OCD FOR OCR

I decided the last minute to add the Boston Spartan Sprint weekend to my schedule and I had to travel from Long Island, NY after an early AM OCR to make it for one of the last waves Saturday. This race was also a tale of two weathers, Saturday, it rained cats & dogs all day, and Sunday was a beautiful day with no rain!

• Registration and Festival:

The festival area was a long walk from either the VIP parking area or from the buses drop off area. Registration was fast both days, under opposite scenarios, Saturday, we arrived late, just prior to the last 3:30 PM wave and Sunday, we arrived early for the elite and age group waves and both days registration was fast and easy!

The festival area was set up in a small area because of how the venue is configured, and it didn’t have as many vendors as I am used to seeing.

• Pre-race MC:

The MC used the standard Spartan script both days, but I must give him credit because Saturday was poor weather, yet he stayed positive with energy both days.

• The Course:

The course started with a sprint exiting the festival area and into the woods and made its way to the Overwalls obstacle and up next came six-foot walls. The course continued its early trend of lots of woods trails and eventually made its way to the Inverted Walls, which I always enjoy, but on Sunday, an overzealous racer through his leg over the top of the wall and kicked me hard in the side of the head, which always makes completing an obstacle more of a challenge. One observation I had, was the course basically started with three wall obstacles in a row, which at least for me, was disappointing.

The course continued for another long sprint and eventually made its way to the Rope Climb, and just after the rope, came the bucket brigade carry, which I personally found to be placed in an area that was more than just challenging, but also dangerous and racers could easily have gotten injured crossing some of the sections of the loop. After a short sprint, came the seven-foot wall which was the fourth wall obstacle out of the six total obstacles so far on the course, so far, I wasn’t impressed at all with the obstacle placement.

As short sprint later, it was time for the Sandbag carry and yet again, I thought the course was set up poorly and not up to the standards I am used to with this specific Spartan team . I can only think, it was easier to set up and break down the course by placing the two carry obstacles close to each other, but with that said, I wasn’t enjoying the course so far. Up next came the barbed-wire crawl, which was a nice an easy crawl/roll and I was able to roll through it both days nice and fast! After one of the longer sprints, up next was everyone’s favorite obstacle Twister, which was much harder on Saturday when it was both wet and cold.

Not far ahead, came Olympus and after a short sprint the course made its way back into festival area and the next three obstacles all in the festival area were: Multi-Rig, A-Frame, and the Spartan Bridge, which we don’t always see at Spartan races. The course then immediately exited the festival area and went back into the woods and up a hill and after coming to the flat ground again briefly exiting the woods and it was time for the series of obstacles: Rolling Mud, Dunk Wall, and ended with the Slip Wall. The ropes on the Slip Wall were shorter than typical and with all the rain on Saturday, it made the slanted wall very slippery and this obstacle way more of a challenge than I have ever experienced it at a Spartan race.

At this point, the course re-entered the woods for a short time and then exited and went up a hill to the Spearman, I remember as I jogged up the hill (on Saturday), I started thinking about my throwing motion for the Spear and I kept reminding myself, that both the Spear and small rope attached to it would be heavier than normal and I had to adjust and throw the Spear harder. I am happy to report, I nailed the Spear both days! The course then turned and went back down the hill and then back into the woods for a short time and up next was: Vert Cargo, and then just after was the Herc Hoist. I was warned not to do the hoist to the far left, because it was far heavier than the others so of course my ego, got the best of me and I chose that one both days, I personally didn’t think it was that heavy and killed it both days!

The course turned back into the woods and snaked around some trails for a short time and then came the one last downhill, which was really slippery both days and after that immediately exited the woods and came to the fire jump and the finish line!

• The Bling:

The bling for 2018 is a newly designed Sprint finisher medal and a new Spartan Sprint finisher shirt. This year’s finisher shirt is a nice black dry-fit type material.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

Because of the rain on Saturday and the nice weather on Sunday, this really did feel like two different challenges, which was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. I still came away, not impressed with the course as far as obstacle placement. To be fair, at a venue like this one, they are limited where they can place obstacles and that always causes some of the courses to have long sections without obstacles, but I still felt they could have been more creative in how they arranged the obstacles.

I am rating the race and event 4.7 out of 5 stars. I deducted points due to the obstacles placement but added back an additional point due to the working conditions the Spartan team worked under during Saturday and most of the week leading up to the race.

Article Written by: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)