Race Recap: Spartan Super Chicago

Spartan Super Chicago 6/23/18 Richmond, IL

Weather: 70s and sunny

Trails: Flat and extremely muddy farmland and recreation area

Distance: approx 8.25 miles, 29 obstacles

In the days leading up to my first-ever Super I had heard many warnings about the level of mud that was expected at the event. Not only was this a typically muddy course, there had been ceaseless rain in the area over the previous week that had turned muddy into MUDDY. Perhaps due to a base survival instinct, perhaps naivety, I assumed the warnings were at least slightly exaggerated. Spoiler alert: NOPE. This was, flat out, bar none, not even close, the MUDDIEST experience I can EVEN IMAGINE EVER HAVING in my ENTIRE LIFE. Not to be dramatic, but...just setting the stage for expectations for this recap. 

Parking at nearby Richardson Adventure Farm had a bit of a queue when I arrived at around 8 AM, but went smoothly as we were all directed efficiently into spaces in the large grassy field. There was a long line of shuttle buses waiting to quickly whisk us away for a 5-10 minute ride to the venue. Get off the bus and boom. Here it is. Thick, brownie-batter mud all the way up to the festival area. And in the festival area. Everywhere. Fortunately check-in was easy and they honored my request for an earlier start with no fuss (they moved me from 10:30 AM to 9:45 AM!). My shoes ruined already and with over an hour to wait for my start, I settled in along the fence by the finisher chute (one of the few square feet that had a patch of green) and oogled the elite men who had just finished and the elite women who were finishing. When the time came, I waded through the muck to bag check, then got into the start corral and did half-assed stretching while listening to everyone around me saying "yeah, the ENTIRE COURSE will be like this, this is not even the worst of it," and still refusing to entertain the notion that everyone is accurate. It was as if I had taken a bath in Delusion by Jinkx Monsoon. CONVINCE YOURSELF! Although I did take the time to prepare myself mentally for nonstop mud. I knew I wasn't leaving this race without a finisher medal, so who cares?

Started the race and the running was indeed slow-going. Not only was the mud treacherous and energy-sapping, there were these little creek crossings in ravines that brought the action to a screeching halt every 1/2 mile or so. We did 4' walls, then a 6' wall (which, by some miracle of Jesus, I made it over completely by myself! Grabbed the top, walked up my feet, and wrestled my Amazonian ass over it!), then a 7' wall, which I needed a boost on. Then came the monkey bars, which I figured would be no problem. But wait, these are not ordinary monkey bars. They are FAR APART and set at different heights. Even at 5'11" with a great reach, I had a lot of trouble getting enough swing to grab the next bar. On two separate occasions during this 90-second ordeal, I missed the next bar and had to save myself by grabbing my bar and kipping myself until I got enough swing to reach. Not gonna lie, I felt like Jessie Graf from American Ninja Warrior out there. I felt so strong and powerful and like "holy shit, I am going to MAKE IT!" Then this unholy bitch came out of nowhere barreling through on my left side and knocked me off the second-to-last bar. The bell was 3 feet in front of my face, and I got THROWN OFF. She didn't even apologize or turn around. I was so furious that I must confess to having violent thoughts. Chubby Short Girl With Green Shorts, if you are reading this, you have some horrific karma coming your way. I thought for a minute about whether I was going to do burpees and I thought "you know what? NO. I did NOT FAIL that shit. I got KNOCKED DOWN with one bar to go." Some people might disagree with my decision to skip the burpees, but it was the beginning of what I knew would be a long day and I was already feeling super angry. (Also the monkey bars tore calluses off the pads of each hand, so...ouch. Throughout the rest of the race I got mud and dirt in them and was just like "...this really smarts.")

Photo taken seconds before disaster.

The good news: I did calm down again after about 5 minutes! I had decided with all the mud it was critical for me to use my hot-yoga-developed focus and presence to remain as calm and zen as possible. Every step taken was one less step remaining. I took time to deeply breathe and accept my muddy fate. And it worked, I must say. My attitude about the mud was quite relaxed throughout the race. Let The Mud Happen To You. Continuing right along, I got over the inverted wall with no problems, as well as Herc Hoist (which thankfully they must have put out the bags after the rain ended, because they were light). Twister was an epic fail. I made it nowhere. Thirty burpees! I was in good company! And I managed to find a patch of not-deep-mud to do them on. After that was the bucket carry (a photographer caught me looking fabulous - I like the bucket, it's easy) and Atlas Carry, which was somehow tougher than in Minnesota despite this being drier. 

