OCD FOR OCR

This was my last OCR race weekend of the year and I traveled to the warmer weather state of Florida to enjoy a nice and flat venue.

• Registration and Festival:

Registration was set up a decent distance from the festival area, but racers and spectators had to enter the venue from that area after taking buses from the parking areas so it worked well and the lines moved fast for at least me both days.

The festival area was on the larger side and even though they had fewer vendors than I have seen at other Spartan races they spaced them out well and used the venue area well. This was one of those races that had lots of friends racing together and people hung out long before and after running their waves which made for a good atmosphere both Saturday and Sunday.

• Pre-race MC:

This was one of those Spartan races that the MC just wasn’t that great either day and stuck to a script and didn’t add much personality to his job and racers just didn’t appear to be inspired including myself.

• The Course:

This was an interesting course. Those of us that run a lot of Spartan races were aware that Spartan course designer Norm Koch was designing this course and most were both excited and a bit fearful about the course. The venue and terrain allowed for only so much that Norm could do and it ended up being a completely flat race for both the Super and Sprint, with the highest altitude being the top of the Rope climb and Slip wall obstacles.

The course started out with a short distance sprint and the first obstacle on the course was two high hurdles to climb/hurdle over that were spread a nice distance apart from each other. The course continued on for a little bit and up next were the 6-foot walls and then the 7-foot walls and came another sprint. The next two obstacles up and pretty close to each other were a series of short walls to hurdle over and then just ahead the inverted wall.

The next few obstacles were all spread out with a little sprint between each of them and they were the Plate Drag, Hay-bale hurdles, Spearman spear toss, which I uncharacteristically missed both days! The course continued on and the next obstacles was the memory sign (if my memory serves me correct) and then came the Sandbag carry, which was a nice and easy one for the second Spartan race weekend in a row! The course then came to z-walls and then made its way to the 8-foot wall.

At this point, the course was on the Super only version which started with the above sandbag carry and up next was the Atlas Ball carry and then it was time for another long distance sprint and up next came the Tyrolean traverse, which was a much shorter distance they typically at Spartan races.

The course continued on for a longer distance sprint and the next obstacle was the bucket brigade which also happened to be the merge back into the course for Sunday’s Sprint. The brigade was nice and flat and not that long and the toughest part of the loop was walking through a short section of not even knee-deep water. After another decent distance sprint, the course came to the Hercules hoist which was nice and light both days and one of the obstacles I always look forward to because I dominate at it (lol). A short sprint ahead was the barbed-wire crawl, which was a fairly long distance crawl, but it was nice and flat and I was able to roll through it fast both days. Just ahead came the always fun and challenging Stairway to Sparta, which was a little more challenging than normal because I was still dizzy from the crawl which made the climb up and back down more interesting.

The course now headed back to the festival area and the next few obstacles were the Multi-Rig, Rope Climb, and Cargo-net climb which all were almost back to back to back and then the course turned back into the wooded area for a short distance sprint. The course exited the woods and made a U-turn back towards the festival and it was time for the Monkey Bars and then a short distance ahead came the mud mounds with water to climb through and then attached to the mounds was the Dunk wall, which didn’t have water as deep/high as last weekend’s Atlanta race and racers could get under the wall both days without having to completely submerge their heads under the dirty muddy water, which at least for me is always a disappointment (lol). A very short distance ahead was the slip wall and almost immediately after came the fire jump and finish of the course!

• The Bling:

Not much to report here, the bling is the same it has been for all of 2016 and I am super excited that the new medals and finisher shirts are just around the corner for 2017!

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

It was interesting to finish up my Spartan race season with Atlanta and Jacksonville as both courses due to the venues and terrains were just not as hard or challenging as the Spartan races I did both in Canada and the East Coast this year, but I still had a blast and to be honest, my body is really beat up so ending the season with these types of races was good for me.

I also know both races have a lot of first timer racers so the courses are better for getting new racers hooked/addicted and doing more going forward. Norm did a great job with the conditions presented to him and the Spartan team was awesome all weekend (I arrived early Friday and left late Sunday).

Based on the course, the volunteers and staff, and the overall fun experience of the entire weekend, I am rating the event/race 5 out of 5 stars.

I have already planned out my 2017 Spartan race season and am looking forward to some new venues/races and some of the older and always challenging and fun venues.

Article Written by: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)