About Episode
In this episode Natalie Baker and I discuss our most recent experience at the 8.2 mile Spartan Race SUPER in Sacramento, CA. We walk through the race obstacle by obstacle (at least what we could remember), and what we learned from the experience, both physically and mentally. .
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Transcript
Zack Arnold: So I’m sitting here with my assistant Natalie Baker, and we are going to be talking post Spartan race. We are actually sitting outside of our office over at Empire right now, taking a little break from editing at the moment, and we’re going to chat about our Spartan race because people are always asking us about the craziness of running a Spartan race and what it’s like. And we just decided that after running the race, we were just going to kind of chat about it and just kind of let people in on what the experience was like firsthand because Natalie is no longer a Spartan virgin. So Natalie, since you’re my only guest, let’s start with you. Tell me a little bit about the Spartan race.
Natalie Baker: The Spartan race was fun. The Spartan race it was much harder than I thought it was going to be, but it was good. It was challenging, very challenging. It was rainy. I I had a good time though. I would do it again. I would definitely. I’m definitely excited for the sprint in December. Yeah, those. I got. I have a lot more cuts and bruises than I thought I would.
Zack Arnold: Well, one of the things that I thought was very funny is when we were getting ready to you know go up to the starting line. They have a map, and on the map it says the distance was 8.2 miles, and the average time was three hours. And you looked at me, you’re like three hours to run eight miles? What are you nuts?
Natalie Baker: And how long did it take
Zack Arnold: Us? Oh, it took us about three hours and eight minutes. We hit that average mark right on the nuts.
Natalie Baker: Yep, yep. And there’s no way it was getting done faster.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and I remember we did the first mile or two, and it was mostly running. And the terrain for this, this was in the hills in Sacramento, but it really wasn’t the hills as in like the mountains. It was more like rolling hills on a cattle ranch, and when I say cattle ranch, I mean a ranch with live cattle because there were cow pies everywhere, and we were running through cow shit basically the entire race. But there were rolling hills, not like big mountains that you have to traverse, like in Monterey or the Spartan that we had in Malibu last year, or a lot of the other places around the country. This is much more low hills, but the first couple miles it was a lot of running and not a lot of obstacles, and you were kind of thinking, well, this isn’t so bad. And then we hit the first real obstacles. So tell me about the first couple of real obstacles that we hit.
Natalie Baker: Real obstacle was that the the water, the one where we had to jump in the water and go up the cargo net. I think that was the first one.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, there was the water and the cargo net, and there was also the well, no, the first main obstacle was going up that rocky hill, but having to do it crawling under barbed wire and having a fire hose being shot at
Natalie Baker: Us. Yes, that was the first obstacle, and I was, that was not good because when you have to crawl on the ground, it really takes a lot out of you. Like I got out of that because it it was for a long time too, and I’m kind of low to the ground, so doing the under things is really not as difficult. But I was wearing shorts and short sleeves, and it was like it was cold and it was rainy, and this terrain was not soft. This wasn’t grass. This was this was rough sort of I don’t know. It was like dried clay, I would guess. So you’re just crawling on this like dried clay, and that’s where all of my scrapes and bruises have come from. Is like crawling under this, and then the fire hose. And then I got out of there, and I was like, “Oh dear Lord, how am I going to do the rest of this? My arms like can’t move again because like that crawling, it it really really takes a lot of strength. You don’t think it does, but it really does to hoist yourself up over and over again because it’s a little bit of an incline too.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, it wasn’t a little bit of an incline. It was probably a 20 to 30 percent grade up. I mean, it was it was pretty steep.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, it
Zack Arnold: Wasn’t terribly long the first one, but it was definitely pretty steep. And if anybody’s wondering firsthand what it looked like for Natalie. I will be posting photos and a couple of videos that I took while I was with me, and you can go in the show notes. The show notes are going to be this is episode 22, so just go to fitnessopost.com/22, and you’re going to see the show notes and the Facebook album that I have with photos that I took and videos that I took, most of which are really murky and muddy, and you can barely see anything because I had a waterproof camera, but it was covered in mud. But I also have some of the photos that the Spartan people took, which are actually pretty awesome. But yeah, there’s a video of Natalie kind of going under the barbed wire and coming up the hill on that first obstacle, and it’s pretty awesome.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: And then there was the second obstacle, which was the inclined. I’m not sure if the word is inclined, but it was kind of like a reverse wall where it was actually at an angle. So you’re not climbing over a straight wall. It’s actually at an angle, which makes it even harder to climb up. So we had a lot of fun with that one too.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, and that was a big pit of water. So you jump in the pit of water, and every pit of water I jumped in. All I can think was, I really hope no one had peed in this water. This would be so disgusting. It’s not chlorinated. This is gross. But we jump. But that that one, I didn’t think I was gonna make it because, like I said, my arms were tired from the barbed wire, and I was like, I don’t know how I’m gonna do it. But got up that one. That one was okay, but I was I was pretty spent after only, I guess technically it was three obstacles because there was
Zack Arnold: Yeah we were about three obstacles in I think we were less than two miles in, and all of a sudden you got that first look of terror on your face where you’re like, oh my god now I get it and now I see what I’m in for, and that’s when the fun really started.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: So it was at about that time that it went from being cold and windy to actually starting to rain, and it wasn’t raining hard yet, but it was like a hard drizzle. And we did our first couple of miles, and then the the way that this works because it’s on a cattle ranch, it’s not just like one straight path like a marathon where you’re going from point A to point B, it kind of loops around and goes in circles, and you come back around and you’re right near the starting line. And they just did the brilliant thing of putting three of the most difficult obstacles back to back to back. So we had to do monkey bars, then we had to do climbing up a rope and trying to hit a cowbell, and that the ropes are over waist-deep pit of water, and then we have what’s called the traverse wall, which is actually just vertical plywood that probably goes for I don’t know 30 or 40 feet, and they have these little tiny two by four blocks that are you know about the size of your hand or a little bit more, and you basically have to crawl across these tiny two by four blocks, so we have three obstacles in a row when it’s raining that are all very heavily focused on upper body strength, and that was just cruel. So we we have a great picture of Natalie grabbing onto her first and unfortunately only monkey bar. So tell me about your quick experience with the monkey bar.
