GetFitjp at the Rakuten Stadium Spartan Race

It took awhile for me to write this article, the reason being that it was hard for me to wrap my head around just how demanding the Spartan race was. I had watched videos and seen clips on social media but that did not do the race justice.

Let's rewind a bit and first look at why I signed up for the race in the first place. It was in the summer of 2018 and I had just finished my bodybuilding contests. I'm a fitness junkie so I was looking for my next high when I saw a post on Instagram about a Spartan Race in Sendai at Kobo Stadium. That is 10 mins or less from my gym on foot, so it was perfect for me. What pushed me to join it even more was that my friend also called me to say he would join it and he wants to build  a team. I didn't know how signing up as a team vs. as an individual differed so I just signed up for a specific time. Sadly this time was different from my friends. We ended up doing the races one hour apart.

Getting back on track after signing up for the race the next challenge I faced was changing my training style. Before I did mostly bodybuilding geared exercises, now I wanted to do functional training mixed with crossfit and zoo fitness. I started running before all my workouts and I did one functional training session per week. One of my clients was also doing functional training too so the timing was perfect, I could do functional training sessions with my clients as well.

As the days progressed the running got easier and the distance got longer. I started to run at an incline and I started to add more functional days into my weeks. From mixing my training with different styles, I found out that I loved running and doing crossfit. I continued this type of training for 3 months leading up to the Spartan race on December 15th in Sendai.

D-day, the day where I would surprise everyone with my athleticism and raw strength, boy was I wrong. My first mistake was that I attended a bonenkai the day before the race and I ate way too much. My second mistake was that I didn't prepare fully for the weather. On the day of the race it started to snow in the morning. I'm from Jamaica and I love the sun so doing an obstacle race in winter was something beyond me at the time. However despite the snow and the fact that I decided to fast that day I went to the race and did it.

The race was not what I expected, it was hard, immensely hard, and doing it without gloves and proper shoes only made it worse. I had to fight to finish the race and at one point in the race I actually fell while doing an obstacle. Luckily a metal pipe broke my fall but it still left me bruised. I'm glad I showed up though, despite the horrible weather and cuts and bruises I was happy that I finished it.

I am looking forward to doing the next one, possibly with my partner or with friends. For those of you who are thinking about doing the spartan race, here are my recommended tips.

• Don't wear new shoes or gloves on the day of the race. It's better to wear something you're used to.
• Wear gloves and invest in a shoes that will have traction in mud. The races do have a water component so having shoes that wont slip is essential. 
• Invest in good compression sports wear. They help when when race gets hard. 
• Train like your life depends on it. The races aren't easy so pushing yourself during your weekly prep will help you condition your mind and body for the actual race.
• Next go with friends and make the event a team sport unless you are competing in the elite or beast section. 

Have you done the spartan race or anything like it? What are your thoughts ?