Lookin' good and feeling good!

Then came Rolling Mud and the dunk wall, followed immediately by a barbed wire crawl. This. Was. MISERABLE. It's as close as I came all day to really losing my zen. That barbed wire crawl through muddy water, scraping your knees and elbows along countless rocks of all sizes, getting thick mud DOWN MY PANTS, was truly a horrible experience. After the race I developed many bruises from this obstacle. The less said about it, the better. After this was a weird area where we went up and down these stairs through a "castle" of sorts. Interesting! Then was the Z-walls, which were so muddy and we were all so muddy that tons of people were failing them. I made it through one step before I just slipped right off. Thirty burpees. 

Someone show me how to do Z-walls with mud opera gloves.

Next up was a giant wall that is listed as 8' on the map but I am sure it was at least 9'. I'm nearly 6' tall and this wall TOWERED over me. I needed one strong man lifting each of my legs to get me to grab onto the top, which was slick with mud. Getting down was terrifying but I made it without dying. Next up was Bender, which I'd never done before. It's basically a tilted ladder that you crawl up and over, but the ladder starts 6' off the ground. After getting a boost to the first rung, I very carefully crawled/walked my slippery shoes up and over this thing and back down. HARROWING! There was a lady out there with a service dog that would not stop barking (I thought service dogs were better trained than that?) and it wasn't helping my nerves, that's for sure. After Bender came a second barbed wire crawl which was not wet or rocky, but the dryness made it hard to crawl. The service dog crawled under with its human, which was neat. But the lady was totally judging how I was crawling. She's like "you should roll!" I said "I get too dizzy." "So turn around and roll the other way." "I have a Camelbak on." Like geez, lady, just do your race and I'll do mine. I moved far over so the rollers could pass me, anyway.

At some point during the running portion of the race (on one of the rare somewhat-dry stretches), a good-looking guy playfully asked me "got any goodies in that pack?" I told him I had Nutter Butters because I like having cookies mid-race, and he said "I LOVE cookies mid-race." It was, by far, the sexiest interaction I have ever had while soaked in filth. Thank you, Anonymous Spartan Man, for brightening a very muddy day with a little harmless flirtation! Being in my mid-30s and married, it was a rare treat. :)

Anyway, after the last barbed wire crawl were several climb-over obstacles. Vertical Cargo and Stairway to Sparta went fine, despite being slick and spooky. I needed a boost on the latter. Then was the 5' hurdles which I am normally good at, but this time on the first hurdle I abruptly and violently pulled my right trapezius and nearly threw up/fainted from the pain. Despite feeling like I might puke I managed to get boosted over the second hurdle by a very kind older man. Walk it off, Clare, walk it off. Got to the hay wall and easily hopped up and over it without using my shoulders too much. After a super mucky section I saw Olympus and just started laughing. There is NO WAY I can do Olympus under ideal conditions, let alone when I've just strolled through 8" deep mud for miles. I just kept on walking right past Olympus AND the burpee pit, which was still in the deep mud. I vowed to do my burpees on dry (drier) ground. Next up was the plate drag, where you pull a weighted sled out with a rope and back with a chain. This was quite easy for me because heavy shit is my jam. Apparently the men's sleds were nearly immovable. 

Then came my nemesis, the Rope Climb. Didn't even bother. I found a small dry hill a bit off course just past the ropes and settled in for 60 burpees. I did these modified because I was still worried about my trapezius and frankly 60 unmodified burpees would have taken me forever. This was around mile 7.5 and I'd been racing for 3.5 hours. It still took me a while to do them, and then I enjoyed an easy-peasy sandbag carry before failing the spear throw and doing 30 now-unmodified burpees. My trapezius felt much better by that point, thankfully. Although the mud was now causing my calf to cramp a bit just trying to get my foot out of the muck with every single step. We came out into the now-crowded festival area to the tire flip, and there were a lot of people watching, so I picked a good lady tire right in front of the crowd and flipped that bitch over and back like it was nothing. Putting on a show now because I knew another failure was coming up. Easy A-frame cargo net, and an easy slip wall (the mud was all dry on it). Finally, the multi-rig. It had 3 rings, a pipe, and 3 more rings. I know how to do rings but for some reason I could not even get them going in this event. Maybe because I'd been out there for 4 hours? But I did 30 burpees while wanly staring at the finish line just ahead. Finally finished my burpees, jumped over the fire, and crossed the line in about 4:05! Got medal, food/drinks, and a finisher photo in the mud and muck.