Natalie Baker: Jumped on the monkey bar. It was really slippery. Fell right off, and had to do 30 burpees. So that was my that was my monkey bar experience.
Zack Arnold: And that was your introduction to burpees as well. Yeah. So yeah, for anybody listening, in order to complete the Spartan race, and we use the term race loosely because it’s more about the Spartan survival. Some people actually race; they have an elite heat, and there are actual athletes that race and compete in this. But for the most part, it’s just people that are weekend warriors and just want to say they completed it. So there wasn’t much of a race component involved. But in order to complete it and not get disqualified, if you don’t make it through an obstacle, then you have to do 30 burpees. And if you don’t know what a burpee is yet, you either haven’t been listening to the show enough, or what you can do, you can just go into the show notes, and I’ll have a little video about what what a burpee is. But I myself did my first 30 burpees on the monkey bars as well because they were so slippery, because they were literally just metal pipes, and they actually went up an incline and a decline. So they would have four, where you’d have to. The first one would be there. Then the second one would be another six inches higher. Then another six inches higher. Then another six inches higher. Then you would drop a foot or a foot and a half. Then go back up again. And I made it up the first two groups of three groups. Then I went to go grab. I guess it would have been the ninth or the 10th monkey bar, and it was just too wet. And I just had enough, and I dropped and ended up doing 30 burpees, and that was fun. And then right next to it, without even having to run, I mean, we’re talking like 30 feet away, was the rope. And I gotta say, Natalie was pretty badass on the rope because she made it all the way up and got to the cowbell, so I was pretty damn impressed at that. But tell me about your experience going up the rope.
Natalie Baker: The rope was-that was the one thing I know. I like. I wanted to make it up that rope. That’s the thing you do in gym class. That’s the thing you see on Venice Beach or at Muscle Beach. You see that rope, and you’re like, I, I think I can climb that rope. So, and I actually did do it at Venice Beach a couple of weeks. Well, maybe it was back in February, and I could not I could not get up the rope. But this time I got up that rope and I was I got to the top and I was a little bit scared because it’s like that fall would be pretty substantial. I mean that’s like a 1520 foot fall.
Zack Arnold: It’s probably more than that. I think it’s probably 25 or 30 feet when you get to the top.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, it was. It would have been quite a monster fall. So I was at least for me. I don’t. I think that would have hurt a little bit. So I was actually a little bit scared when I got all the way up there. I was like, Oh God, I’m all the way up here. I can’t can’t go down now. So so yeah, I was really happy that I made it up the rope. That was the one thing that I was. I really really wanted to do.
Zack Arnold: Well, I was impressed, and I followed you right after you did the ropes, thinking, “Well, hell, if she can do it, I can do it. And I picked a different rope because I was trying to be lazy, and I thought I picked an easier one because the knots were a little bit closer together. Until I got to the top, and I realized that the people that designed the obstacle didn’t add a knot at the top of it, so you couldn’t grab a knot to reach the cowbell, and it was so wet and so slippery, I could not grab onto it and reach any more. So I failed. I literally got about could have been more than what 12 inches from the cowbell. But I couldn’t make the last grab because it was too slippery. It was like grabbing ice. Couldn’t grab it. I couldn’t reach the cowbell, and I even tried doing the upside down kick with my feet, where you grab on with both hands, flip upside down, and kick your feet above your head, and I I couldn’t reach it. I was literally six inches away from the cowbell, so I had to go all the way down and do 30 more burpees. So that was 60 burpees in the course of like five minutes.
Natalie Baker: Yep.
Zack Arnold: And then we hit the traverse wall, and I nailed the traverse wall. But I know that it was a little tough for you.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, no, for I. So I am only about five feet tall, and I do not have a very large wingspan either. So some of the the two boy two by fours that you had to grab were not were more than five feet apart between your feet and your hands, so it was literally like I can’t even I can’t reach like I like physically could not reach the first couple like I just got up there and I was like ah these are more than five feet apart I can’t even like I can’t do this so I just stopped at the first one or two and I did 30 more burpees so we were at 60 burpees each.
Zack Arnold: Yes, we walked away from that little obstacle area where we had done 60 burpees apiece on different obstacles. But at that point, then we got to start to run a little bit more. But I’m pretty sure it was right after the traverse wall that the rain decided it was time to get serious.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: And I would like to point out that before we left, I checked the weather, and it said zero to 20% chance of rain that day, and it was going to be in the 70s. Neither of which happened. Nope, because I think the temperature was probably low 60s and rain until, of course, we crossed the finish line. Then the sun came out and it was nice and warm.
Natalie Baker: Yes,
Zack Arnold: But anyway, we got away from the traverse wall, and we were probably two and a half to three miles in, and then we kept going. Yeah. So tell me about the next obstacle that you remember.
Natalie Baker: Well, at this point, I was actually kind of discouraged. This was the only point in the race where I think I was really discouraged because it was three miles. We’d probably been out there almost an hour, and we had gone three miles and done so many burpees. It got so cold and rainy, and I was just like, I’m not gonna do this again. There’s no need for me to ever do this thing. I’m gonna finish this, but I don’t. There’s there’s no need for me to ever do this again. This is terrible. But I think at some point, I don’t know what the next. I don’t know what the next. What was the next obstacle course after that? It was so sandbags.
