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

Spartan AZ 2013

I am biased in my review of Spartan Sprints. This was no 3 for me in the sprint category . I have yet to go to a spartan and not have it be well organized. Everything went as planned, no long lines, parking was a shuttle to the course. it was a great day, I think in the 60's? Headbands with bib numbers hadn't appeared yet. Course was pretty dry till near the end, which is great as the traverse wall is
always tricky when it gets muddy. I always try to go in early waves as I rather have It not so crowded. A new obstacle for me was the inverted wall, hadn't seen that before. I raced on Sunday and again it was fun and there was some hilly steep climbs and that is only place where people we're being careful. Great fun, great race.

Elite Racing

This was the very 1st race in Nebraska, in the town of Lincoln. I raced at 8:15 in the Elite field. This was my very first venture into this arena. I looked around and knew I would win my age group! I was older by at least 25 years . The course was sort of confusing as I was pretty much running by myself. That is one good thing about elite, there are no bottlenecks. This was my 5th Spartan Sprint and I must chose well as parking is not a problem but I do object to the $10 fee. Everything is quite well organized and the obstacles are posted on a board right in plain sight. This also was prevalent in Pacific Northwest . I liked it. I like to be prepared. The obstacles were all standard for a sprint. There was some really nice running through a wooded gulley, that makes these things interesting.
Spectators were right on the course as we went out to the woods and then came back in to the start to do tire flip, inverted wall and monkey bars. Out again we went and then came back in to finish with the barbed wire crawl uphill. I am thinking that is going to be the standard as flat is too easy??!!! So watch for them. After the crawl, we did the under the water thing, out of that and on to the rope climb, spear throw, cargo net, fire, gladiator pit all in rapid succession.
It was a great race, always in my experience well organized and people were helpful.

Family fun!!!!! Mom (39). Daughter (21). Son (17). Son (16). My kids are BEAST - They get it from there momma,

Family fun!!!!! Mom (39). Daughter (21). Son (17). Son (16). My kids are BEAST - They get it from there momma,

Tough course, terrible organisation

As the other reviewer here has already highlighted the Beast event was very poorly organised and enforced. Yes the course was tough, but that was to be expected and in a masochistic way appreciated. However safety and support were not evident in any significant amount. Nor were any food or water.

Many competitors were left stranded freezing and in need of help literally miles from the finish. Marshals were amateur and in some cases no more than young teenage girls who looked like they were enlisted on the day.

Obstacles were poorly marshalled and forfeits were not strictly enforced. Many obstacles were Inadequately signed and were easily missed. The course was badly marked out in places leading to off course adventures.

Car parking was a nightmare. My own car suffered damage from the quagmire the car park had become. And it was literally a mile from the start. The bag drop was chaos as it got flooded. The entertainment had all but died by the time we got back. They was no sense of celebration just a lets just get out of here attitude.

The spartan moto is you'll know at the finish. And that was true Never the less course has certainly let me stronger for having completed it intact. But my achievement would have been so much better if the organisers had bothered to spend the money they obviously made and spent some time creating a worthy and well organised event.

I won't be going back

Very poor marshalling and route signage. Serious health and safety issues with early obstacles. No post-race showers. Ridiculous bag drop facility lead to particpants searching through piles of rucksacks.
Only one tow truck at whole event for parking on a boggy hill and that got stuck on one occasion.

Distance on strava measured 12.4 miles when told it would be 16. Had to wait at start in pouring rain for a few poxy smoke bombs.

Very hilly and tough course. A real challenge. Harder than Tough Mudder but dismal organisation in comparison.

Ddistance Markers?

As others have mentioned, there were only two distance markers on the trail. so we spent a lot of time just running/walking with no sense of time or accomplished distance. We knew intuitively that we had gone further than the 5K advertised distance but wasn't told until an email days later that the trail was in fact almost 7K... seriously?

Otherthan that, this was the first time I've done one of these events and enjoyed it, pretty much what I expected other than 2400 feet up climbing.

Note to self: Mountains are high, and then the buggers make you go higher!

Not Impressed!

Very disappointed by the pathetic response I received from Trumin and The Spartan Race after they failed to record my race time!

I expected a lot more from one of the leading companies in this industry. For a 20$, yes TWENTY dollar spectating fee there was nothing for spectators to do, no music or anything to at least hang out to for three hours while I ran. As for the course I found myself running in circles because it was SO poorly marked. I ended up running way more than I was supposed to, which sucked because I was actually running it for time not just to finish. I did love the obstacles they were rarely any repeat obstacles and they were very creative. And the poison ivy and swimmers itch that I caught and had symptoms for almost three weeks wasn't too fun, not that that was necessarily their fault but I feel when you're setting up a course maybe going around a poisonous plant would be a good idea, I would have defiantly kept attending spartan events for their awesome course but the fact that they sent a generic email out to the hundreds of people that were effected by this illness is what set me over the top, they could have been more apologetic and maybe offered a coupon to another race and I would have FOR SURE returned, not now though, customer service is so important, an they seem to be about nickel and dimig- not my thang.

VA Super Spartan Hike 2013

Too much monotony with all the slopes and woods. Also, not a course built to be run on, realistically. But fun, manageable yet challenging obstacles, looking forward to another one - just not at a ski resort.