I'm LaShay Marks, and I approve this statement:
“All the so called elites need to stop whining and complaining about the Spartan Race ‘fairness' of obstacles. I'm pretty sure Joe De Sena would say STFU!”
Over the past month I've read rants on Facebook about athletes choosing the lightest logs or sandbags, and how their (perceived) advantage is unfair to other athletes, and sniveling about every possible obstacle that had any variable. After dozens of OCR's, I'm used to hearing these complaints from newbies and those training hard to get better in the sport like myself. That these recent social media rants have been written by OCR Elites totally blows my mind – reading what accounts to snivelling from the top athletes that I look up to in this sport is not only disheartening, it only serves to rip the capes off these superheroes. 
One of the most prolific rants was Charles “Jazz” Vassallo's (Editor's note: Jazz is a writer for Mud Runide, competitor on OCR Warrior, and a good friend of the Mud Run Guide staff) Spartan Race Super ar Wintergreen, VA that started vaguely enough:
“Funny how when NBC cameras are around, what Spartan Race turns a blind eye to. First place female did maybe 10 burpees on the money bars and no DQ. One podium male was allowed to carry the female log through the obstacle. May have changed the game today.” – Jazz Vassallo
It devolved into verbal sparring about which logs were heavier, who was cheating, and a whole lot of finger-pointing by some of the best of the best Spartan Race pros, officials, fans, and a whole bunch of individuals who were clearly uninvolved that just wanted to pile on. In short, a Facebook flame-war that didn't seem to accomplish anything aside from rubbing many nerves raw. Big props to Juliana Sproles, who jumped into the fray and acted as an official (because, she WAS a race official for Spartan at the event) to cool things down a bit.
Jazz's dissention didn't seem to initially be meant as finger-pointing, atlthough that's the way it was taken by many he vaguely called out. It clearly seemed that his intention was to shine a spotlight on the shortcomings of Spartan Race as a fair, uniform race with rules, penalties, a point structure, and conformity from obstacle to obstacle.
I take offense to the notion that an OCR should be homogenized, but more on that later.
All was OK in OCR-land (at least on Facebook) until Junyong Pak's 9/26 rant* about Spartan Race Championship and how he inspected the obstacles and certain ones weighed more than the others, or logs were different. (Editor's Note: Junyong Pak is a good friend of Mud Run Guide and OCR Warrior competitor)
“As I was reflecting and perusing photos from this weekend's Reebok Spartan Race World Championships, I couldn't help but visibly notice the lack of standardization in a race where so much was on the line. Spartan Race, I do sincerely love your events and believe you guys put on some of the most difficult and awesome physical sporting events in the entire world… this is a constructive piece of criticism that I've been distilling with my observations over the past few years with the growth of this company and sport. Every race, I am constantly observing like a hawk. Many times I go back on course to obstacles to see if there are glaring differences, and there are always way too many. Some differences (like tire flips or tire drag) are mostly excusable and don't determine gross differences in outcomes; perhaps on the order of seconds. Variations in other obstacles, such as log hop or spear throw can completely alter a race at the front due to the go-no-go nature of failure.”
Hobie Call chimed in (as did hundreds of others, as of writing there were 233 comments and 25 shares)
“THANK YOU JUNYONG PAK! I've been fussing over this issue for years. Except, I'm not laughing. When real money and our very livelihoods are on the line, it is a very serious issue. I am quite perplexed at how Spartan thinks they can be taken seriously as a “sport” without any standardization.” “Don't confuse variety and standardization [sic] …you can have plenty of variety in a race and from race to race and still standardize your obstacles. Standardization just means making all the sandbags have the same shape and weight, etc. You can still have a great variety of obstacles, course lengths, terrain differences, etc.”
I myself have complaints about obstacle racing and that how I feel they should have weight classes like other sports such as boxing, UFC, Wrestling, etc. But hey, I’m working my ass off training to get as good as you are, and it’s a real let-down to hear the best of the best “whining.”
