Stop by the Morrison home any weekend and you’ll find serious obstacles.

Stephanie, her father Troy James, and Stephanie’s four-year-old daughter Jenna will be in their backyard throwing spears, shimmying under simulated barbed wire, and flipping tractor tires. While this might not be your family’s idea of fun, it’s normal for this one.

They’re training for their next Spartan race.

What’s a Spartan race? It’s called the world’s best obstacle race. According to Spartan.com,

Our Spartan obstacle courses seek to manufacture adversity, which then trains your body and mind to overcome obstacles on the course and in your everyday lives..”

The first Spartan race was in 2010. There are now more than 250 events in 42 countries each year. Over 8 million people have crossed the finish line.

“If you go on their website, their mission statement is to get 100 million people off the couch,” said James. “That’s kind of a cool deal.”

It’s a timed event, where racers participate individually in age groups or as part of a team. They run the course, stopping to challenge themselves on a series of obstacles. If they attempt an obstacle and fail, they pay a penalty of 30 burpees (a.k.a. squat thrusts), and then continue the race.

“However long it takes you to do 30 burpees, that’s your penalty,” James said. “Most people can do 30 burpees in two to three minutes.”

Stephanie, a physical therapist at North Idaho Physical Therapy, started her Spartan career in 2015, when a group from CrossFit Post Falls decided to enter a race.

“I thought, that was really fun. I want to do it again,” she said. Her next race was in San Francisco, and she finished 23rd out of 3,000 women. “I was like oh, maybe I’m kind of good at this.”

“She’s one of the top five girls in the nation,” her dad said.

James is the owner of James Construction, and built Stephanie and husband Jeff’s home, as well as their obstacle course. In March 2018, he was following Stephanie around a race course, taking pictures as she competed.

“If you’re doing half the course taking pictures, you should just do it,” she said. He responded with an enthusiastic, “Eh, someday.”

“I was kind of out of shape,” James said.

But he agreed to do “the little one,” meaning the Sprint, which is three miles with 20 obstacles. But instead, Stephanie registered him for “the big one,” the Beast, which is 13 miles, 30 obstacles. (The third distance is the Super, which is eight miles, 25 obstacles.)

Her dad’s response? “I better get in shape because I don’t want to die out there.”

He joined AVID CrossFit in Hayden, and in the last year has lost 20 pounds and found his abs.

In Montana earlier this month, Stephanie finished 16th out of approximately 1,000 women in her age group. James finished third of about 140 men.

“Next year, I’ll be in what I call the 60 to death (group),” James said.

Stephanie and her dad have competed in races across the Western U.S. and Canada. A racer who completes all three distances in a calendar year achieves a trifecta; Stephanie got hers in 2015 and 2018, and her dad, in 2018.

“My dad and I, we don’t want to race together,” Stephanie said. “We’re much too competitive for that. So, we always shake hands if we’re starting together and say, ‘See you at the finish line.’”

Although they do compare results. Stephanie finished 27 seconds faster than James in one race, and he beat her by 32 in another.

“So, he’s got 5 seconds on me this year,” she said.

Young Jenna has inherited the family competitive spirit.

“She is really, really competitive,” Stephanie said. “The last race, she was like, ‘I got second place.’ We looked it up; she got sixth out of all the four-year-old girls. But she totally thought she was second because she only saw one person in front of her when she finished. She loves it. But she’s got to be on the podium, at the top.”

Stephanie’s husband Jeff - the family’s unofficial race photographer - and her mother Deborah fill the vital role of support staff. An adult can run the half-mile course with kids under six, but as Jenna said,

“Grammy can’t race with me because Grammy only has one speed and I have 16.”

Does Stephanie hope her kids will continue to race?

“I don’t think it matters to me if they do. I just want them to have fun. (Jenna) always asks, ‘Mom, when am I gonna have my next race?’ She’s excited for it. Tucker is two and a half, so we’ll see if he gets into it. If we keep bringing him, he probably will.”

In the end, a Spartan race can be whatever you want it to be.

“If you really want to push the running and go for placing on the podium, you can do that,” Stephanie said. “If you just want to go out there and have a good time, and go for a nice really long hike with some obstacles, you can do that, too.”

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For more information or to sign up, visit Spartan.com