It had been two years since I went to the Kansas City’s Extreme Timber Challenge venue for a race. Having raced the permanent course (located in the southwestern portion of Kansas City or Bonner Springs to be exact) before and left thinking it was only a course for beginners, I figured it was time to give them a second chance. After all, race courses and companies can change….right?
The weather has been unseasonably warm in Colorado during the month of September and that set things up for a beautiful day for Warrior Dash. Even the competitive wave that set off at 8 am was greeted by temperatures in the mid-70s and anyone who ran between 12-2 had to deal with temperatures reaching almost 90. This made all the water obstacles and the mud pit at the end feel so much better.
This is the second time I have done a Terrain Race, last being in 2016. My general impression of that race was that I was unimpressed but being that they were a newer race they had room to grow. Now being 2018, I heard that Terrain Race is undergoing changes. So, I decided to give them a shot and my opinion remains about the same.
It wouldn’t be a complete year of racing without traveling to Snohomish, Washington to take on the second in a two-weekend Spartan race series at Meadow Wood Equestrian Center. Known for its brutally muddy US Championship series super and sprint in the spring, the beast and sprint weekend is known as the final piece in the Seattle trifecta – a keystone OCR for the area.
Savage Race's fall Maryland event for 2018 was at the Hopkins Game Farm in Kennedyville, Maryland. They have been consistently using this location now for their spring and fall events in the last few years. The weather was very dreary and overcast throughout the day with periods of ran off and on. However, the race still offered smiles and enjoyment.
When I heard that Terrain Race was undergoing some changes (supposedly for the better), I'll admit...I got excited. I've run a couple of their events in the past few years, and always felt like they had the potential to be better than they actually were. I decided to put this theory to the test at last weekend's Terrain Race Inland Empire, in San Bernardino, CA.
Spartan made a return to West Virginia for a huge weekend of racing. Summit Bechtel Reserve hosted a Trifecta weekend and the Spartan North American Championship. The weather for the event was warm and sunny with temperatures of 80+ degrees for most of the weekend.
Recently, we went to Ottawa, Ontario to the Wesley Clover Raceway. This location is fast and flat and gives the runners an opportunity to really fly around the Mud Girl course. This 5KM loop gave first-timers a good perspective of what the sport is about in a fun and safe way.
So much happens during a 48 hour event that it is overwhelming and hard to capture in a short article. I feel like I have enough funny and unique experiences to write a full chapter on the topic, so I’ll briefly cover the purpose/results and then do a quick comparison to World’s Toughest Mudder since that is most people’s only 24 hour Ultra-Obstacle Course Race (OCR) experience.
Spartan Honor Series West Point Sprint was a trail of tears, fears, and cheers. Before the race even started, social media was full of tears about the poor parking logistics. More on that later. Many fears were faced today as the terrain of this “easy rolling hills” advertised race was anything but. Cheers echoed around those hills however as Spartans and veterans conquered obstacles of every sort.
