On Sunday, June 19, I participated in a Spartan Race in Tuxedo, New York. It was a 5.2-mile obstacle course race with 21 obstacles stationed along the way. Some of the challenges included climbing over a 12-foot wall, carrying a 50-pound sandbag up and down a hill, throwing a spear into a target, rolling under barbed wire (uphill), and leaping over a fire pit. It is considered the toughest obstacle course race in the world, and I completed the first of three increasingly more difficult races, called the Spartan Sprint. The Spartan Super (8–10 miles) and the Spartan Beast (12–14 miles) remain to be conquered.

As I drove home from the race that day, battered, bruised, scraped, sore and covered in mud, I asked myself why I paid money to take part in what most people would have considered a truly insane endeavor.

I continued to think about it over the course of the day, until I finally sat down that night and put my thoughts on paper. This is what I wrote…

At a time when the world is getting smaller and the scandals in the newspaper larger,

I ran.

At a time when innocents are being murdered and the threat of terrorism lurks over our heads,

I climbed.

At a time when politicians are slandering and endlessly arguing,

I crawled.

At a time when all seems wrong with the world…

I jumped.

For the first time in my life, I rolled under barbed wire, threw a spear and hauled a sandbag up a hill.

And though my body ached, my lungs begged for air, and my feet stung as I ran over the infinite number of rocks on those hills, I was at peace.

I became part of a time before civilization; before cell phones, cars, suits and bright multi-colored socks. Just me, the war paint on my face, the hills, the trees, the clouds, the birds gliding through the air and the hundreds of people who decided that today was going to be a different day.

Today we were all thrust into the primal environment of a time long forgotten. Today, we decided, was not going to be a day of sadness, apathy or vanity. Today was going to be a day of inspiration. Today was going to be a day in which we were bound together, in blood, sweat and tears.

Today we were united through a common purpose on those hills. We learned that the obstacles in our lives, which we used to view as impenetrable walls, are merely walls made of wood, and can be climbed over.

Today we learned that in the woods, we can find the answers to some of life’s most puzzling questions, and the solutions to its most pressing problems.

Today we came to a better understanding of what Thoreau meant when he said, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach… I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life…”

By Yaakov Samuels

Yaakov Samuels is a history teacher at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School. He has been training in fitness and martial arts for over 25 years. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Teaneck.