Zack Arnold: So at this point we were walking away from the traverse wall, and you were saying to yourself, “I’m never doing one of these again. Yeah. And we were less than 50% of the way in. And at this point, I honestly don’t remember all the obstacles that we hit and in what order, because I was starting to get a little tired myself as well. But just randomly going through and thinking about some of the obstacles, I’m just going to throw one of them out there, and you just kind of recall your memory of it. Climbing over the 10 foot wall.
Natalie Baker: Ah, 10 foot wall. No, I needed I needed help on the 10 foot wall. I can’t get over a 10 foot wall. Like it is double the size of me. So I needed I needed a boost. I think I think there were participants that helped me out. Zack helped me out. Just like got to get I like because there’s no. It’s not like the two by fours. There’s like a little bit of grip you can like get your fingers in a little bit or something like that. That it’s totally flush. So unless you get a monster running start, really like jump. At least for me, I’d have to jump up like five feet, like run up the wall straight up, jump up, and like hoist myself up. That wasn’t that wasn’t happening. But they were nice enough to let me to let someone boost me up and over the wall. I think the first one that I got boosted over, I like just kind of jumped off the side and like landed on my back and just laid there for about 10 seconds until I was like, oh crap, someone’s going to jump on top of me. Going to get up.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and just just so people know, when Natalie was doing the tallest wall, it was I who helped boost her over. And let’s just say that Natalie and I became very well acquainted with each other for that moment. To get her over the wall took some extra help. So we got to know each other well, better than most editors and assistant editors know know each other. Yeah. But anyway, she made it over the wall. Tell me about the double stump jump. I don’t know if that’s the actual name of it. Oh, okay. But basically, you have these two giant logs that are horizontal, and you have to jump off of a platform onto the first one. And this thing is like 18 inch diameter. It’s like a, like probably it’s. I think it was a telephone pole, and you have to jump on it. And keep in mind, it’s raining, and these things are basically like ice, covered in mud and water. And then when you get on the first one, you have to stand on it, and then jump to a second one. And when we were looking at this, this is an obstacle that I had never seen either. There were guys that were basically brick shit houses, totally buff. These were guys that spent way too much time in the weight room, and they were grabbing onto these things and they were flailing around them and falling flat on their ass in the ground. So this thing was serious business. So tell me about your experience with the the stumps or whatever I guess they were called.
Natalie Baker: Yeah. Well, they the woman. Was really nice. She said, “Just so you guys know, it’s the same. This is a this is meant to trick you. This is they’re the same distance to the first log as it is to the second log. And if you make the first log, you should be able to make the second one. And I was like, “Yeah, it looks easy. I’ll do it. I’ll try it. I don’t think I made the second. I don’t think I made. I think did I get to? I don’t think I got to the first one. No, the
Zack Arnold: First one you basically leaned in, kind of did a little hop, and just fell right flat on the ground.
Natalie Baker: That’s true. And I kind of ran
Zack Arnold: Over to the person. I’m like, “Is it only one try, or can she try again? Can she do it again? So I’m just thinking, just don’t make us do more burps.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, exactly. They’re like, “No, no, no, she could keep trying. So then I had to. I felt really bad, but I had to like step on your shoulder. You’re like, I’m sorry. I’m willing to step on your shoulder. And the funny thing is, I barely
Zack Arnold: Felt it because you’re so tiny.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, I was. I felt really bad. Like, just step by the way. Are you sure? Yeah, just do it. Okay, I’ll do it. So, I mean, at this point, like when you’re in like rain and mud and it’s wet and cold, like honestly, to get over these things, you don’t care, like just do it. It’ll be fine. I don’t care. It’s
Zack Arnold: Amazing, like you said. Just all of your inhibitions just go out the window, and you just do whatever it takes to get through and keep moving. Yeah. Which, on a side note, is kind of the whole purpose of doing these races, because what you’re actually doing is rewiring your brain to just deal with an obstacle and get through it, and realize that you achieved it, and you move forwards. And we’ll get more into that later, and talk about kind of the the post race reaction, both a few hours afterwards and then the next few days. But that’s kind of the idea: is that you’re you’re rewiring your brain to really become accustomed to facing very difficult immediate obstacles, and just deciding that you’re in a mindset where you’re just going to do it no matter what, and you don’t really care how you look or what it takes. Yeah. So on that note, I’m going to jump forward to one of the later obstacles because there were two obstacles that I know that you really, really struggled with because they were built more for people that are you know that have a lot of strength, and that was the tractor pull and the bucket carry, which are two very similar obstacles. The idea, the tractor pull is it’s basically a large cinder block or a concrete block, basically with a chain wrapped around it, and you have to carry or drag it. You’re not allowed to carry it. You have to drag it on the ground up a hill and then back down a hill, and then the bucket carry is essentially the exact same thing, except you’re taking a five-gallon bucket, you fill it with gravel to the top, and then you have to carry that up and down a hill. So let’s talk about those obstacles.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, I mean some of the obstacles were sort of my height is a factor, and I can’t really do. I mean those that’ll take a while to sort of perfect and do something about, but these two obstacles are the two obstacles where it was like people were doing it, like they were dragging that. I mean, how it was like an 80 pound? Was that 80 pounds?
