I have always wondered how people can motivate themselves to exercise. When I exercise, it feels good for a moment and then I feel like death has personally invited me to die.
Some people find their own motivation to complete spartan races and others find help in the people around them. The latter was the case for Brittanee.
Brittanee is a mother of three and loves to build things. She says that while she is a mess in the kitchen, her friends rely on her to help them build and create.
She also recently completed a spartan race. A spartan race is like a military obstacle race. It has many obstacles such as a rope climb or climbing over a seven-foot wall but there is also a sprint aspect to it where you run to each obstacle. You get very dirty.
When Brittanee first signed up for the race she was mostly motivated to loose weight from giving birth to her third child. She told me, “I have to work towards something. I can’t just work out to work out.”
But she saw her husband do the race before and she wanted to try it so she signed up.
Life didn’t go easy on her. While she was training, she was taking care of a newborn, helping plan a wedding, and taking care of her other kids as well. Brittanee said, “It was really hard to put time into it so when I got it done, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment because that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
While Brittanee was training, her kids started to watch. They soon wanted to work out with her. She said, “I just started incorporating them in my workouts and they loved it.” She would use her kids as weights and train that way and it became a fun way for her to spend time with them.
When you sign up for a spartan race, you don’t know what the course is going to be like. You train for things that could happen and then a couple of days before the race you learn what the exact course is.
Brittanee says that the founder of the spartan race, Joe De Sena, says that this is representative of life.
He also adds that people like to know what the course is going to be like. They want to know so they can be ready.
“That’s not how life works. You don’t know where to go and what challenges your life is going to give you ahead of time. I want you to be well rounded, prepared. And I want you to teach yourself to become mentally tough where whatever I throw at you, you will figure out how to handle it.” She paraphrased.
My favorite part of my conversation with her was when she told me that a couple of days before the race she threw out her shoulder.
A lot of the course that was shown was upper body strength which, with her shoulder, she couldn’t do.
When it came to those obstacles, she ended up relying on others strength.
“My dad would get on all fours on his hands and knees and I would step on his back so I can get over some of these really tall walls that I otherwise couldn’t,” Brittanee said.
She said that even though he is her dad and it was his job to help her, she found it helpful for someone to help her through the race instead of telling her to go around the wall.
Brittanee recalled that during the race she was running behind her dad and saw that there were footprints on his back from where she had stepped on him.
It brought tears to her eyes and she was grateful that while her dad was trying something new and it was hard for him, he was still lifting her up and helping her towards the finish line.
Her story is inspiring and teaches people that motivation is not a singular thing. While you can work hard by yourself to accomplish goals and become better, you can’t do it alone.
When you have others to help you over walls or make training a way to spend time with people you love while making it fun, motivation becomes easier.
It’s important to know that in life, we are not alone. There are so many people who love us who want to help us to get a place where we want to be.
Motivation does not mean alone. It means working together to make your world better.
