Victory to the spartans

Michelle, owner of NewFit Personal training in Beaconsfield with her husband Shane Newman. Picture: CONTRIBUTED

By Brendan Rees

Gritty. Resilient. Passionate.

That was the mind set for a group of fitness fanatics from NewFit Personal Training in Beaconsfield who put their bodies on the line in one of the world’s most gruelling obstacle courses on Saturday 2 March.

The team, consisting of 24 people, reigned supreme by taking out the Team Award at the Spartan Australia Race held at Tooradin Estate.

The event was the first time to be held in the City of Casey where participants encountered a rope climb, sandbag carrying, running through mud, jumping over fire, tackling monkey bars, throwing spears, ring obstacles, jumping over fire, crawling under wire and more.

Owner of NewFit Personal Training Michelle Newman said her team was overwhelmed with their victory.

“It was a really successful day and outcome,” she said. “It was definitely challenging and really good teamwork.

“Everyone is feeling really energised and pretty proud of themselves to be able to complete such an event.”

The team trained for about three months which included boot camp classes.

When asked taking on the extreme obstacles on the day, Michelle says some were “petrified.”

“It’s also been a bit of a mental battle for some of them; trying to encourage them to get their head around what they’re up for and change their way of thinking.

“Some people have never even run a kilometre before now I’ve got them running 13 kilometres,” she said.

“We’ve got signs in my gym about positive vibes only and I don’t want to hear ‘I can’t.’”

Michelle’s team also “created a bit of attention” as they competed in black tops with fluorescent orange text displaying ‘NewFit Spartan.’

Michelle says she hopes to organise more teams in future events.

“Hopefully trying to get bigger and better and be able to go in other events, and double the amount of people that would be amazing for me.

“All of our other clients are saying ‘we want to be on your team next’,” she said.