Zack Arnold: Yeah, it was probably somewhere between 7080, 90 pounds. Yeah, yeah,
Natalie Baker: And I mean, I I actually weigh 105 pounds, so like dragging 80 pounds is like dragging my weight up a hill. And so I was like, this is, yeah. I mean, people were giving me tips as I was going up. They were like, you know, tie a knot in the chain and use it as a handle. Like, okay, I’ll do that. Okay, now lift it up a little bit and drag it because as you’re dragging it, there’s you’re not dragging it on grass. You’re dragging it on dirt, so you’re picking up the dirt with the block as you go, so it gets heavier. So you have to like make sure it’s like hoisted up, and then you have to drag it. And there’s people doing it, and like they’re getting up that hill and down that hill. And I was just, I was really struggling with it, both of them too, like the rocks. But like the first two was the tractor pull, and they were nice. The they were nice enough to let Zack come back, and Zack was nice enough to come back up the hill and help me like get that thing up the hill, and then back down the hill. But that was so the tractor, and then we got to the bucket carry, and the bucket carry was even more difficult because that like you can’t really grip onto anything, and I’m already super tired. Though, and Zack did the same thing. He helped me carry that bucket. The two people he got when he once he did his bucket, he came back up, helped me with my bucket. And those are just two things where I’m like literally now everything I compare. Anytime I go for a run, anytime I do anything, I’m like, well, at least I’m not carrying a bucket of rocks up a hill because those, that was really tough. I those are the two things where I said afterwards, I’m like, yeah, that’s what I need to work on. That’s what I’m gonna. I’m gonna come back to this race, and I am gonna do these two obstacles because they are they are doable. They’re very doable. Yeah, those those two are the ones that I most trouble, and definitely most doable to to fix.
Zack Arnold: Well, and it’s funny because you’re saying that within the course of couldn’t have been more than a couple of miles, you went from saying screw this, I am never doing this again, to all of a sudden saying oh I’m coming back and I’m going to beat this obstacle next time. Carry these
Natalie Baker: Rocks up this hill by myself, and I’m going to do that. Yeah, this was toward the end, though. This was like seven miles. This was at like miles six and a half or seven. So we had been beat up by the because we had done the sandbag at this point. Like before this, we had done the sandbag, which wasn’t too bad. Yeah, the sandbag was
Zack Arnold: Actually pretty easy in this one. Basically, they have these small sandbags. They basically look like you know the the sandbags that you have in like preschool, just larger and like a nice little, you know, it wasn’t like in a white burlap sack. They weren’t like construction sandbags or like these nice little soft sandbags, maybe 3040, pounds. You you know put them on your shoulder, go up a hill and down a hill. That wasn’t too bad. But the Spartan Beast, they had that carry, but then they also had a much larger sandbag that was in a white burlap sack, which is really uneven and very hard to carry, and that was I think about 90 or 100 pounds, and that one I think I had to carry was at least it was probably about a quarter of a mile, and that one just killed me, and it killed everybody. Where there were just you know grown, buff, muscular men just sitting on the ground on their sandbag, just looking, just defeated. Like, oh my God, you got to be kidding me! So we lucked out, and we didn’t have that one in the race. Yeah. But yeah, I just I do think it’s really interesting how your I could see your mindset changing, which is all my design, by the way. Because I kind of went through the same thing where when I did my very first tough mudder, I was doing it. I was thinking, this is crazy. Like, what is this? Like, I’m, yes, I’ll finish it, but I’m like, why would I ever want to do one of these again? And I even finished my first tough mudder, thinking, well, that was a fun life experience. Never doing that again. And my legs were killing me, and I was sore. And then I remember three or four days later, waking up and saying, “Oh, I’m going to do that again, but next time I’m going to do it better, and then you just keep wanting to improve more and more things, and it just becomes addicting. But one thing you said that really kind of hits the nail on the head is you said that when I was out running or doing whatever it was, I was saying to myself, “Well, at least I’m not carrying a bucket full of rocks up a hill, and that’s the whole idea. Is it makes every other obstacle in your daily life seem easier because you’ll get stuck in traffic, or I will, and I’ll be thinking to myself, “Well, I’m inside, I’m warm, I’m dry, I’m not covering a mud, and I don’t have anybody spraying me with an ice cold fire hose. So things could be worse right now, and that’s kind of what happens. But anyway, I want to talk a little bit more about some of the other really fun obstacles. There’s one that you and I both failed miserably, and that was the spear throw. Oh
Natalie Baker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Burpee’s on the spear throw.
Zack Arnold: Yeah. So basically, the spear throw is just-it’s not a real spear. It’s basically a you know a rake handle or a shovel handle that they take off, and they just put a spike on the end of it, and you just have to throw it. I would guess about 25 or 30 feet and hit a straw bale, but it was really slippery. And they, for the first time I had been on one of these anyway, I’ve been hearing this is fairly new, but they tie a rope to the end of it so you can pull the rope back, and they don’t have these spears flying everywhere, and that changes the trajectory of it. So in the first time I did the spear throw, I nailed it, and it was at like mile 12, and I didn’t even think I could lift the spear. And this time the spear throw was mile four or five, and I completely miffed it. Just looked like a total girl. Didn’t even hit the hay bale. It hit the ground, you know, in front of the hay bale. So it’s very deceptive. So I was just like, “All right. So that was another 30 burpees for both of
Natalie Baker: Us. Yeah, yeah.
Zack Arnold: I remember right after that is when we had to run through. It was one of the only places where we actually had trees and forest because most of this was totally open ground, but there were trees and they had bungee cords everywhere, and you had to navigate your way through bungee cords. And I remember you kept saying that I was snapping them in your face.
Natalie Baker: Yes. It’s like when you’re running, you know, when you’re running with somebody and you get you go to a tree and the tree and they move the tree around and the tree branch comes, smacks you back in the face.
Zack Arnold: Yeah.
Natalie Baker: That’s what was happening. So this was
Zack Arnold: Bungee cords.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, these bungee cords weren’t they weren’t that bad.
Zack Arnold: And I kind of remember in the middle there was also the stump balance.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: And that’s basically just a bunch of you know stumps that are maybe six inches in diameter or six inches yeah six inches diameter. There’s like seven or eight of them in a row, and they’re about three feet off the ground. You just have to walk across and balance. And that one was pretty easy, but I will admit that I failed miserably on that one when I did the Spartan Beast, and I had to do 30 burpees, and I was so angry at myself. But this time, I actually focused and nailed it because the first time I just was like, “Oh, this is easy, and then I fell. Yeah. So that sucked. Yeah. That was my introduction to burpees at the Spartan Beast. But anyway, they all just start to blend together. They do. There was
Natalie Baker: There was a second barbed wire.
