Race Report-Sydney Olympic Stadium Sprint

Before I left Canada I had signed up to race in the first ever stadium event at Australia's most iconic sporting venue, the ANZ Stadium.  Host of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

I will apologize up front that some of the lighting in the photos was sub par.  Also, my phone was sometimes back in my Camelbak, which was partly frozen, and very cold, so the lenses were sometimes a bit cloudy.  These factors made for some craptacular photos at times.  We did our best. This race had more than 30 obstacles spread over more than 7K.  Obviously we didn't stop to take  photos at every one.

We got to drive the 3.5 hours in to Sydney in my neighbour's baby!

The actual registration process was very smooth.  I registered from Canada and it was a non issue.  The day before the race the Spartan folks suddenly announced that the promised beer at the finish line was replaced with coconut water.  I happen to think that coconut water tastes foul, but the healthy types were all for the change while the die hards spent the day posting hateful messages on facebook. (for the record, the FAQ still says beer is included).

The local hotels hosted practice sessions for the obstacles.  We got to practice box jumps (15 reps)-nailed it in the race, spear throw-fouled it in the race, wall ball with 14kgs (15 reps)-nailed it in the race and ball slams-wasn't in the race.

We started in waves of 10 every minute or so. We all wore wristbands with our start times on them and we were checked as we entered the starting area. We took off out on to one of the parking garage ramps heading up and had a few walls to play with.  These were small and easily manged.  The 8 foot wall came later.

We had to run through the stands for what felt like a really long time.  Little did I know that I would soon be doing this with a sandbag along for the ride. 

We came to the rope traverse (pictured below), something that I have not yet had the pleasure of even attempting in real life.  I got on that bad boy and I DID NOT GET OFF UNTIL I WAS ACROSS-AROOOOO.  I'm mid way across in this photo next to the person in black tights and red top.  I am a stubborn, stubborn woman.

Of course, we crawled through stuff. They actually made us do this one twice. Once to get to the start line, and once in the middle of the race.  We also ran/hurdled/jumped back over them a couple of times during the race.

The hardest part of this one for me is that being a tall woman, my femurs are long, this puts my meaty parts (and my Camelbak) up in the smallest part of the triangular tunnel, just adding to the challenge.  I can only imagine how this ends up working out for those more vertically gifted than me.  The long legs are a FANTASTIC asset when it comes to getting back over them during the race!

We made it to the sandbag carry and it was HANDS DOWN, the furthest distance I have ever had to carry a sandbag.We hauled those puppies up and down, and then up and down the stands a second time, just for good measure.  It was perfectly manageable for me as long as I kept a nice steady pace.  There was no sprinting this section for me!

Below was me at the top of the 8 foot wall.  Really, this could be anyone since the lighting is so challenging...I don't know that my phone has a setting for "climbing an 8 foot wall in a parking garage rampway with the sun shining behind you".  To be honest though, in the interests of full disclosure, I didn't check that, so I could be mistaken.

 I am SUPER FRUSTRATED that I didn't get to the top of the rope.  It was a good rope, nice and thick (though wet) and lots of slack on the ground.  I just didn't make it.  More practice for me!

Here's Kirsty on the final obstacle, we had to haul a weighted sleigh up and back, on an incline.  We noted that the vertically challenged race participants struggled more with this one than the more vertically gifted.

Not shown are obstacles like the spear throw, the tire carry, slam ball carry (twice), running through a maze of poles at the front of the properly, a slip and slide with non-barbed, not electric wire over it, a hellish travelling burpee section, balance beams, cargo net, a jump rope with the big, BIG thick ropes and a few more that I can't remember right now.

There were a few well placed water stations.  They were so well placed that we passed by the same ones a couple or more times.  That was very well done for those without water on board.  I would say we had at least 6 chances at water.

You can see that the course was a good combination of indoor and outdoor stuff so we were in and out of the sun with lots of shade.  In the end I did burpees at three stations.  So less than 10%.  I call that a solid, super fun Spartan and I am now ever more excited for the next two!!!

For those of you interested in how the race was administered: the times that people registered for were often hours and hours different than the wave they were assigned.  I signed up for the 9-12 wave months ago and was scheduled for 2.  Same with a friend of mine and she was at 2:20.  I showed up at the registration desk before 8 am on race day and was easily assigned a new wave time with no dramas.

Here is the t-shirt.  I am too small for the size small so had to go with an XS.  I have no idea what the half of the world's population that is smaller than me is supposed to wear.  The fabric is different than the awesome soft grey shirts from last year.  I think the design is pretty awesome.  Not pictured is the sleeve where it says "2015 finisher" in the same lettering as on the bottom back.

 The medal is AWESOME!!  It says Sydney 2015 on it and the lanyard has the iconic Harbour Bridge (which I saw for the first time this weekend) with the word AROOO on it.  It has the medal for this race and the first puzzle piece for a trifecta hanging from the lanyard. I've noticed them including the puzzle pieces with all medals in other recent races too.  I came home (in the baby) a very happy girl.