Spartan Race obstacle races, mud run, and OCR information, distance, cost, dates, calendar, discounts, obstacles, reviews, and more

Colorado 3x

Ah Colorado. This was the 3rd year that spartan has done the military sprint at Fort Carson amy base. For those of you who would like a challenge with the spartan sprints, seriously look at this race. The obstacles are dense. In 4.5 miles we completed 25 obstacles. Sometimes back to back, and at the finish there are spear, Hercules hoist, dunk wall mud climb,slippery wall, horizontal cargo net bridge, fire jump and gauntlet.

The weather this year on Saturday was outstanding, blue skies, no wind and just absolutely perfect. In comparison to last years Sunday race where we experienced a 50% DNF due to 40 degrees, wind and rain. This Sunday was overcast but the afternoon heats experienced wind gusts that you could not see your hand in front of your face. Only in Colorado, where you will see all four seasons in one day.

This year was an interesting one as we volunteered 2 days for Spartan. We opted for course build the Sunday before and registration Sunday afternoon race day. In retrospect, both bad choices for us. In choosing the course build I thought this would be a great opportunity to see how things work, how spartan put this event together. While we did get information, I think it succeeded in giving us major anxiety about the course. In the future, I do not want to know. It kept me up at nights. I had to stay at the base camp because I was running elite, chris was able to go out on the course. I saw the new spears that are all the same now, a little bit heaver I thought. I saw how they make the atlas stone with the moods for men and women. The interesting thing was we had to inventory all the ropes, and spartan uses different lengths, different diameter. So chose wisely. That is what I took away from this course this year. I can chose which, stone to pick up, which rucksack to carry ( womens weighed between 35 and 60 pounds), which tire to drag or flip, which concrete block to pull. There are differences in them. I always walk up to the obstacles, and take a moment to decide which way I will go. I think it helps, it certainly helped me.

The only obstacle I did not have experience with was the cargo net monkey bars. This was about 1/2 way in the course and this was were back to back with the rope climb. I had decided beforehand that I would burpees out of the rope climb because I knew I would not be able to sustain those difficult upper body obstacles back to back. That is what happened in Arizona, we had the hoist which was the heaviest I have ever encountered and hen immediately the rope climb. The hoist was difficult then add a 57 year old women and have her rope climb, we'll it proved to be too much and I fell just an arms length from the bell. It was exhausting and then to do burpees, yikes. Noodle arms.

There is where strategy came into play. I wanted to attempt the monkey bars. As soon as I started I knew it would not play out, I decided then and there to burpee out. I think that actually helped me as all the rest of the obstacles are ones that do not bother me. I enjoy the mud crawl, barbed wire and I was able to get through that rather quickly. Running first is the best for me and while no means am I an elite runner, I do consider myself an athlete and at 57, I like running first, it is not so hot and it is not so crowded. With age comes wisdom.

I missed two more obstacle and they were not on purpose. I can do the traverse wall and it aggravated me that I accidentally touched the top of the wall, aargh. And my next failure was that spear. I have no excuse for this, I have one, I practice it. I can do it at home but come race day I have more misses than hits in this obstacle.

I love the finishes at Spartan, I love doing 6/7 obstacles right in a row. It is exciting. The gauntlet for us, was heavy bags suspended over water. There was someone a second ahead of me and I saw her plummet into the water and I opted for a different way in and swam to the other side. I caught her at the crawl out and she crossed the line .02 ahead of me. Sometime all I takes is just a moment to decide which way to go. That is my best advise, take a moment, because we make decisions every single moment,of every single day.

We have a great support team with Colorado Obstacle Racers. We train together, we share information, we share stories, we share ourselves. Last time I checked about 15 of us qualified for OCR world championships with this Spartan race. After racing on Saturday, one our team members, opened his home to a barbecue. We are a family. The biggest loser people were there too and we met Tara Costa, Jackson Whitt, Alexander and Pamela Geil and were inspired by there stories.

Many of us raced again on Sunday. Chris and I did a afternoon volunteer shift. Chris did the showers and I did registration. The wind was horrible on Sunday afternoon with bursts so intense you could not see your hand in front of your face. Chris said he washed off lots of Reebok All Terrains, consensus? They were well received and worked well at this race. Sunday afternoon we cheered on the last people on the course. Then it was take down time. Unbelievable what goes into making all this work. I saw the beginning(course build ) the middle (the race ) and the end (tear down) of a great sport.