*To be fair, Pak and dozens of other commenters on his post did make some very constructive points, I'm referring to the general attitude that there should be some level of “fairness”
I may be biased or have a really strong difference of opinion because I served my country for six years as a United States Marine Artillery Cannoneer. I’ve carried a 50 caliber machine gun (84lbs, M3 Tripod (Complete): 44 pounds Total: 128 pounds, hundreds of miles. I was there when the USS Cole was blown up in Aden, Yemen, on October 12, 2000. So please don’t talk to me about hard and unfair circumstances. Just like the title U.S. Marine is earned, so, in my opnion, is the title Elite OCR athlete. Let's talk a little more about carrying weights: Marine combat loads including protective gear: weapons, ammunition, water, food and communications gear range from 97 to 135 pounds. In Afghanistan, soldiers routinely carry loads of 130 to 150 pounds for three-day missions. (learn more here) An OCR Elite Athlete's gear may consist of camelback with water, a few gels, some arm sleeves… and are forced to carry up to 100 pounds (on the rarest of occasions) forup to a few hundred yards. This sport is suppose to be fun, challenging, get people off the couch, and bring out your inner warrior spirit that’s been dormant inside of us. All the so call elites that are complaining about how unfair the race was must not have ever served in the military or been to combat – it is a world where there is no such thing as “fair.” In combat, you can’t worry about your enemies’ hardships; you just focus on your own side of the battle. You put on your 60lbs or more ruck sack, food, clothes, water, ammo, and you fight, you march, you give it all you got. You don’t have time to complain to the enemy, “hey give me a second to rest because my gear weighs more than yours”, before each life and death battle!
Let's be clear, for some obstacle racing may be the closest thing most people will come to serving in the military.
Elite means best of the best! Right? You don’t see Army Rangers, Navy Seals, Snipers, or Marine Recon bitching about how bad they've got it – they signed up for the challenge and SO DID YOU. If the elite OCR athletes want to make the sport grow and be better for everyone, make constructive points* that will do just that, not points about why you did or didn't finish higher than you should have. Elites don't complain, they go out and make it happen by improvising, adapting and overcoming everything. Oh, and one other thing… I haven’t heard a PEEP from Cody (the Silent Assassin) Moat, and he carried nearly an entire redwood up & down Killington.
I’m sure some of you are glad Joe De Sena’s not on Facebook, because you know EXACTLY what he would say to this type of whining. Also, remember that Norm Koch is; and bitchin’ and moaning is like music to his ears, and it also fuels him to make an even more miserable courses. So the love of Norm – shut up!
LaShay Marks is a veteran of the US Marines, the owner of Evolution Phoenix OCR Training, and a competitive OCR athlete. For the record, he is still a huge fan of Junyong Pak, Jazz, and almost all the other OCR athletes that have contributed to those online rants.
LaShay, you know I love you man! But I have to disagree with you here.
In combat you deal with what you are thrown at you. We are talking about a Spartan RACE here. I love a physical challenge like the next guy – that is why we all show up. But this is a competition. While I also don’t care for the whining going on about the tough courses, I do want to know that I am competing against my competitors on a level playing field.
Make the course and obstacles as hard or as easy as you want but make the obstacles themselves the same for everyone – i.e. same weights etc.
You and I are usually battling it out. I want to grab the same size log as you and the same size cinder block as you. I wouldn’t feel right with anything less. It is why people bitch about people carrying half empty buckets.
We love the Spartan Race product or we wouldn’t show up, but without clearer rules we end up bitching at each other as evidenced.
If you don’t want standard obstacles and want to adhere to the “deal with the hand you have been dealt” mentality than it really isn’t by definition a race anymore but more of a personal challenge.
If you’re racing for money or in an international competition like the Olympics, you need to have standardization. You cannot judge if a person if better at something compared to someone else unless there is standardization and ‘fairness’ with the obstacles for each individual. And here’s another point to ponde. If I was in a race and I knew it would be faster and energy efficient to just do 30 burpees instead of an obstacle, you bet that’s what I would do to get ahead. So is it fair to just bypass an obstacle and do your 30 burpees instead of making an attempt at the obstacle?
LaShay…thank God for you for so many f’n reasons.
LaShay, from one Marine to another OOH RAH. That being said, MOST Marines don’t whine about fairness because we are all on the same team. That being said, if we were running a PFT and you were required to do it with added weight you would complain. When something can change your ability to get paid fairness matters. The logs for the elites should weigh the same, someone should count their burpees (and ensure they stand all the way up), the balance obstacles should be as close to the same as the others as possible. For the rest of us – who cares? I will carry a heavier bag or log and suck it up… This is just another reason that this sport really has no chance of going Olympic. Either standardize it, make the person do the obstacle till success, or accept that it will never be accepted in the Olympics.
To LaShay and the other Marines here (and to all who have served), thank you for your service.