At laaaaast, my mu-uud has come along

Afterward I picked up my bag, which was a cluster. The volunteers were letting people find their own bags and just checking to make sure their wristbands matched when they were leaving. It was taking people several minutes to locate their bags. Finally I found mine, found the hose-down area, saw the long line and thought "forget it" and decided to just be disgusting until I got to my hotel, got my free beer, drank half of it, then got on a bus back to the parking area and drove to my hotel with my shoes off.

Pros:

-Obstacles played to my strengths today - some Spartan standards, and lots of climbing and heavy stuff. Sadly, the mud made all the obstacles harder and some of them nearly impossible even for the elites (several elite men totally skipped the tire flip).

-Camaraderie. The mud brought us all together and everyone was super friendly. I got boosts everywhere I needed them. 

-Volunteers. These folks were troopers in that mud and were all very communicative.

-Challenging. I went there for a good workout and by God, I got one.

Cons:

-On-race nutrition needed. They only had chews at around mile 6. Fortunately I had my Camelbak full of Nutter Butters or I would have been screwed.

-MUD. This course is just Mud City. It is Mud Hell, in fact. A solid 90% of the course was in THICK, wet mucky mud. The few dry sections felt like a vacation in Malibu by comparison, though. And frankly I perversely enjoy the feeling of doing such a difficult Super. Lots of folks online said this race was harder than any Beast they'd ever done. That makes me feel prepared for my actual Beast.

-Hose area. Too long a wait, and I heard the water pressure sucked anyway so I'm glad I didn't stand in line for it.

Race Grade:  B+. If the mud hadn't been such a huge factor, it would have been an A. This was a Spartan event that lived up to my prior standards, and it gave me a great deal of relief after the Minnesota disaster. (Post script to that: Spartan did give me a credit for a free future Sprint event, so I am signed up for a second lap of the upcoming St. Louis Stadium Sprint!)

Race Recap: Spartan Sprint Minnesota

Spartan Sprint Minnesota 6/9/18 Welch Village, MN

Weather: Low 70s, cloudy -> raining -> thunderstorms

Trails: Ski mountain. Massive grassy hills with muddy sections.

Distance: approx 3.8 miles, 21 obstacles

Set on Welch Village ski resort, this race is part of Spartan's new Mountain Series. I had received nigh on apocalyptic warnings about the enormity of the hills and considered myself well-prepared. Upon arrival at the event (smooth check-in) and seeing it in person, I knew I'd be in for quite a day, quads-wise. I was concerned about the weather holding up, so I asked to get into an earlier wave. The earliest they'd put me is 12:15, even though I'd signed up with my trifecta pass so I wasn't trying to "get a discounted morning time." The gatekeepers at the corral let me in for the noon wave, anyway.

First thing we did in this race is run (hike) up the black diamond run of the ski hill. This was steep, slippery, and crowded. You could tell immediately who was wearing their old running shoes instead of actual OCR shoes or trail shoes. Tip: ALWAYS wear OCR or trail shoes. The same terrain that makes someone else fall and sprain something, you can jog down like a mountain goat. Anyhow, the hill went on and on but nevertheless we persisted. At the top was a 4' wall, then back down the giant hill. At the bottom of the hill were two 5' hurdles that got us right in the babymakers, then back up a hill to Olympus, which I failed terribly. I need to figure this obstacle out eventually. Slick feet didn't help. Thirty burpees! Some ladies and I talked about what foods motivate us, and it turns out I was the lone soul on Team Taco (vs their Team Cake). Back down the hill and through mucky woods to the sandbag carry, where I made damn sure to grab a WOMEN'S sandbag this week, and sure enough it was easy peasy, aside from the mud everywhere. 

After that it was a short jaunt to the rope climb, which I immediately failed. Thirty burpees! And I found a patch of grassy area so I didn't have to get too muddy, score! Turned the corner all "WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS?!" to find a barbed wire crawl through mud. For good measure, they sprayed us with cold water in the last 15-20 feet and we had to crawl through a giant puddle and I yelled "MINNESOTA, YOU ARE DEAD TO ME! I WILL ROOT AGAINST THE VIKINGS TWICE AS HARD!" Next was an inverted wall (wrongly labeled Vertical Cargo on the map), which was a few inches taller (and muddier) than last week's in Ohio but I still got up it solo. 

