Spartan Sprint Hawaii

After graduating from college i decided to sign up and challenged myself.
This is not any ordinary 3+mile or 5 km race but an obstacle race where the focus is on Upper body during the obstacles and lower body when you are racing.
I would say that dont be scared of this race and try it out. Its a great workout with your friends
Sprint = 3mile or could it be 3.5mile or 4miles i mean 4.5miles [my gps told me 4.3miles]
The obstacles are super awesome if you like mud, dirt and getting dirty do it. Dont let your dreams be dreams.
A lot of the terrians are up and down hills so pace yourself.
Some of the obstacles i remembered
1. O.U.T (OVER UNDER THROUGH WALL) Pass
2.Gorilla Net Climb Pass
3. Up/​Down Mud wall/​puddle Pass
4. 8ft Wall (with a little push from fellow spartans) Pass
5. Tire Push Pass
6.Tree Crawl Pass
7. TRAVERSE WALL (cannot touch the top of the wall) Failed 30 pushup-​burpees
8.Sand bag carry Pass
9. Barp wire crawl (Omg stones everywhereeee) Pass
10. Rope Climb (after watching people with 6 packs failed) i just start doing burpees X 30
11. Spear Throwing (gahhh missed) 30 burpees
12.Monkey bar FAILED 30 Burpees
13.Slip Wall [photo shoot so look badass] Pass
Lastly Fire Jump Pass
Get your awesome medals you earn your bragging rights !!
It was so much fun that the next day i participate for the Super = 7−9miles?
add on to this was
6ft walls
7ft walls
Bear crawl uphill
Bucket Carry
Atlas Carry
I mean it everyone give it a try.
+ they have photographers and the pictures are freeee !

It was a long 5k with 15 obstacles that were not as hard as I thought it would be but still were we ever excited to see the end!
Right off the bat we were up to our necks deep on dirty water… well for some of us short folks but not for the taller folks. Then the 2^nd obstacle set us for the remaining ones filled with mud mud mud! I must say tho I’m sure we would have been way hotter had we not been set up why the mud to provide sum protection because it was scorching heat that day at Kualoa Ranch.
My fiancé and I did not train at all other than working our part time job pulling heavy Dolly’s. Luckily that actually came into play when we had to do the tire pull! That made it a cinch to so! I do wonder what it would have been like had we trained somewhat for it how much better we would have done. But 84 out of 100 for out of shape couch potatoes we weren’t too shabby I would say!
Fun times, great to be reminded of being a kid again playing in the dirt! Definitely recommend trying it at least once! Or maybe next year and train a little more!

Longest 5K of my life… And I snuck in a second time around! Loved it and will run it any chance I get.

I don’t know how I talked myself into signing up for another mud run, but I’m glad I did it. I don’t think I would’ve gotten through some of these obstacles (i.e. 8 ft. walls) without the help of my comrades. 21 obstacles covering 3 miles inside Kualoa Ranch. Pretty crazy stuff. Still think Swamp Romp was a bit more challenging but it was still an amazing experience indeed.

My wife and I did the Hawaii Spartan Sprint at Kualoa Ranch along with almost 5000 other people. We arrived at the ranch around 8 a.m. and walked 1.5 miles to get to the staging area and starting line. The surrounding was lush and green with the awsome mountain range as our backdrop. If you’ve seen Jurassic Park, Kualoa Ranch is where they shot the scene with Dr. Grant and the two kids running from the pack of ostrich like dinosaurs then hiding behind a big fallen tree. Registration tents, packet pick up tents, bag drop, etc. were well organized. Our wave was at 9:45 a.m. so we watched a few waves start there sprint to get a feel for our start. We coudn’t wait.
There were 15 obstacles and the course is about 3.5 — 4 miles in distance. There were walls of different heights, a river we had to walk through, up and down the side of the mountain, two mud crawl while avoiding barb wires, mud walk, forested trail (single file only), monkey bars, semi truck tire carry and pull back, cement cylinder carry walk and back, pulling cement blocks tied to heavy chain up an around a hill, sandbag carry up and around a hill, dry river bed run, a wooden wall with little wood blocks for grip so you can get across, a ramp with ropes you can use to get up and over, climbing over a stone wall and then a wooden fence over a barbed wire fence, the rope climb starting with your body half submerged in mud and muck, jumping over fire and then the gladiators before the finish line. I probably forgot a couple of obstacles.
The terrain and the difficulty of the obstacles made this the most fun race my wife and I have done up to date. We did the Tahoe Mudder back on July ’13 with friends and even though the Mudder is 10+ miles up and down Northstar Ski resort, the Spartan Sprint at Kualoa Ranch is a lot more fun. (helpful hint: We run marathons so it came in handy as a lot of people started to loose stamina as soon as they had to run up hills. We just jogged past them as they were winded). Also Spartan has a course for children that is safe and looks fun.
We’ve already signed up for the Super Spartan in Las Vegas, April 2014. Looking forward to more fun with our friends Adam, Peter, Yoshi, Chris, Joe T.

