Spartan Race Singapore: First time? Read this before you sign up!

Spartan Race Singapore is fast becoming one of the most interesting race in Singapore’s sports calendar. If this is your first time participating in Spartan Sprint Singapore, check out our experience from our very first Spartan Sprint held at Sentosa Singapore. Perhaps, this post could shed insight on whether you should join Spartan Singapore afterall…

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What REALLY is Spartan Race Singapore?

Spartan Race is actually an obstacle course. But the difficulty levels are divided into these 3 categories…

1. Spartan Sprint. This race takes you on a distance of 5+km, including 20+ obstacles. Though it is the “entry level” for the Spartan Race, it is by no means easy. We will share more about our experience below.

2. Spartan Super. This race takes you on a distance of 13+km, including 25+ obstacles. A further test of strength and endurance.

3. Spartan Beast. This race takes you on a distance of 21+km, including 30+ obstacles. Definitely not for the faint-hearted. Think of it this way. You would have finished more than the distance of a half marathon PLUS over 30 obstacles. Will you be there?

4. Spartan Trifecta. If you’re able to complete all three races in a year (from races around the world), then you’ll be able to join this band of elite Spartans.

Our Experience @ Spartan Sprint Singapore

Words cannot really describe our experience of Spartan Sprint Singapore, except that

IT WAS PAINFUL!

Ominous Signs

We should have seen it coming. Ominous signs were already building up prior to the race. On the day that we signed up for the race, it was 1 day AFTER the early bird discount was over. That meant that we paid $110 (yup, the day before was $90). Moreover, on the day of signing up, Tom was actually nursing an ankle injury. Signs were pointing towards NOT signing up. However, we ignored the signs the Lord gave and went ahead to register anyway. Not clever at all.

On the day before the race, the weatherman predicted that it would be “thunderstorm” on the race day itself. The picture that you see below was an actual photo taken, just before the race started.

If you know Spartan as a “muddy race”, the heavy downpour during the race itself made it worse – by over a thousand times. Due to the heavy downpour, we were wallowing in mud and sliding down mud slides during the race.

Perfect. Just perfect.

In preparation for the race, we trained burpees. Spartan burpees to be exact. This is because, for each obstacle that you’re unable to complete, you’ll do 30 Spartan burpees in place of the obstacle. So what exactly is a Spartan Burpee? It is actually a normal burpee that includes a push-up that requires your chest to touch the ground as well as a jump at the end with both feet above the ground and hands above the height of your ears.

The official definition is…

“Spartan Burpee Definition
A burpee consists of a two components. At the “bottom” of the burpee, the body and legs are straight and parallel to the ground, with a full push-up with chest touching the ground. At the “top” of the burpee the body and legs are straight and perpendicular to the ground, with hands above ears, and a jump with feet leaving the ground.”

No matter how hard we trained, we could only train to complete 40 Spartan burpees at one go. -_-”

Lastly, after we registered on the day itself, the race pack says

“There is a real possibility that you may DIE or be catastrophically injured”

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WHAT?!

This is over and above the waiver form that waives your rights to hold the organiser accountable for accidents, injuries and even death on the obstacle course….

Why did we sign up for Spartan Race again?!

2bearbear’s Spartan Sprint Experience

To get into the pen to reach the flag off point, you’ll actually have to jump over a fence to enter it. That’s really your first obstacle. We wondered if anyone did 30 Spartan burpees in place of that obstacle…hm…

To psych you up, the announcer would bring you through a series of pep-talk that includes the signature questions:

Announcer: WHO ARE YOU?!

Spartans: I AM A SPARTAN!

Announcer: WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!

Spartans: AROO! AROO! AROO!

In total, there were 23 obstacles to clear. After flag off, we jogged for a while. Quite a while. At least for us – before we reached the first series of obstacles…

1. Hurdles. This was the series of 3 low fences that we could easily jump over. At this point, we thought “Hey, this isn’t so bad afterall!”. We were so wrong…

2. Vertical Cargo

At the next obstacle, we had a rude awakening. We literally struggled to haul a 40kg sand bag up. So much for the Spartan burpees training. Good thing was that team work is allowed! 2 of us came together to pull and lower the 40kg sandbag – twice.

3. O.U.T.

Another simple obstacle – we thought. Just had to jump over a low wall, crawl under the second and hop through the third. Easy peasy. Then, we realised that the obstacles were planned to tire one set of your muscles at a time…

4. Rope Climb

After those pulls and walls, our triceps were quite tired. The simple rope climb became harder than usual. The bell at the top (and many other bells and completions along the way), eluded us. Here, we did our first (of many) set of 30 Spartan Burpees.

5. Para Climb. This was the easier version of the barb wire crawl. Instead of barb wires, strings were used, allowing one to bear crawl across (instead of leopard crawl) quickly.

6. Climb up to Fort Siloso Skywalk. Although it isn’t officially listed as an obstacle, the 11 storeys climb to the top of the Skywalk was draining. Nonetheless, we were treated to…A HEAVY DOWNPOUR complete with sounds of thunder at the top! But yeah, can imagine that it would have been nice and beautiful on a bright and sunny day. Then, it was the descent towards Imbiah Trail.

7. Bucket Brigade

For this obstacle, you had to bring a bucket filled with sand, a distance away and come back again. We had problems lifting this bucket. Along the way, we noticed that (almost) everyone was placing the bucket on their shoulders when in fact the rules stated that “carrying on shoulders, neck or head” was a “failure mode”. So much for preparing by reading the rules…

8. Walls

We decided to just label these series of obstacles (5,6,7 ft,inverted walls) as just simply WALLS. On our own, we only cleared the first 2. By the time we reached the 7 ft wall, we needed other Spartans to push us through. Needless to say, the inverted walls was helped along by many other friendly spartans well.

