TOTR: Novelty Races

It's Tuesday, we've had a solid 2 days of no rain, and next week will be the midpoint of the fall semester. No complaints from me.

Today's topic for Tuesday's on the Run is a fun one--novelty races! At this point, I feel like I've done just about all of them--color runs, glow runs, zombie runs...but my favorite? Obstacle course races, specifically Spartan Races.

I've talked Spartan before but until you do one, you have NO idea just how seriously awesome they really are. I went in to my first Spartan race last March thinking that it was just another race. And I was totally wrong.

Spartan is its own community of runner's and it's... the best. There's no other way to put it. Everyone is so encouraging, so helpful, so BADASS--literally everyone has that mindset of "go big or go home", which makes me love it even more.

And if that's not enough, the races are HARD. I've done several of the other big time OCR races and not one compares to a Spartan. Spartan races challenge you physically, mentally, emotionally--by the time you are done, you're absolutely exhausted in every form and fashion. But the sense of accomplishment is like no other. I'm assuming that's probably how I'll feel after my marathon next month. I hope!

I've been thinking a lot about my next goal after the marathon and as soon as I ran the Virginia Super a couple of months ago, I knew IMMEDIATELY my next goal was the Spartan Trifecta. In order to get the Trifecta, you have to a sprint (shortest), Super (middle), and Beast (longest) in one calendar year. And on top of that, I've decided that I want to do the absolute hardest ones out there. I'm still debating on which Sprint but I've got my eyes on the Virginia Super for a second year in a row and  the Vermont Beast--the best of the best.

So if you get nothing else out of this post, the point is that you should go do a Spartan race... immediately. You won't regret it and I promise, no matter how bruised and banged up you are when you finish, you'll want to do it again.

You'll "know" at the finish line.

Sarah