Zack Arnold: Yeah. There was another barbed wire, and that one was actually longer, much longer, and I think it was through one of the like I think it was a pit that used to be a manure pit, but there were all these like large holes and divots in it, so it was really hard to just traverse across it. But it like hardened. It was like this clay that imagine all these cows walking through and putting these giant divots. But was hardened, and there’s no way to like get a decent grip and like even do the the army crawl or anything else.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, you rolled.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, you just rolled through, and again they’re just spraying you with ice cold fire hoses, and then of course
Natalie Baker: You know what when they when you’re when you’re that cold, honestly the ice cold fire hose I didn’t really. It didn’t like it bothered me, and it was cold. But like
Zack Arnold: You kind of don’t feel it.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, when you’re constantly getting like the wind, like you’re wet and the wind’s blowing at you, and then it’s still raining on you, and you’re still gross. Like then someone sprays you with a fire hose. You’re like, oh god! But it’s not like a shock to the system. Right. Nothing is a shock to the system anymore. Yeah, especially as I got it in my ear. That’s yeah.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that’s always fun. But then after we got through that second set of barbed wire, that was the really stinky, smelly mud pit.
Natalie Baker: Yes,
Zack Arnold: And I don’t even know what that was, but it was basically it couldn’t have been that far, maybe I don’t know, 100 yards, maybe a little bit less. But it was like this this pit of mud, and they warn you. They’re like, make sure that your shoes are duct tape or take them off because your shoes will just get sucked off otherwise. And you just go through, and you’re walking, and it’s really slippery. And then you start going deeper and deeper and deeper. And for me, it was about neck high. And I know that it got to the point where for Natalie, it was like she just started swimming.
Natalie Baker: I did. There was no point. They had told me at some point. They said it’s five feet deep, and I was like, “Well, once I can’t reach the the bottom, I’m just swimming across. So she was
Zack Arnold: Wading across just this gray sea of shit. I don’t even know what it was, but man, did it stink!
Natalie Baker: Yeah, yeah.
Zack Arnold: And then you just get out, and you’re just like gray, and you just smell like a sewer.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty disgusting. So yeah,
Zack Arnold: Anyway, I’ll make sure that I put a link to where you can sign up for the next Spartan because I know we’re really selling it.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, right.
Zack Arnold: So yeah, that was fun. Yeah. And then there were the the various obstacles that have to do with tires. There was the the one where you have to tire flip. Basically, there are these giant either monster truck tires, or tractor tires, or these big truck tires, and you have to flip them twice in both directions, so over and back. And you actually did pretty well in that one.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, well, they they let the girls pair up, so I think two of us, or maybe no, it wasn’t that. It that wasn’t the one. That was the tire pull. Someone had found a really light tire. He found the lightest tire, and we’re successful at that tire because the first one I picked up, I was like, “Oh, this is not happening. But then there was we finally found the smallest tire, and then I flipped it, and then the other girls flipped it. Yeah, that’s what happened. Yeah, and I went through
Zack Arnold: Most. There were guys on most of the tires for the guy area because all the girl tires had pink tape on them, which you know I’m not not going to get into that whole conversation about you know choosing pink tape because frankly a lot of the girls there were kicking my ass, but the most of the guy tires were taken and there was one that was empty. I’m like, oh, I’ll do this one, and I you know went down and you know squatted down and put my hands under, and I could not even move it. I couldn’t even get air under it. I’m like, okay, I’m just gonna wait for one of the lighter ones, and picked one of the lighter ones and flipped it, you know, two times each way. And that’s not really one that a lot of people will get burpees on because they do allow you to get help from other team members if you need it. Yeah. So that one was fine.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: But the other one that was tire related, which was the one that you said that you got help on? Is basically they have a tire that’s tied to a rope, but it’s down a hill at a grade of about I don’t know 45 or 50 degrees. So it’s a steep hill, and I couldn’t move the tire literally. I grabbed the rope, and the rope was completely slick and full of mud and water, and I just couldn’t move it, and I said, “Screw this! And I just ran down to the bottom of the hill, and I did 30 more burpees.
Natalie Baker: Just not happening. Yeah, there was, and then there was the, yeah, for that one they let the girls do it in pairs. So I had, so me and me and other girls were hoisting that thing up. But they did. This was a good. This was a a good moment for me was when they had the ball carry, like that cement. Oh yes, it
Zack Arnold: Literally was a ball made of cement, a perfectly round ball.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: But the one for the women is probably at least 50 pounds. Yeah. Yes. The one for the guys I think was about was at least 100 because I couldn’t lift it above my waist.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: I could barely get it up to my waist, so I know it was at least 100 pounds.