Immediately after the inverted wall was the Atlas Carry. All I saw was a field of flags on sticks and giant balls everywhere. I asked the volunteer sitting nearby what we were supposed to do and she wanly said "I think there's, like, some smaller balls over there..." WT actual F. She seemed to have no idea what an Atlas Carry is, and the field was so disorganized that it wasn't even slightly intuitive. Fortunately several veterans helped everyone piece together that you pick up a ball (red for women, black for men), carry it a certain distance, do 5 burpees, then pick up the ball again and carry it back. The balls weren't in their proper spots so it was hard to tell what we were supposed to do, and there was no sign explaining it. The volunteer was really important on this obstacle to get everyone going, and she dropped the ball (DAD JOKES!). Terrible. Anyway, the ball was like 50 lb and awkward to pick up but I just got my forearms kind of under it and rolled it onto my hands.

We hit the 2-mile marker and I was on a pretty even 32-minute mile pace, which I was frankly thrilled about with such a crazy hilly course and one burpee obstacle each mile. We finished ascending the mountain again and did the A-frame cargo net. At this point it had started drizzling and we were all concerned about being on this giant metal structure on top of the mountain, which gave us the motivation to get up and down quickly and jog down the hill to the next obstacle, a 6' wall. It was a bit over 6', actually, but I got a boost from a couple good people! Continued down the hill to the Rolling Mud (worse this week than in Ohio) and the dunk wall (which didn't let you cheat this time). Held my nose and covered my eyes, and the photographer was like "you should do it again without your eyes covered so I can get a better picture!" Sorry, man, I have to keep my contacts in my head guaranteed. Immediately afterward was the slip wall, which was not muddy at all, merely wet. Much easier to get up and down. Barely needed any strategy.

It was raining pretty hard by this point and the festival/crowds were directly in front of us with the spear throw. I kept in mind all my practice from last week, geared up, threw it, nailed the tip into the hay, HOORAY!...and the spear just went WOMP WOMP sad trombone down onto the ground. Dammit. It had enough accuracy, but not enough "oomph." Gotta combine accuracy and oomph next time. Before I could do my burpees, though, the volunteer started yelling "there's lightning in the area, we've gotta get off the course." Confusion. Go where, exactly? We all made our way past the next obstacle (Twister) and exited through the fortunately-nearby finish chute. I stopped my watch at 1 hour 25 minutes, just before 1:30 PM. Got my bag and headed out to my car as directed to wait out the storm.

Here's where it gets bad. I immediately discovered that I had only 1 bar of phone service. There wasn't a strong enough signal to make phone calls, let alone access the internet. So I had no way of finding out what the weather report was or seeing what updates Spartan was providing online. (Turns out the latter was ZERO, which is infuriating.) I was able to send and receive texts from my husband who said the radar looked awful but there were no Spartan updates. Around 2 PM I drove my car a bit closer to the main festival so I could hear announcements on the loudspeaker. There were none. At 2:30 I jogged through the deluge to find a volunteer who had been told absolutely nothing about the status of the race but said the radar looked awful and we'd only seen 1/10th of what was to come. I realized by the time the storm passed they might just close the whole thing down anyway, and I had a 3-hour drive home, so I sadly took off my chip and left. [It turns out they did reopen the course at about 3:30-4 PM...nobody knows for sure because Spartan NEVER ANNOUNCED ANYTHING.] There were a lot of people upset about the total lack of communication. It is difficult to wait indefinitely without any food or water for a race that may never start back up, and it is unforgivable that the race officials couldn't at least give us the same delay updates they'd deemed appropriate for the elite racers that morning. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I've enjoyed the Spartan events I've done in the past, but their response to my tweet to them today was very "we DID update you, you're wrong and we're right." It doesn't make me want to give them my money, that's for sure. I just hope there are no weather delays in my three other Spartan races on my calendar, because obviously the organization cannot handle them.

Pros:

-Course. Very challenging and nicely spread-out obstacles. 

-Volunteers were for the most part very nice and trying their best to deal with the weather delay. Any participants who took their wrath out on the equally-clueless volunteers deserve a good slap.

