Spartan Sprint Saturdays

Alan Luchtenburg

           

We’ve all heard stories about the Dalat Spartan students and teachers who went on to triumph over the Spartan Super event last spring. But little do people understand how much work goes into each participant's success on the course. Last year Keegan Oppenheim cleared the 13 KM, 20+ obstacle Spartan Super in an astonishing 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 22 seconds.

This year, principle Brewster gathered a new group of students, teachers, and parents to participate in the Spartan Sprint which will be held next month in Kuala Lumpur. The Spartan Sprint is a 5KM race featuring 20+ obstacles. But training began in January so that these racers will cross the finish line of the race without falling over and dying.

For the past few weeks, Mr. Brewster has been holding 2-hour Spartan training sessions every Saturday morning, beginning at 8 AM. Each training session features a mixture of running and lifting, including 20 workouts that resemble obstacles from the race and a lap between each one. Some workouts include the following: pull-ups, sled pulling, running with weights, lunging with a slosh tube, farmer carries.

 The lap isn’t the standard track team lap; every Spartan lap begins with a single spear throw, which is actually a 2-meter long stick, aimed at the target, which in our case is a trash can. If the person misses, they have to do ten burpees later in the lap but only five if they hit it. The Spartans start running from the front of the gym towards the Castle building and around to the playground, which is where they must do their burpees, and then proceed to the road past the two dorms and down the chapel stairs. Once they get down, they have to clear a 7-foot wall. Finally, they continue back up the chapel stairs and then to the front of the gym to do their next obstacles.

Serious Spartan race competitors, like Noah Graves (12), work hard at training, saying that “Spartan training is a great workout and great way to start your day. Mr. Brewster always makes sure that we push ourselves to the max, so that we can have our best possible performance during the real race.” 

You can imagine that after 20 workouts and 20 Spartan laps, you’d be pretty exhausted.

Whether students and teachers enjoy waking up on a Saturday morning to do 2 hours of exhausting workouts, it pays off. Some of the participants have never done some of the workouts before. Nevertheless, their effort and willingness to try out new things will be rewarded after they cross the finish line this March. The grind is real; their hard work, dedication, and long Saturday mornings will pay off.