Spartan City 3K Abu Dhabi at Etihad Arena | Race Day Experience

So my Spartan City race started almost 11AM (original sched was 10:30). After 200 meters or so, we headed outside the arena for the wall jump obstacles. Then, next, we're running toward the beach for the under the water obstacle. The whole race kept changing. One moment you're inside the arena, then you're outside running under the sun, then back inside again. It really kept things interesting because you never knew what was coming next. There were around 15 obstacles along the way — sandbag carries, walls, cargo nets, bucket carries, rope challenges, monkey bars, and several grip obstacles. Some were fun. Some were humbling. The turning point for me was the rope climb and monkey bars. Since we had already gone through the beach, by the time we reached the harder upper-body obstacles, the bars were already wet and slippery. And honestly, people were falling everywhere. I fell too. Many of us kept trying again and again. I eventually skipped three obstacles. To be fair, some of them felt a little different from the usual Spartan Sprint obstacles I'm used to. But that's not an excuse. I could have trained better. I could have worked more on my upper-body strength. I could have prepared more. At some point, I also had to be practical. Falling from those obstacles onto concrete wasn't a risk I wanted to take. One bad landing can affect work, family, and everything else outside the race. Spartan has a funny way of exposing exactly what you need to improve. So no, I didn't complete every obstacle. But I left knowing exactly what I need to work on before the next race. No excuses. Just lessons. And training starts again tomorrow lol.