SMS teachers conquer Spartan Race

SANDPOINT — Some teachers celebrate their retirement by doing things like traveling, laying on a beach, gardening or even nothing at all, if that’s what sounds most tempting.

Not recently retired Sandpoint Middle School P.E. teacher Jana Shields.

She chose to celebrate by crawling in mud under barbed wire, climbing, sliding down a 200 foot slip and slide into mud, and to cap it all off, running through fire.

It was all part of the recent Spartan Race, which drew more than 4,200 brave souls to Washougal, Wash., for a muddy 5K sprint race that included more than 20 obstacles.

Not exactly standard retirement fare for most people, but the fun-filled and mud covered race was right up Shields’ alley.

“That was my celebration,” said Shields, 60, of her recent retirement. “It was a challenge, but it was a lot of fun. This cracks me up, but I finished first in my age group.”

Shields finished the challenging and demanding race in right around an hour and a half. She said the biggest challenge was keeping a good attitude, as the often demanding obstacles kept coming one right after the other for more than three miles.

Like all the competitors, she had to jump over burning and smoking logs, crawl through mud with barbed wire threatening overhead, climb a 20-foot cargo net, negotiate monkey bars, pick up a huge truck tire, throw a javelin, and even climb up an incline that was covered with soap to make it more slippery.

Heats of 300 people would go off each half hour. Some of the obstacles proved too difficult, and competitors only got one chance. Failure resulted in 30 “burpees,” also known as squat thrusts or up downs, which is a tiring task in its own right.

The idea to race was hatched in the SMS teacher’s lounge, where former SHS teacher K.C. McLaughlin was describing a similar race that he and his wife had done in Boise.

Shields and fellow teachers Caitlyn Sandell, who also runs marathons, and Jake Peterson decided to take the muddy challenge.

“We were sitting and talking and said ‘that sounds like fun,’ ” recalled Shields, who didn’t rule out trying the race again and plans to do the WACANID bike ride later this fall. “At my age, I need to do a new challenge every year.”

Jake Peterson, who also coaches football at SHS, conquered the race in 58 minutes and 53 seconds, good enough for 362nd place out of more than 4,200 competitors.

He said the toughest part was crawling under barbed wire for what seemed like forever on the whoop section of a motocross course, part of the local race venue.

“My knees are scraped and I have bruises on my legs,” said Peterson, who plans to do a similar Dirty Dash race in Missoula in September. “Throwing the spear might have been the most fun part. How often to you get to do that?”