To the “elites” who have issues with fairness, Stop Bitching and enjoy your status at the top. You are sounding like a bunch of prima donnas. The unpredictability of Spartan Race is what makes it what it is, and the lesson to take away from this is that no one–not even you, “elites”–is immune from what the course may throw at you. OCR is analogous to life, you have to deal with what is front of you and sometimes there is no good way to deal with shit except to fight through it. Some people may get the easier road, and some don’t. Life doesn’t standardize itself to a person’s needs, why should Spartan, or any race for that matter? Sometimes with all the focus on prize money and top times, you “elites” have lost sight of what brought you to SR in the first place. You’ve lost sight of the fun and the challenges of it, and now obsess over minutia like “He/she didn’t do all their burpees” or “their log was lighter than mine”. Again, Stop your Bitching. To paraphrase an earlier comment regarding Wintergreen, Spartan the Fuck Up or Sit the Fuck Down. Quit bellyaching and persevere. Everyone else is.
The short version…there are two issues here. As far as normal racers and non-money elites, yeah you might just say STFU and let’s get on with things. The second issue is for Joe and his buddies to deal with. You want a serious sport? You better get on the “fairness” issue…read: “standardization”. What if every baseball or football were different weights and sizes…or came with and without laces? What if some hockey pucks were a bit rounded on one side…or were missing some chunks out of them. For the typical OCR race, variation is just part of the challenge…and make great stories afterwards of how hard you had it! But for a real sport, standardization is key and they may have to compromise on the rough-and-tough image. After all, this is not the Death Race!!
I agree with Paul that when it comes to fairness, it makes sense to distinguish between combat and racing. More important, when you say that military elites like Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, etc., don’t complain about fairness, you have to remember how they got to be considered elites in the first place: they all passed standardized tests. If it’s a requirement that you can hit a target from 100 yards away in order to join an elite unit, and one guy gets in even though he can only hit a target from 50 yards, that’s not fair, and calling out the person who makes that decision is the right thing to do.
In this case, we really are talking about people’s livelihoods. If a pro runner skipped a few miles in a marathon, it would not be fair to the honest runners to give the cheater a prize purse. The same applies here. I’m puzzled that anyone thinks that someone who gets cheated out of thousands of dollars should just suck it up.
Sorry, I stand by my Stop Bitching and Deal with it mentality and STFU comment. Do explain to everyone how things are going to be “standardized”. Are we going to break out rulers and scales to make sure logs are cut exactly to specs? Are monkey bars going to be made according to grip size and span to make it fair for the smaller athletes or will they be one-size fits all because, after all, that’s standard, right? And how are all of these standardized logs going to be transported or stored for future races? And who is going to be paid to cut these logs exactly to specs anyway? The costs would be huge, and SR would be broke inside of a month. You want standardization? Do Crossfit. That entity is laden with standards and exact specs. My God, how far have we wandered off the path and watched what was and is fun become yet another grand production like the NFL. And if that was the plan all along, then there needs to be a rethinking of that. For being such physically gifted athletes, this pissing and moaning reeks of a spoiled kindergartener who stomps his/her feet when shit doesn’t go their way. “it’s not fair!” Well, fucking get over it. Life isn’t fair, and Life isn’t Unfair. Same goes for OCR. It is what it is, and we all just have to fight through it. There are no two issues, it’s about whining by the “elites” and the need for them to stop.
Well stated! I”m not elite, or competitive, but an open style racer that likes a good challenge and a challenge to best my own performance year after year, as I get older not younger. Smarts is also a part of this race, technique, and skill, as well as many other attributes. If there are logs on the course and you pick a heavy one, instead of taking a quick look well you get the heavy log. IF the monkey bars are wet because of rain, or the past 100 other racers with sweaty muddy hands, so be it. Shit happens, its a race and its about being smart and overcoming the challenges of that race. Being in the front spot from the start to the finish is the only advantage a person really needs, and some good luck as well. So daikatana, I agree 100 and some more percent of what you just stated above.
If you get there first you have your choice of log or sandbag etc. just run faster. I have had to carry the “ladies” logs before because I arrived with a large group and that was all that was available, again if I had if gotten there faster no problem. I don’t agree with some people being allowed to skip burpees, and sometimes obstacles, especially if you are in the running for a podium spot.
Although I agree “Elite” means you should be up for anything I also know that when money comes into play it is different. Just as any sport, these “Elite” athletes are professionals (meaning this is how they make a living). That being said, equality in obstacles for the purpose of professional competition should be expected. The real issue is, these races were never meant to be “professional”. They were meant to be competitive. Simply put, changes for most of us are not needed or wanted but for those making a living at this sport (the same people putting the sport on the front page), there should be consistency.
Man you are completely missing the point those Pro Athletes are making… Having served myself I can also say there is a solid amount of bitching in all Armed Forces at all times so maybe get off of your high horse. Judgemental much?