Three years ago, Colorado Military Sprint solidified for me, my love for this sport. She has yet to fail me.

SoCal Spartan Sprint

It’s something most of us have known all our lives, but have struggled to put into words. It’s an unrelenting desire to push ourselves further and harder than anyone thought possible. It’s an obsession, a fire, an inner voice saying this is what you were born to do; this is who you are. This is the driving force behind Spartan Race. It’s a personal commitment to health and fitness and it opens the doors to a life of previously untapped potential. “This is much bigger than a race. It’s about finding whatever that mud and barbed wire is in your life, facing those challenges head on, and overcoming them. Because if you do, and when you do, I guarantee you, it’ll change your life. Spartan up.” - Joe De Sena (Founder of Spartan Race).

Spartan Race is not an obstacle race you can leisurely walk through. This is a different kind of race. It’s a race that says forget everything you know about racing because we are going to throw something at you you’ve never seen before. “Can’t” and “impossible” are not part of the Spartan vocabulary. These races require a certain baseline level of mental toughness and the ability to adapt; training is highly recommended. In addition to this, the race penalizes participants who fail obstacles with a thirty burpee penalty. There is no course map, a minimal number of hydration stations, and Spartan Race always finds a way to incorporate new obstacles into its races, just to keep racers on their toes.

Temecula was the start of the Spartan Race season and my fourth race with the Spartan camp. Another wrinkle added into this racing weekend was the option to participate in the Super (8+ mile race) on Saturday and the Sprint (3+ mile race) on Sunday; making it easier for participants to gain the coveted trifecta (finishing three different length Spartan Races within one racing season) —my group chose to just run the Sprint as some of us were newcomers to the Spartan community. The Sprint is traditionally a three to five mile course with approximately twenty obstacles and is the introductory race to enter into the Spartan community. The staple of the Temecula course is its number of hills, both large and small. Spartan Race took full advantage of this, marching participants up large hills and testing their strength and stamina by stacking obstacles back to back, using the terrain as the lingering mental obstacle. After a large hill climb, you would tackle a seven foot wall climb, the course would then flatten out only to drop you into a tire flip area, and then, when your arms have just recovered, they’d hit you with a rope pulley that felt a lot heavier than past years. Two new obstacles were added, bringing an awe factor to the race. A seven foot inverted wall brought a bit of curve ball to the race, while a newer water obstacle brought a bit of fear to the race, forcing racers to dive under a wall of freezing muddy water in order to advance.

The race itself was very well organized. Spartan Race implemented a new wave system that was able to cut down on a lot of the bottlenecks of previous races and the course was very well labeled. While their post-race amenities are still in need of development, I found this race particularly challenging, more so than previous years. The obstacles themselves were well placed, keeping racers on their toes and constantly building on each other to make the next one slightly harder. With its constant racing improvements, Spartan Race will prove to be a force to be reckoned with in the obstacle racing world.

Citifield Stadium Sprint

Fast & furious - the best way to describe the Stadium Sprint at Citifield! Scattered with 20+ obstacles throughout just over 3 miles, this Spartan race was a challenging adrenaline rush! Great mix of obstacles - typical Spartan race staples: 6, 7, & 8 foot walls, spear throw, rope climb (one of my favorites), atlas carry - mixed in with stadium favs: ball slams, box jumps, hand-release push-ups. And don't forget about the ramps and stairs...and more stairs! The course was quick - it was a blast!

Citi Field Stadium Series

This was my 2nd stadium series by Spartan. I thought overall the atmosphere seemed to be a little bit off. Maybe because the stadium was so huge and everyone was spread out through the stadium. It didn't have the usual excitement from what I felt. However, that really has no bearing on the race itself. I thought the course was put together nicely. I enjoyed the fact that the obstacles seemed grouped together 3 in a row so that you don't have time to rest before you get to the next obstacle. They were the same obstacles you get at every stadium race but the order in which they were setup made this one more challenging. You can always count on Spartan to put the rope climb at the end or near the end of the race. That is my weakest obstacle and again failed at it. If it was earlier in the race I would have nailed it, at the end not so much. It was a bit windy and kinda screwed with the spear toss. When I was running and watching then afterwards I don't think I seen one person make it. The one negative that I did see was improper running etiquette. Especially when running through the stands, people either walking or stopping making everyone behind them have to stop. Also noticed that many races would interfere with others trying to complete an obstacle. During my box jumps i had 2 people walk into me mid jump and while starting to climb a wall, some dude he was gonna jump into me and knock me off the wall. I noticed that a lot at other obstacles, cutting people off and stuff. Now I understand you want to be competitive, but let's be honest. You aren't winning anything and your sportsmanship sucks. This was the first time I witnessed such poor running etiquette by so many. The volunteers and staff were again beyond amazing, but that has been the standard. I travel all of the place and this was no different. I traveled 6 hours from Buffalo to NYC to run and then another 6 hours home right after the race. Citi Field was well worth the 12 hour round trip. Spartan again set the standard for my 2014 OCR season. If you don't want to get dirty, try out the Stadium Series.

