Midwest Super Spartan Part 1: Hurricane Heat

OK, so now that I've had a week to heal and warm up I think I can finally put the Midwest Super Spartan into words.  This was by far the most challenging race I have done to date.  The obstacles provided by the Dirt Runner course were awesome and the extra obstacles built by Spartan Race were equally challenging.  The cold weather provided the hardest obstacle to overcome.  It was barely above freezing when the race began at 8 am.  Not to mention the tired and sore muscles from the Hurricane Heat the night before.

The Storm is Coming.....

The Hurricane Heat was held Friday night and started just before the sun went down.  The temperature was only in the low 40's to start and only got colder.  We were divided into 5 teams of 16.  After starting off on the Chicago Spartan's team, I moved over to the Corn Fed team because they were short a member.  We started off with 30 burpees, as usual.  Spartan Race loves their burpees.  Our first task was that each team had to build a fire pit.  Each fire pit had to have at least 12 seats around it and a full stock of firewood nearby.  The Corn Fed group divided up into 2 teams to start.  One team had to grab buckets and haul gravel from a pile about 50 yards away and make the base of the pit.  The other team, of which I had the great misfortune of being on, had to comb over a nearby field full of pieces of concrete to create the sides of the fire pit and the seats.  After there was enough gravel, those people started gathering the firewood from a central pile.  It took roughly 30 minutes to build our fire pits an I have to say that the Corn Fed Fire pit was the prettiest one of the five.

After the fire pits were constructed, we moved off into the woods, not to return again until the very end.  I am not going to go over all the details of the Hurricane Heat because I believe it is something to be experience first hand and not by word of mouth.  Needless to say, I loved every grueling minute of it and was in good company the entire time.  At the end of the Hurricane Heat, we got to sit around one of the fire pits that we created to get warm and enjoy a little bit of conversation before claiming out Hurricane Heat dog tag and T-shirts.  I must say, that most of the time, as was the case here, I enjoyed the Hurricane Heat more than the race itself because of the people I get to meet and the friends that I make.  If you ever get the chance to do the Hurricane Heat, especially the night before the race, please don't deprive yourself of the opportunity.

Ron