Spartan Chicked...The Beginnings

She had an idea, an idea to create an army, an army of women who know no fear, and would be willing to take on the mighty Beast that is Spartan Race. Well, when Spartan Race Brand Manager, Carrie Adams, envisioned the Spartan Chicked Army she knew it would be something special. It all started with an email July 5, 2011 -

"Hey ladies...

So we are all doing the Beast and I thought we could go as a "Team" with Spartan chicked gear and promote strong, awesome women. Tara the raddest graphic designer I know is putting together a logo and we'll get matching shirts ordered.  I want to have 10 on our team if we can, so if you know any others, let me know!!!  It's not about speed or ability either.   

For the race, my thought is - run YOUR race.  We run as a team in spirit but races are about meeting your goals so if you want to break out, by all means, it would be AWESOME for one of our ladies to come in first....

So, Tara can you send us some shirt options?  Performance gear is preferred in my opinion so NOT COTTON and in black.  Tank tops.  What do you all think?  :-)

Carrie"

From this simple email to Katy McCabe, Grace Coumo Durfee, Shonda Morris, Maurya Scanlon, Tara Julian (our graphic designer), Lisa Madden and myself (Margaret Schlachter). These were Carrie's original recruits to the Spartan Chicked Army. Handpicked for different reasons, to start her army. Little did we know back then where this short email would lead us all!

Over the next few days emails went back and forth we all helped pick out the Spartan Chicked Uniform. For a while we dubbed ourselves the "Best Roller Derby Team EVA" as at one point the socks were going to be black and pink striped. At this time we had added another woman to the team, Stacy Schuler, our army was slowly growing and by July 7, 2011 we had an official uniform.

Along the way we picked up Alyssa Tokorcheck and Monica Rondon, these two both had registered for the BEAST and were hesitant about running it alone. They found each other on the Spartan Race Facebook Page and decided to team up. Right away Carrie knew they needed to be on our Chicked Team, even changing their heat times to ensure they ran with this new army. 

As the weeks went on my conversations with Carrie became almost daily. Not only were we creating an army of women but also quickly I was finding an amazing network of women who were into the same "crazy" races I was. Our army continued to grow and Sherry Post enlisted. 

Carrie and Spartan Race have a way of sucking you in, next thing you know I was acting as the Spartan Chicked Team Manager. A title I would officially earn after car troubles sidelined a few teammates (Carrie, Katy, and Maurya) the night before the race. A week before the event I was getting all the women's names and uniform sizes. Carrie and I went up to communicating through Skype about twice a day, maybe more. Final plans were made for Lisa, Katy, Maurya, and Carrie to stay with me here in Killington. Interviews and camera crew were set to capture all the action of the first race with the Spartan Chicks. A recon mission of the mountain might also had popped up on YouTube for the ladies along the way. 

As of race day Carrie's dream of a Spartan Chicked Team (Army) had become a reality and what started out as seven women had grown to seventeen. The original list was:

Carrie Adams*

Grace Coumo Durfee*

Katy McCabe*

Shonda Morris

Lisa Madden*

Maurya Scanlon*

Margaret Schlachter*

Stacy Schuler

Monica Rondon*

Alyssa Tokorcheck*

Sherry Post

Samantha Dodd

Angela Kalai

Marissa McGuirk

Lisa Demetrio

Jane Miglis

Barbara Olsen

* Indicates ran in Competitive Heat. 

Our team on race day spanned over 20 years and represented nine states and we even had one international from Canada. Although the team did not all race together that day they all carried the Spartan Chicked Spirit. A core group of women ran in the competitive heat, ready to take on Spartan Race's best all shrouded in our official Spartan Chicked Uniform.

To Be Continued....