I was very excited to be competing in this race. I was lucky to purchase this as a Groupon many months ago. I do have to say that I highly recommend signing up with places like Groupon and Living Social, and other group buy site. There have been more and more races showing up on these sites since they have become so incredibly popular. So not only do you get to try one of these fun races but you also are able to do it at a saving.
The weather was surprising. It has been warm but for some reason this particular weekend was a little chilly in Arizona. It was nothing I could not handle though. There was even some talk of rain. Man that would rock. I would love to do one of these races with a full on down pour going one. Well that did not happen but someday I hope for it.
Pros and Cons specific to this Spartan Sprint Race in AZ 2013
Now I know if there was a way to avoid this, the race directors would do so. But one of the things I really hate about races is having to ride the bus to the start. I do not want to get stuck in long lines and show up late to the start. I do not want to wait to get a ride back to my car. I do not like not being able to walk to my car to get my camera so I can come back and take photos as well as enjoy the race longer. Some places are close enough where you could walk. This really does rely heavily on the location and what is available to be used as parking. Now I want to make sure to state that I would much rather have a lot of these locations stay as is and ride the bus then have the race moved to a site that was not as exciting so I could park close.
With that being said I was not excited with the bus to race start set up. This was the furthest I have ever had to ride a bus. It was like 15 minutes and I am being serious here. And to top it off, the bus driver was unaware of where she was going. Seriously??? Someone dropped the ball. Not to mention they were filling one bus at a time and we had to wait for all of them to move up before they would load the next one. It took too long for me and I was in the first heat. I can’t imagine how it was later in the day when the bulk of the masses were arriving. Many of the new runners are not aware of the possible delays and did not allow themselves enough time to arrive. This would have congested some of the later heats. My suggestion is that they need to be filling 3 buses at a time, let them all head out and move all the buses forward to do it again.
I did not realize that the race would start and go right to a single track situation only a few hundred yards out. I am sure this was specific to our site. And most of the race would be like this. It created a slower pace that affected my time for sure. Oh well I was rolling with it.
The obstacles were pretty good. Nothing I thought was too hard. As long as you did not rush it and were nice and smooth through it you could do it. And I did not want to fall off because in Spartan races you are penalized 30 Burpees. That can be significant if you miss them all in a 15 obstacle race. The rope climb was tricky since it was wet. And I was not able to do the spear throw which I got penalized for. I will have to practice that one. Please please please Spartan Race directors make sure to add in more MUD! I love the mud and will play in it all day. I was a little too clean at the end of the race. This is just my personal preference. I want to finish the race unrecognizable. =D
I was not happy with one of the obstacles. Here you had to carry a heavy stone over a bit and do 5 Burpees and carry it back. They had a few lanes in which to do this. The one I was at no one would bring a stone back. So I was there a few minutes waiting. I was getting annoyed. I was not going to move on without completing this course. My suggestion is mark the lanes so participants have to go out and come back to same spot. And have more than one stone on each lane. You will need a little more room here but well worth it. I can bet this was a pinch point for the race.
Anyone that knows me knows I hate things that make me go round and round. I mean I get dizzy so easily. The last obstacle was an army crawl under barbed wire. But since you are in shorts and the sand here in AZ is so rocky I realized early on would be best handled by. This section happened to be a very long way. So I was spinning for what seemed like forever. I thought I was so going to yak.
The final obstacle was two gladiators with weapons. I did want to just try and see if I could take them out by going right at them instead of just taking the hits. Unfortunately, not too long ago, I threw out my back pretty good. I am still trying to recover from it. I did not want to hurt myself again and set back my recovery. That was not going to be worth it for me. I have a 6 year old son to keep up with. Hopefully on my next race I can handle business.
Thanks Spartan for not telling me that you switched the length of the race from 3.2 to 4.7 miles. I was wondering how few obstacles there was when I had gotten to mile 3. How would they get all those other obstacles in with only .2 miles left to go. That was too funny.
The location was amazing. This was a major pro to the race for me. Living in a desert it still amazes me how beautiful it can be. I do have to say the views were beautiful during the run. Lots of greenery was coming up from the rains we have had. I took in as much as I could. I have to remember to come and hike here again sometime. It was held at the McDowell Regional Park. But then it did dawned on me. I was the first heat comprising of 200 participants and there would be many more such heats in the two days that would be tearing this nice area up. That did not sound good.
Overall thoughts. A great race. It is a manageable length race that challenges athletes of all fitness levels. I would recommend this Spartan Sprint to anyone looking to get into the obstacle race. I look forward to trying Spartan’s other length races. I already have my schedule set up for racing all three lengths in the same year to score my Trifecta and earning myself a fourth metal.
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