Ive got to say, any run at Kualoa Ranch is always an awesome experience. Kualoa also hosts the Xterra Trail runs too!
Ive got to say that the Spartan Family does a great job in putting up an awesome obstacle course, especially since its their first time in Hawaii.
Obviously, people will compare the Spartan Sprint with Warrior Dash. I have to tell you that even though they are the same lengths, the difficulty in Spartan obstacles are much more difficult than Warrior Dash. The run itself is a challenge because it is A LOT of uphill running.
Previous reviews did sum up the obstacles really well. There were walls that increased in height. Youve got 4ft, 5ft, 6ft, 7ft, and even 8ft walls as the first obstacles fairly close to the start of the race.
In no particular order, these are the other obstacles, climbing up a cargo net attached to the side of the mountain, dragging a chain link with bricks attached to the end of it, dragging a tire to one end and pulling it back with a rope attached to it, monkey bars, carrying a sandbag uphill and back down, running through a hilly mudpit which is so thick that people lost their shoes in it!, crawling under a lengthy mudpit with barbed wire, scaling a wall like spiderman, the muddy slanted wall which you need to pull yourself up with a rope, the dreaded rope climb that id estimate at 15 – 20 feet high, and of course the famous firepit jump before you cross the finish line with gladiators guarding it with jousting sticks!
It was an awesome run! Fun for many, and doing it with a team will benefit you greatly!
The quality of the pictures they took are awesome! I’ll see you guys next year at the Spartan Super!

I’ve never really liked running. I played sports for 3 seasons throughout highschool but I always hated running to train…
Since I moved to Hawaii I’ve ran the Warrior Dash x2 and the Color Run once, both 5 k races. I still hate running but I enjoy testing the inner beast in me to see how well I can conquer the obstacle courses and of course… the free t-​shirt.
The prices of the Spartan Race increased at an astounding speed. $ 70, with still a month + to go till the race… So we decided to forgo it… till we saw the groupon. $ 40/​person for a 4 person team. HELL YAH!
Our heat was at 1:45 so we left town around 10:30 to pick up snacks on the way, which turned out to be a good idea cause it took us about 45 minutes to get from the Foodland at Kaneohe to Kualoa Ranch…
After getting there. we walked literally 1.5 mile just to get the race… Talk about a pre-​warmup.
Since we were one of the last heats, registration was a breeze and we didn’t have to do much waiting. We did miss our heat though due to traffic and the long walk and ended up going at 2.
Now on to the RACE. If you go on the website, you won’t read anything about the obstacles that are on the course, so you can’t really mentally prepare yourself for what you can do, can’t do, have to do on the course. Yes, its a little scary but you can do itt!
For starters there are 21 obstacles… I won’t go into each one but I’ll highlight what they were.
You’ll have to do about 4 – 5 wall climbs… Its a good idea to have a teammate help you on this one… Especially the 8ft wall. Luckily there were foot holds on the left side to help you. Height and upper arm strength will help you on this. One of our teammates was about 6ft and literally jumped over the wall like it was nothing.
You’ll have to pull some tires/​cement blocks, up and around a circle and carry a sand bag up a hill…
You’ll face some net climbing. Just be careful you go slow on these parts, easy place to roll/​sprain your ankle.
The most challenging obstacles not only for myself and my team but for I’m pretty sure everyone who competed the race were the barbed wire obstacle and the rope climb at the end
Just imagine crawling through stinky, warm, gross mud under barbed wire getting screamed at by one of the volunteers. NOT FUN. Oh and don’t forget your knees getting scratched up by little rocks in the mud.
The rope climb was close to impossible. All of the guys on my team are fit and active either playing sports, doing Cross Fit, gym rats, one is a Navy Diver — working out at work… and still none of them got close to completing this obstacle. You are waist high in mud and then forced to climb up a rope (some w/​notches, some w/​out) and then you must ring a bell at the top. If you fail you have to do 30 burpess and literally EVERYONE was doing them. I saw maybe one person get to the top of the rope.
All in all, it was a fun race. Definitely harder the Warrior Dash not only because of the obstacles but because the running part of the course is on an incline. So yes, you will probably walk. We did. Honestly I saw more people walking then running.
I started running 2 weeks before the race, one of our teammates was still drunk w/​1 hr of sleep and none of us had really trained but we did alright. We finished in around 1hr 35 minutes, the fastest team being 45 minutes and the slowest being 4 hrs +.
I didn’t mind walking because it gave me more time to take in the absolutely breath taking scenery that is Kualoa Ranch. Doesn’t get better than running in that beauty. For those who thought Warrior Dash was easy, challenge yourself and sign up for the Spartan Race I assure you you’ll give out a sigh of relief after crossing that finish line. :)

