Ep. 12: Running Spartan Races

In this episode, I will tell you about the times I ran Spartan races and what was the hardest part about it. 

Next week I will come back with stories from Spartan race volunteering. You don't want to miss that :D 

Also, you can find the vocabulary and comprehension quiz under the transcription!

(Česky: Najdete seznam slovíček a krátký kvíz porozumění pod přepisem)

Link for the episode:

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and I created this podcast for students at intermediate and upper intermediate levels who want to get better in their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode, comprehension quiz, and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast.

This week I want to go back in time and tell a story about how I ran a Spartan race. As with anything, there is so much I could say but again I will have to divide the topic of the Spartan race into two episodes- today's will be about the time I was competing - or running the race- and the next one will be about volunteering at the race. Volunteering is helping somewhere for free. And trust me- my time volunteering at spartan races was a complete dumpster fire. Dumpster fire is a great expression because it describes a situation, person, or thing that is disastrous and out of control - it perfectly describes the majority of my stories.

You might be asking- What is a spartan race?

Spartan Race is a type of obstacle race where you have to run a certain distance usually it is 5, 10, or 21 km and you have to deal with obstacles. Obstacles are the things in your way that usually, you have to jump over. So it is the thing that blocks your way and you cannot go forward. You have to overcome all the obstacles and if you fail you have to do 30 burpees. What is a burpee? It's an exercise where you have to go down, do a push-up, where your chest has to touch the ground, then you get up, you jump with your hands over your head, where you have to clap, and then all over again, 30 times. 

Maybe it doesn't sound so difficult, but to be honest, doing 30 burpees in the middle of your run is quite challenging. Especially if you have already failed many obstacles, and have already done 100 burpees before. And there are also obstacles that you have to finish and you cannot skip it by doing burpees. So if you cannot finish it, you are disqualified.

If you want to see what it looks like you can find it easily on the internet.

I ran the Spartan Race 2 times. Once I ran 5 kilometers, and the second time it was 10 kilometers.

The first one was a winter race but it was quite easy because that year the winter was not so cold and there was barely any snow. It was organized here in the city where I live- in Brno. Which was very convenient because it was only 10 minutes by bus from our apartment.

As I already said this race was not so difficult because the winter wasn't so cold and because it was winter, there was no mud. Mud is what you get when you mix earth and water so it's the brown soft sticky matter. This was also the five kilometers long one. I finished quite quickly and honestly, I felt like I could run the longer one. So that is what I did.

The next one, the 10 km one, I ran during summer and honestly, it was so much more difficult for me. Not only it was obviously longer, but because it was summer, it was extremely hot. I don't remember the exact number but I think it was around 30 degrees and the majority of the race was taking place in direct sun.

During this race, I was met with two challenges. The first one was that I didn't have water, because there are water stations in different places of the race but because it was so hot, I thought that I will die. My mouth felt like sand and it was really hard to breathe. Finally, I saw a sign that said "Water three minutes" which meant that I should have encountered the water station in three minutes. 

To encounter means to meet someone or something usually unexpectedly but it can be used in this context as well.

But I was running and running and running and running and still no water in sight. I started to be very nervous because I couldn't really focus on anything else because I was so thirsty. But after a few minutes, I finally found it and I could have a drink.

So I could continue.

The second challenge was one obstacle where you had to drag up a sandbag (bag full of sand) through a pulley. I don't really know how to describe pulley but in check, it is "kladka". Unfortunately, it was raining the day before so all the sandbags were wet which means that they were much heavier than they should have been. When I came there I started pulling. I swear the sandbag didn't move an inch from the ground. I was pulling and pulling but it did nothing. I decided to hang my whole body on the rope.

And it worked!! The sandbag moved up! Like 10 cm. And then I was pulling the rope like my life depended on it.

When you do something like your life depends on it it means that you do it with maximum and possibly even desperate effort or energy. I was fighting with this sandbag for maybe 20 minutes. 

When the volunteers - people who stand next to the obstacle and watch that everything is according to the rules- saw me struggling (struggle means experiencing difficulty and being unsuccessful but trying hard), they came next to me and started cheering me up and cheering me on. Slowly all of the people who were watching and also other runners stopped and were watching me. It was so embarrassing because it was so difficult for me that I started crying at some point.

For some reason, I thought that this obstacle cannot be skipped. That I have to do it otherwise I will be disqualified. So I was just giving it my all. It turned out that I could have just done 30 burpees and I would go on. I know I said that doing 30 burpees is not easy, but compared to the theater I performed there with the sandbag, it would be a piece of cake.

I managed to pull it up but it completely destroyed me. I don't even want to mention that next to this obstacle was rope climbing. Which means that you have to climb a rope. But my hands were so injured from the rope from the previous obstacle, I literally couldn't even hold the rope anymore. 

So I was fighting with this obstacle for 20 minutes, completely destroyed my grip (grip means the ability to hold something in your hand) and then I went and had to do 30 burpees anyway. This made me angry. But it was my fault.

Finally after this debacle (debacle means catastrophe) I continued and finally finished the race. I was so happy but so tired.

It didn't stop me from wanting to trifecta. 

What is a trifecta? 

You get a trifecta when you finish a 5-kilometer run, 10-kilometer run, and 21-kilometer run in one year. Because when you cross the finish line, you get a medal, which not only has the normal medal but it also has one-third of another medal, so if you finish all three races, you can put together your trifecta medal.

And I was on my way to get it but because Spartan races are quite expensive, I always needed to be a volunteer at the different Spartan races to be able to run them. Because if you help as a volunteer, you get points which you can then exchange for a race ticket.

And unfortunately, I didn't have the best of luck when it came to volunteering. As I said in the beginning, it was a dumpster fire. So if you want to hear about the time I felt like I was literally going to die or about one of the worst nights of my life, feel free to listen to next week's episode. By the way those two- me almost dying and one of the worst nights of my life are different stories from different days but both are connected to Spartan volunteering.

Fun times.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you liked it, don't forget to give it five stars on the platform you are listening to me right now.

You can always write me a message on Instagram where I am @dajinka73.

If you want to check your comprehension or you didn't understand some phrases you can check out the transcription and comprehension quiz with the vocabulary list in the description.

Have a lovely week and I will talk to you very soon, bye!

VOCABULARY LIST:

competing

• to try to be more successful than someone or something else
  
• soutěžení

volunteering

• freely offer to do something
  
• dobrovolničení

dumpster fire

• a catastrophically bad situation
  
• naprostá katastrofa

obstacle

• a thing that blocks one's way or prevents or hinders progress
  
• překážka

burpee

• exercise where you have to go down, do a push-up, where your chest has to touch the ground, then you get up, you jump with your hands over your head, where you have to clap
  
• angličák

barely

• only just; almost not
  
• sotva

convenient

• suitable for your purposes and needs and causing the least difficulty
  
• pohodlné

mud

• soft, sticky matter resulting from the mixing of earth and water
  
• bláto

to be thirsty

• in need of a drink
  
• mít žížeň

I swear

• I promise
  
• přísahám

cheer up

• to make someone less miserable
  
• rozveselit

cheer on

• praise or encourage a player or competitor with shouts
  
• povzbuzovat

rope

• strong, thick string made of long twisted threads
  
• lano