OCD FOR OCR

Over 4000 Spartans descended on Garrettsville, Ohio in aptly named Portage County this past weekend! There were three race distances  available, the Ultra (30 miles with 60 obstacles), the Beast (12.5 miles 30 obstacles) both on Saturday, the 4.3-mile Sprint took place Sunday.

The kids race ran both days and from what I could tell was phenomenal with real obstacles and exciting volunteers and parents helping to make sure they earned their medals and had a blast! The Spartan Kids Obstacle Course Race Comes in Three age groups:

• AGES 4-6 Distance: 1/2 Mile
• AGES 7-9 Distance: 1 Mile
• AGES 10-13 Distance: 2 Miles.

I ran the Beast/Sprint. There were runners of all different fitness levels, but the ultra-runners, the elite men, and the women put on a show!

• Registration and Festival:

Spartan Race has registration down to a science. Just show up like you’re supposed to an hour before your wave with a screen shot of your reg. barcode, and picture identification and you’re in. The registration package is pretty straight forward as well. Put your wrist bands with timing chip on, head band on and proceed to bag check.

The festival/village was live and lead by an excited MC who played music jams and had information on everything going on from up to the min. race updates to pull up, and Burpee competitions and (planks for the kids in attendance). Spartan Race always has a slew of different vendors, military presence, fitness, health food/nutrition and unlimited merchandise. Missing are the unhealthy food trucks, which used to be present. This may have been due to the location as there were really no restaurants near my hotel either.

Parking: Unfortunately, on Saturday there was a 3-way 2-mile backup funneling into the venue, and then another 5-mile drive from there, which seemed easy enough. Due to way too much rain, Spartan was concerned about people getting stuck in the parking area (as per an email sent earlier in the week suggesting driving a four-wheel drive vehicle and/or carpooling). The area seemed to be well enough for the event weekend however. Sunday Sprint parking was smooth as butter!

• Pre-race MC:

Some Spartan MC’s tend to put more into the pre-race speech than others, Saturday seemed overly scripted and just a bit underwhelming for a Spartan race. Rules and regulations which are important, shouldn’t sound like an amusement park ride, delivered by a carney, or maybe they should? Sunday Sprint seemed a bit more personal as he interacted on a much more personal level with some of the runners. All in all, both MC’s did their thing!

• The Course:

Portage county’s Southington off-road park was extremely scenic on a gorgeous 80-degree weekend. As in actual Spartan days there were no rivers of blood, but there were plenty of mud rivers to be had. Most too deep to run through, which made up for the lack of elevation (a mere elevation gain of 781 feet) in the beast.

The trails and terrain where everything you could ask for from Spartan Race, with every kind of footholds imaginable and mud in almost every color and consistency there is. Boulder rock, crushed stone, grass, and of course standing water could be found everywhere. At one point in the race, I found myself running in the sand beside a sheer flat rock face that is used as a shooting range, there were spent cartridges everywhere under foot. As to be expected the obstacles at Spartan Race are very physically taxing!

The weighted carries, such as the sandbag carry up and down four times on an isolated steep hill was nasty, as was the bucket brigade loop in treacherous shin deep sticky mud. Whether dealing with one of their many wall designs, 8-feet, inverted, Z-Wall traverse, or the box (very difficult under muddy conditions) or one of the many different cargo nets, my heart rate was pushed.

Spartan Race rigs and grip strength obstacles are about as easy as their races, burpees for failed obstacles were abundant! I had to do a total 120 on Saturday and just 30 on Sunday. I love spear throw!!! The Rings obstacle had different vertical rope configurations and the rotating, undulating, twisting monkey bars had my grip and forearms screaming!

The last half mile gauntlet provided excitement including a long-barbed wire crawl, spear throw, slip wall, the A-frame cargo net, the rope climb, the atlas stone carry, the always fun spinning monkey bars, the Tyrolean traverse, the almost impossible Hercules hoist, and the dunk wall, which created many lead changes and for a very exciting finish. Saturday’s shorter Sprint course ran quite a bit dryer making it a pretty quick course!

Course hits and misses: Great all-around obstacles. But a favorite was the sand bag carry, up and down 4 times each on an isolated hill. Another definite hit was the gauntlet style finish with tough obstacles lined up back to back in the last half mile. No real misses here except for parking on Saturday and the absence of the unhealthy food I prefer after a race. For reasons unknown, there were also two obstacles setup, but closed down, Irish tables and a log carry.

• The Bling:

I absolutely love this year’s finisher shirt and Medals, including the classic Trifecta pie pieces (as always).

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

As an athlete who runs all sorts of OCR/Mud run events, throughout the year, I can’t say I’ve ever been really disappointed in the Spartan Race product! Top Notch! This was my 11th Spartan race and through volunteering, I’m understand how difficult it is to put on these events, especially at the magnitude of Spartan. One thing I can say for certain, they are correct when they say “You’ll know at the finish line”! One thing that always remains a constant in these races, is that all of the participants are special. Most of which are doing more with less!

I give Spartan Race Ohio Ultra Beast/ Beast/ Sprint weekend 4.75 out of 5 stars! AROO AROO AROO

Article Written by: Troy Hall