Tag Archives: obstacle race

Reebok Spartan Race Entry GIVEAWAY and DISCOUNT!

I did my first obstacle race last year and did a recap about my experience here. It wasn’t the Spartan Race but I fell in love with the experience and I would definitely love to try other obstacle races again in the future.

These types of races are challenging obstacle trails designed to test your mind, strength and stamina. They are a great way to also test your athleticism, balance and agility, not just aerobic endurance. Obstacle course races are for anyone – beginner runners, marathoners, triathletes, trail runners to outdoor enthusiasts. You will finish the race wet and muddy, but with the thrill of satisfaction. TRUST me!  It unleashed the bad-ass tough side in me. Definitely worth the experience!

I learned about Spartan Race when I was searching for obstacle races online. I remember even sharing this video on my facebook wall because its message is truly inspiring. 🙂

So, If you are tired and bored of running the same old road races (5k, 10k, half marathons) weekend after weekend, year after year, well, then your next race should be an outdoor obstacle and adventure race. It’s time to take your athleticism to the next level. 🙂

The kind people over Spartan Race sent me a free race entry for my one (1) lucky reader

That’s right! And it could be you!

YES YOU! 🙂

Spartan race has been voted the #1 obstacle race by Outside Magazine and are the global leader in obstacle racing since 2005. They now introduced a level for everyone beginning with the entry level Spartan Sprint, intermediate level Super Spartan, and the advanced Spartan Beast.

They have races all over the country and even outside the country. You can check their website for a Spartan Obstacle Race near you.

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Here’s what you will get from your race entry:

You can also register as a team. Everything you need to know about team racing click here.

So, are you ready to push yourself out of your comfort zone?

Here’s your chance to do something different! 🙂

Enter here to win a free Spartan Race entry!

Just head over here or click this –>   “Win a free Spartan Race Entry” giveaway via Rafflecopter

***Giveaway runs from 5/22/13 (Wednesday) to 5/28/13 (Tuesday).
Participants must enter on the links provided (via Rafflecopter) and leave a blog comment to win.
1 winner will be randomly selected (via Rafflecopter).
I will notify the winner on 5/29/13 (Wednesday) via email (if email address is available) and post her name here on this post.
The winner will have 48 business hours to claim prize.
If original winner does not claim prize within 48 business hours another winner will be selected.
Visit their website to know more about Spartan Race. 🙂***

If you don’t win and you still want to go ahead and register you can use this code for 15% off to any Spartan Races.  Click here to get the code! 🙂

If you know someone, a family, a friend who is tough, send them over here to my blog! They are more than welcome to enter my giveaway or use my code! 🙂

And he’s right! LET’S DO THIS! 😛

AROO!!!

Xoxo, JOTR

UPDATE:

Teresa Millstone, you are the winner of the Free Spartan Race Entry giveaway!
Kindly check your email.

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Thanks everyone for participating!

Mud Run Experience – Long overdue update!

Hi readers! It’s been a week since I updated my blog. My husband and I were out-of-town for a week after the Mud-Stash. And now, I’m back! I was only updating my Facebook and Instagram the past week. Please follow me on Instagram (username: ja_ml) if you haven’t already.

So, last Saturday, Sept 8 was my first Mud Run ever!!! I had so much fun! I did it with my husband and uncle. Our time slot was at 9:30 am. We got to the place around 8:30 am to check in at the registration area, get ready, take pictures and walk around the place before the race. 🙂

According to the Obstacle Course Ranking, Mud-stash is one of those races you have to check out. They ranked it as their Top 7 best obstacle course. Although, they described it as not as difficult compared to other obstacles races like Tough Mudder and Warrior Dash – where you crawl under live electric wires (I’m glad, we don’t have that! Thank you!), still, the race was difficult for me. Or maybe, that’s just me since I was a newbie. I hope it gets easier the next time I sign up. Yes, I’m definitely doing it again!

Honestly, I had a hard time in some of the obstacles but I made sure to complete and do everything! I’m not really a fan of heights and I have to admit that some of the obstacles freaked me out a bit, but I learned to calm myself down during the process. I didn’t let myself think too much about the height factor. I just concentrated on where my feet were going. I did the obstacles slowly (and carefully), but surely 🙂 I wanted to survive the race with a smile on my face and injury free.

It rained the past few days and that morning before the race. The rain made the course really muddy and slippery! It made it tougher to climb up and down the hills and hold on to the ropes. The venue is a ski resort during winter, so I already expected slippery hillssssss during the course. Hills were endless!!!

Some of the pictures below are clips from our video. These pictures are just some of the highlights during the race. My husband recorded our mudrun with his Contour GPS video camera. He strapped the video camera on to his head and recorded the whole thing while doing the race. You can watch our video here.

