OCD FOR OCR

So far this year, the only Spartan Super I ran was in Canada, so I was looking forward to this weekend and a chance to see many good New England friends. I spent the early AM on Saturday racing on Randall’s Island, NY and then drove over 170 miles to the Massachusetts venue to race the Super on the same day.

• Registration and Festival:

I arrived very late on Saturday so no one was waiting in lines at registration and it went fast and smooth. Sunday morning, I was at registration at about 8am and yet again I didn’t see lines or delays.

The festival area was set up well and everything was easy to either spot or find.

• Pre-race MC:

The Spartan MC, at least on Sunday, was John “JJ” O’Malley who is a former contestant on the TV show The Biggest Loser. He did a decent job getting the wave inspired and ready to race. He talked about being on the TV show and losing weight and how it has changed his life. He clearly is not the fire you up/in your face style MC, but he still has an amazing story and it was nice to find strength from him sharing his story with the wave. I personally miss former Spartan MC Bishop Garland, but that’s just my opinion.

• The Course:

The course started out with a brief sprint and didn’t take that long to get to the first obstacle, which was a hay hurdle to climb/hop over. The course continued on and the next few obstacles were a series of short walls to climb over, two high hurdles to climb over, and then the course made its way back over to the festival area and up next was the Cargo Bridge, which I haven’t seen for a while. After the Cargo Bridge, the course continued on to the rope climb and then turned to the left and came to the sandbag carry. To this point, the course spent the majority of the time in the direct sunlight and for most of Saturday and Sunday, it was brutal hot and humid and the heat (for most of us) was the biggest enemy of the race weekend.

At this point, the course made its way over to the Spear Toss, which I missed on Saturday and made easy on Sunday. Up next came the Multi-Rig, which I was shocked to see so early in the course. The course continued on still spending much of the time directly in the sunlight, The course made its way again over to the festival area and up, and back down the A-Frame Cargo Net obstacle. The course turned into the wooded area (yay, for not being directly in the sun) and continued on for a brief sprint and one of the next obstacles on the course was the Z-Walls. Just past the four mile mile marker came a barbed wire crawl, or in my case barbed wire roll. Just after the crawl was the ever so muddy Rolling Mud obstacle to climb in several muddy water trenches, followed by a mud mound to climb up and back down. This felt like one continues obstacle, because almost immediately up next was the Dunk Wall obstacle. I always get a laugh watching racers freak out that they have to put there entire faces under the water to complete the Dunk Wall, because personally, I always look forward to this obstacle and the chance to completely get my entire body wet. The dunk wall was immediately followed up by a second barbed wire crawl.

The course continued on for a brief sprint and made its way to a series of wall obstacles: 6’ wall, 7’ wall, 8’ wall and a very short distance ahead came the vertical wall. The race director clearly knew this section, of course with four wall climb obstacles back, to back, etc was going to be a challenge, because they placed a water station and if my memory serves me correct, a cliff blocks station immediately after it. At that point, the course entered the woods again and I remember thinking yay, for being out of the sun, which was awesome, but the terrain in the woods was tricky in some parts and this added another challenge to the course. This was actually one of the longer sprints on the course without an obstacle (even though it didn’t feel like it) and it took a little time for me to make my way out of the woods and arrive to a section of the venue I have gotten to know well, it’s a big cow farm that is active with cows and smells really bad (lol). The course turned at the barn and made its way up a hill and then looped to the right and came to the obstacle Stairway to Sparta, which on Sunday had an amazing breeze at the top of the climb and I didn’t want to climb back down.

The course now came to the Bucket Brigade Carry and they placed it on a section of course that every obstacle course race (I have done at this venue) uses for the heavy carry obstacle. The carry was more challenging because of the hot day and regardless of how much water racers drank; I have to think all of us were suffering from dehydration this deep into the course. A very short distance ahead was the Atlas Ball carry and I remember thinking, did they really have to place two hard carries back to back and right next to each other. and the answer was unfortunately yes. The next three obstacles were: a plate drag, the Tyrolean Traverse, and a second plate drag.

At this point, the course had another longer trail sprint and spent a portion on a hard driving surface with the last three obstacles being the rope cargo net climb and then one last woods terrain sprint just prior to exiting the woods and entering the festival area (for the last time) and coming to the Slip Wall obstacle and last but not least the Fire Jump.

• The Bling:

Both the finisher medal and finisher shirt have a new look/design for 2016 and I am a big fan of both.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

For the second year in a row, I ran the Massachusetts Super at this venue so I am familiar with how Spartan has used this venue and terrain in the past and I have to say I enjoyed how they designed the course this year. I personally felt this year’s course spent more time and distance on terrain that was easier on the feet and at least for me, I enjoyed that. The heat and sun were brutal, so any advantage racers gained due to the change in terrain was lost due to the heat.

The course was challenging and had several obstacles I haven’t seen Spartan use in some time. I wish Spartan would design a few new obstacles, I am not asking for obstacles that only elites will mostly complete, but some that would be fun for all racers, but to be fair, almost none of the obstacle races have added anything new in 2016. The staff, volunteers, and local police all did an amazing job both Saturday and Sunday on a hot and humid weekend. The bling is always was top notch.  I wasn’t overly impressed with the MC, but I do like that he has a great story and won’t be deducting any score due to him. I rate this event/race a 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Article Written By: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)