Natalie Baker: Yeah. So that was. So I was. I walked up to and I out loud. I just go, well, I’m not. I can’t do that. And this one girl goes, yes, you can. And I’m like, okay. Because like I said, because like you’re in the point where you are so beat down. Like literally, someone says, you can do that. Okay, I can do that. And she was like, come on, pick it up. Okay, I’ll pick it up. And I picked it up. She’s like, now we’re walking. Okay, we’re walking. I literally, this girl, she just dictated the whole thing to me. All right, now we’re walking. She’s like, put it down. Okay, put it down. Okay, pick it back up. Picking it up, and now we’re walking back. I’m like, okay, we’re walking back. We’re walking back. And then we made it back, and she’s like, see, you did it. And I was like, I did do that. Thank you. And it was just. Like the camaraderie is really nice because you’re all in it together. Nobody is. That’s what was really great. Is like anyone you passed, anyone you sort of like came across on like, you know, no one was, no one was mean or weird or everybody was. We’re all in this together. It’s raining, it’s cold, and we’re doing this together, and you know. So that was nice. That was nice to come across all those people because you’re when I don’t know, when you’re running a race, it’s very individual, and you sort of get into just your head, and it’s nice to have all these people. Like, nope, you can do it. I’ll help you out. Yeah.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that that’s a big component of of the Spartan race. It’s also a really big component of the the tough mudder, is that it’s not about you know pushing through people and trying to go as fast as you can and making an individual. It’s really about taking the time to make sure that everybody makes it across and helping other people. And if you’re in the elite heat, like yeah, you might be breezing past people to get the best time. But outside of the couple 100 people that sign up in the elite heat, it’s really just about helping other people and being supportive, and there were so many times that you would be beaten down, or like when we were doing the bucket carry together or something, and somebody would come by and be like, “You can do it, or you know. And I remember when I did the bucket carry, the Spartan Beast. It was a much steeper hill, actually, the one that that you and I did, so it was even worse. And there was this woman that was going up, and she dropped her bucket, and her her gravel and her stones went everywhere, and she was like literally just about to break down and cry because like she there was no way she was going to get up the hill, and I just stopped, and we just sat there and put all the the stones back in the the bucket together, and I helped her lift it back up, and like that that’s all part of it. So if if people think that these races are just a bunch of meatheads carrying, you know, cinder blocks and being a bunch of assholes. That’s really not what they’re about. However, I will say that when we first showed up, that’s the first thing you said was, “Wow, there’s a lot of meatheads here.
Natalie Baker: I did, yeah, yeah. So that was, yeah, I did, and I was pleasantly surprised that most of them were very kind to, to most people were very kind to help out and just yeah everyone everyone’s just nice everyone’s just in it together they all you’re all going through the same thing so you’re all and nobody’s it’s not like it’s not like the Walking Dead you know it’s not like the it’s not like an episode of The Walking Dead this is a lot more much more camaraderie yeah but that girl, I think that was probably when I was like, I can do this. I can do this race again. Was somewhere around when that that girl just coached me through. Do it, okay. I can do that.
Zack Arnold: So we got near the end, and if I remember correctly, there was the the hoist pull or the hoist lift-I don’t actually know what it’s called. Let me see if I can find the the Hercules hoist. That’s the name of it.
Natalie Baker: That was just mean.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and that’s basically a sandbag where they have a you know it’s it’s a pulley, and you’re basically pulling the rope towards you and lifting it up on a hoist, and it’s it’s got to be 25, 30 feet up. Yeah. And I know for Natalie, it was just kind of a non-starter. I think you pretty much grab the rope, and you’re like, “Yeah, this isn’t going anywhere.
Natalie Baker: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: So there was a guy next to her that was super nice to to help her out, and I went by and helped her out as well. Yeah. The first time that I did it at the Beast, I swear to God that they were heavier. They must have been because I could barely lift it off the ground, and that was actually one of my biggest failures when I did the Spartan Beast was I I was so aggravated that I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t even grab the rope because my my grip strength and my forearm strength were really weak, and it was at like mile 12, so I don’t know if it was lighter this time or not. But I actually did it and was able to complete it, and maybe it’s because I spent so much time focusing on forearm and wrist strength, because that was my biggest failure at the the first one. Is that I couldn’t do the monkey bars, I couldn’t do the the rope climb, and I couldn’t do the the hoist because I couldn’t grab anything. I didn’t have the wrist and forearm strength, which is one of the major issues when you work on a computer all day every day. Is your muscles atrophy because you’re not using the muscles in your wrist and in your forearms, so that’s actually one of the first things you have major problems with is is in your forearms and wrist. And I really focused on that, and maybe I succeeded, and that’s why I got almost all the way up the rope, and why I was able to to do the hoist, or maybe it’s just because it was really light. I don’t know, don’t know which one.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, but this scene, you’re like, you’re at the finish line, like you’re in, like you can see
Zack Arnold: It.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, you’re in like the race village. Like there’s like a you know like when you when you start the race when you’re doing all the where the vendors are. There’s like this whole village of you know vendors and food and people and music and an announcer and all this stuff is happening and you know you you come back to it at the finish line, and instead of stopping and like having your beer and like eating your eating your pulled pork sandwich or whatever they had there, you have to hoist up 100 pounds of sand or 50 pounds of sand. Whatever it is, and you just watch everybody having fun, having fun watching you in their raincoats, taking their pictures, taking the pictures, and you’re like, shut up, you can do it. You’re like, yes, okay, I can do this. But yeah, that rope was slippery too. I’ll say that rope was very slippery. So,
Zack Arnold: Yeah. So from that point, like you said, we were basically in what did you call it, race village, or
Natalie Baker: Yeah, like the village. Yeah, the
Zack Arnold: Little area. Yeah. And then the last three obstacles, if I remember right, where we had to climb up a slippery wall where they had ropes. Yeah. And then no, before that, you have to do another really jagged, rocky, like climb up a small hill under barbed wire.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, I got really mad at that one.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that one was actually really painful. That was the hardest one.
Natalie Baker: I was so mad because, like I said, we were in the race village. We had done that hard hoist, and I was like, “This is it. We’re done. We’re gonna go. We’re gonna get through that. We’re gonna jump over that fire or whatever it is at the end, and we’re gonna be done. Nope. Climb under barbed wires, like really. Yeah.
Zack Arnold: And then not only that, but I remember getting to the top of it. You were a little ways behind me, and you get to the top, and it’s just a straight shot down into a pit of water, and then they have a wall across the water. So the only way to get to the other side is to 100% submerge yourself and go under the boards. And for those that are listening, you can go into the photo album, and there’s an amazing, amazing photo of Natalie coming up on the other side. There’s actually one of me too, but the one of Natalie is like just an award-winning photo of her submerging or going coming from under the water, coming back up. It’s it looks like she’s the thing. Yeah. Just coming out of she’s like the swamp people. Just
Natalie Baker: That’s my and in my head, it’s I really hope no one peed in this water. This is disgusting. So
Zack Arnold: Definitely check out the show notes for that photo because that one’s just gets a gold star. It’s a pretty awesome picture.
