together as a team in order to complete the obstacles. The Hurricane Heat takes you out of the role of an individual and requires you to use critical thinking skills in addition to your physical prowess to come out on top.
There is also the Spartan Kids race. The kids race is for children ages 13 and under; children may not run the full Spartan until they are 14. The kids race has two distances, 1⁄2 mile and a full mile, each containing appropriate obstacles. The Spartan Kids race is one of my favorite things about the Spartan Race because it is teaching kids that their bodies are the best thing to play with!
The mission of the Spartan Race is to get ourselves back to our primal roots. With the amount of technology and convenience we are inundated with everyday, for the most part we as humans in 2015 aren’t nearly as in touch with our bodies as we would have been 3000 years ago. The Spartan mission is as follows- to get people back to their primal roots, and to get our bodies to do what they were designed to do: run, jump, sweat, and climb.
The Spartan Trifecta is when you complete a Sprint, Beast, and Super in a calendar year (January 1-December 31), anywhere in the United States or World. With each race type you complete, you get your finishers metal in addition to a pie piece of your Trifecta medal. Once you have completed all three race types, the pie pieces fit together to create the tri-colored Trifecta metal. Aside from the fact that this metal looks bad ass, it’s true value is that you have pushed yourself to complete all three races in the span of a year, regardless of the physical, emotional, or scheduling obstacles you faced. The Trifecta medal signifies more than just your physical ability; it signifies your commitment to yourself.
Volunteering at the Arizona Sprint was an experience I will never forget. It occurred to me that the Spartan Race atmosphere would be completely different if it weren’t for the volunteers. Everything about the race, from packet stuffing to obstacle building to the end of the race breakdown involves volunteers. Volunteers check you in at registration, hand out water, and motivate you throughout the course.
Every Spartan volunteer I met that weekend had a different story. We all came from different places, all had different goals, and ultimately all were individuals who were brought together by our desire to give back to the Spartan community. Before you ask, yes we do get tangible rewards for volunteering ranging from a free race to a sweet volunteer hoodie. But the best part I found about Spartan volunteers is that almost none of us were there for the stuff we would get in return. We were all there to race and to support each other and the other racers, and we were all just ridiculously excited to be there!
The Spartan Race is an obstacle race designed to push your body to be the best it can be. There are three different race types; Sprint, Beast, and Super. The Spartan Sprint is a 3+ mile run with about 13 obstacles, the Super is 8+ miles with an according number of obstacles, and the Beast is 12+ miles again with an according number of obstacles.
Spartan Races also have something called the Hurricane Heat, in which you are grouped up randomly to bring you together as a team in order to complete the obstacles. The Hurricane Heat takes you out of the role of an individual and requires you to use critical thinking skills in addition to your physical prowess to come out on top.
There is also the Spartan Kids race. The kids race is for children ages 13 and under; children may not run the full Spartan until they are 14. The kids race has two distances, 1⁄2 mile and a full mile, each containing appropriate obstacles. The Spartan Kids race is one of my favorite things about the Spartan Race because it is teaching kids that their bodies are the best thing to play with!
The mission of the Spartan Race is to get ourselves back to our primal roots. With the amount of technology and convenience we are inundated with everyday, for the most part we as humans in 2015 aren’t nearly as in touch with our bodies as we would have been 3000 years ago. The Spartan mission is as follows- to get people back to their primal roots, and to get our bodies to do what they were designed to do: run, jump, sweat, and climb.
The Spartan Trifecta is when you complete a Sprint, Beast, and Super in a calendar year (January 1-December 31), anywhere in the United States or World. With each race type you complete, you get your finishers metal in addition to a pie piece of your Trifecta medal. Once you have completed all three race types, the pie pieces fit together to create the tri-colored Trifecta metal. Aside from the fact that this metal looks bad ass, it’s true value is that you have pushed yourself to complete all three races in the span of a year, regardless of the physical, emotional, or scheduling obstacles you faced. The Trifecta medal signifies more than just your physical ability; it signifies your commitment to yourself.
Volunteering at the Arizona Sprint was an experience I will never forget. It occurred to me that the Spartan Race atmosphere would be completely different if it weren’t for the volunteers. Everything about the race, from packet stuffing to obstacle building to the end of the race breakdown involves volunteers. Volunteers check you in at registration, hand out water, and motivate you throughout the course.
Every Spartan volunteer I met that weekend had a different story. We all came from different places, all had different goals, and ultimately all were individuals who were brought together by our desire to give back to the Spartan community. Before you ask, yes we do get tangible rewards for volunteering ranging from a free race to a sweet volunteer hoodie. But the best part I found about Spartan volunteers is that almost none of us were there for the stuff we would get in return. We were all there to race and to support each other and the other racers, and we were all just ridiculously excited to be there!
G and I had to be there at 6:00 am to get set up for registration volunteering. It was cold as a penguins nipple at 6 in the morning in the middle of the desert, but you could really just feel the excitement in the dark air from all of us volunteers. G and I had the good fortune to be in charge of Spartan Kids registration, and let me tell you our hearts melted all morning from seeing all the baby Spartans putting their bib headbands on and being so excited to race through the mud. |
Speaking of Spartan Kids registration, our leader was a lovely woman named Mies. She was so excited to be there and was really efficient about teaching us how to use the registration computers. Mies was wonderful; she made sure we were hydrated and when the rest of our group went to go race, I hung back and got to work one on one with her breaking down the Spartan Kids registration. I found out that she travels around the country setting up Spartan Races, and that basically sounds like the raddest job ever.
Once Mies and I got the Spartan Kids booth broken down, I was relocated to the Volunteer tent to help out Lizzy with inventory. I guess I did a pretty good job working with Mies because when I got to the volunteer tent, I got a lot of responsibility which was really cool. I was in charge of inventory of shirts and hoodies, and I got to sit and chat with some more volunteers and the actual Spartan Staff supervising us. We worked really hard that day, and I can only say the same of everyone who helped get this whole race set up. Lizzy and Mies are the coolest women I have ever met, to be honest. Both of them are extremely smart and had such great energy; it kept me from being tired even though I had been on my feet running around all day.
Having only volunteered and not raced on Sunday, I don’t regret it at all. I wasn’t really well enough to run and let’s be honest, I am not strong enough yet. Instead, I got to work behind the scenes to make the race possible. I am completely sure that I will not be able to just do a race without volunteering, even if it’s only a half day. The best part of volunteering for the race is actually one of the best parts about being in a Spartan Race in general: you will meet people you have never met before and will make bonds that are stronger than regular volunteer work. There are people that I met this weekend that I may not know names of but that if I saw them again, I could greet them with a hug or high five and they would do the same.
There’s a reason the Spartans say, “You’ll know at the finish line”. Register yourself and you’ll know what I mean!
Having only volunteered and not raced on Sunday, I don’t regret it at all. I wasn’t really well enough to run and let’s be honest, I am not strong enough yet. Instead, I got to work behind the scenes to make the race possible. I am completely sure that I will not be able to just do a race without volunteering, even if it’s only a half day. The best part of volunteering for the race is actually one of the best parts about being in a Spartan Race in general: you will meet people you have never met before and will make bonds that are stronger than regular volunteer work. There are people that I met this weekend that I may not know names of but that if I saw them again, I could greet them with a hug or high five and they would do the same.
There’s a reason the Spartans say, “You’ll know at the finish line”. Register yourself and you’ll know what I mean!