Grit League

Near the end of the school year last year, I was looking online for Spartan info in my area.  I stumbled across Grit League.  It is run by the same guy who volunteers his time for free Spartan training twice a week.  He has obstacles set up at his house and he has a lot of experience with the races.  I saw a few pictures of this kids version and I thought it looked really fun!  But also hard.  I wanted to put my kids in immediately.  But I was determined not to overload our summer with obligations.  So I asked the kids if it was something they wanted to do.  All three of them said yes!  I was a bit nervous that they would think it was too hard and hate it.  I was worried it would be too long for Sadie (she was supposed to be in the younger age group but I didn't want to wait around for two hours instead of one each week, so I had her run with the older kids.)  The way they have it set up works out perfectly.  It's not a 1-2 mile course.  It's a 400-600 yard circle.  And they do as many laps as they can in the allotted time.  The first day Sadie did two laps and said she was tired so she played with Kaden on the playground.  After awhile she decided she wanted to go again so she did one more lap.

Sadie's group, Kinder-2nd grade, didn't keep track of laps and their course was a bit easier (gallons of water instead of sandbags, shorter walls).  But Kylee and Dylan's group got a white wrist band with every lap and competed for the most laps with all the kids their age.  If they got the most laps, even tied with others, they earned a special "gold" medallion on their dog tag necklace at the end of the year.  Dylan placed first maybe half the time in his group.  He did awesome.  Kylee is an animal, though.  The first race she was waiting for Sadie for two laps, and still she got second place I think.  The next race we brought her friend Averi so she was waiting for her.  I finally told her she needed to do her best and not wait for anyone!  She took second place a LOT.  There was one girl in her age that just always beat her by one!  There were two races that girl was not there and Kylee got first both times.  She probably would've tied the girl on those races because she really killed it.  Her and two other boys were the only ones to get seven laps on this one really hard race at the sand dunes.  Anyway, she got first those two times and then I think she tied that girl once or twice.

I was SO impressed with how they all did.  Sadie did take breaks sometimes, but most of the time she ran her heart out!  She was trying to keep up with Kylee at first so she was running really hard!  The next race was the friend race (we got to bring a friend, and they all decided to sign up for the rest of the season because it is so much fun!) and the friend she brought was Brynlee who is in 4th grade so obviously faster.  Sadie tried really hard to keep up with her.  The rest of the time she just did her best without the motivation of keeping up with someone.  She worked so hard!  Honestly, she's not usually the toughest chick...  She whines a lot when we try to hike or walk too long.  But this race is the perfect mixture of fun and work.  The obstacles are fun so they keep you distracted from how hard you are working.  

I loved this!  And so did everyone else that tried it.  We will definitely do it again assuming all my kids want to.  I won't push them to do it.  I have a feeling they will want to though.

 Throwing sponges at moving targets, haha

 Kaden was ready to do it too!  This one day he did not stop running the whole time!  We ended up down on the running track (Freeman Park) and he ran and ran and ran until I finally yelled at him to turn around.  He eventually fell and scraped his knee, but he didn't cry, he said "uggghhh."  And then later he would sit down and look at his knee and say, "I have a red owie, a white owie, and a black owie". (Blood, dry skin, and black from the pavement)  He's a pretty cool kid.

 It was so hot they were squeezing the sponges out on their heads, lol.

 Sandbag carry

 Spear throw with foam spears.  If you missed you had to do five burpees.

 They had challenges each week to earn grit bands that they got to keep (the white ones were turned in after every race).  One of them was carrying something 20-30 lbs for a mile.  I only got a picture of Dylan doing that one.  Others were burpees every day, walking a mile barefoot, and they got weird like standing at 'attention' for five or ten minutes.  Ninja burpees blindfolded or in the dark and completely silent?  Anyway, it was fun!  And challenging!

 He can not wait until he's old enough!!

 The sand dunes were the hardest races!

 Tire pull!

 They had one race near the end that was a parent vs kid race so I got to race alongside them.  They both wanted to beat me so bad!  But I won by like one lap I think.  It was more tiring than I had expected (though I had swam like 1.5 miles in the lake that morning and completed a fast triathlon two days before that so...)  Dylan was exhausted and dehydrated and they were out of water cups and he refuses to share germs with his sisters.  So he wasn't happy in the picture.  Plus, he was a little bugged that I beat him.