9. Olympus. This obstacle was like a rock climbing across a wall. Of course, by now, the rain had become a downpour. We were treading across puddles of mud and the obstacle was wet. No one we saw, could clear the obstacles themselves. Hence, we banded together to “lift” each other across it – simply to avoid the 30 Spartan burpees…

10. 125kg Medicine Ball. We couldn’t find the Spartan Race name for this obstacle. Essentially, it involved carrying a 125kg medicine ball to a distance away, do 5 burpees and bring the medicine ball back. The only problem (if you had not seen the weight of the medicine ball) was that the weight was 125KG!!! We were not able to do it alone. A second Spartan came along to help. Nope. A third Spartan came over to help. Nope, the @%^$# ball just wouldn’t budge. We were almost resigned to burpees when the station master said that 4 people would be able to move it. We “enlisted” a fourth Spartan and did it – while we noticed one incredible hulk, doing the station ALL BY HIMSELF on the next lane.

DOT DOT DOT.

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11. Spear Throw

This is one of the obstacles that many Spartans find it hard to train. Unless you have a spear, a board and sufficient space in your house, you pretty much have the same probability of doing burpees as the guy next to you – that is CONFIRM HAVE TO DO BURPEES. Surprisingly, we hit the target. Only to have the tip touch the floor. But a technique we realised when doing the spear throw was that the rope attached to it, has to be nicely laid so that it would not “pull” the spear back after its released. Due to the rain, the steep slope down the trail at Imbiah, became a “mud slide”. Everyone pretty much slid down the “mud slide” and landed into a “mud pool” with huge “mud splashes”.

Love it.

12. Sandbag Carry

Throughout Imbiah Trail, it was a series of climb up stairs at Dragon Trail. The only obstacle along the entire stretch was the Sandbag Carry. We happened to get a sandbag that felt quite light. Hence, we ran through the entire way. Of course, the bag was on our shoulders. The next stretch of run, led us back to Siloso beach before we completed the race.

13. Sandbag Drag. We couldn’t find the official name for this station but it was the first station that greeted us as we headed back to the beach. The drag along the sand caused indents on the path. Hence, choosing the correct lane was essential. We chose wisely and cleared it easily. Tag-teamed with another Spartan of course.

14. Dunkwall. Essentially this obstacle allowed us to clean the mud off ourselves. We came out refreshed. Why can’t all obstacles be this simple?

15. Barbwire Crawl

At the beginning of this obstacle, we were relatively confidently. Hence, instead of rolling, we crawled. Bad idea. We found out that the stretch of barbwire was SUPER LONG! It didn’t seem to end! Hence, we swapped to rolling mid-way. A little too late as we had already sustained “battle scars” on our knees and elbows.

16. Monkey Bars & Multi Rig. Then came back to back, 2 monkey bars. By now, almost no one was able to clear these obstacles. Most would drop after the first bar or ring. Some made it to the 3rd or 4th. Hence, it was off to the burpees zone for us.

17. A Frame Cargo / Slip Wall. Towards the end, the most “fun” obstacles remained. The A Frame Cargo was relatively easy, if not for the cramps we experienced. While the Slip Wall was not too difficult, except that people were sitting at the top of the wall and did not allow us to cross over. Slipping down the wall (as the name suggests), rendered us with more “battle scars”. Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!

18. Fire Jump

Then, it left us with the Fire Jump to have a photo finish…

After crossing the finishing line, we received our finisher T, medal and entered back into the fest zone at Palawan Green once again. There, we had multiple cups of coconut juice and a couple of bananas. We did a muscle rub for our calves at the massage station, washed up before redeeming our Spartan Beer, specially brewed by Brewerkz for the event. Tasted like a light IPA.

Refreshing. Especially after a gruelling race.

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Who should participate in Spartan Race Singapore?

After suffering the “after effects” of Spartan Race in Singapore, we realised that we should not have taken part in the race in the first place. If Spartan Sprint is not meant for people like us (unfit and untrained), then who should it be for? These are the categories of people who would likely consider going for Spartan Sprint for the first time.

1. People who have trained and want to gauge where they are. Definitely go. This group of people should go for Spartan Singapore. Sprint, Super and Beast. Even Trifecta.

2. People who want to experience something new for a first time. Maybe, maybe not. If you have trained and really want to experience and challenge yourselves to the obstacles in Spartan, then perhaps you should sign up. The keywords here are “trained”, “fit” and “willing”. If you have not trained, better not. This is because, you will undersign a waiver that all injuries and even death, cannot be held against the sponsors. Didn’t they warn us about death as well?

3. People who just want to have fun with your friends. Maybe, maybe not. If your bunch of friends are marathon runners or cross fit fanatics, by all means. But if your clique of friends prefer instagramming about the food that they’ve just tried for dinner last night, you…may just want to re-consider.

Photos Race Photos

We’ll now leave you with some photos available at Spartan.sg after every race. The heavy rains didn’t dampen the spirits of these Spartans! Aroo!

Bucket Brigade

Barbwire Crawl

Fire Jump

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Finishing Line

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For us, it would be unlikely that we’d be joining Spartan anytime soon. In the meantime, we’re just focusing on recovering from the sores and scars all over our body.

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From Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!, now we’re more of Ouuuuuch! Ouuuuuch! Ouuuuuch!