Aroo, Aroo, Aray!

Metafit Tri Team skipper coach Fritz Co best summed it up when he said, the “Spartan race is a whole new beast, totally different from triathlon.”

Last Saturday, the Metafit Tri Team got its baptism of fire via the Spartan Sprint at the Foressa Park in Balamban, Cebu.  It is an obstacle race comprising of  6 km trail run with over 20 obstacles spread over the entire route. Three categories were featured – the elite wherein the best of the best from all over the world compete, the age-grouper and the fun which is also called the open category. In the fun/open category, you are allowed assistance from a teammate or from any participant in the same Category. But the rule is still applied for the mandatory obstacle that you need to complete and the penalty you need to perform in the event you fail in accomplishing the obstacle. Our newly-formed team  known as Meta-Spartan is composed of 3 groups headed by Metafit Tri Team co-captain Zusette Jarina Co, the participants ofour ongoing Boot Camp in Ayala and the Hot Mommy’s Boot Camp of Ateneo de Cebu.

The Spartan race is very ironic in the sense that some decades or maybe centuries ago in some part of the world, people are forced into slavery doing similar stuff in the Spartan race. The only difference now is that the participants or people are paying for it just to experience the same sufferings.

Our team has total of 27 entries with one elite in Rodanie Sundo. I registered Rodanie on an experimental basis. He has no formal experience in OCR races or even runnin. He does not go to the gym or lift weights. Rodanie is an ordinary blue-collar labor  workforce who works for me in my warehouse. He is an all-around guy – a messenger, carpenter, mason and laborer, but he does bike regularly to work every day. He survived the Spartan race with a decent time of 1 hour and 29 minutes, even faster than most of the elite athletes who trains 5 to 6 days in a week. Rodanie finished 36 out of 81 in the Elite male category.

In the age-group category, Zusette Co snatched 2nd place with a time of 1 hour and 42 minutes. Fr. Frere Clemente and Romulo Rosell finished 8th and 11th respectively,while Jo-dette Romaguera had a respectable 11th place.

The open category was a different story as the whole Meta-Spartan team started together all 22 brave warriors who had the courage like 300 Spartan warriors. We had one goal that was to finish the race together, “walang iwanan”. We even had one Spartan warrior in Manuel Recla who just came from Manila and headed straight to race course. Fortunately, we finished together with his 1d Canon on his side to take our photos.         

The trail was tough as we start with a 1km trail uphill with an estimated 600 to 800 meters ascent. There were 20 obstacles spread throughout the 6 km trail and and this is by far the toughest race I had ever joined. Imagine this, after trekking the hills of Foressa, you are greeted with a 7-foot wall that you need to climb over, then have to crawl on one-foot low cargo net, traverse through a monkey bar, then carry a 25 kilos sand bag trail through water, mud and rocks around 400 meters in distance. Afterwhich, you have throw a spear on to a target around 10 meters away. The worst part of the challenge is when you have to dive into a natural obstacle called “lungag sa kabaw” wherein you have to pull yourself through around 20 meters in distance inside the shitty, muddy, lurky pit. You had to make sure to close your mouth. Then worst of all, after this obstacle, you have to carry a bucket of gravel, which you are not allowed to put on your shoulder, through a technical route. The final 3 challenges was a rope climb, slippery wall, Hercules hoist, tire wall, the cargo net climb and jump through fire before you reach the finish line.

“Aroo, Aroo, Aray”. The whole team jumped over the fire together. All for one, one for all! Like a true Spartan warrior, together we conquer, divided we will fail! We are the Meta-Spartan.

SIDELINE:Congratulations are in place to the 1,200 finishers especially to our open category finishers Manuel Recla, Pimco Pimentel, Bernard Palermo, Michael Manabat, Lem and Emelyn Co, Christian and Kathleen Cullen, Sarah Lucero, Cheryl Tagra, Golda Grace, Anale and Nino Barte, Jen Tan, Emelie Fernandez, Eljie Capangpangan, Pamela Perez, Micheal Alson, John Gerona, Rondel Ornopia and Jocelyn Pagubo.  www.alanchoachuy.com