Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!

Last Sunday, on the 11th of October, Yati and I participated in the Spartan Race Malaysia 2015. The best part, we both got in for free! Yati won his entry from a Facebook competition, while I got in for volunteering for the preparations for the event. Because we had to be on location early, I invited Yati over to sleepover in my house. The race location is near my house so it made things more convenient for him.

I admit I was completely unprepared for the race. I thought I wouldn't be participating because the fees were pricey to me, to my surprise, after I did my volunteer work, the organisers informed us that we get to participate for free. I had only two days to prepare and of course, I didn't.

The day came and I had to register myself on location. Yati's flag off was at 7:45am so I thought I'd join him but when it was my turn to register, that time slot was full. In a state of panic, I registered myself into the 7:30am slot, which was by the time I finished registering, starts in three minutes time. When I reassembled with Yati to drop my bag at the Bag Drop counter, the MC was already calling for my slot so I had no time to do my stretches. Bad. Very bad. I quickly got to the starting line, put on my timing chip and did some light warm ups minutes before they flagged us off.

Now about the obstacles, they were pretty difficult to do but not very. I easily did most of the obstacles, only struggling with two and failed three. I lost count of the number of obstacles but the website said 25+ so yeah, I don't know if they count slopes as obstacles. The first few obstacles were wall climbs, wall climbs are easy for me because I rely a lot on my upper body strength so as long as I can get my hands on the top, I can get over it. After a series of wall climbs and a wall where you had to crawl under, there was a pyramid net, honestly I don't know what to all these obstacles. It was fairly easy as well, I paid attention to the obstacle so I didn't feel any fear from the height. After that was wall scaling, kinda like rock climbing to me, I got over that carefully and swiftly. After some running there was the first one which I needed help with, the objective of the obstacle was to carry a 50kg weight in the shape of a sphere and do five burpees, if you can't carry it alone, you can team up with another person and do ten burpees each instead. I manage to have a guy help me and we passed that obstacle. Right after that was to climb over a negative inclined wall, I thought it was difficult while I was watching other people do it because almost all of them needed help and nobody looked like they were willing to help me, but when I tried it, it was really just like rock climbing, I passed it easily and quickly, to my surprise.

Then my first nightmare came. As I was jogging over to the next obstacle, my left calf started to tense up. I could feel it cramping up so I eased a little and continued but after I scaled a steep slope, my left calf immediately crammed as I got to the top, I fell over in pain and some runners quickly came to my rescue. After they helped me ease my cramp, I quickly made my way to the next obstacle because it's my most favorite obstacle, the vertical rope climb. I do rope climbs at least once a year at scout camps. I pass this one so fast, not even the people who reached before me were done. I noticed a girl, who saw me had my leg cramp earlier, was watching me and had her jaw drop at seeing how fast I went up the rope. However my left leg was cramping up again so I quickly got down and hastily move over to the next obstacle, which was a barbed wire crawl, on mud, sticky, smelly mud. After that crawl I pushed on to the next obstacle but my left leg started to cramp up once again, while I struggled to ease it, the toes in my left foot cramped up instead. I however kept pushing on while I stamped my left foot, trying to ease the cramp which did after a while. The next obstacle was a vertical slope climb where you had to climb up using a rope. Most people I see struggled with it but I saw no problem with it because all you have to do is pull the rope until it's straight, lean back and walk up while keeping the rope in tension.

Right after that obstacle, my right calf started to tense as well, I pushed on and started on the next obstacle which was to carry a sack of sand (I think it was 30kg for guys) up some slopes and back. As I tried to get on the first slope, my right calf cramped up and I fell to the ground. This cramp was so bad I couldn't move at all. Luckily there was a RELA tent set up next to this obstacle so a RELA member monitoring the sacks quickly came to my aid. He then helped me to my feet and helped me walk over to outside the race path, near the tents to rest. Worst part was that while we were going over, my left calf cramped as well so I was stuck with both legs cramped. The RELA guy and another got me two chairs to sit on and gave me their bottle of water. They told me to rest and wait for the medics to come. So I sat there hopelessly, feeling disappointed in myself while I watched people pass by. Eventually Yati arrived at this obstacle. After I told him what happened he continued on while I waited for the medics but they were taking a long time. I sat there for about 45 minutes until a group of media personal came to take photos. One of them offered to spray my legs with his muscle cramp spray (what's that really called?) and after resting for another ten minutes, I pushed on. I thanked the RELA members and the first RELA member who helped me. He said I can just skip this obstacle but I told him I can do it and he cheered me on, "Berusahalah!". After I passed this obstacle, I met my impenetrable wall. It was a pulley where you had to pull an attached weight up to the top of the tall pole. I had cramps in both legs and I am close to underweight, it would have been a stressful feat for me to pull it off. I only manage to pull the weight up to half the pole and I could raise it no more and so I failed, so I had to do my first penalty of 30 burpees.

