Why is the Spartan race so difficult?

I participated with a group of friends in the “Spartan Race”.  The “Spartan Race” consists of 5 kilometers along with 15 obstacles.  To prepare for the race, I trained with a group of friends for 3 months.  We met on Fridays from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, as well as on Saturdays from 10:00am to 12:00pm.  This is an example of a typical workout:

• 100 jumping jacks
• 30 burpees
• 30 box jumps
• 100 crunches
• 30 bodyweight squats
• 30 side kicks (each side)
• 100 high knees (50 each leg)
• 30 jumping lunges
• 30 squat jumps

The night before the race, it rained heavily in Calgary.  This made for extremely difficult race conditions.  You had to leave enough space between the person in front of you, as well as the person behind you to avoid collisions during the race.  Many of the obstacles were extremely difficult.  I needed help from other competitors to complete the monkey bars, 5 foot wall climbs, and a raised horizontal step challenge. 

Overall, I finished the race in 2 hours and 22 minutes.  I finished 2,397 out of 2,815 competitors.  I finished 1,372 out of 1,529 males.  I finished 317 out of 343 males aged 30 to 34.  My friends pointed out that my time has an asterisk.  I failed to complete three challenges (the rope climb, the 8 foot wall climb, and the javelin throw).  The penalty for missing each challenge is 30 burpees (in my case, 90 burpees in total).  The weather in Calgary was 10 degrees Celsius.  The race volunteers weren’t strict about enforcing burpees.  In total, I did 33 burpees, and I skipped 57 burpees.  I was too miserable from the cold to do more burpees.  My only goal was to leave the race without injuring myself (as a few people needed assistance from Emergency Medical Services to finish the race).

The most awkward conversation that I had was at the beginning of the race while I was talking to a girl in line.

Me: “So out of curiosity, what’s your day job?”
Her: “I’m going to school.”
Me: “Are you going to the University?”
Her: “No, I’m in high school.”
<Awkward silence>
Me: “Can you believe the weather in Calgary?  I can’t believe it rained so much the night before the race.”


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