OCD FOR OCR

For the first Spartan Race of 2019 (that we could get to) we hit up the Super/Sprint at Asheville, North Carolina. In the past we have had a fantastic experience at this venue which is what has drawn us back once again. It is not only challenging but very rewarding at the same time.

• Registration and Festival:

We first have to start with parking and registration. Parking was absolutely flawless. Not much more to say about that. They got us in quickly and in a timely manner. Registration was again smooth. Spartan is well organized with this as with a lot of other logistics which is why they have done so well over the years. It doesn’t get much better.

Festival area was not too bad. This is something I always overlook as it doesn’t seem too high on my list of things for a race. It was overall set in a fantastic area where you had 360° views of the mountains all around. The DJ was steady doing challenges and getting the people involved in something.

• Pre-race MC:

The pre-race emcee was the exact same as any Spartan Race you’ll ever go to. The same speech, the same script followed. It needs to be different and changed, but that is just my opinion. Editor’s note: This is also the opinion of the editor and just about every journalist that writes for us, its time for a change.

• The Course:

The course, let’s get down to business, cause that’s what it’s all about. Asheville has something fantastic for this Florida boy and that is terrain! Lots of climbs and bombing down hills! I love it! I totaled approximately 3400 feet of elevation.

There are many people that complain about that, but for some reason, I just love to climb and then let it go on the way down. Such a huge adrenaline rush. The obstacles, many were new and I hadn’t seen quite a bit of them this late in the season.

Beater was a good one which had monkey bars that spun. Good challenge there. Helix was not very difficult, but it still made you think about it. There was a platform thing you had to do a muscle up onto and then climb over a cargo net that was much different than the normal. The bucket brigade was shockingly flat, which is normally one of the most difficult things to accomplish as it is up and down hills. The terrain was an obstacle in itself as the climbs were long and downhills very technical.

The majority of the rest of the obstacles, on both the Super and Sprint were ones that we have come to know well and expect at each and every Spartan race. 

• The Bling:

The bling was the same bling as the spartan bling that’s been the bling for several years. Tweaked here and there, but in the end, it’s still the same bling, but just says 2019 on it. If you want the good bling from Spartan, you should go do the mountain series races. I did see that Palmerton only had a few extra hundred feet of gain vs. this venue. I’m kind of wondering why they didn’t make this event a part of the Mountain series.

• Spartan’s new trail series:

Spartan has introduced the Spartan trail series this year. If I would’ve looked deeper into the event this weekend, I probably would’ve jumped into that 10k trail run just to experience it as it was a completely different course than the super and the sprint. I heard fantastic things about it also. I will keep my radar open for the next one of those if I am able to get to one.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

If you are looking for a challenging yet rewarding race, I totally recommend the Asheville Spartan race. It is one of the best and most difficult venues we have been to and experienced time and time again. We give it 5 out of 5 stars. It is one of the best on the east coast.

Article Written by: Andy Sneller and Lori Danko.