So I was going to write about gear and such today for race day, but as my day often drives the post it’s theme changed. This morning started off early on my paddleboard following my training partner around the lake. This time I brought music to entertain myself and took TONS of pictures and video. The morning was amazing, the mist on the lake and calmness in the air worth every minute of getting up at 5:30am on my day off. Had to post a picture from this morning so many great ones but this was my favorite.

After I got back to the school it was time to switch gears into kid mode for the day. It’s day 3 of our dryland camp and we planned a different sort of workout for them today, a trip over to Amee Farm and Spartan Death Race training, kids style. The kids have been obsessed with the Spartan Race and Death Race series every since I became involved with it.

We started off the day with the kids watching the video from this year’s race on SpartanRace TV, and the first question they asked was, “Do you know the guy who shaved his eyebrows? Can we see his tattoos?” Luckily enough Jason lives and works in Pittsfield, and happens to be my training partner, so that made the kids day before even reaching Pittsfield. He was game at lunchtime to talk to them. Thanks Jason!

I had coordinated with Matt some trail work for the kids and other activities for the day over on Joe’s Mountain earlier in the week. He has the 666 Race this weekend so it worked out perfectly for the kids to clean some rocks out of the trail among other things. The kids had a blast, you can check out the post written on the KMS BOOST Blog today —HERE—. Thanks goes out to Matt for taking the time to work with the kids! His passion for the trails really shined though!

I have to say the kids were pretty impressive considering how young they are, they pushed it hard today. They hiked several miles, moved a bridge (same one’s the Death Racers move over 1/4 of a mile at least), crossed a river, memorized a zip code and dragged sleds. Watch the video and check out how they got through the memorization piece, so it takes a 10 year old to figure that one out! We have so much to learn from kids. Everyone pushed hard but smiles were abound.

Great work to the KMS J4 Dryland Campers! Can’t wait until next time. We will definitely see all these kids racing next year in a Spartan kids race. A couple walked away already talking about doing the Death Race when they turn 18!

So this post took a turn, but I had to give these kids props because they are simply amazing kids! So my day off was far from it but the experiences the kids had in the woods today were priceless and well worth every minute and that’s what it’s all about motivating kids and adults to get out and explore!