Natalie Baker: Oh my god! It was one of those. It was like, come on.
Zack Arnold: And then once you get out, once you’re out of the water, that’s when you have to climb up the really slippery wall. Yes. Up the ropes, then you climb over it, and then I think after you climb over that, that’s when you jump over the fire. Basically, they have just all these logs across, like 30 feet before the finish line, and the fire is about waist high, so we have to jump through the flames, which actually felt really good at that. Yeah, it’s
Natalie Baker: Nice and warm,
Zack Arnold: And then you run through the finish line. Yeah. So yeah, that that’s the very end is running through the fire, and I would have posted a picture, but when I went on the website, there’s like a 50-minute block of pictures that don’t exist. So either their flashcard was destroyed or something happened. But we don’t have a picture of us coming through the fire. Maybe by the time I post this, it’ll show up. But at least right now, there’s a whole hour block of photos that are missing, which just happens to be the time that we cross the finish line. So that’s kind of a bummer. But hopefully, I can find something. But that was basically the getting through the Spartan race, and yeah, that was it.
Natalie Baker: We got through it, made it to the other set. We
Zack Arnold: Survived.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, and the funny thing about Spartan race, or at least this race, it’s one of those things where, like, like I said, there there was except aside from that one time after the traverse wall where I was like, “This is it. I’m done. But the rest of the time, it’s not like you. I got to an obstacle and was super discouraged. It was one of those things where I got to an obstacle and I said, “All right, we’re gonna do this one now. I guess this is just gonna be pain. Because at some point, you’re like, “Well, this is going to be painful. This is going to really challenge me, and I’m just going to have to get through. Because you can’t turn back, like that’s not, that’s not an option. There’s no, there’s no going back, and there’s no. You wouldn’t be able to find your way back. Like it’s literally impossible. It’s either you do your burpees or you move forward. And so, my choice was to move forward, because like there’s no, so I don’t know that that puts you in a mindset where literally like there’s not going to be there’s not going to be someone to pick you up and take you back to the warm tent and you know and you’ve come all that like we had a six hour drive we drove up at this six hour drive to do this eight mile race you’re halfway in you can’t there’s no you can’t turn back at that point. So every time, even when you jump in the cold water, and I hate the cold. Anyone could attest that they’ve been into my bay. It’s like 85 degrees in there. I don’t care. Like at some point, it’s just like you jump in the cold water. Like, well, that’s what I’m doing now, jumping in cold water because of course I am. At least it’s not carrying a bucket of rocks up a hill.
Zack Arnold: So how did you feel the next day,
Natalie Baker: Terrible. I, I couldn’t. My upper body, I could not move. My lower body was fine because, like, I do running races and like everything from the waist down, totally fine. I could walk fine, but waist up, I was just a mess. Cause I, after the Spartan race, when I got home, all of my friends. At a Halloween party, and of course I had to go to said Halloween party. So I got back, went to the Halloween party, and I dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, and that was my costume.
Zack Arnold: Nice.
Natalie Baker: And people were coming up to me, they’re like, “Oh, what are you doing today? I’m like, “I’m not. I’m not here to talk to anybody. I’m here to listen. You can talk to me, but I’m not. I’m not going to be participating in this conversation except for listening. But yeah, I was pretty out of it at that at that party. But it was still it. So, so yeah. The next day, I was I was hurting pretty bad, and then I was hurting pretty bad on Monday. It was getting better on Tuesday, and I think Thursday was when I was finally fully recovered.
Zack Arnold: So a five-day recovery period.
Natalie Baker: Five days. Yeah, I
Zack Arnold: Remember. I think it was two or three days in getting a text from you that said it hurts to sneeze.
Natalie Baker: Yes, that was Sunday. It did. No, there were literally there were muscles in my body that hurt that like I didn’t know you needed to use muscles to do certain things, like what did I do? I tried to like put my hair up in a bun, and like I couldn’t even do that. Like I couldn’t like muscles in my hands, muscles like to pick something up. I couldn’t hold a coffee mug for a long period of time. An empty coffee mug. Didn’t even have coffee in it, but I was just holding a mug for a period of time, and I was like, I can’t hold this mug anymore, and I just put it down. Like it was, I’ve never been so sore in my life, but I’m going to do it again, and I’ll do
Natalie Baker: Better.
Zack Arnold: Which is a good segue to my next question, which is, are you going to be showing up for the Spartan Sprint that we’re doing Sunday, december 7? And it sounds like the answer is yes.
Natalie Baker: Yes, I’m going to be doing it. And the
Zack Arnold: Big difference with this one, which is going to be an advantage for probably me and a disadvantage for you, is that there’s very little running in this one. This is called a Spartan sprint because it’s only three miles, but there’s almost as many obstacles. So for you, the running part was easy because you’ve done marathons, and I just hate running with a passion. So when we were doing the straightaway mile or mile and a half, you know, out in open fields, I was like, God, just get us to another obstacle, please. I hate running. And for you, you’re like, oh, this part’s easy, you know. And then we would hit an obstacle, and you’re like, oh my God, shoot me now. Yeah. And I’m the opposite, where this one is basically going to be hopping from one obstacle to the next, but there’s going to be a lot steeper hill, so there’s not much flat ground in the Malibu one at all. It’s all hills up and down, and all obstacles. So that’s going to be another fun challenge. But what what’s what’s on your training docket for the next four to five weeks to get yourself ready?