Unilocal 365 Challenge #237/​365
Since 2011, I’ve been on a quest to be healthy. From joining up with SOHI Fitness and then reluctantly training on my own, I’ve actually done 4 runs since then.
The Great Aloha. Ford Island Bridge Run. The Color Run.
And now I can say… The Spartan Sprint! Aroo! Aroo!
What an experience. I knew there would be obstacles. I knew there would be mud. I knew I had to hydrate myself from reading their website blogs especially because from most of their reviews, it’s uphills, downhills, over and under the obstacles or shimmy up the obstacles.
My experience:
Parked my truck.
The walk to the site was about a mile and a half.
Got my bib and racing chip.
Bag check-​in: $ 5.00 with your name and bib number attached (thank goodness). Note: Very organized-​thank you!
Start line. Stretch. Jump. Leg lunges
1^st obstacle: climb 4 foot wall
2^nd obstacle: under the wall.
Go through water… it’s ok
3^rd obstacle: climb over 5 foot wall
Going through creek/​stream. I’m thinking bacteria. I’m thinking of that survival show, Naked and Afraid.
Note: I chose not to run and decided to just pace myself because I knew majority of the race was uphill.
4^th obstacle: Climb up a netting to get to the path.
Run (or walk)
5^th obstacle: Slide down into the mud. Climb over and crawl under the barb wire.
Note: If you have a hydration pack-​I would recommend you leave it with the volunteers as you finish this obstacle
6^th obstacle: (around the bend) 6 foot wall.
Tried-didn’t make it because I cramped.
My first set of 30 burpees
Tried running up the hill but got seized in cramps… BOTH LEGS and I’m thinking «Oh hell no… I ate all those bananas, wheat bread and Gatorade to be brought down by cramps?!»
One girl stopped and massaged my right calf (thank goodness I shaved my legs that morning!)
While I’m resting, the group asked if I wanted them to call anyone? NO. I wanted that medal.
I shared with the girl to go because I didn’t want to hold her up. She reluctantly went but I told her I’d be fine and will just rest for a bit. I drank from my hydration pack that had 4 tabs of the Nuun electrolytes.
I got up and walked up. And up. And up. Around the bend for a water station.
7^th obstacle: Climb over a seven foot wall.
There were young adults so willing to help me over. Yay! No burpees.
Run (or walk like me)
8^th obstacle: 8 foot wall. Again, young adult and participants going their SECOND time around helped me. YAY! No burpees!
Walk down and up.
9^th obstacle. Tire pull. (Easiest one)
10^th obstacle: Cinder block pull (One block for girls, two for the guys) *easy*
11^th obstacle: Monkey bars. Tried it once and fell. 30 burpees. Boooo
12^th obstacle: Sandbags. Huff. Huff. Pant. Rest. Huff. Huff.
13^th obstacle: Atlantis lift? Carrying a block from one end to the other with 5 burpees.
14^th obstacle: Climbing across a wall without falling off.
15^th obstacle: Crawl under barb wire in a mud pit (BLECH)
16^th Obstacle: Rope Climb. Yeah-​I have no upper body strength. 30 burpees.
Slide down and run around the bend.
17^th obstacle. Slide into mud. Climb a slanted wall with a rope and climb down. Let’s just say that I didn’t make it and fell onto my back on the side with a cut on my arm. The volunteer told me as I climbed out of the water, «You tried-​run on!»
I didn’t hesitate-​I ran. That’s right, I wasn’t going to say, No, I’ll do the 30 burpees“
Jump over the fire. Go through the great and wonderful gladiators.
Seeing my husband cheering me on was one of the best things to see with the guy holding my medal.
Grabbed my finishers shirt (they ran out of headbands) and washed off.
Trekked back a mile and half to my truck and knocked out when I got home.
Tips for Spartan Races:
1) Train for it especially if you’re going for timing. Check out Spartan website for their WOD
2) Hydrate well-don’t be stupid and think its ok, it won’t be when you cramp up. Read the Spartan blogs-​great tips
3) Use shoes that are good for hiking or trail running. I used my Vibrams Sprydion and I love them!
4) Use clothes that have dry-​wick NOT cotton.
5) Expect the unexpected and have fun!!!
Boom-​I did it. If I can, you can too.