Our friend Adam Glossop convinced Cody to run the 7 kilometer Spartan mud and obstacle course race with his team while Eliza and the kids were in the USA on vacation. Cody hurt his ankle pretty bad trying to show off for the kids in the trampoline arena. He struggled pretty bad on the ankle on the rocky, uneven terrain, and having to run through all of the cold rivers with wet feet. At the end of the race, his ankle was pretty swollen.
Cody successfully completed all but 2 of the obstacles in the race on the first try (couldn't do the spear throw and the horizontal climbing wall), so he only had to do 60 burpees (if you don't complete any obstacle on the first try, you are required to do 30 burpees).
It was 40 degrees Farenheit (5 degrees Celsius) when they begun the race at about 8 am. The first obstacle was to jump into a cold, muddy lake and swim across to the other side and then do a 50 yard military crawl under barbed wire through the cold, muddy ground. It was a windy, cold winter morning an hour south of Perth and jumping in a cold lake would be the last thing anyone would want to do in that weather, but the Spartan Race organizers were proud of themselves for organizing what they were calling the most challenging Spartan Race they had ever done on any continent (much more akin to the Beast races that they were doing in Europe) and that this race had more hills and ups and downs and more running through rivers than they had ever done.
Some of the other obstacles include: carrying a 50 pound bag of sand to the top of a steep hill and back down, climbing over multiple man made wooden walls of varying sizes ranging from 4-10 feet high (some of them you had to have help from your teammates to get over), hiking up to the top of a steep hill, balancing on wobbly 2x4's standing up on edge, climbing along horizontal ropes, crawling through muddy tunnels, climbing to the top of ropes (about 15-20 feet high), hoisting 65 pound kettle balls up 20 feet using ropes, climbing rope ladders, jumping over a campfire, climbing through freezing muddy water and sliding down mud hills, spear throwing, and climbing on walls horizontally, and many others.
Cody was glad to have it over, but felt good to accomplish it.