Cons:

-HORRIBLE communication about the weather delay. This is totally inexcusable. No social media updates on any platform in the afternoon, and volunteers were not told anything to pass along to participants.

-HORRIBLE response to complaints about said communication issues. Spartan's official position seems to be "you're wrong, we're perfect, eff off." They are the Donald Trump of race companies.

-I didn't see any photographers until the dunk wall. 

-Atlas Carry volunteer sucked. Make sure volunteers know what their obstacle is, at least.

Race Grade: D. The course is basically what saved this one. I am honestly (and sadly) hesitant to sign up for future races because of the "we don't give a shit" attitude from the Spartan corporation. 

Race Recap: Spartan Sprint Ohio

Spartan Sprint Ohio 6/3/18 Garrettsville, OH

Weather: 70s, sunny

Trails: Off-road recreation track - sand, mud, some water. Mostly flat with small hills.

Distance: 4.25 miles, 21 obstacles

This race was conveniently located near the Ohio Turnpike while we were conveniently on our way back home from a week in Pittsburgh, so this race fit nicely into my schedule. Arrived at 9:15 AM for my 10:30 wave start. Parking and check-in went very smoothly. I could probably have cut it a bit closer for my arrival time but why stress? There were a lot of obstacles visible to spectators because the course layout put a ton of stuff in the final mile. We passed the time watching people emerge muddy and soaked from under the dunk wall, which thrilled my toddler. At 10:20 I got into my corral and off we went right on time 10 minutes later!

Hopped over a 4-foot wall easily and ran through the muddy woods for a while. We finally came out into a field and did O-U-T only there was no "under" component, just over and through. From there was more running, a vertical cargo net (about 15-20 feet high, I'd guess), then more running before an inverted wall (which, being tall, I was able to grab the top of and walk myself up the rungs...shorter people would have more trouble). We also ran through a pond of some sort, which was murky enough that you couldn't see the bottom and some of the steps were "doozies," as my grandmother would say if she were not currently dead. It was around this moment when I realized that my new Reebok shoes (which are fairly minimalist) drain really well. It basically felt like I was barefoot. This was quite pleasing because that is exactly why I chose these shoes for this sprint event.

At this point we reached the 2-mile marker. That's right, only 4 obstacles in the first 2 miles. I was at a solid 12-minute mile pace. Then we hit the sandbag carry. I couldn't see exactly how far this was, but I picked up my ladies' sandbag and immediately was like OOF. "How heavy is this?" I asked the volunteer. "It's supposed to be 40 lb" he said. I'm smelling bullshit, and for once it's not the vague manure smell on the muddy trails. I had serious trouble getting this allegedly 40-lb bag onto my shoulder, but I wrestled it up there and made it up a super steep hill about 3-4 stories high and SO STEEP that if you stepped in the wrong place you would slip and fall. At the top of the hill I readjusted my sandbag to the other shoulder and was having a hell of a time with it. I realized this bag is NOT 40 lb. Not even close. (Spoiler alert: a men's sandbag ended up mixed in with the women's bags. This was, in fact, an 80-lb sandbag, which is half my body weight.) Went down the steep hill, which was rough. Tip: don't walk on any gravel. A photographer was at the bottom hidden in a shady spot. I saw him just in time to get ONE smiling picture. Back up and down the hill I went with my giant bag before we could finally drop it back off. This was at least 1/3 mile and took me a good 10 minutes. Brutal.

This picture is next to "brutal" in the dictionary.

Jogged right over to the spear throw and failed the heck out of it. I decided to take advantage of the low crowds and practice doing another throw every 10 burpees. I managed to hit the hay bale each time but it wasn't in position to stick. Got good tips from the volunteer that I will have to try next week (Spartan Sprint Minneapolis)! Next up was the 7-foot wall, and while I had gotten over a 6-foot wall solo in the festival area (they had an opportunity to practice a 6' wall and a rope climb, the rope climb went poorly), I needed the help of a very kind middle-aged man to haul my left foot up to the top. Bless that man! Afterwards it was a short jaunt to the Herc Hoist, which I did with minimal problems.