Rocky Road

After doing multiple Spartan Races earlier in the year racing on primarily established trails, this Vegas race was the complete opposite. The majority of the course was in rocky desert 'wilderness' which made you focus on your every step. I stepped on a cactus at one point that didn't take too kindly to strangers... The course itself was probably the toughest obstacle. Being at a venue called the "Gravel Pit," there were numerous piles of gravel, and we ran up and down most of them. There were the usual bottlenecks for the later heats (rope climb, barbed wire crawl, cargo net) that consistently happen at Spartan Races - hopefully those will get fixed in time. Overall, I enjoyed the race, and would probably run again if the race was held at the same venue next year (although I'll wear some sort of knee protection for the crawls).

Spartan Super Las Vegas

This was a fun race. The weather was great. The obstacles were varied and interesting. I ran the Spartan Sprint, in Temecula, in January. Some of the obstacles were modified. For example, in Temecula, we had to pull a weight to the top of a pulley system. Sand bags were used in Las Vegas. Very light sandbags were used instead of the weights. There were bottlenecks at the cargo net and the barbed wire crawl. Otherwise, a very fun race.

A very challenging course: intense terrain, mostly good obstacles and challenges. The only poor design was the low crawl. It was too close to the end of the course and created a huge choke point. It also seemed like some of the "Spartans" took themselves a little too seriously.

Great From Start to Finish

This was my second Spartan Race. My first was a Super, so I had a really good idea of what to expect on this go round. What we didn't expect was the freak flood that occurred the week preceeding the event. Spartan adapted and overcame. They made sure participants were well informed and made arrangements for a lot of us to park at a local race track (we were even given a voucher for the merchandise tent for our inconvenience). We arrived at the parking lot 3 hours early assuming that there would be mass confusion. There was no such thing. We had an easy time parking and Spartan had so many buses that we walked right on to a bus. The short shuttle ride was fun and we were able to talk with some first timers (including some Spartan Kids that had traveled from Ft Bragg). This definitely added to the experience and was far from an inconvenience to us.

Once we arrived at the event there was a little confusion with the bibs. We had confirmed numbers online and my packet was there, however there was an issue with the bib, so they had to issue me a new packet. My advice on this...even if you know your bib number, check the board as you walk in. The pit area was a total mud pit, but could have been much worse. There was hay everywhere and you could tell Spartan did what they could to alleviate the issues.

The course itself was outstanding. A basic flat course, it had all of the standard Spartan obstacles... rope climb, walls, lift heavy things, etc. We found ourselves doing burpees three times (rope, traverse wall and spear throw). Being the first OCR of the season, we took this as a great stepping stone and lesson learned I would like to note that there were several that did not complete burpees on the course. While I go out there to run my race, it is frustrating to know others are cheating themselves. There were a lot of you... nuff said.

This event really helped us to see what areas we need to focus on in order to be more competitive this year. But, it also helped us to work as a team. Great event Spartan!!

Spartan Rocks

This was a great race and I always look forward to the Spartan series. I am a part time racer and try to do several a year and compete with a decent time. I finished this race this year and only had to do 1 round of burpees at the traverse wall. Considering I wear a size 14 shoe I kinda figured I would. If you really want to challenge yourself then the Spartan series races are the ticket. I do other mud runs for fun and to do local events, but when I really want to see where I am at physically I gauge it from my performance in Spartan. This course was great and the layot was fast. Always exciting!!

This is the best race yet in the Spartan Race Stadium Series. The course was epic! The stairs were killer, the obstacles were awesome, and the setting was amazing. You could see Pearl Harbor from the course! It was a great race, my favorite stadium race yet, and I will be back next year!