Friday was the 3km short course with 15 obstacles. Many of my friends were running so I decided to volunteer for the morning. I was stationed at an obstacle called Dragons back. You climbed a 7ft wall with a slight incline, grabbed a green bar to pull yourself to the top of the platform. You then had to jump a 6ft gap to grab another green bar, pull yourself atop another platform and perform a 2nd jump then climb down the backside to complete the obstacle. my job was to Marshall the obstacle and be the ‘dream killer’ (as I called it) and cut their bands if they couldn’t or wouldn’t complete the obstacle and you’d be surprised just how many bands we had to cut. 
You were allowed multiple attempts of each obstacle if needed but you had to go into a retry lane. This obstacle wasn’t physically difficult but was very mentally challenging. There were some who would freeze in fear( spending 20-35minutes there before taking the leap or giving up) even a few of the PRO woman struggled with this. I did too, when I fist arrived on course in the morning the other volunteers had already tried it. They encouraged me to try it as well so I scrambled up the wall and was frozen atop the platform it looked so far down and such a wide jump. I don’t really like heights and I haven’t done anything like this before so I was nervous. After a few minutes the race was starting and I chickened out and scrambled down, but vowed to try it before the day was through. After coaching and cheering on a woman from the USA named Cheryl who stood there for 20 minutes and then gave up. I was determined to shake my fear before the big race on Saturday. In between heats of athletes I got back on top and conquered my fear of Dragons back and was ready for the race.
*highlights of volunteer day
Seeing people overcome their fears, others who stayed to encourage those who were stuck, watching the pros Hunter Macintyre, Ryan Atkins, Lindsay Webster, Captain NBC, Allison Tai, Michelle Warnky (I may have fangirled
a wee bit) and many of our West coast Spartan pros Austin Azar, Tom Petryshen, Josh Stryde, Frankie Fuchs and many more.
The construction guy who was working across the street from the obstacle who cut onto the course, flew up the wall, jumped over Dragons back, jumped off and then ran back to work all while wearing jeans and work boots 😂😂 (maybe next year he should try out for worlds) all in all it was a wonderful day of cheering, encouraging, coaching and being a part of behind the scenes action. I highly recommend volunteering to anyone who races.
