Crazy fun

A Spartan pushes mind and body to their limits.

Check.

A Spartan knows her flaws as well as her strengths.

Check.

Learns continuously. Gives generously. Leads.

Check. Check. And check.

It is as if the Spartan Code was written specifically for Lauren Ho. Her successful background in cross country, track and soccer gave her the athletic and mental base to compete professionally in obstacle course racing and extreme obstacle racing.

The Spartan Race, a world-wide OCR series, describes itself as unforgettable, pure, primitive craziness. With obstacles such as spear throwing and football toss-into-garbage cans, and "burpees" instead of time penalties, it’s fitness, fun and insanity run on a course that can be anywhere between three and five miles with tasks that are unknown to the competitors until they are faced.

In a word: perfect — for the 26-year-old Ho, a six-time state champion at Hawaii Baptist (track and cross country) who went on to compete at the University of Washington (track and cross country) and the University of Hawaii (soccer as a graduate student).

"It (OCR) kind of combined everything I wanted to do in one event," said Ho, who is a sponsored member of the EOR Atlas Race Pro Team. "It’s a little different and a little crazy. What makes it exciting is that it’s so unpredictable. It’s any person’s race.

"A friend told me about it and said, ‘You have to do this, you’d be great at this.”’

Ho has been. In her first race, she placed third at last year’s Hawaii Spartan Sprint at Kualoa Ranch. This despite going off course for about five minutes; she was six seconds out of second.

That, she said, motivated her as well as helped her focus.

"It was kind of a reality check," Ho said. "I’m thinking that this is awesome, this is what I’m supposed to be doing and then me and two other guys went off course.

"That’s the reality of obstacle racing. Whatever happens happens. And it could happen at any time," said Ho, on staff at UH’s Center on Disabilities Studies. "It teaches you to enjoy when you do well. A lot of things have to align and it keeps you grounded. You train to expect the unexpected and to be prepared for anything. Sometimes you’re not."

Ho went on to win her division at the Atlas Race in Medford, Ore., which solidified her spot on the Atlas pro team. She’s never finished lower than fifth in either Spartan or Atlas racing, most recently taking second at the March 23 Spartan sprint event at Aloha Stadium.

Ho was in third for most of the event, eventually catching New York’s Karlee Whipple and Nevada’s KK Paul going into the cargo-net climb finale. Ho slipped but beat out Whipple to finish in 34:46, two seconds behind Paul (34:44).

If it hadn’t been for those "burpees" Ho feels she likely would have won. Burpees require athletes to do a pushup, jump into a standing position and follow with a jumping jack motion.

Not completing an obstacle results in 30 burpees. Ho was unsuccessful on two consecutive obstacles — tossing a football into a row of trash cans and spear throw — and found herself 60 burpees down midway through 20 obstacles.

"Those take a lot out of you," she said.

One obstacle nearly did her in, a 60-pound sandbag carry over a mile that was mostly a steep incline on a sand-dune-like surface in Temecula, Calif.

"It was like climbing on a super steep beach," Ho said. "It was the first time I thought I might not be able to do this, it rocked my world. But with Atlas, the top five make the podium, and I finished fifth."

The 5-foot-5, 125-pound Ho stays in elite racing shape by varying her own workouts, playing soccer with the Rustbuckets in the Women’s Islandwide Soccer Association as well as holding fitness bootcamps. She has a CrossFit Level I certification and particularly enjoys training women, which includes a neighborhood group that involves her mother, Sandra.

"It’s fun and rewarding," said Ho, whose donation-only workouts are on Wednesdays and Sundays in Kailua. "I had never seen my mom run, and now when I tell her to do a mile for time, she does it. It’s open to anyone and the rewarding part is knowing they would not be doing the things they are doing on their own. They don’t think they can do things, but I tell them they can and they do it."

(Contact Ho at lauren.shiulin.ho@gmail.com for information).

Her next challenge is Sunday’s Hapalua, a half-marathon through Waikiki and around Diamond Head that uses a "chase" format. Ho is in a group of elite Hawaii runners that will be given a head start of 21 minutes over world-class Kenyan pros Patrick Makau and Peter Kiriu.

It will be her first road half-marathon; she has done two trail ones at the 13.1-mile distance.

"Trails are more in my wheelhouse," said Ho, seventh at last year’s XTERRA World Championship. "But I’m excited to have this opportunity to be out there with a lot of great talent and honored to be part of Team Hawaii."

Being in the lead pack changes her mental approach.

"Usually my obstacle race strategy is to stay with the lead pack or front-runner through at least the first quarter of the race," she said. "But being with the front-runners, the goal is to let as few people pass as possible.

"Regardless of my outcome, I know I’ll leave everything I have on the course."