Top Ten Reasons to Sign Up for the next Spartan Race in L.A. on December 12

Why should you compete in L.A.'s Spartan Race on Dec 12?  Are ten reasons enough?

10.  The Spartan Race in Los Angeles on Dec 12, 2010 is your last chance to compete in a Spartan Race in 2010, the race's explosive inaugural year.  Say that you were there when it all started. 
9.  If you live in a cold climate, what better way to celebrate the holidays than to spend a weekend in sunny L.A.?
8.  Don't waste your time in a shopping mall--give the gift of enrollment in the Spartan Race to friends and family!  Your holiday shopping will be over before your eggnog hangover has even begun.
7.  Better yet, avoid your eggnog hangover altogether, and change up your boring office holiday party.  Spend your eggnog dollars to sign all your coworkers up for the Spartan Race.  Competing as a team on a sunny L.A. afternoon may just generate more spirit among you  than an evening filled with spirits.
6.  Training for the race is a great way to work off your extra holiday calories.  Just because you act like Santa Claus doesn't mean that you have to look like him!
5.  Competing in the Spartan Race is sure to reduce your stress during the pressure-cooker that is the month of December.  Take time out from holiday chores and a packed social calendar to reward yourself with physical activity.
4. What better way to get in the holiday spirit than to immerse yourself in the Spartan spirit?  It's about putting others before yourself, and in the Spartan Race, a genuine feeling of cameraderie connects the competitors. 
3.  What will your resolution be for the new year?  Planning ahead will help you achieve your goals.  If increased confidence, personal effectiveness, and improved health will be on your agenda for 2011, you're more likely to get there if you start now.  Competing in the Spartan Race on Dec 12 will launch in the right direction with a shot of confidence.
2.  What better gift to give to yourself than the joy that will come from successfully completing a Spartan Race?
1.  If you win the Spartan Race, you qualify to compete in the Death Race, scheduled for June 2011 in Pittsfield, VT.  And that's the best gift of all.

Thank you Spartan Race for making my day of unfortunate events into one of the most admired days of my life.

Sunday, October 3^rd. Waking up to a beautiful day, in College Station, Texas was just the beginning. I, along with my friend, Josh, were extremely excited about this day. Still tired and soar from running the Mud Quest in West, TX the day before, we made a trip out of our 1 a day adventure race weekend. Our plans were to run Mud Quest on Saturday, and on our drive back to Houston, stop in Navasota on Sunday to run the Spartan Race. Saturday was completed, our Sunday was just beginning. We wake up, have the La Quinta Inn continental breakfast, pack up our bags, check out, and hit the road from College Station to Navasota at around 9:30 am. Josh’s GPS gave us an estimated drive of about an hour. Which would have been plenty of time to arrive at about 10:30, register and mingle at Spartan Race until we both were scheduled to run at 12:00. Little did we know our plans were not going to come through as expected. I was behind the wheel in my ultimate traveling machine, white Ford Expedition, my “White Chick” that’s what I named her. We were making perfect time as Josh’s GPS had us turn on to 105 which was a two lane freeway. Listening to the Beastie Boys License to Ill CD, we were feeling the excitement laughing and giggling like children, we knew we were getting closer to our destination. In the mix of it all, I missed our original exit from 105, not wanting to make an abrupt stop since I was moving to fast, Josh told me there was another exit up ahead we could take. So I keep moving about another 5 to 8 minutes, suddenly he tells me to turn in order to exit. Not trying to miss this one, I slammed on my breaks pulled to the emergency lane of the road so that I would not get hit from behind. Waiting for my opportunity to make a U-turn, bickering with Josh since he pretty much had me stop abruptly, I looked in my rear view mirror, no vehicles, I looked in front of me for on coming traffic, nothing. I began to make my U-turn and was halfway across 105 into the opposite lane when suddenly I get hammered on the driver’s side by a Dodge Ram. At