Feeling defeated but still determined to complete the course I started to limp to the next obstacle. This is the part where everyone got really really dirty. It was a series of  mud hills and mud pools. I slid into the smelly pool and helped boost the people before me up the slippery slope, which in turn helped me up the slope as well, this became a chain as I also helped the people behind me and we all got over this obstacle together. During this time, I felt like it was a moment when teamwork and unity was at it's strongest in the whole race. After our muddy bath, the next obstacle, we had to carry a bucket, fill it with stones from a pit to near the brim and carry it around the course before pouring it back into the pit. This wouldn't have been a problem for me, not for how muddy and sticky everything was. Rocks and sand stuck everywhere and carrying the pail hurt because of the sharp ends of all that mineral. I had to make several stops and when I got back to the pit, the marshal helped me pour the rocks back into the pit when he saw me limping.

Disappointment part two came along, after drinking some water and trying to wash the mud off my hands (which didn't work because, mud everywhere) at the water station right after the last obstacle, was the multi-ring obstacle (that's what everyone calls it), it's like monkey bars except there are a variety of hanging supports that can swing. There were polls, rings and ropes to get across. I am very sure I could have passed this but the starting poles were covered in slippery mud, my palms were covered in slippery mud and so I slipped off the obstacle before I could get to the rings. I was sure I would have passed it if only I had a good grip on the ring. I went over to do my burpees but my leg cramped at number twelve. Some media personal came and helped me and told me to skip the burpees.

Right after the multi-ring was another set of wall climbs. This time the walls were much higher but still it's within my range of capabilities. Unfortunately when I jumped up to get over the wall, my right calf cramped up as I was going to use it to hook myself to the top of the wall and I came crashing down in pain. I didn't feel the pain in my left arm when I landed on it because the pain in my calf was overwhelming. Some guys quickly carried me aside and a marshal told them to leave me after they helped me a little and got me to stand for myself and do stretches. Right after I went over to get more muscle spray from the medics nearby, I went back to face the obstacle. A group of tall foreigners had come to the obstacle and one of them was trying to impress a girl in the group to see him do it but he failed at his first attempt. I was right behind him so he let me go next and when I went up and over in one go, they all cheered for me. That boosted my confidence in completing the obstacle course.

After going over some hills, we met with another wall, this time the last one. It's an eight feet wall and many people started to need help with it. The marshal there told us to help each other or find help if needed. After helping some people up, a guy offered to boost me up but I said that I was confident that I could do it by myself but I may need some help. When I my hand on top of the wall and before I can swing my legs up, my left calf cramped up and I let myself down, this time slowly because the cramp wasn't that painful. Two guys helped me ease the cramp and I got back to my feet. With the people who were helping others earlier over the wall already, and my confidence up because I know I can reach the top of the wall, I went over it without help and pushed on into the trail that leads into the hiking track that goes into the hill. I didn't know we had a hiking track here in Setia Alam, when I find the opportunity to, I'll try to hike this hill.

The track in the hill went on for quite a distance, I was struggling most of the time because of the uneven grounds and the cramping in both my legs. With my left leg feeling much worse than the right, I had to limp on my right leg all the way to the end of the obstacle course. When we got out of the hill, the next obstacle course was a javelin throw. I failed this horribly because of my limp and I totally suck at throwing javelins. Before I did my burpees, the marshal there saw my condition and told me to skip the burpees. I am grateful for that. I could have gotten another cramp attack. Right after this the obstacle was to slide down into a pool of mud (which is less thick compared to the previous mud pool), here the thick mud stuck to my shoes came off and I manage to wash off some of the mud along my arms and hands. I proceeded to the next obstacle which is to climb up a metal slope using the rope, like slopes earlier, out of the pool and down the bars on the opposite side. With the finishing line in sight right after it, the last obstacle was a row of burning logs and all we had to do was jump over it to victory.

I limped across the finishing line and got my medal put around my neck for me. I quickly made my way to the refreshments and drank some water before collecting my finisher shirt from the counter. I quickly spotted Yati who had already showered and changed and we went to collect my goodie bag. After I hit the (open air) showers and changed out of my muddy attire, we head back, after taking some commemorative photos.

Spartan Race Malaysia is by far the best obstacle course race I've experienced so far. It was well organized, the obstacles were fun and I had a great time, minus all the times I had my cramps and those feelings of disappointment in myself. I can't wait for the next obstacle course I can attend and next time, I will be ready!