OCD FOR OCR

Due to having to adult, I was unable to travel to Dirty Jersey on Friday and tackle the Ultra this year, (after successfully taking it on the previous two years). One silver lining was that I was free from my responsibilities in time to hit a more local race that fell on the same weekend before I left the area. The other silver lining was that the standard 13-mile Beast was offered on Sunday in Jersey and I was able to get up early and make the 3.5-hour trek to have a go at this year’s course. Weather conditions, turned out to be similar to last November’s Super and Sprint at the same venue, only adding to the challenge that I would face despite taking on only about half the mileage I normally do at this event. 

• Registration and Festival:

Not a lot to say, that I haven’t already said in prior recaps of Spartan Races about the super-efficient registration process. I especially appreciated it, as I drove down on race day and cut my departure time closer than I would have liked. I made it into the start corral on time, despite pulling into the VIP parking lot only 15 minutes prior to my assigned race time!

The first thing that struck me about the festival area, was the placement of the Merch tent. In the past at this venue, it has been a cramped trailer or a counter with a cramped awning. Now it is under a larger tent and you must go through it to get to or from the VIP parking or the shuttle stops to general parking to the rest of the festival area and the race itself. Savage Race has been doing it this way for a while, and it hearkens to the practice of many amusement parks, I have visited by having guests go through a gift shop before exiting the park for the day. Smart move on Spartan’s part to assist Merch sales and also made for a more pleasant browsing/shopping experience on my end.

Other than the new positioning of the merchandise, the festival area seemed to be the standard cadre of challenges and sponsors I usually expect at this venue and at Spartan Races in general.

• Pre-race MC:

The MC went with the pretty standard Spartan Race script. By now, I could have gotten up and recited it. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Love, because a big part of me thrives on ritual and tradition. Hate, because I enjoy creativity and I feel like it is being stifled here.   

• The Course:

I have begun to feel that I know the course here, after coming to this venue at least once a year since 2013, for the Super in the Fall and now twice a year since the Beast has been offered each Spring. It started and finished in the same spots the races have for quite some time now. But in between, it seemed like some things were rerouted just enough to keep it fresh. There were the familiar landmarks, to be sure, but it seemed like many of them, I approached from a new direction or angle.  Kudos to Spartan for not just slapping a different obstacle lineup on the same exact course route, or at least doing enough to fool this racer. 

As for the obstacles, Spartan had a lot of new stuff this time around or at least my first encounters with some of their new obstacles. Outright new obstacles included Helix, which tests your coordination and to some degree your flexibility, but I did not find it a difficult obstacle despite being made of metal and being in the rain. We were also treated to the Beater, which was a huge Burpee maker in the rain. I was nowhere near successful at it and I found while many got further than me on it, it was not enough to ring the bell and proceed without penalty for the vast majority. I am sure, however, with drier weather and more experience. it will surely make the overall success rate higher in future races. Another brand-new obstacle (to Spartan) was “the Box” which I recall encountering similar counterparts in other obstacle course race series in the past. It had a rope and a wall to a high platform, but a rounded baffle at the edge to make gripping without the rope next to impossible. 

In addition to the totally new obstacles, we were also treated to new variations on old classics. One obstacle was the Stairway to Sparta with a higher wall portion coupled with rock climbing holds to compensate for the top of the wall now being out of reach from the ground. Another enhanced obstacle I particularly enjoyed was the vertical cargo net with a platform placed in the middle, which really required some creative athleticism for me to get up onto with my 5’6” stature. Overall the combination of new obstacles, modified versions of obstacles and some of the ones we always love to conquer made for a fun course with the challenging terrain/trails.

• The Bling:

We were given the standard Beast finisher shirt for this year and the standard medal. It’s really not much different than the medal I got for Citi Field, apart from having the appropriate color and labeling for a Beast vs. a Stadion or any other event one may partake. I’m not much of a medal whore as it were, honestly, but that being said I am all the more excited to take on Palmerton and other “Mountain Series” races later in the season so that I can get my hands on one of those finisher medals!

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

Since this was a Beast course, Spartan pulled out all the stops on new additions to their obstacle lineup, keeping things from going stale for sure. I have heard that certain key obstacles will not be at shorter distance races, such as the Twister. It seems that they want to position the Sprints as their “entry level” races, Supers as a step further and the Beast as their top-level event.

As someone with a running background outside OCR, I offer a perspective that makes me think this kind of marketing could be a mistake and backfire. I don’t think any serious road runner, for instance necessarily views a 5k as “easier” than a half marathon, but the different distances might favor one type of runner over another depending on their training focus and their genetic disposition among other factors. I have felt just as beat up, if not worse running 3.1 miles competitively jockeying for a podium finish as opposed to a 13.1-mile course where I just wanted to finish respectably and claim a medal and my free beer.  Some athletes might be losing their chance to shine on a shorter course with more challenging obstacles. Even the more casual racer might want to have a couple harder obstacles in the lineup to try their hand at and give them something to aspire to completion of in future races. But for this particular race, without hesitation, I rate this event/course five out of five stars!

Article Written by: Brian Kellogg, OCR Aficionado.