OCD FOR OCR

This race was the focus of my training for the past six weeks, as I had made the goal to podium in my age group, so I was revved and ready to go as the countdown finally ended for race day. My expectations were, that it would be a slow muddy course with minimal elevation, as Florida isn’t known for elevation gains. I was pleasantly surprised, when the race didn’t meet my expectation, but in fact exceeded them in other ways. I completely enjoyed going Beast mode at the Spartan Beast

• Registration and Festival:

Parking was included in the cost of registration, which made me feel like a winner already pulling into the parking lot and keeping my cash in my wallet. Parking went smooth as did packet pick up. The festival area had multiple food vendors and local business booths as usual. There were stations for photo ops with the light, over-sized barbell seeming to be most popular. Bag drop was offered as usual and it was the first time, I have seen a trailer with rental lockers available. The DJ at the podium stage was engaging the finish line as well as the spectators, with music, which included a dance contest, where the winner(s) won a free upcoming race!

• Pre-race MC:

The MC was utilizing music to engage with the competitors in the coral. While the men prepared for the go sign they enjoyed hard rock and upbeat jams. For whatever reason, he decided that our women’s age group wave would enjoy 80’s sitcom theme songs, not so much at the get me pumped up part, but it did make sure everyone knew this wave was a few decades old. Toss in a few AROO’s, commercial advertisements for the sponsors, and a reminder to check out the merchandise tent, for last minute Christmas shopping and it was finally off to the races!

• The Course:

The course was a Beast. From start, to finish, it did not disappoint. I loved the early placement of two upper body obstacles. It wasn’t in my game plan to have to do burpees that early on, but I went low instead of high on the rings and ended up in the pit of doom. Always go high!!The remainder of the course was a great mix of upper body strength obstacles, including rigs, monkey bars, rock wall walls and pure strength tasks such as Atlas carries, sandbag carries, and of course buckets carry.This was my first time taking on some of them, so it is always exciting to conquer new challenges and feel the extra shot of adrenaline, when you do to propel you forward. Nailing that spear throw, finally after multiple past races entering the Burpee pit of shame was a big enough shot to propel my rocket ship to the moon! The course in my opinion, was a runner’s course. This to me means long stretches of running between obstacles rather than having to deal with difficult terrain or large mud bogs that you have no choice but to slow down to navigate. The aid stations were well placed and the numbers were sufficient for the length of the course.What was noticeable on the course was the lack of volunteers. This frustrated me, only because there was no accountability on some obstacles that may have caused competitors to do burpees for inability to complete. However, after I completed the race, the information that a large number of volunteers were no shows to the event provided insight. I cannot fault Spartan for not having bodies were no bodies were available to be had! So c’mon people, if you are going to sign up, then show up!!

• The Bling:

The bling, consisted of the typical Spartan medal with the beast slice of the pie attached along with the Spartan finisher t-shirt. Age group winners, were provided with a large gold medal or silver Spartan medal.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

I rate this race as a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I will continue to stand by my bands over burpee’s battle cry, however I feel this race was a great mix of pleasure and pain.

Article Written by: Joy Moody