Jumping Fire Together

Aaron Chand

Dalat students, staff members, and students’ parents participated in the Spartan race on Sunday, March 12^th.

There were two types of participants within this group: the first type were the competitive runners who desired to achieve a good time and get through the obstacles as fast as they could, and this meant they had to run alone. This article, however, will focus on the second type of participant: the ones who took their time and went through the course as a team.

Their objective was being able to help each other and have fun as a team. We waited at every obstacle for the rest of our team to catch up. Among this group were Daniel Munson (12), Ke-erh Huang (10), Emily Chew (9), Aaron Chand (12), Alan Luchtenburg (12), and Paul Luchtenburg. We started off running at a good pace, with the rest of our team running relatively close…until we hit the first obstacle the terrain became more narrow and steeper. We tried to keep up with the others, dodging people and branches, but after a while, some members of our team grew tired. We walked much of the race and had lively conversation, talking about the obstacles and what we needed to do.

Every once in a while “Uncle Paul” (Mr. Luchtenburg) would shout, “SPARTANS, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!?”, and we would reply “AROO..AROO...AROO.” Alan Luchtenburg blushed in embarrassment as his dad shouted; however, he was glad to be able to run the race with his dad. Again, at each obstacle, we helped each other, whether that was helping them do burpees, pushing them over walls, or simply encouraging them by offering a helping hand or simply waiting patiently.

 "What was fun about staying in the back was that we got to meet a whole bunch of cool people who were there simply to enjoy the race; even if they weren't very good, they were having fun—which made the whole experience that much more enjoyable," said Munson (12).

Towards the end of the race, we hit a river where Alan and I noticed that many people were having difficulties climbing out of the river; therefore, we decided that we should stay back a while and help as many people out as we could. Alan planted himself on the bank and reached out his hand to others to pull them out, while I jumped in the river and helped boost people onto the bank. In my opinion, that was the best part of the race because the faces of those we helped really stayed with me throughout that week, and I felt like I'd done a lot more than just run a race.

In the end, we were all happy that we had helped each other and learned a solid lesson over the course: never leave a friend behind. When we got to the end of the race, some of us exhausted and some of us not, we all lined up behind the last obstacle, the fire jump, and we then held hands and jumped over it together.