So I have a friend/co-worker who has been volunteering and running this race for a few years now…read more I've been meaning to do it, but I either waited too long to sign up or I had other plans. This year I was determined to try this out but of course scared since I haven't been super training and well there was a chance of rain which I wasn't too thrilled about. But, to our luck Sunday was a perfect day to volunteer and race and I was glad I did it. In short, if you're looking to try out a Spartan race, this one is a good one to start with. It didn't particularly kill me too much. I do have bruises to say otherwise, but do it with a group of friends who aren't in it for time and you'll have a blast.
L O C A T I O N
The race takes you in and around the bellies of AT&T Park. Parking is at A Lot which costs $15 even for volunteers. They used to have free parking for volunteers but my luck, it wasn't covered this year. It's a short little stroll to the park from there. If you're volunteering, you have to walk to the far otherside of the park to check-in.
V O L U N T E E R
As a volunteer, they send out an email a month in advance to sign up for your roles from Thursday-Sunday. If you do one full shift, you get a free shirt and a free race entry for this race or a future race but you still have to pay $14 for the insurance fee. Any extra shifts you take you get a discount at the store. So don't go thinking you can do multiple shifts and get free races for each of them. We signed up for the 7am-2pm Registration booth spot. They needed to do a little better job to introduce leaders of the area and the lead volunteer cause he kind of disappeared for us. Also they could've told us what we should do if certain things happened like, missing/lost chips, extra questions that we can't field, etc. They just kind of showed us how to scan things and said if we had any questions to go to the other booth where they were at, but there wasn't really time for us to run there and keep registering people. Anyways, as a volunteer we had to sign a waiver...another one outside of the online waiver. We did get a Firehouse sub lunch, chips, popcorn, granola bars, and water. Did we really have time to eat? Not really cause we were one of the first booths for registration. I had time to take bites between waves of people. I also ended up standing the whole time which took a bit of toll on my lower back. Goodness me, I clearly am getting old. After they did shut down our area to limit the registration tables, one of the area leads told us to go walk up and down to pick up trash, which if they had actual trash cans, would not be a big issue. Also they should've had gloves if this was going to be part of our jobs. After doing our shift we walked back and checked out, then straight back to registration to sign ANOTHER waiver...same ones again to run the volunteer run at 2pm which we ended up going closer to 2:45pm.
R A C E
As a racer, you have to go through security after you register. At this point there's no signs to say "Start" this way. I wish there was a sign, though we just assumed it was go up the escalator as the exit is at the same point. The bag check is inside for $5 and they man the tables until all bags are gone. The race starts towards first base. You get a 5ft wall to go over as a teaser. They also check for your heat time on your wrist so make sure you have it. After that they slowly release people. It took almost 15-20 minutes from that first wall to actually starting. The race itself was a lot of stair climbing which killed my calves and there's really no real space when you're in the stands to pass people, so you just have to take your opportunities to pass outside of the bleacher runs. I would suggest to look up videos for techniques to get past all the different obstacles like the herc hull, wall climbs, rope climb and spear throw as the other obstacles really don't have much technique. You just do it. Fortunately for us, the penalty for any incomplete obstacle you do was only 15 burpees. Standard is typically 30. So do lots of burpees for training.
O V E R A L L
Volunteering then racing is doable. Do it with a group of friends as it was super fun doing it with two of my friends. We all celebrated as we went over the 6ft, 7ft and finally 8ft walls. I wouldn't recommend this to people who don't already workout. You do have to train for this a little. I do cardio 4-5 times a week, weights or crossfit for 2-3 times a week and go on a hike at least once a week. So I wasn't too afraid of this though those walls were very intimidating. But as my first Spartan I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just wish there was more signage, and a better map to better plan for obstacles, though you can definitely youtube a course run to get a feel.
