by Faith Chojar, staff reporter

Climbing over eight foot walls, army crawling through the mud under barbed wire, climbing up a rope as fast as possible, jumping over fire and endless burpees are all apart of the new craze many know and love: the Spartan Race.
Spartan Race fits into the same category as the Tough Mudder, Iron Man, and Mudderella races, all being physically challenging obstacle courses which span from anywhere between three miles and a full marathon.

Racers run in different heats, beginning with the Elite at 7:30AM, Morning from 8-11AM, and Afternoon from 11-5PM. Each heat varies in price, Elite being the most expensive at $115.

Everyone is given the option to compete with a team, making one at registration and having everyone on the team sign up under that team name. Teams with over four people are eligible to be ranked in team standings.

“The Spartan Race seems like a lot of fun. It looks like a really big challenge and I’m going to do it. It’ll be easy,” future racer Petros Giannakopoulos said.

People at all fitness ranks can compete in a Spartan Race, the first level of them all being the Spartan Sprint, which is 3-5 miles long with 20-23 obstacles to the finish line. They increase in difficulty from there with the Spartan Super (8-10 miles, 24-29 obstacles), Spartan Beast (12-15 miles, 30-35 obstacles) and the Spartan Ultra Beast (26+ miles, 50+ obstacles).

Many people are in search of completing the Spartan Trifecta, which includes finishing the Sprint, Super and Beast races in one calendar year.

They also offer a ½ mile race for kids from ages 4-8 and a one mile race for kids ages 9-13. Anyone older than 14 is able to participate in a full race.

For the truest of the thrill seekers, the Spartan Death Race is held a few times a year in and around Pittsfield Virginia. These races have lasted for over 70 hours with no help from staff whatsoever.

“We don’t tell you when it starts. We don’t tell you when it ends. We don’t tell you what it will entail. We want you to fail and encourage you to quit at any time,” according to Death Race founders Joe Desena and Andy Weinberg.

Obstacle courses like this one have taken the world by storm with more and more beginners trying them each year. People are encouraged to take to social media to talk about what their motivation is for running, using the hashtag “Why I Race.”

People are able to “Race for a Reason” and can run in order to start raising money for over 40 official partners of Spartan Race or are able to raise money for a personal cause.

Failure to complete any one obstacles result in a 30 burpee penalty. Burpees begin standing upright, followed by squatting down, placing hands on the floor, kicking legs back into a pushup position, doing a pushup, returning back to the squat, and ending with a jump.

Upon completion of the race finishers are awarded a finisher’s medal, a trifecta medal wedge, a finisher t-shirt, free professional photos, bananas at the finish line, a Clif Builders protein bar and most importantly: bragging rights.