This past Saturday, Spartan unveiled a new race venue here on the West Coast, namely Tejon Ranch in Lebec, CA, about an hour north of Los Angeles. Being a new location, of course, participants had little idea what to expect from the course. In addition, this was the first race in the Southern California area where parking would be handled by Park Jockey, which left some to question how arrival to the venue would be affected.
Having hit traffic on the way to the race, I arrived later than planned, and envisioned getting stuck behind a single-lane caravan of vehicles all trying to enter the parking lot. As it happened, though, entry into the ample parking area from the freeway was quick and easy, perhaps partly due to the fact that many had chosen to pre-pay for parking via the Park Jockey website.
Registration lines also flowed well, giving me more than enough time to prepare for my 8:15 heat. The festival area was larger than usual for a Spartan race, and was well-thought out and organized. The DJ stage was located close to the finish line and podium, whereas the bag-check, biggest team tent, and restrooms were all located by the start line, about 100 yards away.
There were several obstacles located close to the festival area, where spectators could watch, including the rope climb, spear throw, Herc Hoist, and Olympus. The weather could not have been more perfect: minimal winds, sunny skies, and a temperature of around 75 degrees.
Off the start line, the race began with a long, mostly flat run, which served to create some space between the racers. The four-foot Overwalls and Rolling Mud were the only obstacles before a short climb, which would prove to be the first of many. Once at the top of the first hill and over the hay bales, we headed back down, where there was a series of obstacles in close succession, including the Z-Walls, Tyrolean Traverse, and the Atlas Carry. The vast majority of remaining obstacles were closer to the festival area, but the climbs (and there were many) were definitely obstacles in and of themselves.
The consensus seemed to be that most were surprised Spartan was able to create a course with this much up and down, considering the hills here didn't have the elevation that, say, Big Bear did. After several steep climbs and descents, and staple Spartan obstacles, such as the sandbag carry, two barb-wire crawls, and both the Dunk Wall and Slipwall, racers headed into the festival area for Twister (which was located inside a barn…cool!), the rope climb, and the vertical cargo net, before heading back up one last gradual climb.
The final descent included the Bucket Brigade, Multi-Rig, and the second sandbag carry, and led back to the festival area, where racers encountered the last few obstacles, including Olympus, Spearman, and the Herc Hoist. To everyone's (or, at least locals, anyway) surprise, the final 50-yard sprint to the finish included a Fire Jump, something we haven't seen here in SoCal for a while, given the dry weather and propensity for brush fires. It was a welcome change and a fitting addition to what turned out to be a very challenging, but fun, course.
Overall, I was very impressed, both with the course itself (shout out to Steve Hammond) and with the organization and set up of the festival area and parking situation. Every obstacle and water station was manned by friendly volunteers, and the setup of the festival was well thought out. In my opinion, this is a winning venue, and a location I hope Spartan keeps, at least for a while. Kudos to all involved for a job well done. AROO!!!
Rating: 5/5 stars
Rating: 5/5
Have you done an Spartan Race?
Leave your own Spartan Race review and feedback...
I agree with your review. Another thing that was well done was the spacing of the water stations. They were roughly 1.5 miles apart so that you were never far from the next station. The only criticism I have is the steepness of the descents. I really think it was reckless of Spartan given that there were plenty of ways to get down from each ascent without having to needlessly risk injury. I saw people tumble down and others hit by rolling rocks. What was the point of having every descent be so steep?
Rick, I agree wholeheartedly. I reached out to Spartan to mention how treacherous and dangerous two of those descents were, and their reply was basically “our course builders found it to be safe, see you at the next race”
Those two downhills, and I know you know which ones Im talking about, were my only complaints about the race, other than needing a water obstacle closer to the center of the race as opposed to one in the first half mile and one almost at the end. In a dusty venue like this, that was a very poor choice.
Thanks for your comment, Rick! I think the descents were definitely trickier when there were a lot of people running at the same time, such as in the open heats. I saw some just sliding down on their butts, so I guess that’s one way to get down! Lol. On the upside, I think the steep ascents and descents made for some interesting racing in the Elite and Age Group heats! Hopefully, Spartan will keep this venue around for a while, and maybe next year they’ll alter the course to make it a little more ‘crowd friendly’. AROO!!!
This was my first Beast. I agree with Rick that some of the steepest descents were nuts. I saw plenty get injured.