Natalie Baker: Well, I start marathon training tomorrow, and I also need to start a sort of weight regimen because I was just doing the T25 stuff, but I think although I might be able to bump up to my beta discs for T25, I think I’m at that. I think I’m at that point where I can do the beta discs. So I’m either I’m going back and forth between either doing that or just doing a sort of more weight training resistance band upper body strength training course because that’s clearly what I need. I’m definitely stronger. I don’t have much upper body strength, but I definitely had more than I would have had I not done T25. But I need something that’s not just sort of burpees and push-ups and things. I need to I need to up it a little bit so that I can actually start gaining more strength.
Zack Arnold: Right, and that’s one of the things that you you notice pretty quickly with one of these is that if you do something like T25 or P90X or something where you’re not using external weights and you’re just using body weight, those are great. Those are really good for full body strength, for core strength for balance. So I don’t want to dissuade people from doing that at all because that’s my favorite type of exercise. The problem is if you’re not training with any weights at all that are heavy, you’re not developing that type of strength, and there are just certain obstacles you’re not going to be able to do. So if you’re doing a rope climb, that’s basically using your own body weight, and that’s all you need to use if you’re doing push-ups, pull-ups. Like that’s a great way to train. But if you’re trying to pull a tire up a hill or have a bucket full of rocks and carry it up a hill, that’s extra heavy weight, and you need to develop the muscles to be able to do that. So just doing burpees and pull-ups and push-ups is not going to be enough if you’re going to be carrying heavy stuff. So that’s that’s a component that I learned quickly when I did my first obstacle race and realized that I can’t just do pull-ups and burpees and push-ups and survive. But the stuff that is body weight or balance oriented, like for example, doing an army crawl up a hill under barbed wire, is all core strength, and that’s something that I do pretty well from all the exercises that I do. But when it comes to the really heavy stuff, I still struggle with that because I’m not big on heavy lifting. I felt pretty good until I hit that tire where I had to pull it up the hill with the rope, and I just flailed and just totally fell flat on my face. Did not did not like that one, but. Now I have something to work towards for the next one. Well, if anybody is crazy enough to want to join us, we are still accepting members. We’re going to be going Sunday, december 7, to the Malibu Spartan Sprint. It’s actually not in Malibu; it’s in the the Santa Monica Mountains, about 15 miles north of Malibu. So it’s actually closer to the 101 than it is to the ocean. So it’s really not that far from the city at all. So if you want to get involved with that, just contact us on the contact page, which is fitnessimpost.com/contact. Aptly named, very easy to find. And I’m also going to post a blog post that just kind of puts together my race day list preparation just of all the things that I packed because Natalie will tell you that I come very well prepared like a Boy Scout.
Natalie Baker: Oh my God! He brought okay. This is nothing to do. He brought. He took a stopped at a gas station. He takes out his NutriBullet. I was like, oh cute! You brought your NutriBullet with you to like you know make something in the hotel room when we get to a hotel room, and he says, “Oh no, I want to make this now. I was like, “What do you mean you’re going to make this now? He takes all the NutriBullet, fills everything like all his powders and supplements and coconut water, and was like, “This is going to be great. He goes to plug it into the to the lights, like what are you what are you doing? I want to plug it into the to the lighter, okay? Or the whatever. There’s not lighters. The adapter. Yeah. He plugs it into the adapter, blows a fuse in the adapter. That was awesome. So he’s like, no crap, this doesn’t work. So here’s Zack carrying his NutriBullet at the Shell station, trying to find an outlet. Goes into the bathrooms. Not one there. We go inside. We make a loop around. There’s not one there. So finally, I go to the guy. Do you have an outlet so he can plug in his NutriBullet? Oh yeah, it’s outside. Okay, so Zack goes outside, plugs in his NutriBullet, makes his Shakeology with all his other supplements, drinks it up. This is delicious. This is my dinner,
Zack Arnold: And it tasted good, didn’t it? And it was pretty
Natalie Baker: Good. It was pretty good. It was, and I just was, I was baffled. I was floored. I was like, okay, so we did that. But you can do it on a road trip, guys. You go on a road trip and you’re sitting, and you think you need a good pick-me-up. You can bring your NutriBullet, find a gas station with an outlet. Takes you two seconds because Zack did it. See, so I have
Zack Arnold: Firsthand proof from Natalie that I practice what I preach. Do I not?
Natalie Baker: You did.
Zack Arnold: If I tell people that it works, it’s because I know that it works firsthand because I did
Natalie Baker: It. Yeah. She
Zack Arnold: Actually has a picture of me doing my little blending outside in the picnic table outside the the gas station.
Natalie Baker: Should post that one too.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, we should. I’ll have you give me that picture, and we’ll post that in the the blog as well.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, you should have seen the the stuff we brought into that hotel. The amount of stuff because we brought all of our yeah for one night. Yeah, so
Zack Arnold: We we brought our food beforehand, so we didn’t have to eat garbage the night before. But I will say that on the drive back, we were pretty bad when it came to. We had a lot of crap on the way back. We earned it.
Natalie Baker: Milkshake.
Zack Arnold: Yes, we had milkshake. We I don’t remember what else we had. We had a bag of Doritos.
Natalie Baker: We did.
Zack Arnold: There was a lot of bad stuff. There
Natalie Baker: Was the pretzels, the peanut butter filled pretzels that are brought.
Zack Arnold: But according to my Fitbit, I burned over 4000 calories in less than a day, so I think we earned it.
Natalie Baker: Yeah, we did. We did.
Zack Arnold: So yeah. Anyway, anybody that’s interested in joining the team, you’re more than welcome to contact us, and we’ll throw you on the team. If you want to look at the blog posts or the pictures and go to all the show notes, it’s fitnessinpost.com/22. And otherwise, I hope you enjoyed hearing all about our trials, tribulations, and suffering at the Spartan race. So I hope that everybody has a fantastic week, and I wish you well. Woohoo!
Episode Credits
This episode was executive produced by Kanen Flowers. We are a member of the THAT STUDIO podcast network.
The music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Dorian Cheah from his brilliant album ARA.