Meet member Jamie Stephenson, a Spartan champion!

Jamie Stephenson pictured centre with other finalists at the Spartan Race Podium

Meet Jamie Stephenson, a longstanding Salford Community Leisure member since 2008 and attendee of CrossFit SCL bootcamps.

Outside of the gym and being a regular face at our CrossFit SCL bootcamp classes, Jamie competes in Spartan events. These events, simply put are the world’s leading obstacle race series. There are different distance events for different levels and styles of racing.

Jamie tells us about his passion and how his training through the gym and bootcamp classes supports his training plan –

Tell us a bit about how you got into Spartan races and how long you’ve been competing?

I discovered Obstacle Course Racing during the pandemic. In the year leading up to the lockdowns, I had got back into fitness after an 8 year hiatus where I had put on lots of weight and was in very poor shape so I had made a concerted effort to lose weight and to motivate myself I entered a few races.

When C-19 hit and all the events got cancelled I discovered Tough Mudder and other OCR races were doing online challenges and I really got into them and also enjoyed engaging with the community. By the time were were allowed back out to play, I couldn’t wait to give my first one a try.

What is it that appealed about Spartan obstacle races?

I loved it – mainly because it added a new dimension to running! I was never a fan of running if I’m honest but the inclusion of strength and agility elements as well as a variety of conditions underfoot made it far more ‘interesting’. Discovering Spartan took those same elements and put them into a competition scenario. With Spartan, there are strict rules with penalties for non-completion of obstacles (unlike Tough Mudder) and I felt myself pushing myself harder each time I raced to be better than I was before.

How does your training at CrossFit SCL help?

I genuinely believe it was the training I’ve been doing at CrossFit SCL which gets me through the race. I work myself pretty hard – I train at Eccles Leisure Centre six times a week myself, but no matter how hard I try, I don’t get the same intensity I get with the team at CrossFit.

The coaches there are fantastic and the Functional Bootcamp sessions I attend really help me push myself to my limits and it has improved my performance no end.

I started off running in the Open category because I was still learning the ropes so to speak but looking at the results made me realise I was good for my age and I stood a realistic chance of medals if I were to enter the serious competition especially seeing as in the next season I would move up an age category and technically be one of the youngest in my group.

What has your Spartan journey so far looked like?

Two years ago, I ran my first season and amazingly hit the podium in all my races! I knew then that the following year I should have a crack at the Regional Race Series Championships. Within each of the global markets, Spartan offer a championship series where certain races offer points similar to Formula One scoring for your position where the person with the most points after the 3 races covering the 3 distances Spartan do (Sprint 5k, Super 10k & Beast 21k) wins the overall title.

I got off to a great start winning the first race, the Beast at Henley. In the second, the Super at Belvoir Castle, I came 2nd to the guy who came second to me at Henley so we went into the final race, the Sprint at Badminton equal on points. Whoever placed the highest in the race would win the Series.

This was my first time racing the Sprint, I prefer the longer distances so I was unsure of how to pace myself correctly to get round the course. Any thought about tactics went straight out of the window as soon as we started as I was determined to go out as hard as I could for as long as I could. Much to my amazement, my cardio fitness was ahead of what I was expecting and the early lead I took, saw me cross the finish ahead of my rival finishing the podium and with it the series, in the same order as Henley.

When is your next race?

I now have a few months to start building my foundations for next season’s opener in Henley. Obviously, I have placed a bit of pressure on myself to win the National Series next year but we have some new runners coming up into our age group who are going to provide some serious competition and friendly rivalry. Although we are serious competitors, there is still a great community throughout Obstacle Sports and being fun and friendly is still one of the reasons I love turning up time after time.

We can’t wait to see what’s next Jamie, good luck! If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of a CrossFit membership take a look here.

If you’re a current SCL member, don’t forget you can attend CrossFit SCL bootcamps as part of your membership!

Chris Smith, Head Coach at CrossFit SCL says:

‘I’m so impressed with what Jamie has achieved and the way this man trains is unbelievable. Hard work truly does pay off’.