Week 10 Essay

          This week I learned about the Crusades; a series of wars between the Europeans/Crusaders and the Muslims, and it started because the Muslims were coming into Europe and taking over their land. There were 8-9 Crusades, but only the First, Third, and Sixth Crusades were in any way successful in reaching their goal: reclaiming the Holy Land or Jerusalem. Most of these wars were not won by the Crusaders, because they went off-track.

          People face hard goals in life, much like the Crusades. Sometimes they get distracted on other goals, and other times they finish their mission. In this essay, I am going to write about something hard I faced in my life, and what the outcome was. I will also compare it to the Crusades.

          Something very hard in my life was a Spartan Race. Spartan Races are muddy, difficult, obstacle courses. You climb ropes and walls, carry buckets of sand, crawl under barbed wire and nets and more. I did the 2 mile one, which has the same obstacles, but they are shorter, so that it is a little bit easier, because it is one of the kid’s Spartan Races. But I live in a kind of desert, so there was no mud like the adult’s Spartan Race. Instead, there were dead plants, cacti, dirt and rocks, as I was climbing steep, rocky hills.

          Also, not everyone has to race, instead those people, like me, focus on finishing the race and getting the shirt and metal.

          I did the Spartan Race with my friend, which was like the Crusades when other countries joined in on the fight. Again, much like the Crusades, we started off determined to finish the race. At the beginning of the race, we crawled under a net, which held us back because my shirt got caught on it, but we kept going. We strongly, slowly, and carefully went down the hill (I am very thankful that I did not break my ankle on the rocks) and did the obstacles blocking the path. My friend skipped a few that were too hard for her, and she did the extra lap or push-ups, but I did all of the obstacles.

          By the time we got to the sand-bucket carrying, which was about halfway through the first mile, I was tired, and dehydrated. There was only one water station so far, which had cups that were three inches tall, and we could only have one because they were running out of water. We were also racing in the desert, with no shade, in the middle of June.

          When we began to climb back up the hill, on a different trail, I decided to take a break and sit down for a few seconds. I sat down on a rock, facing downhill, and I am afraid of heights. I began to feel nauseous, and got up and kept moving, but the heat, height, and lack of water forced me to sit down every few steps. Then I began to feel dizzy, like I was about to faint!

          I asked my friend how far away the next water station was, and she said about 65-80 feet! I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to walk that long, at least without falling, and I told her that. So she ran ahead to our parents waiting for us at the top of the hill, which meant we had completed the first half. She grabbed her water and came back down. In the meantime, I had tried to walk a few steps, but I did not get far.

          I drank some of her water, and she went up the hill again. When she came back, she had my father with her. He had just finished his race and came to see mine and my sibling’s races. He carried me up the hill, and going over the path-directing rope, put me in one of my family’s chairs.

          I drank a lot of water and worked on pricking the cacti that I accidentally sat on out of my leg as my dad did the race with my siblings. I wanted to finish the race, so I was upset that I did not. When he came back I told him, and we finished the first mile together, racing to the finish line at the end. I got the T-shirt and the metal, even though I only did one mile.

          Like the Crusades, in the beginning, I was determined to complete my goal, but I got tired, and got distracted, only thinking about water, and I did not finish my mission. It is okay though, because when I do the Spartan Race again, I will come prepared. But unlike the Crusades, my friend helped me during the race, and my family and I are all very grateful that she is such a good friend. I am so excited to see how I can compare my life to what I am learning about next week.