The second edition of the Reebok Spartan Race in Singapore took place this morning around the trails at Tampines Avenue 10.
The first wave of the event had flagged off at 6.00am for the elite participants, while the first public wave had began at about 6.20am. To prevent overcrowding at the obstacles, there were many waves to flag off the runners.
Three…Two…One…. Go!
13km of running, 29 Obstacles and Burpees
This morning, it had been a “Spartan Super” Category Race, comprising of 13km of running together with about 29 obstacles, and like most other Spartan races, it was designed to test the participants to their physical and mental limits as well as challenge their resolve at the same time.
And the obstacles were designed based on common human fears such as heights, water and fire.
Spartan Race participants catching up with each other.
Participants who had failed any of the obstacles were required to complete 30 burpees as a penalty, each time. So if a participant did not do adequate training for the obstacles, then the burpees can really add up and make you feel even more exhausted.
He makes Rope Climbing look easy.
The race had been a lot of fun
For many of the participants who took part in the event, the race was fun yet challenging at the same time.
These Monkey Bars were a tough obstacle.
Said Stephanie Hulbert, 42, a Teacher at Tanglin Thrust School, “It was a lot of fun and it was trail running, which made it more fun than the usual road races in Singapore. The obstacles were hard, and really challenging this time, yet great fun as well. It was a well-planned and well-staffed race.”
To Stephanie, the monkey bars were the most challenging obstacle. She said “The monkey bars were hard as they were very far apart! I practised my swing but still couldn’t do it. The spear throw was also hard.”
Tyre Flipping in action.
She ended up doing about 90 burpees in total.
Also finding the monkey bars a challenge was Matthias Real, 34, a Relationship Manager in the Finance industry. He said, “The monkey bars earned me 30 burpees as it had been hard to swing from ring to ring for me.”
Wall Climbing is fun.
Route was nice
Continued Matthias, “But the route was really nice, around the Tampines and Bedok areas and it was nice to enter the trails. The obstacles were still ok, but tougher than expected, as a whole.”
Fire Jumping – Hurray, this is the last obstacle.
Still though, the Spartan Race probably is not as intense, compared to the Ironman triathlons that Matthias does regularly. He said “I do Ironman races and for those, there is a rhythm and you define your own pace throughout the race. But here, your rhythm is constantly being broken up because of the obstacles. However you only suffer for about 75 minutes at this Spartan Race but for Ironman I am suffering for more than 12 hours!”
Spear Throwing – One of the toughest obstacles.
Also finding the race route awesome had been Trent Lowry, 25, a Builder. He said, “The race was really good. It was awesome going through the bushes and trails – it was a really good course. To me the challenge was the running though, as I usually run 5KM distances, so this is longer than what I am used to. Overall though, this was a good Spartan race as it mixes up running with the obstacles very nicely.”
Obstacles were tough
Climbing up the slip wall can be tricky
Also enjoying the obstacles was Quentin Cloaric, 28, and an Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry. He said, “The obstacles were a bit tough but overall it was a nice and enjoyable race. I usually do obstacle races so I am familiar with them.”
But Quentin had felt that the marshals along the route could have been briefed more thoroughly about where to direct the participants, though.
Happy Spartan Race finishers with their medals.
He said “For the first obstacle, I was amongst the leaders, there were 10 of us altogether and we were supposed to turn left but we ended up going straight – I lost about 20 to 30 places as a result. I was disappointed with that, but this aside, the remainder of the race went quite well.”
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