We called our team “The Three Mud-Skeeters” 🙂

The atmosphere was so much fun! Music was blaring from huge speakers. They set up the place where the spectators watch from the deck of the Main Lodge. This gave them a nice view of the participants crawling through the mudpit. 🙂 From the deck, you pretty much can see some of the obstacles. I thought that was a cool idea. They also had a stage set up for the band and host beside the mudpit.
Next picture was one of the obstacles – it’s called Ice Pit. We saw it being filled up with buckets of ice before the race. That’s going to be cold!
These are some of the obstacles that you can see from the deck.
Crawl through Pipes.
Slip n’ slide.
Cargo Net Climb.
Barrel Bash.
I wasn’t able to count how many obstacles we had in total. There were a lot of mud pits and streams that we had to cross. I tried doing all of the obstacles but I fell on the monkey bars after one swing. I had to pass on that. LOL.
That’s me waving at the camera, still happy, so clueless :), and all smiles before the race.
There were duct tapes available at the starting line. They encouraged the participants to duct tape their shoes but I skipped it. Anyway, I made sure I tied my shoe laces really really tight.
At gun time, we let other people go ahead of us first. We waited for about 5 minutes before crossing the start line so we don’t have to wait in line for the obstacles.
And the hills begin…
Some random container that we had to pass through.
Deep mud ahead!
My husband and I got STUCK! LOL! 🙂 Not bad for our first obstacle. 🙂 The mud was very sticky. I thought my shoe would come off. I was freaking out in my head. People from the deck were watching & cheering for us. I had no choice but to survive. LOL!
We made it through, eventually.
…crawled through pipes
… ran through mud pits
…muddy creeks
…more hills
…more creeks
…and more hills
…climbed on cargo nets
…ran through heavy barrels
…endless hills
Water Mist. This was my favorite part. 🙂
We were washed clean and cooled off at the same time.
This was the part where my legs started to cramp up. We had to make big steps going up this steep hill and through logs.
Some of the participants rested for a bit. I feel their pain. This part was hard!
…going down through ropes to the stream
…and climbing back up again
You’ll see beautiful views once you made it to the top. 🙂
They called this “Jacob’s Ladder”
Off to the Cable Bridge where an official photographer was waiting. 🙂
Our first crawl through a mudpit. 🙂
…more mud pits
This was a long walk through a stream that goes deep up to your chest at the end.
…balanced through those beams
Here comes the part I have been waiting for, the dreadful monkey bars. LOL!
We had to swing on 16 bars. But, after my first swing, I fell to the muddy ground. LOL! 🙂
They called this the “Lilly Bads”. I love this obstacle. I had fun doing this. It was quite hard to balance on those but I was able to cross without falling in the water. 🙂
Almost at the final leg of the race. Few more obstacles to go.
One last uphill to the Slip N’ Slide.
It was so much fun! I felt like a kid again. 🙂
In the Ice Pit. Brrr.
One last MUD PIT!!! This one was tough. It was like your stuck in a quick sand. It was really a challenge because I was already tired from all the running through the hills. To top it all, the spectators were just right there above watching, so I really had no choice but to drag myself out. LOL! I loved it though. 🙂
…off to the last obstacle
One more obstacle to go! 🙂
I MADE IT! 🙂 One Mud Run under my belt!
They provided a pre-rinse station at the finish area.
They also provided Mobile Shower Trailers with hot water which I thought was awesome! This event was so organized!
I’m glad I signed up for this. This is something beyond my comfort zone, probably beyond my physical means but I loved every minute of it! Never thought I would do something crazy like this. It unleashed the sporty side of me. Definitely worth the experience! 🙂
Our medals look so cool, by the way.
…and so are our souvenir shirts which I will have to show on my next post. I plan on wearing the shirt on my next kickboxing class. 🙂 I’ll post a picture soon. 🙂
I had a blast and I am so thankful my husband was there to run it with me! He is awesome!
He did a great job too 🙂

I am hoping for more races like this for me in the future! 🙂 I tell you, I’M ALL IN!

T-Minus 1 Day ’til MUDRUN!

I was planning on taking it easy on my run today because my mudrun race is on Saturday. Yep, 1 more day to go!

I don’t know what happened but I ran 3.1 miles in 30:18 mins…

and it felt good …AND EASY! 🙂

This used to be my goal when I was doing my interval training. I feel proud of myself that I can finally achieve this with my improved comfortable pace. I worked hard on my interval training and it finally paid off. There’s no way I am stopping what I’m doing. I will definitely keep going to get better.

I can now relate to this quote. 🙂

I regularly check updates for our Mudrun on Saturday. I saw in one of their pictures that they’re having monkey bars as part of the obstacle course. So, a few days ago, I went to the park to try the monkey bars.

This was my attempt on the monkey bars…

I failed by the way. Haha. I have weak upper body strength.

O well, I’ll just have to figure it out on Saturday.

Tomorrow will just be rest day for me. I need to prepare myself for next day’s Mudrun! It’s going to be fun! I’m excited!

I will definitely update you guys. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it, -especially on the monkey bars, LOL! 🙂

MUD RUN !!!

With all the hype going around, I finally gave in. I finally found the inner will and guts to sign up for my first obstacle race ….in the mud.

I am not gonna lie, the idea of a mud race scares me. But…never say never, right? 🙂

I am doing the race with my husband. We thought we’d try something different this time for a change. I’ve never done this before, so honestly, I don’t know what to expect. So, I began researching about these types of races online. I’m glad that majority of the people who have done it say it’s doable and fun.

I added a Mud-stash race countdown widget at the left side of my blog page and it says 15 days to go as of today (Aug 24). Yikes! I am both nervous and excited.

I’ll keep you guys updated. Wish me luck (I definitely could use it)!  🙂

To all hardcore mudathletes out there, do you have any tips or advice for us newbies? 🙂

How do we prepare for it? What type of training do we need to do for mudruns? What should we wear?

Do we have to be totally nuts and goofy to enjoy it? 🙂