Do You Want to Run Like a Spartan? Try a Run at The Spartan Sprint.

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Month: April 2016

Do You Want to Run Like a Spartan? Try a Run at The Spartan Sprint.

Posted on by Beret Kirkeby

 

The Spartan Sprint run took place at Citi Field on Saturday April 16th 2016.

citi field stadium. New York, New YorkSoooo my friends and I signed up for the Spartan Sprint run at Citi Field. What is a Spartan Sprint you ask? Well…it can be a lot of things but this one is a fantastic 3 mile + obstacle course race through Citi Field stadium.  I am a runner by trade and have been running for years, but I am also scrappy. I spent my early childhood scrabbling up trees so I was totally up for this challenge. And who does not want to break up the running season with something a little different!

A Spartan is an obstacle course race. This one happens to use Citi Field as its tromping ground. To be fair, I have no idea how many obstacles we actually did:), I will go more into that later, but the whole race takes you on a run all over the stadium, through the bleachers, up the stairs, through the parking lots, on the field and in the back tunnels. If you are a sports fan, it is kind of amazing. The views are fantastic and I can truly say, never have I ever seen more of a stadium.

One of the nice things about this race is the location, which is easily accessible by car or by train.  I took a train there and my racing buddy drove, neither one of us had any problems. We simply met up in the parking lot where we picked up our bibs and tags like any other race.Race entry packet, Spartan Sprint New York

This was easy and well organized. We had formed a team, so we were essentially running at the same time with a drawn go-time of 9:30 am. Being a team has it’s benefits and to be truthful this is one of the really nice things about the Spartan culture. While running is usually a solo project, the Spartan races allow you to form teams and do the race as a group which allows for your teammates to help you on challenges that might be just out-of-reach.  If you fail an obsticals, a teammate can help you or share in the penalty (30 burpee’s) to ease the burden.

This race had some great obstacle in it. A short list includes, rope climb, crawling under/over things, spear throwing, bucket carrying (with and without water), general lifting and hauling of things, a  plank skateboard thing, jumping rope and some other odds and ends. The set up is simple…run, then stop and perform a task (while the refs cheer you on). If you fail the task for some reason or cannot complete it due to physical reason then you can opt for 30 burpee’s. Sadly, we did not do a great job of documenting it because we were so busy running! But we managed to capture these shots from the obstacles.

Image of a group of people Spartan Sprint run NY, NY

 

By the time we finished the race it was 10;30 or so…keep in mind we talked to other runners and wandered around snacking on the free goodies provided and comparing race stories. By that time there were a lot more families coming in to race too. They run a children’s Spartan race along side the adult one which is wonderful.

As an entry level, this sprint is a great time. It is challenging if you do all the obstacles and are in reasonable shape, but so long as you are fairly active I think any group that likes a challenge could participate in it. There were loads of people who walked the course rather than ran. The ability to share tasks makes the tasks achievable, but you can always opt out and take the burpee penalty. So as long as you know your skill level, you can keep yourself safe from injury. I say this with a grain of salt because any time you are doing complex activities while you are tired, you could easily hurt yourself…so be carful out there! And injury is relative. I would totally expect to come home with a few of these beauties! Since we were a little beat up we recovered by treating ourselves to Spa Castle for a sauna, which is just a short drive away.

A close up of a person's arm A close up of a person's knee

But you will also get an amazing day, some great new skills and this….Image of a spartan race

Totally worth it. I really enjoyed the switch up from running, to some more skill oriented tasks. As a woman, I also have to say one of the nice things about races like this is it challenges you to build upper body strength in a really useful, practical way. I really do not know if I will ever have to bench a bunch of weights cold, but you never know; I totally might have to lift my body over a fence while running one day.

City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks – New York

Posted on by Beret Kirkeby

New York has some great run programs in their Parks.New York run - city park run

This weekend Body Mechanics Orthopedic Massage participated in the the City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks. It was a fantastic day for a run and the weather was perfect! While at times you might see massage therapists giving massages at these events, Body Mechanics rarely does it as those are unpaid events where therapists are asked to volunteer in exchange for exposure. Fortunately, we have moved past that model so you are more likely to see us participating. Most of our therapists are trainers or athletes themselves and we certainly do not want to miss out on the fun! The City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks was on April 10th 2016. It is a 4 mile course through New York City’s beautiful Central Park.

The City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks is a platform for City Parks Foundation and its efforts to provide free sports and fitness programs for kids. Support of City Parks Foundation helps provide vital cultural, educational, and athletic opportunities for New Yorkers of all ages, and strengthen community connections to local parks and green spaces. They work in over 350 parks citywide, presenting a broad range of programs in an effort to promote healthy communities. Their philosophy is simple: thriving parks reflect vibrant communities.

 

If you click through to the link you can see some of the pictures from the event that NYRR put together. NYRR puts on a great program for all ages. 3,491 Men and 3,420 women turned out for this inclusive event that also has a shorter run for the ‘wee’ folk. I would highly recommend it as training run for either group.  It was fantastic to see runners of all ages posing together with their well earned bibs.

I am a running coach but I do not get to compete as much as I would like. This event is extremely well-managed so it was a breeze. Picking up bibs was a snap thanks to the great organization of the event, and I simply met my running partner and her group of friends at the bag check. Since it is early in the season and New York decided to give us a cold and beautiful day, we had many layers. Many of us ended up with our bibs pinned to our legs as we knew mid-race we would start shedding cloths as the sun went up and our temperatures followed suit!

 

bib for New York city park run

As with all races, the only rough part is the corral wait! Hurry up and wait is always the way! Though we arrived at 7:50 or so, the corrals were well organized, although we did have a bit of a walk given that we had planned a slow training run just to get some time on legs in preparation for later runs;)Image os a crowd of people outside

All in all, this run was a perfect shake out. I think a lot of people ran to the event then ran home, but if your a new runner 4 miles is SOLID.

But best of all, my run friends introduced me to an amazing program called #22kill. So here is how it went down. We ran 4 miles and then at the finish line a big group of us dropped and did 22 push ups for veterans suicide awareness. AND IT WAS AWSOME.

What is #22kill?

#22kill is a global movement bridging the gap between veterans and civilians to build a community of support. 22KILL works to raise awareness of the suicide epidemic that is plaguing our country, and educate the public on mental health issues such as PTS.

We did 22 push ups as a group to honor those who serve and raise awareness, with a goal of getting to 22 million pushups. There were 6 of us so we contributed 132 push ups to the goal. If you want to get involved, you can go to their 22Kill page and see where to post your own vid or donate. It was a great way to finish off a race day.

 

The next NYRR run is the More/Shape women’s half marathon on April 17th! Have fun running!