OCD FOR OCR

This was Spartan’s first winter race/event in North America and I wasn’t going to miss it!

• Registration and Festival:

Due to it snowing, they moved the registration indoors and this caused massive backed up lines and delays and even delayed the start of the early waves. The festival area was small and nothing really awesome to report. The staff still did it’s best to keep positive with all the changes and backed up delays/lines.

• Pre-race MC:

I have to be honest, the wave was sent out about five minutes prior to me arriving to the starting line and I didn’t want to wait for the next wave so I started a little late and didn’t get to hear the pre-race MC.

• The Course:

The course started with a trail right up the ski mountain that didn’t last for that long and then made a U-turn and headed back down the mountain in the wooded trails. By now I had caught a fair amount of the wave (that started prior to me) and running down the snowy mountain trail was a little challenging because most of the racers were taking their time to go back down. The first two obstacles came just after exiting the trails and were the standard Spartan hurdles that we all know and love.  A short distance ahead came obstacle # 3, which was the 6-foot wall to jump over.

At this point, my body adjusted to the cold weather and I actually was now hot and sweating and I made my way to the barbed-wire crawl, which wasn’t that long a distance and turned out to be a nice moment to catch my breath (while I rolled under the wires). The course continued on for a short sprint and up next was the 7-foot wall. Just ahead came the Multi-Rig, which consisted of only hanging monkey rings. The course made its way to the Atlas Ball’s carry and then just up ahead, the plate drag and both were not that hard with the snow on the ground.

A very short distance ahead was the Over-Under-Thru and this was a nice chance to again take a little breather and get ready to try to run at a good pace. After another short sprint, the course came to the bucket brigade, which wasn’t that bad and I was able to carry the filled bucket the entire loop without taking a break. The course looped around and back towards the festival area and up next was the rope climb, I opted to do the climb with gloves off and I am happy I made that decision because I am not sure I could have climbed the rope with cold weather gloves on. A short distance ahead came the Hercules Hoist, which I always enjoy because it’s typically the easiest obstacle for me on a Spartan course.

The course continued on for a short distance and made its way to the Spearman spear toss, which I opted to do without my gloves on and again this was the wise decision as I nailed it dead center! The next obstacle was the inverted wall, and I am not sure why, but it was really easy for me and I flew up, over and back down it really fast. I was fired up at this point and actually dumped a cup of water on my head to cool down, I continued on and made it to the A-Frame cargo net and climbed up and back down nice and fast.

It was time to go back up the ski mountain (one last time) and I was excited to know that I was getting close to the finish line! I hiked up the mountain at a decent pace and up next was a quarter-pipe made of snow. I enjoyed this obstacle, but I did notice that a few racers held on the ropes after they got to the top and used them to get back down, which meant the next racer would have to wait for a volunteer to re-set the ropes for them. Up next was the sand-bag carry that took racers into the wooded trail going up the mountain and then back down a snowy section. Most racers sat on their asses and slid down, but I just ran down this section with reckless abandoned and prayed I didn’t fall and get hurt, which I didn’t! After a short sprint down the ski mountain it was time for a series of snow mounds and then I could see the finish line ahead. I turned on the burners (lol, I wish) and up next was the slip wall, which I ran almost all the way up the slanted wall without needing to use the rope. After the slip wall, I continued a short distance and one last man-made snow pit obstacle and then jumped over the fire jump for the finish!

• The Bling:

The bling included a unique (for this event) finisher medal and long-sleeve finisher shirt. Both are really nice and I am happy to add them to my collection.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

The course was fun and challenging and the addition of some man-made snow obstacles was fun and unique. The weather caused Spartan to make some last-minute adjustments that created long delays, but the staff and volunteers did an amazing job all day. This was Spartan’s first winter event and I am positive they learned a lot to apply to the next time they do a winter race/event. Because this was Spartan’s first winter event, the staff/volunteers did an amazing job, and the course was both fun and challenging, I am going to overlook the long initial delays and rate the event/course 5 out of 5 stars.

Article Written by: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)