This Spartan Warrior Kid called Ewan

Posted by May November 11, 2018

This Spartan Warrior Kid called Ewan

Media Invite

This is Ewan's first Spartan Kids Race and there is no better first course for him than this one at Bukit Timah Saddle Club [BTSC]. It is muddy and challenging which got him to push himself out of his bar with this route! Faye and him were signed up for the March 2018 race but he fell terribly ill with fever. Then his sister decided that the medal she brought home that race at Sentosa will be in honour of her brother - This Spartan Warrior Kid called Faye. Kids who love top the Spartan title a notch!

It was an exhausting weekend for Ewan starting from Friday where he went for his K2 graduation overnight camp at Kidzania. We picked him up at his "campsite" and continued the next five hours in Kidzania attending a media event and threw in a lot more role-plays in the establishments. Then off we went for another media event which ended quite late! Oh my boy. Please do not fall sick again on the day of your Spartan race which happens to be the very next day? And we are to catch a flight to Ho Chi Minh right after the race!

Thank goodness he was all energetic and raring to go. He was sore about not making it for the March 2018 Sentosa Race and he was not about to give this one a miss.

We arrived an hour earlier at BTSC to get the children soaked into the Spartan atmosphere and joined in the fringe activities at Festival Village. There was Milo truck which the children ran to and downed cups after cups of their favourite energy drink, an Archery set up by Credance, Photo Booth by Volvo, a mini Obstacle Course and Breeze had a drop kid in water game and lots more! There was also a mass warm-up at different time slots to prepare the racers for the staring line.

At the starting line with the rest of the four to six year olds, Ewan looked every bit a very clean Spartan. He Aroo-ed with the crowd, gave his don't-mess-with-me face and raced forward without looking back from start to end! The kind of kid like me who doesn’t mind the mud, presses on even when he sees stars, doesn’t look back and has his mind set on the finishing line. I was seeing stars myself as I chased him with my DSLR and camera phone to document stills and motion clips! At the same time shouting, “EWAN! GOOD JOB! YOU GO KID! WOOHOOO!” Some other parents and volunteers were impressed with him because of his “gender” and went, “YOU GO GIRL!” Oh he has been mistaken as a girl ever since we stopped bringing him for hair cuts.

This 800m course for the four to sixes was a lot more challenging than what Faye did at Sentosa. There were 11 obstacles with one very steep muddy ditch parents were unable to follow through with. I had to run off to round up with him on the other side and missed watching him do the Mud Crawl and Log Carry. The mud made the course considerably harder than what a beach race has to offer.

At the ditch, Ewan had his shoe stuck in the mud. It was a proud moment to watch him climb the rope with one hand clutching his loose shoe, slipping a little and trying hard not to give up. I didn’t think he could do it but sheer determination was just what this kid needed to succeed.

When he had his medal put over his head, I excitedly asked him for an AROO! But all he could mouth was a weak one and panted the rest of his way to the water station.

This Spartan Kid rocked it!

FEAR has two meanings:

1. Forget everything and run

2. Face everything and rise

He made his choice and he celebrated this glorious moment with, "When is my next race?"

His next race [together with Faye who will be getting her Trifecta medal] will be on 1 December 2018 at Iskandar Puteri, Johor!

Of course the children need to be trained mentally and physically to take up this challenge. We followed a Training Plan [although this is meant for the sixes and up] to hype the kids up.