Some opportunities in life come along once...and you have a choice to either make the sacrifice to do it, or know that you missed out on something that will never happen again. That's the way I felt about the Spartan Race demonstration event in Times Square NY last month. Originally it was to be held last November 1st...but Hurricane Sandy hit just days before that and Spartan Race wisely postponed the event. When it was first announced I offered immediately to volunteer...having absolutely no idea what was involved. Just being a part of this event sounded exciting...so I was in! The sacrifice??!...besides taking off from work, it meant being in Times Square by 3:00am for the setup....which also meant being up at 12:30am to do that. Yikes!! Then staying until after 3pm for the dis-assembly...and for anyone keeping score, that's a long day on what amounted to a nap the night before. Add to that, freezing temperatures, no "facilities" on site and no where to change out of wet clothes...well, it was typically Spartan.
So spending the wee hours in Times square, helping put together this mini-Spartan course was a blast. I even got the plum assignment of stenciling on the Spartan logo for the vertical wall! The most exciting part though was the event itself. Between the Spartan racers that showed up...including
Hobie Call and
Team Braveheart, celebrities and broadcasters, it was pretty much a non-stop day of competition and fun. We also had the privilege of watching Team X-T.R.E.M.E run the course twice...the first time I think I just stared, simply in awe of these individuals. And the best part...besides meeting a new friend...is that we watched the entire event inside the course at the finish line...even handing out the medals when no one else was doing it. In fact...the funny thing is, watching all the videos, seeing all the pictures, I realized that we were standing right there with the photographers the whole time. Like I said...some opportunities come along once...and this was one I'll never forget. If there was any regret that day, it was that I never got to run the course. My "plan" had been to wait until around midday so I could run it once then change...somehow/somewhere...and finish the day in dry clothes. But after 7 hours or so, standing out in the cold, my legs were stiff and my hands wouldn't grip, so I had to fore-go that chance. It was a bit of a disappointment but in the big picture, I don't even think about it now.
So for now, it's back to training and the next stop is the
Super Spartan in Miami. That is the major test of where I am physically after all the work in the gym. Very excited...and very anxious too!
Some opportunities in life come along once...and you have a choice to either make the sacrifice to do it, or know that you missed out on something that will never happen again. That's the way I felt about the Spartan Race demonstration event in Times Square NY last month. Originally it was to be held last November 1st...but Hurricane Sandy hit just days before that and Spartan Race wisely postponed the event. When it was first announced I offered immediately to volunteer...having absolutely no idea what was involved. Just being a part of this event sounded exciting...so I was in! The sacrifice??!...besides taking off from work, it meant being in Times Square by 3:00am for the setup....which also meant being up at 12:30am to do that. Yikes!! Then staying until after 3pm for the dis-assembly...and for anyone keeping score, that's a long day on what amounted to a nap the night before. Add to that, freezing temperatures, no "facilities" on site and no where to change out of wet clothes...well, it was typically Spartan. 
So spending the wee hours in Times square, helping put together this mini-Spartan course was a blast. I even got the plum assignment of stenciling on the Spartan logo for the vertical wall! The most exciting part though was the event itself. Between the Spartan racers that showed up...including Hobie Call and Team Braveheart, celebrities and broadcasters, it was pretty much a non-stop day of competition and fun. We also had the privilege of watching Team X-T.R.E.M.E run the course twice...the first time I think I just stared, simply in awe of these individuals. And the best part...besides meeting a new friend...is that we watched the entire event inside the course at the finish line...even handing out the medals when no one else was doing it. In fact...the funny thing is, watching all the videos, seeing all the pictures, I realized that we were standing right there with the photographers the whole time. Like I said...some opportunities come along once...and this was one I'll never forget. If there was any regret that day, it was that I never got to run the course. My "plan" had been to wait until around midday so I could run it once then change...somehow/somewhere...and finish the day in dry clothes. But after 7 hours or so, standing out in the cold, my legs were stiff and my hands wouldn't grip, so I had to fore-go that chance. It was a bit of a disappointment but in the big picture, I don't even think about it now.
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