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Hundreds Attend Workout To Help Prepare For Spartan Race

By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new kind of race is gaining momentum across the country. Hundreds of people attended a workout Saturday preparing for the Spartan Race in the fall at Citizens Bank Park.

Those preparing for the race were invited to a complimentary workout to get ready for the big event. It was led by Spartan workout taskmaster Don Devaney.

"We have multiple obstacles that are challenges mentally, physically and emotionally," Devaney says. "This workout series has been developed to prepare people for that."

Close to 700 people showed up for the workout with ten times that amount expected on race day.

Devaney says the Spartan race has gained a lot of traction over the past several years.

"We're in 19 countries," he said. "We started in 2010 in Pittsville, Vermont, we have a corporate office in Boston, now we're looking at this becoming an Olympic sport!"

So what are some of the biggest challenges in the race?

"Rope climb, so there's height. Getting over a wall, I mean, metaphorically and physically. Ten -foot walls. We have eight-foot walls. We have seven-foot walls," Devaney says. Mud is a big part of it, but it's not the only part. There's terrain challenges, people are using their upper bodies to flip tires, to do all sorts of stuff like that."

Competitors can take part in a 3-mile, 8-mile or half-marathon Spartan Race on September 20 at Citizen's Bank Park.

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