It started by chance

It all started one day at the Fire Station in 2013.  A group of us decided we wanted to run an obstacle course race, nothing huge we had seen one that was designed around the fire service.  What better race to start with then one involving something we already train for so we started the team and I signed up to do my first Obstacle race. 

Now I am not exactly the extreme couch potato, nor am I a marathon runner.  I played football through pop warner, High School, and a few years at a DIII College, I played Little League baseball and still play now and again on a Vintage Base Ball Club.  These sports do involve running but never more then a few feet at a time and then take a break.  So the running was my only worry I never ran just to run.  I felt in order to run there needed to be some purpose, like catching a fly ball or tackling the quarterback.  Needless to say I had my work cut out for me.  So I tell my girlfriend (at the time) about this plan (FYI this story doesn't end with her laughing at me and leaving she is now my fiancé, although it probably should have.)  Not only is she supportive, but she signs up too.  She is a runner, although she will tell you different.  We devise a work out plan to get me running, and by "we" I do mean "she."  It only involved running twice a week for short distances, to start.  It also involved, to my surprise, running a 5K road race.  I've never ran 5K, I wasn't even sure what 5K meant.

This whole time, I am constantly checking out the website to see pictures from the previous races, keeping my motivation up.  This is getting exciting.  The training continues.  I finished my first 5K.  It only took me 39 minutes or so.  I was proud not only about the completion of something I thought I would never (or could never) do, but at my time wasn't that bad.   I was later informed that my aunt does 5Ks.  Her time isn't too far off of mine, and she walks the whole time.  So I'm slow, we can work on that.  The thought of all those cool obstacles and the images of the race keep me going.  The training continues and gets a little more intense.  We are now running 5 miles, which is more than a 5K. I know they both have 5's in them, but one is longer due to the other one being metric measurements. So I am not only getting in shape, I am learning in the process. 

Then one day about 2 months out from the race I get an email that says the race is cancelled due to the company going bankrupt.  I was devastated.  I had been working so hard to prepare for this event and the event wasn't even trying.  A few more emails came and I got my refund for the race although most people weren't going to but since I signed up so early I was on the top of the refund list.  Then something else happened, I got an email from the sign up website with a code.  This code entitled me to a free Spartan race at Fenway Park.  I didn't really know what a Spartan race was, but they had me at Fenway Park.  Growing up in the great state of Massachusetts, half hour away from Boston, the Boston Red Sox were a huge part of my life.  I have watched many games from many different spots inside that stadium, but to run a race in it... that sounded amazing. 

So I looked up this Fenway Spartan race and was instantly on board.  It had obstacles and the "Green Monstah."  I signed up and my girlfriend signed up as well.  Our training took a back seat for a bit, but we were still active and had a new goal in site.  On the morning of the race we woke up early got our race gear on and headed to Alewife to ride the T into Boston.  I was excited and stupid, my girlfriend was nervous.  I admit I felt pretty much unstoppable and I tried to convince her that we were athletes and we were going to kill this course.

We get to the stadium and start the sign-in process, got our numbers, signed the waivers and then grabbed our packets.  Inside these packets were your bib (this isn't the same bib that you put on your kids before a meal), a head band, a timing chip and a bracelet.  We put the head band on, attached the timing chip to the bracelet and then to our wrists and entered the stadium.  Of course the first thing we do once we are in the stadium is go check out the field.  It was quite the sight.  The field had a few obstacles on it.  People had already started so there were people every place possible.  On the big jumbo screen there was the announcement for which heat should be heading to the starting line.  We took some pictures and were on our way to the bag check.  Our heat was about to be called so we headed to the starting line.

At the starting line there was a wall.  Not a very high wall, but one that required some effort to get over.  This was a new concept for us, an obstacle just to get in line.  This is going to be more fun than a thought.  When it was our turn to go we had to do 5 burpees.  (I had heard about these burpees, I googled how to do them the night before, since I have never really done one.  With my research of Spartan races I noticed that if you missed an obstacle you had to do 30 burpees.)  After the 5 burpees we were unleashed onto the course.  It started with a nice run up a bunch of stairs, not too bad then we had to do a series of army crawls and high knees up the ramps.  There was a water jug carry, some more crawling, monkey bars, walls to climb over, sand bags to carry, a rope to climb, and a hoist among many others, all while running up and down the seating area.  At one point we were behind home plate, I had caught up to my girlfriend for the last time at this point.  I was able to get through some obstacles faster than her, but she was a way better runner and would pass me and get to them first.  In the open area of the stands behind home plate were rowing machines.  I will compliment the rowing section saying it was a great view of the field (I have watched a game from here, that was fun) this, however, was pure torture.  It told you how far you had to row and then not much instruction except to row.  I thought this can't be too bad, I have used one of these machines before.  I don't remember how long I was on there for, or how far I had to go; however, I do remember that I rowed that machine as fast as I could until it said stop.  When I stopped, it said congratulations.  I was pumped no burpees for me, time to stand up and continue on my way.  My mind told my legs to get my feet out of the holders and stand me up.  My legs said "no, we can't do that for you at this time.”  I had worn my legs out and still had a good mile and a half left.  My girlfriend had to assist me getting my legs out of the machine and at that time they said "fine let’s get this over with."

The next station was inside the visitors dug out.  I went half-assed jogging in because my legs were still complaining about the last obstacle.  The moment I got through the doors I was like a kid in a candy store.  Eyes wide open, jaw dropped and I just turned around and was taking it all in.  Of course when you get in the room there was a volunteer to let you know what you had to do.  I think the volunteer had to say it at least 4 times before I came to my senses and looked at her and said "I'm sorry, what did you say".  It was push ups, not too bad, only 25 of them.  This would be the highlight up to this point.  The course continued on bringing us through more sections of the stadium I had never been in, hosting obstacles that would test all different strengths.  In the end, we go out on the field, climbed a cargo net, jumped some more walls, ran past the green monstah (I made an amazing jump catch and bumped into the wall.)  We made our way towards home plate, where we had to do 25 box jumps, and then run through the gladiators and cross the finish line.  Once that medal was placed around my neck it was like a light switch had been turned on.  I wanted to do more; I wanted to experience the mud and the mountains.  It was like I was knighted into the Spartan family and that's when the love affair began.

My girlfriend finished before me at 58 minutes and I was 10 minutes behind her at 1 hour and 8 minutes.  At this time, I was right on that train ride in, we killed that course.  I would later find out that she had a right to be nervous about the Spartan races and I was stupid, but that's a story for another day.