There were hills to run.

There were walls to scale, ropes to climb, heavy things to be carried.

And there was a LOT of mud.

Team SAPT competed in a Spartan Race this past weekend: Eric Shih, Lisa Dowdell, Jane Leonard, Ryan Walls (who placed in the overall top 7% among all the men) Jarrett, Charlie, and myself. It was a total blast! 

Thanks to Jarrett's Spartan Training Program (email us if you want a copy), I felt totally prepared leading up to the race and felt that I had gas left even by the end of the 5 miles. The course was hill-ridden and when you combine that with the various obstacles and slippery mud, it was a challenging race. 

Lisa, Jane, and I ran together and lemme tell ya- they are some tough ladies! There were some very heavy things to carry- buckets full of gravel, sandbags, heavy logs, not to mention hauling our bodies over walls and up ropes- and both women more than held their own. (we passed more than a few men struggling up hills or through the obstacles...)

T his race was definitely NOT for the faint of heart or weak of muscles.

Lisa is a long-time SAPT client (longer than I've been here!) and regularly trains 2x/week. Jane is just a beast: she plays club soccer down at VCU but trains hard consistently throughout the year. I am so proud of them! Not once did the back down from a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle. Even if they weren't sure if they could complete the challenge, they always gave it 100%!

Our times were a little slow- though I blame on the fact that there were just boatloads of people there and we had to wait in line for many of the obstacles. However, we ran as much as we were able to and blew through the obstacles quickly. 

After completely the Spartan Race, no one could ever ask one of these two, "Do you even lift?"

They proved that strong girls win.