Words By: Candice Ford
This weekend the long awaited Spartan Race arrived in Dubai – a five-kilometre sprint obstacle course – the shortest of the three distances that the famous Spartan Race offers. However, despite the shorter than average length, Dubai’s adventure-loving residents took up the challenge in their thousands.
Ever up for a challenge, 75 members of the Reebok CrossFit LifeSpark community joined 4,000 other competitors at Jebel Ali Racecourse to take on everything Spartan had to throw at them. The course, set out over 5km of soft sand, challenged all aspiring Spartans to take on 15 obstaclesranging from sand bag carries to spear throws, wall traverse to rope climbs and a leap over a flaming ‘wall’ to finish! Plus, with a penalty of 30 burpees for every missed obstacle, competitors had a physical challenge regardless of their ability to complete the many obstacles!
With a hazy start to the day, it looked like an overcast morning was going to benefit the thousands of racers, however in true Spartan style, Dubai’s weather threw another challenge into the mix! By mid morning, the sandstorm, which plagued the city over the weekend, had hit in all its glory! Breathing dust and sand-filled air made the tough course even tougher for the racers and left many shielding their eyes as they made their way around the track.
The beauty of obstacle races of this sort is how the course provides different challenges to different athletes. For the runners and endurance athletes the run was the easier element, while the obstacles had the potential to challenge racers, particularly the higher skill obstacles such as the rope climb. In contrast, for the more ‘CrossFit-esque’ athletes the obstacles presented less of a problem, while the longer distances between obstacles, especially in soft sand, were the most challenging element.
As with many obstacle races in the region, you only needed to look to the podium to see who the race suited best. Familiar names stood atop the podium. Hallvard Borsheim and Eva Clarke, both more endurance-based athletes, are known for their ability to take on weighted and skill-based challenges with as much ease as they can produce speed around even the toughest courses. Hallvard set a blistering course time of 34:00 minutes, while Eva was close behind in 42:17 minutes. Both these times would rival the international records in the Spartan Sprint – and although every course is different, there is no doubt that these two powerhouses would crush any course presented to them.
But the Spartan Race wasn’t just about incredible athletes and course times. The UAE’s first Spartan Race offered something for everyone, with fully clad Spartans running around the track, teams of various sizes and even a kids course, the event offered something for everyone.
The kids race provided an excellent opportunity for younger athletes. Open to kids from 4 to 15 years old, and offering three distances; 0.8km, 1.2km and 1.8km, with appropriately scaled obstacles, even the smallest-Spartan was able to take up the challenge. The sheer number of kids, including a few ‘Little LifeSparks’, tearing around the track with confidence and competence clearly demonstrated a demand for more kids challenges! Not to mention how awesome it was to see whole families cheering each other on, caked from head to toe in dust and muddy sand!
In addition to many of the LifeSpark Community taking on the Spartan Race, Reebok CrossFit LifeSpark’s coach Craig Harriman had worked with Radio One’s Danny and Surina in the month running up to the race, helping them prepare for the 5km Spartan Challenge. During the course of their training Danny and Surina both reduced their 1.2km test runs by an incredible one minute and 45 seconds and one minute and 39 seconds respectively. So, by race day, they were both ready to take on the Spartan Challenge, and despite starting out in the height of the sandstorm, both DJs made their way confidently around the track – proving to themselves and their team mates that a little hard work will go a long way!
All in all, it is safe to say that, even after a slightly untimely start, and a rather horrendous shammal, everyone had a great race! A race which put their fitness to the test, and challenged them in a way that many had not experienced. So in looking forward to the next Spartan Race, I will leave you with a few choice remarks from the LifeSpark Community on their thoughts after the race:
“Eat my dust… literally!”
“Blown away!”
“Gone with the sandwich?!”
