A team of St. Luke's employees recently worked together to compete in the Spartan Race.

Inspired by ancient Spartan warriors who embodied ultimate en-durance, resilience and strength, each Spartan Race is designed to push participants to tap into their highest potential and greatest strength.

The Spartan Race is a series of obstacles of varying distance and difficulty. They include fire jump, barbed wire crawl, wall climb and carrying a bucket of rocks, log jump, rope climb and more.

Participants must complete the obstacles set out in front of them or perform penalty exercises.

For Justin Houck, director of environmental services at St. Luke's University Hospital, Bethlehem, participating in the Spartan Race gave him something to train for throughout the year.

"You never know what to expect so you have to train for anything that could show up on the course," Houck said. "It is fun being outside and challenging yourself further than you ever thought possible."

Kevin McGovern, vice president of operations for St. Luke's University Health Network, and team St. Luke's organizer, participated in his second Spartan Race.

His son and daughter joined him in the adventure.

"My goal was to get in better shape, finish the race with a good time, not get hurt and have fun with my family and friends," he said. "I plan to participate next year and build our St. Luke's team.

"Everyone who participated this year plans to do it again. "It is an opportunity to spend time with good people who also want to challenge themselves," said medical student Colin Caverly of Temple/St. Luke's School of Medicine.