that point slow motion took into affect as I hear and see everything flying off of my truck and into the street. The things that take place in your mind within a matter of seconds is amazingly odd. Hearing the screeching and the sound of the metal being dented and ripping off of my truck was heartache. When it was all over I turned and looked at Josh and just asked him if he was ok. He said “Yes, are you?” I don’t even remember if I responded, but I rushed out of White Chick to insure that the other drivers were safe as well. Once I was reassured they were, I took a look at my truck and was heartbroken. She was not drivable just upon appearance. Immediately Spartan slipped my mind, I tried not to panic as we were 2 hours away from home, family and friends. I held back my tears and let my adrenaline kick in as I called my insurance company to inform them of the accident. Josh was a big help with speaking to the police, giving a report and speaking to the other drivers. As I was picking up pieces of my truck from the road and on hold with the insurance company tears began to roll down my face. Josh approached me and said he just wanted to make sure I was ok, that he no longer expected to go to Spartan Race, so not to worry about it. I looked at him and said “NO! We are going to that race, we are going to make it! I’m not going to let this stop us!” He looked back at me in amazement, and said, “OK.” At that point we looked at the time and it was about 11:00 am. We knew we had to move. My insurance company got back on the phone and I asked them for rental companies, we got the numbers and both started dialing. Being that it was a Sunday, no regular rental company was opened, only at airports. The closest airport was in College Station. This meant we had to go back to where our morning started, an hour away from Spartan Race. Josh asked our tow trucker if he would do us the favor of taking us to the airport so that we can pick up the rental, he agreed. So we get White Chick hooked up, and it’s off to our own race, against time and distance to make it to our ultimate destination, Spartan Race. Once White Chick got dropped off we get a little twisted with directions looking for the airport but finally make it. At this point it’s about 12:45 in the afternoon. We couldn’t remember what the last wave was for Spartan but were still determined. I run into the airport as Josh is unpacking our bags from the wrecker’s truck, get our rental and drive it around to pick up Josh. I was a bit shaken up behind the wheel and Josh noticed, so he asked me if I wanted him to drive going forward, in which I automatically agreed to. Here we go, on the road yet AGAIN from College Station to Navasota. Taking the exact same route, in a hurry to make it Josh drove 85 miles an hour. In the mix of the excitement and adrenaline again to try and make it we didn’t even notice the rental they gave us had little to nothing of gas. We turned onto 105, and this time knew which exit to take, 346 I believe, I can’t remember now. Another narrow 2 lane street, and in the hill country of Texas, no gas stations where in site. We drive for about 20 minutes when Josh says he thinks we should turn around and give up since there are no signs of Spartan anywhere, no parking lot full of signs, no crowds, nothing. I told him, just a little bit longer, just drive a few more minutes I know it has to be close, and the second I finished that sentence, I saw two Spartan Race banners flying. YES! We found it! I was so excited I started to jump in my seat telling him “I knew it! We made it!” Our excitement quickly turned to sadness when we stopped some runners to ask them if waves were still being released and they answered it was over. OVER?? There is no way it was over for me! We drove in looking around, everyone was walking back with smiles on their faces and their medals around their necks and we both looked at each other. Again, my heart sank. I told Josh there is no way, we came this far to give up. We parked our car, and began to run up hill until the shuttle picked us up and took us to the top where Spartan Race was held at. Once we stopped we had our game plan, Josh was going to ask if someone could help us with gasoline for the car and I was going to make a mad and desperate attempt to find someone that would still allow us to run the course even if it was just us two. At this point we just wanted to run it. I sprinted down the hill to all the tents, and approached the first people I saw that had staffing shirts. I began to spill our day and with tears in my eyes begged if all we could do is run the course. To my surprise the answer was yes! And little did I know I was spilling my story to Billy himself. He not only let us run his course, but volunteered to run it with us. Suddenly my day began to get much better. I scrambled to find Josh, I let him know it was game time and that Billy would be escorting us along the way. We began to get ready, but Billy had something in store for us that the other racers didn’t do. We started off swimming, swimming half the distance of the lake which was separating us from the other end of the course. We were ready, there was no hesitation as we took off our shoes and followed him to OUR start line. We were off, taking us a good 15 minutes to swim across, we meet Charles Bridges and his wife at the end of our swim who gave us our shoes to begin the running portion of the race. Josh wanted to wait for me, as he finished swimming first, I told him to go ahead and I wouldn’t be far behind. Charles and his wife followed me on their four wheeler. Josh took off to catch up to our athletic escort, and I ran not too far behind. Our next obstacle was the hay barrels. From the distance I saw Josh leap over them like leap frog, but I on the other hand was not that lucky. They were taller than I was and I’m 5’7, I had to sprint, jump on side ways and pull myself over. Each barrel took me about 2 tries. Charles even said if I couldn’t do it I could do 25 push ups and move on, I denied it and kept trying until I pulled myself over each one. Next, it was uphill to a wooden wall that we had to cross. Sounds easy right, WRONG! The wall had small pegs that you had to walk across, I couldn’t get my hands gripped properly and walking sideways was no easy task. The rules on the wall were, three tries and if you can’t get across, 25 push ups. Well, my three tries were up so I had to dish out 25 push ups. Push ups were done, and it was back to our running up the full hill, then down this wooded path that I could barely fit through. At this point I was running alone following the path, Josh had gone ahead with Billy but they weren’t too far, I could hear Billy telling Josh what to do and where to go. As I’m running down hill, I’m getting scratched and snagged by tree branches and bushes. I finally make it to the trench and where I catch up to Josh. This trench was horrible, the smell of manure and rotting carcass was in the air, and frogs were literally jumping out of my path, I saw huge spider webs around the trench and had to crawl through them. This was not pleasant at all as I have a huge fear for spiders. The end of the trench was near and we were out, it was back up hill and the running continued. We came to our up and over obstacle which was exhausting in itself after everything else, but I managed to complete that obstacle too, than more running, down to the beach on the lake. I knew the finish was near at least I hoped! Once the beach was tracked with my tiring footprints it was up hill yet again! My legs were exhausted, but I pushed on, and had the encouragement of Charles and his wife’s voice cheering me on. Josh was still ahead, he was getting closer to the finish. Once at the top Charles let me know we were almost done, we had to half circle around the lake, then back down the side and it was a straight run to the finish. But Billy had another plan, instead of a straight run to the finish once back down the lake, it was a swim across. This was where I caught up to Josh again, in the water. We not only started with a water adventure, but finished with one too. Josh was out of the swim before I was, he made it to the finish and waited for me to make it out. Billy stuck with me, and once I made my swim/walk out of the water, I ran to the finish. Hearing the Spartan team cheer me on was amazing. My finish line got closer, and with a smile on my face, I meet Josh at the finish line! A staff member awarded us with our medals and placed them around our necks as everyone that was still there clapped for us. We earned our medals in true Spartan style I like to think! What an experience that I know I will never forget.

