"SPARTANS: What's your profession?"

So Heather and I have always loved fitness races. From our first half marathon in 2012 in Albuquerque, NM, to our most recent full marathon last year in Texas, there is nothing more enjoyable that setting out a journey together, staying together, and finishing together. Some of the best memories we have occurred during these races, but we faced a problem here in Korea: We don't do races on Sunday's. When we arrived here in Korea we discovered a big problem: All marathons in Korea, although very inexpensive as compared to American races, are ran on Sundays: everyone! Triathlons - non-existent here. Maybe we could look in Japan: same problem. What are we to do?!? My surgical tech, Jose Cardenas, came up with an idea. "Hey Doc, we should do a Spartan Race!"

I was naive on it: and come to find out as if Cross Fit people aren't weird enough with their tractor tire  lifts and "hey, lets figure out how to do something that will only give you rhabdomyolysis," they have a race, actually three, that you can do every year. The Spartan race encompasses a distance run, while accomplishing a series of competitive events. Each event can be attempted, but if failed you get to enjoy 30 burpee's, and we aren't talking about the ones that you wipe spit-up from off your kid's face. The attempt: Finish all the events, do it as fast as your can, and jump over fire to complete your race. The best part: They are done on Saturdays! Bam!

I was hesitant though: I am not a "CrossFit person" as I had labeled them; you know those who seek for punishment doing weird and insane exercises? But the more I looked at it, and knowing that I would have a bus take us up there and we could do it with some friends, made the event all the more enticing.

We signed up through IT&T on base and took the bus with Jose, Holly, Heather and I all the way to Incheon airport. Up to this point Heather and Holly had been going to CrossFit classes in the morning, and just 3 days before Heather spotted her latest challenge and mastered it: rope climb without knots. The long 2 hour bus ride helped up to hone our thoughts, and when we got there we saw we weren't the only crazy ones, 1000 other people were just a crazy as we were. Huge groups from Korean gyms were there, small groups like ours, military, young, old, it was amazing to see the diversity.

We took on the entry level race: The Spartan Sprint. The Sprint consisted of 23 obstacles in 8.5 km!  For our race, we got a single medal and shirt, but we also got an additional piece of a medal (1 of 3). If you do the sprint, you get one. If you do the Super, the get another, and if you're really insane and do "The Beast," meaning you go up in to the mountains somewhere and run like 14 miles doing 40 events, you get the final piece to complete the Trifecta medal. Super cool!

To begin the race we had to jump over a 4 foot barrier to enter the starting area.  My heart was pounding, I was super nervous and questioning my sanity.  The music was blaring "What are we- Spartans! What's your profession? Spartans!" Then the whistle blew and off we went!  Our first obstacle was the O.U.T. (Over, Under and through).  We had to jump over a wall, roll under a wall, then jump through a window.  OK!  I can do this!!

Next, we had to jump over hurdles.  Not the normal track hurdles, but these huge 1 foot square logs that where probably 5 feet off the ground.  I was able to jump and use my upper strength to make over the three hurdles, but poor Heather since she is shorter then me ended up slamming into two of the hurdles straight into the gut.  After the race, she has bruises for days!

We then had a Vertical Cargo, where you climb straight up a cargo net.  This was followed by a 4FT wall, which we all climbed over easily.  Next was the Stairway to Sparta.  Heather and I attack the obstacles in very different ways. We would come up on the event: I would sit back and analyze my plan of attack, but Heather would get this crazy determined look on her face and just attack the obstacle without a thought.  The stairway to Spartan was the first real challenge!  The wall to the stairs part was at least 6 feet high.  You have to clear up the wall to climb up the ladder part!

After some acquired bruises on the shin, we continued to the Inverted wall, the memory wall and the 7 ft wall. The inverted wall was a wall we had to climb from underneath, as it was inverted.  The Memory wall had our bib numbers and we were required to set to memory a specific name and date that matched our bib.  Each person had a different thing to memorize!  The 7 ft wall was the tallest wall of the entire race.  The girls had a cheat block about 2 feet up the wall.  The guys had to muscle up!  It was great being with our team!  We each would cheer and encourage each other!!  We wouldn't let each other quit and we helped each other when needed.  We also waited if anyone had to do the penalty of the hated burpies!!

Next up was Olympus, Atlas Carry, Monkey Bars and A-Frame Cargo.  Olympus was a slanted wall that had climbing hold at the top 1/4.  We could not use our feet, and could only use our hands on the holds!  Atlas Carry was where we had to carry these huge heavy balls!  I was worried it would hurt my back!  The men had to carry what seemed like 100 lbs! Monkey bars ended up making all of us, but Heather do Burpies!  Heather killed it and made it all the way to the end.  I had gloves on, and they slipped right at the very end.  The A-Frame Cargo was climbing up a cargo net at an incline.

The next three obstacles were reciting our memory test, attacking the multi-rig and the sandbag carry.  When Heather went the lady said she was wrong.  Heather said she knew she got it right.  It ended up she looked on the wrong thing to memorize and it wasn't the specific one to her bib,  however, since she recited it correctly, they let her pass.  The mule-rig was another all around Burpie Station.  This one was the ring monkey bars.  The sandbag carry had us carrying large sandbags.  Mine was about 75lbs and Heather's was about 50 lbs.

We had the spear throw, barbed wire crawl and rope climb next.  Heather was the only one who killed the spear throw.  Everyone else had to do Burpies!  The Barbed wire crawl was by far the dirtiest obstacle!  We were hot and sweaty and had to crawl and roll on the loose dirt under the wire.  I was so surprised to see that is was real barbed wire with all the super poky metal!!  There were quite a few gashes and blood spilt on this one from other contestants.  We all got out unscathed.  Heather was excited about the rope climb.  This was the only one she really cared about mastering.  She was able to flawlessly make it all the way up!  Holly wanted to get the rope climb too, but after a few attempts and Heather helping her, she still had to do burpies.  I have never done a rope climb before and had no clue as to the science behind how to do it, so I just went straight to the burpies section.

We knew we were getting close to the end!  We were tired and our arms were beginning to feel the pain!  We had the Hercules Hoist, Rolling Mud and Dunk Wall ahead of us!  The Hercules Hoist required us to pull a rope that was attached to a sandbag and pull the sandbag up to the pulley via the rope!  It took all the strength we had, and at this point I was so grateful I had gloves!  Jose on the other hand, was getting gashes into his hands and had the sandbag hoisted half way up, and was struggling because he couldn't grip the rope.  The girls held his rope in position, and I tore off my gloves and he put them on!  With gloves on and us cheering him on, he was able to get the sandbag all the way up!  The rolling mud was so gross!!  We had to go up and down three hills that had water and mud at the bottom.  It was about 3 feet of water.  At the very last hill, the entire hole was filled with mud, and there was a wall right to the water, and we were required to go under the wall and water to the other side!  Heather was about to chicken out, so Holly said "Let's do it together".  The girls counted to three and dunked out of sight.

Only two obstacles to go!  The slip wall and the fire jump!  After getting out of the water, we had to use a rope to walk up an incline wall, slippery feet and all!  I was surprised that I didn't slip and fall!

We get off the wall- and look at each other and say, "Let's finish this together!!"  We take off running and jump over the smoldering ashes!   As we finish the race, we have mud all over and are completely drenched, but the sheer feeling of accomplishments, put us on an excited high!  We get our medals, food and give each other high fives with smiles all around!