OCD FOR OCR

As a lifelong resident of New York State, albeit not that much of a baseball fan, the Red Sox (and most Boston sports teams) are not my favorite. But what can make me settle those differences and make a pilgrimage to the home of the “Green Monster” Why a Spartan Stadion, of course. It is in fact the original Spartan stadium race and this marked my third time making the trip. Also, it is an obvious choice, late in the OCR season as the race options start to dwindle, not to mention that its relatively convenient for me to get to Boston from Syracuse whether I jump onto I-90 and head east, or avoid the traffic/parking issues and board the train. While I found this year’s edition a little less than my ideal of a Stadion, it still had a lot to offer in fun, challenges and the opportunity to cap off what has been an incredibly successful racing season by my standards.

• Registration and Festival:

Just as it was last year, registration was in a parking lot located kitty corner from the stadium under tents. On Saturday, it moved uncharacteristically slow for a Spartan Race and I later learned that there were issues with the tablets, which is no surprise as I know first-hand, they do not work well in cold weather. Being a stadium, we also had to go through a security checkpoint to get into the stadium after registration, which really seemed to move faster than I recall on my visits to Fenway for this race in previous years. Sunday’s registration was a snap by comparison, probably due to lower attendance and somewhat milder temperatures.As a Stadion, you don’t get the typical festival area. All the elements of a festival area are intact, but things are more partitioned. The merchandise was sold at a kiosk out on the street just outside the stadium as were many of the vendors, of which there was no shortage. Due to the cold temps, I really didn’t feel like spending a lot of time out there. Not that the concourses of the stadium were exactly toasty, but the protection from the wind that comes from being ostensibly indoors does make a difference for sure. Thus, I spent much of my time post-race on Saturday at the Biggest Team tent catching up with friends. The finisher beer, as in past years, was served in an Irish pub across the street from Fenway. Even with the layout of the stadium necessitating a more disjointed festival setup, I really can’t complain about any of it. Free samples from vendors were a plenty too, ranging from Body Armor to the Gone Rogue chips that everyone seems to have a strong opinion about one way or another.

• Pre-Race MC:

The emcee doesn’t give a big speech or even the typical canned script of standard Spartan Races. The way runners are released onto the course (about 10 to 15 at a time on the minute) does not lend itself to the full on send off. Still, the emcee had a lot of energy and did the best he could to keep us motivated and excited to go out and give the race our all. His energy was just as high when I went out for a fun lap as it was earlier in the day when I competed in Age Group.

• The Course:

There were really no surprises here for someone like me who runs a Stadion at least once a season. In my past reviews of Spartan’s stadium events, I have elaborated in the feel of these events and how they remind me of a hybrid between a typical OCR and a CrossFit or HIIT workout. This year’s Fenway installment was no exception and that overall feeling was still intact with some noteworthy changes that have come with this year.

One was with the multi-rig. In past years, we often got a rig that included baseballs, adding a little bit of extra difficulty and theming at the same time. Like this year’s Citi Field event, the rig was only rings, in keeping with the standardization, Spartan uses for rigs on Sprint distance events, which the Stadion is still fundamentally, despite the new branding and the yellow wedge piece.The other big difference, I encountered was the advent of the log burpees as a Stadion obstacle. I was warned about this new development by Lorraine, who had experienced it at Citizens Bank Park in September. Fortunately for me, the local YMCA, where I work as a group fitness instructor has something similar (albeit lighter than the standard men’s weight) that I could practice with in the weeks leading up to the race. That didn’t make the suck any less having to do it so close to the finish line.

While I enjoyed the course and found it sufficiently challenging, I was sad to find the little scooters, that have long been a staple of Stadion’s absent. The monkey bars were also conspicuously missing, but we were treated to Pipe Lair, an obstacle that is not normally found in Sprints, but has been popping up at Stadion’s. It is NOT a challenging obstacle.Overall, there were a couple developments that transpired of note, which didn’t really affect my own experience, but seemed to make the race day a little less than it could be for many others. One, cold temps and ice made the competitive heats start later than scheduled. These heats went off about 15-minutes late, but by the time open heats rolled around the delays were much more acute. When I came back for an open lap, it seemed to be shoulder to shoulder and there was much grumbling in the line leading to the start corral. It appeared there was a shortage of volunteers to keep the crowds flowing smoothly. I also had noticed a paucity of volunteers on course, which may have contributed to some of the issues I heard secondhand about cheating and lax rule and penalty enforcement in the age group heats too. Another unfortunate thing, I learned, was that some finisher shirt sizes had run out before the racing was done for the weekend and some people who raced later found that they had run out of finisher medals too!

• The Bling:
  

In prior years, we got a venue specific finisher medal at most stadium races. Now with the re-branding to “Stadion” the norm seems to now be a standard yellow finisher medal with the attendant trifecta wedge piece. Finisher shirt was a standard Stadion shirt too. Nothing that would make you jump out and want to hit this race over others that Spartan offers, to be honest.

• Overall Feeling:

I personally had a very enjoyable time going out there and competing, albeit I sure did miss those scooters and I wouldn’t have minded seeing the monkey bars remain in the mix. On the other hand, I can see and sympathize with many of the grievances my fellow Spartans had and what I personally observed transpire as the day unfolded. I am going to rate this event 4.25 out of 5 stars, as it’s hard for me to not have a good time when I race at Fenway, but I can see where the product was a little weaker overall in its execution this year.

Article Written by: Brian Kellogg, OCR Aficionado