RECAP: 2015 Reebok Spartan Race World Championships

Sprinting across fields, lugging a 40- or 60-pound log on your shoulder, crawling under barbed wire... to you, they're torturous punishments, but to Spartan Race athletes they're just a few of the challenges competitors willingly tackle.

The Spartan Race tests your physical and mental strength along courses of various distances filled with grueling obstacles like jumping over fire (no thank you!), pulling tractor tires of a few hundred pounds (why??) and hoisting cement boulders over your head (seriously?!).

On Oct. 4 and 5, the toughest and fastest of these possibly/probably insane athletes met in North Lake Tahoe, Calif. to duke it out for the male and female world title at the 2015 Reebok Spartan Race World Championships.

At the end of a more than 13-mile course, Robert Killian and Zuzana Kocumova were the first to cross the finish line for the male and female elite field, respectively.

33-year-old Killian, of Longmont, Colo., grabbed the elite field win with a time of 2:25:54. And, no big deal, but he also took home a cool $15,000. Killian is an Army Captain and IRONMAN triathlon finisher, and has completed four previous Spartan Races in 2015 alone.

With a time of 2:53:01, Kocumova, 36, traveled all the way from her home in Liberec, Czech Republic to take the female elite win. She also earned her own $15,000 prize. Kocumova is no stranger to competitive racing, as she was previously a professional cross-country skier who raced in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Check out the photos below for on-the-course shots of the competitors, as well as a look at the winners on the podium.