Muscle & Fitness‘ chief content officer, Zack Zeigler, is attempting to capture his first Spartan Trifecta — completing a Spartan Sprint (5 miles), Super (12-14 miles), and Beast (14-16 miles) all in one weekend.
Aroo! Aroo! Aroo! Moments before the 10:20 a.m. open heat for the 8-mile Super (which ended up being about 12-14 miles), one Spartan shows M&F how excited he is to take on the course. The first stop: a walk through the sacred ancient Spartan battlegrounds, which requires silence. Filming is prohibited there.
2 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
One Spartan racer after cruising through the first set of obstacles — crawling under a wall, going over a wall, and then through a hole in a third wall.
3 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
M&F‘s chief content officer, Zack Zeigler (left), slaps five and recieves some words of encouragement from a couple of fellow Spartans. Zack is attempting to capture his first Trifecta — completing a Spartan Sprint (5 miles), Super (12-14 miles), and Beast (14-16 miles) all in one weekend.
4 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
During the Super in Sparta, Greece, there were two barbed wire crawls — one through dirt and another through water. The key to blazing through the dirt: roll. The key to keeping a swift pace through the water: use your upper body to military crawl without allowing your knees or feet to drag.
5 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
Hartley Mafood, the Spartan Trifecta world-record holder, makes his way up a hill using a muddy rope as he nears the end of the Spartan Super.
6 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
Every rope at the plate drag was wet, muddy, and slick, causing it to take far more energy to complete than competitors thought when approaching the obstacle.
7 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
Making your way over all three of the wooden beams is deceptively awkward because of the height and position of each piece of wood.
8 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
A group of Spartans make their way over the vertical cargo net a few miles into the course.
9 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
A shot of Zack moments before he sank the spear throw during the Spartan Super. During his second attempt during the Sprint — the race that immediately followed the Super — he missed and was penalized 30 burpees.
10 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
A steeper cargo net met racers as they re-entered the town of Sparta. With the finish line in sight they’ll still need to tackle a few more obstacles, two of which — the rings and monkey bars — will test what grip strength they have left.
11 of 11
Erica Schultz/ M&F Magazine
Zack does his signature jump move as he crosses the finish line of the Spartan Sprint.
