This is Sparta!

Jason and his friend Corey decided to run a Spartan Race Saturday. If you've never heard of it, here's the promo video...

Yes... there were firetrucks and ambulances there :)

It was cold (41 degrees), overcast, and rained the night before, so it was miserable weather for spectators (who only witness about 15 minutes of the 1 1/5-2 hour race).

On the other hand, it was perfect conditions for the purposes of the race (as seen in above video).

Yes, this is a pig on a spit

Before the race (notice how clean they are; Corey, left; Jason, right))

The race started off with a canon shot (it was so loud, they could hear it back in the woods, marking off each 1/2-hour increment at the start of each new heat), and a dive through a mud-pit.  There were 260 people in their heat alone, with a total of 3000+ racers all day.

I definitely wish I'd had a better zoom (like 200's) for these pictures, but my lens at least got the gist of what I was able to see with my eyes. Please forgive the blurriness, as I was borrowing a lens with a slightly longer focal distance than mine, but it wouldn't auto focus with my camera (so manual focus + extreme cropping = blurry).

Jason, first log carry

Corey, first log carry

Jason, first rope climb

Corey, first rope climb

Corey, Jumping over fire (which was immediately followed by a deep mud pit)

Jason, clearing the fire

This was too far away to see any one, but just to show you the freezing water they had to swim through...

This was the last we saw of the guys for about an hour-and-a-half.  They were in the woods that whole time, running up and down steep muddy hills, crawling through mud under barbed wire (some people weren't so lucky, as evidenced by finishing the race in only their boxers/support briefs or blood dripping from their faces and hands), scaling mud-slicked ropes and walls...

Waiting for Daddy to appear

"There's my Daddy!!!"

Finally, they rounded the last pond and finished off with another log-carry and pole "vaulting" (haha). Jason and Corey both said that towards the end of the race, just about everybody gave up on the idea of "placing" and just focused on helping each other finish.

Jason, final log-carry

Corey, final log-carry

Both guys finished scratched up (at least not seriously bloody like some), extremely muddy, and violently shaking. At first they said they weren't cold at all, that it was just adrenaline... Then the hormones wore off, and they froze :(

Over all I think they had fun :)