I recently had the opportunity to get involved with the Spartan Race. It was an incredible opportunity and I’m extremely grateful for it. Everyone I had the privilege of interacting with was happy, welcoming, and extremely positive, especially the competitors. They were so psyched to be racing, or rather just running, a lot of them weren’t necessarily competing but there for the experience of being a Spartan, which is an incredible accomplishment. The race was grueling, the obstacles even more so. I was lucky enough to witness people pushing themselves past their own self perceived limits to find out what they truly had inside. There was plenty of fear and exhaustion, muscles no longer responding to the commands of the brain, but Spartan folks race together. They pushed each other and were there to lift up their companions when they could no longer lift themselves. The community made sure that every single individual had the support to finish the race, and that was extremely cool to see. In a world where the powers that be seek to divide us and turn us against each other, here were people from every background, every ethnicity, every size and shape, coming together to empower each other. They did it through overwhelming kindness and love. All I could see were smiles and camaraderie, that and a lot of mud… I’m proud I can be a part of the Spartan Race. Proud to give these folks images to remind them of the beautiful struggle of physical exhaustion, because like them, I’m also a glutton for suffering.
