Be prepared to lose your shoes - and watch your spirit soar

Before I'd jumped over the fire obstacle and crossed the finish line, I was not 100 percent sure that I could survive the Spartan Race.

But I made it.

After bagging a blue medal for the Super race, I then went on to collect the other two - red for the Sprint and green for the Beast - in August and became a member of the trifecta club, which was absolutely not what I imagined when I first learned about the series.