Spartan Super returned to Mountain Creek Resort in Vernon, New Jersey. I can’t speak for the weather on Saturday, September 12, but Sunday’s event was near perfect conditions with plenty of sunshine. The Spartan Village was a great setup at the base of the mountain with plenty of vendors. For a Sunday event, there were a large numbers or racers on the course.
Often in the world of obstacle racing those who have been racing for years start to see many of the events as essentially the same. There will be a few walls, maybe some barbed wire or other low crawl, fire, and probably something tall to climb or hang from. There is water and mud. Whether the event is timed or untimed overtime many of the events start to blend together, it is that one obstacle that stands out the masses clammer over online.
I started the last wave of the day at 2pm for the Spartan Race Tri-State Beast with mostly volunteers as this was the volunteer wave. It may have been the end of the day, but Spartan pre-race announcer Dustin Dorough was able to recite his pre-race speech without missing a beat and faster than ever.
ABF was my first race of the weekend. ABF’s owner Chad Mason knew I was also racing the NJ Beast on the same day and that I had a three plus hour drive ahead of me, so he allowed me to start the course about ten minutes before the elite heat. Even though it was around 8:20 am it was already an amazing morning with the sun out and temperatures almost perfect for an OCR race.
Chad Mason is extremely busy getting ready for his event this weekend, so I am very grateful for the answers he provided about his event this weekend. An obstacle race with a cause.
The course offered two options, a 3.5 mile course and a 1.5 mile course. I decided to run the 3.5 mile version. I was impressed to see how many of the families opted to take the 3.5 mile version with younger children and it was funny to watch the parents trying to keep up with the little kids that were running full speed and not slowing down.
Despite my limitations, I had a great time. The course was not as challenging as the Spartan Sprint, for example, but the obstacles were fun and interesting. There were several low crawls, two under barbed wire and one under a fence. The barbed wire crawl was a pit of muddy water, so the wire was high enough from the ground that you weren't forced to put your face into the water.