Thank you Spartan Race for making my day of unfortunate events into one of the most admired days of my life.

What is the Spartan Spirit?

The 2010 Texas Spartan Race had finished, and the organizers were two hours into the cleanup process. Suddenly, a couple arrived at the race course, sweaty and out of breath, and approached the organizers. The couple had signed up for the race and were on their way to compete when they were in a car accident. A tow truck had arrived at the scene of the accident to remove the car. The two would-be competitors managed to convince the driver to give them a lift to the race, but the driver could only drop them off eight miles away from the starting line. Refusing to admit defeat, the couple ran the rest of the way to the racecourse.

There was nothing for the race organizers to do but reassemble the racecourse and send the two Spartans into it. The Spartan Race founding team ran the course alongside the couple, to honor their true Spartan Spirit.

The couple exemplify the values that compose the Spartan Spirit: honor, persistence, determination, ingenuity, and physical and mental endurance in the face of adversity. When an average person would have given up, the couple used a combination of creativity and fitness to push forward. They could not accept any outcome other than meeting their goal: to compete in the Spartan Race.

The values of the Spartan Spirit are the true purpose of the Spartan Race series, created in 2010 by a team of athletic and creative individuals. They seek to promote not only their race events, but through these events a return to form of sorts—that is, a return to the values and lifestyle that made ancient Spartans immensely successful warriors.

For those unfamiliar, Sparta was an ancient city-state of fierce warriors. Their skill in battle was no accident; rather, the entire fabric of their society was constructed so that each man had no choice but become a true competitor. From the age of seven until the age of twenty, Spartan males were trained in military camps. They learned to endure physical pain, survival skills, and rigid discipline. From the ages of twenty to thirty, Spartan men lived in barracks and completed full-time military service. At age thirty, Spartans were allowed to move into private homes with their wives, and continued military service until age sixty.

This lifestyle instilled a specific set of values into the heart of every Spartan. They spurned luxury and physical comfort, choosing instead self-reliance and self-denial. Their society was structured and orderly: no man sought to take more for himself than his neighbor had, but instead to give all that he could to the cause of his people. While other ancient societies abandoned their martial values once they reached a certain level of material comfort, the Spartans continued to adhere to a rigorous code of ethics regardless of material circumstances, and in fact rejected material comfort and leisure time.

For the creators of the Spartan Race series, the model of Spartan society is incredibly relevant to modern Western society. They believe that today’s Western culture is imbalanced in its obsessive pursuit of material comfort and convenience. In other words, we’ve gone soft. The only solution is to return to our roots as human beings through intense physical training and mental challenges. The Spartan Race is not about running a faster time, as in a marathon, nor is it solely a test of physical fitness. It is a unique combination of physical and mental challenges that seeks to emulate the courageous lives of the Spartan people and promote their values.

If we in today’s society push ourselves beyond what we believe to be our personal limits, we will be surprised with what we find: a new sense of courage in conviction and self-reliance. If we rely on our own courage to compete in a draining physical competition, we will be able to rely on our own courage to meet goals in our careers and personal lives. This is the message of the Spartan Race.