After the Herc Hoist was another sandy, muddy run to Twister, which I attempted to do sideways. Hey, I don't know any better. I got about 1/3 of the way across before I realized that this was not going to work. Live and learn. I will try it backwards next time. Did my burpees and carried on. But at this point I was realizing that I wasn't really recovering from the burpees at all. My heart rate was over 170 and wasn't coming back. My assumption is that I hadn't had enough electrolytes and carbs that day or the day before, so that's my fault. I had to walk a lot more of the last couple miles, and between that and the burpees and the increasing obstacle load per mile, my pace was going down the toilet really fast. All told, my third mile was 40 minutes, after my first two miles had been 12 minutes each. Another run (well, walk) through the muck and we arrived back near the start line and the energetic crowd of spectators to find the rope climb, which I didn't even try. Nope. Not today, Satan. I knew I'd fail and I didn't want to tear my hands up, so straight to 30 burpees and I was joined by a gal about my age who fell off her rope. We were like "is it just me or is this race, like, crazy hard?!"

Easy obstacle up next: the A-frame cargo net. Easy up and down, then into the first of two barbed wire crawls. These were about 40-50 yards long and felt like they went on forever. They were low enough to require either snake crawling or rolling, and I can't roll because I get tremendously dizzy, so snake crawl it was, over recently cut vegetation that was quite prickly. I AM MIDDLE-AGED. My husband got some pictures of that misery, at least, and my son was just adorable and I didn't want to look like a wuss in front of him. Next was Olympus, which I'd instructed my husband to videotape, and thank god he screwed up the camera because it was a quick and epic fail. Thirty burpees, with my toddler trying to come onto the course and "race with Mama" the whole time. By the time he's 6 years old, he will be better at this stuff than me, guaranteed.

Away from the spectators now and through Rolling Mud, where I got so many quarter-size rocks in my Reeboks that I had to actually stop and empty them. I can ignore tiny rocks, but not big ones. Another run through sandy and muddy woods and we were in a huge field. Bucket carry! I picked that bad boy up (this was definitely a female bucket!) and got to stepping. About halfway through I turned it upside down to hold it by the much-rounder lid, which helped. After what felt like an eternity (probably only 1/4 mile) I put down the bucket and started the second barbed wire crawl, which had fewer stalks of vegetation and more rocks. My knees and arms developed a TON of bruises from this garbage. Then coming up from under the last wire, I pulled my left groin. GO FIGURE. Limped the next few obstacles.

The Armer, basically the Atlas carry but with a small chain on a weighted ball, was next. Out and back around a pole, total of about 20 yards. Easy, the ball didn't weigh much, maybe 40-50 lb. After that was my most anticipated obstacle: the multi-rig! More like the uni-rig, since it only had rings. I'd recently learned how to do these and went out there and crushed it. Husband got great video of it, thank goodness. 

Finally, an easy grip obstacle.

After that was the dunk wall, then an extremely muddy slip wall that everyone seemed to be falling on. Good gravy. I realized I had to keep my feet as high as possible on the wall, and try to ignore that the rope itself was so muddy it was hard to grip. The hardest part was the transition at the top from walking up the wall to holding the top of the wall securely. I managed to do this all by myself, which I was tremendously proud of. I slung that pulled-groin leg over the wall by the grace of god and climbed down the back of the wall to the fire jump and finish!

"Is my life insurance up to date?"

After the finish they immediately put a medal around my neck and started handing me drinks and food. I was like ".....I AM LITERALLY ENCRUSTED IN WET MUD." I asked a volunteer to just pour the water cup she was offering me to drink on my hands so I could wash up enough to hold my stuff. They were giving away free reusable grocery bags at the festival, they should have handed those to us at the end of the race to carry our food/drinks/t-shirts. This is my only complaint about the organization of the race. Well, that and that when I went to hose off in the cold wash area, the walkway leading to it was totally flooded, so I couldn't get my feet clean. We had to walk through giant mud puddles back to the festival anyway. But overall, it was a lovely race and a great challenge, with 4 obstacle failures (all on difficult obstacles).

Freshly gross, or grossly fresh?

Pros:

-Organization. This was a well-oiled machine of an event, at least from my perspective. 

-Photos. Not only did I get great pics on all the obstacle spots, there was a roaming photographer at the festival who got not one, not two, but THREE amazing pictures of my adorable son.

-Spartan obstacles. They are great. Challenging and diverse, for the most part.

Cons:

-Two barbed wire crawls? Come on, mix it up a bit more.

-Some bastard got a men's sandbag into the women's sandbag box and I got screwed by it!

-Give us something to carry the finishing stuff, we are so filthy and it is not cute.

Race Grade: A-. Only a couple "hiccups" in an overall excellent event.