The "Spartans" Ready for Combat
It all started when Kyle burst into my room and yelled, “BRO . . . we should do a Spartan Race!” I dismissed the idea at first because college students don’t have money just lying around, but Kyle had found a deal that made it cheap. Then came the clincher: he had talked to the Dean of Students and had convinced Dr. Endean to run it with us. That convinced me. (“Mentoring for Ministry”: yep, that includes Spartan Races!) The date was set; on November 18, we were going to run a Spartan.
You might be wondering, “What on earth is a Spartan Race?” If you initially pictured dudes with crazed looks running a race wearing ancient spartan armor, you would be mostly right, except you don’t have to wear armor. There are several different kinds of Spartan Races, but the race we chose is called “the sprint.” This race is about three miles long with twenty different obstacles, including a spear throw, a sandbag carry, a rope climb, a barbed wire crawl, and other equally challenging tasks. (The crazed look was definitely present as we crawled under the barbed wire!)
We were all pretty hyped on race day. As far as I knew, this was the first Spartan event that any IBCS group had attended. It was fantastic! Our group was well prepared for the physical challenges presented to us. Except for when we weren’t. We had to do 30 burpees for each obstacle failed. All but one of us had to do burpees for at least one failed obstacle. And our other teammate contributed some burpees anyway to help the team. (What a pal!) Now we know better how to train for future races. We weren’t perfect, but the race was 100% worth it. As well as having a lot of fun, we also learned to encourage each other, to persevere, and to work together to achieve a team goal.
We are seriously considering running the same race again next fall. Let us know if you want to join the IBCS Spartan Crew.
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