I would also love to hear your opinion about how this compared with the Big Bear beast earlier in the year. If I survived Lebec, are my chances good to survive Big Bear?
Jason, I’ve done Big Bear twice. It’s definitely a little more challenging than Lebec, but if you completed Lebec, I think you can definitely conquer Big Bear. My advice would be to do some serious hill training before May. The hardest part for most seems to be the uphill climbs and steep decents. Train hard and good luck! AROO!!!
I loved this course! A lot of people complained about the hills and downhills. I think that’s because it’s new, not because it’s different. People literally said the exact same things when we first did Diablo Grande. The run should be just as challenging as the obstacles so I wouldn’t change that. It wasn’t too steep you couldn’t run down or shuffle down. Big Bear was steep and long and uneven so running downhill wasn’t reasonable if you wanted to run fast consistently. Honestly, I thought these downhills were comparable to other Spartan venues (including the New Jersey course). Some very steep, some not so much. Some sandy, some packed dirt. Hills are a Spartan staple and it’s what makes their trails different from other local OCRs. Hammond did a great job given the low hills available.
Extra kudos for keeping two rig lanes on Sunday for Beast runners!
Linh, I totally agree. Steve Hammond knocked it out of the park on this one. I have, indeed, seen a LOT of comments about the hills, but, then again, the same thing happened after Big Bear was introduced! The hills were definitely not such that you could barrel down them at full speed, but, like you said, you could shuffle, side step, or find a different way to get to the bottom (I even saw some just sliding down on their butts…lol). Like you, I’m all for keeping things challenging. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait long to see what the next course at Tejon looks like!
I would disagree with comments on the descent part. One needs to train just as much downhill as uphill, and I saw a lot of people who simply had the wrong footwear to tackle the descent. I had a PM start on Saturday, so the course was pretty beat up, but, I had no problem applying proper technique to descend safely while passing many competitors. Trail run more and work on your agility and you’ll be able to tackle with ease!
The idea of having an obstacle inside the barn seems cool and is a welcome break from the sun. However, it was very dusty in there, with little air circulation. The Twister is a notorious burpee maker (especially for first-timers like me) and it wasn’t fun doing 30 burpees in there. Hopefully the ground inside the barn can be treated to minimize dust during future Spartan events.
I just loved the sadist volunteer at the Rolling Mud bwa-ha-hawing about going through mud so early in the race and with 13 miles remaining to be done in WET SHOES! The Spartan equivalent of the gateway to Hell! (Actually, the wet shoes probably saved me from getting blisters in that rather warm weather.)
This was my second Beast. Big Bear being the first. As I was getting ready in the changing tent some guys who had finished were talking and calling it “Little Bear” saying it was not as tough as Big Bear but close. I found it to be about 85-90 % as difficult as Big Bear. I had afternoon start times at both, and later learned they cut 2 miles or so off at Big Bear for whatever reason (maybe they thought too many people wouldn’t finish in time ?). My phone app showed Big Bear to be 10.33 miles with just over 4261 feet of elevation gain (so it seemed like a long Super finding that out). For Tejon Ranch the app showed 13.1 miles with 3644 feet of elevation gain. But 2 3/4 miles shorter with 600+ feet more elevation gain is a game changer. I thought I heard someone say that before they shortened the distance at Big Bear the elevation gain was close to a mile. I finished Tejon Ranch 1 hour and 7 minutes faster than Big Bear. Maybe some of that was more hard training and maybe some that the altitude of Big Bear affected me more than I realized, although we went up the Wednesday before the race to acclimate, but most of it was definitely the “easier” course. The hills at Tejon Ranch were definitely steeper, and the descents felt like they were too steep. My app also showed my best pace at Tejon Ranch to be a 6:06 mile. I’m 52 and don’t run 6 minute miles and didn’t know where that came from. Then it hit me. Some of the descents were so steep that I just slid down them on my butt so that had to be when. I loved this course, it was hard as it should be, but nothing approached the difficulty of the second sand bag carry up a double black diamond ski slope at Big Bear. The parking was great and easy and the festival area was also. Big Bear is an awesome venue as well, just had to take the shuttle because they don’t have enough parking at Snow Summit. Don’t know which one I would call my favorite. maybe Tejon Ranch because I feel more like it was an actual Beast distance. Maybe Big Bear because it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done physically and it was part of a great, but short vacation. Would definitely love to do both again.