This is Spartan

I hung from a rope, about four metres off the ground, barely half a metre from the cow bell I had to ring complete the obstacle. My arms and legs shuddered uncontrollably as I looked up at the bell that was just out of reach. I composed myself, sucking in a deep breath as I went for one final attempt to make it to the top.

As I reached up with my right arm, my left gave way, then my legs, and I fell, grabbing the rope just before I hit the ground. After holding myself up that rope for just over a minute, I was more exhausted that I had ever been in my entire life, bordering on broken. This was hell.

This was Spartan.

As I can no longer play soccer because of an ongoing knee injury, I was without a source of regular fitness for the first time since I was seven years old.

Looking for a new challenge, I decided to compete in my first ever Spartan Race, an obstacle adventure race billed as “the toughest, most competitive obstacle race in the world”. Spartan races are held across the globe as fitness enthusiasts look for new and varying ways to challenge themselves.

Spartan is run across four distances, ranging from the 7km Spartan Sprint – a good race if you’ve never done an obstacle race before, I’m told – up to the 40km Spartan Ultra Beast. I’m starting out with a Spartan Sprint today, which crams more than 20 gruelling obstacles into its seven kilometre course.

Over the next couple of hours I scaled two-storey walls, climbed cargo nets, dragged myself across a river using a rope, crawled a hundred metres under razor sharp barbed wire, waded through thick, waste-deep mud and dragged a cinder block up a hill. And, of course, climbed that bloody rope that almost broke me.

Failure to complete an obstacle results in punishment, the dreaded burpees, 30 for each failed obstacle. Failure on the rope is one of six I failed in the space of eight obstacles halfway through the course. Completing the 180 punishment burpees in this stretch becomes as much of a challenge as the obstacles themselves.

These races are not without danger, one competitor suffered a double compound fracture in her leg going over the first obstacle – a one metre high wall.

For all tests of physical and mental strength, all the rope burns, and having mud in orifices I didn’t know you could get mud in, I had the time of my life – I high-fived a course volunteer after I successfully completed the monkeybar/ring obstacle.

Crossing the finish line I could barely stand, but did so long enough to collect my ‘finishers’ medal and the best-tasting beer I’ve ever drunk. While I was happy with my time of 2:22:22, I was nowhere near the ‘elite’ competitors, with James Supel the first to cross the finish line in a time of 59:39 – the only competitor to complete the course in under an hour.

But I’m hooked, and I’ll be back to test myself in the 10km Super Spartan in October.

Words by Alex Malyon