Since my last Spartan Race in this series at Citifield last year, much has changed. They made registration a lot easier by almost getting the whole thing down to one question and one screen. “What’s your name? Sign here.” From their perspective, this was a positive indication of more good things to come yesterday at the Citizen's Bank Park Stadium Sprint.
What do you get when you combine mud, friends, ice water, mud, an obstacle called Skidmarked and oh yeah did I mention mud??? You get Tough Mudder held at Raceway Park in Englishtown New Jersey.
After years of missing this event due to conflicts in personal, business or racing schedules, I was finally able to take on Warrior Dash Oregon, a muddy 5K that continues to attract thousands of participants each every year. It’s always a great day for OCR when you can eat breakfast before and shower after the race at home.
Clouds loom over the start line and there is a crisp, autumn chill in the air. Your hands are shaking, heart pounding with anticipation. You stand side by side with comrades from Canada, Puerto Rico, Germany, and beyond, awaiting the signal to begin your trek on the mountain. Dewayne Montgomery, better known as Coach Pain, approaches the start line delivering an intense, motivational message; a challenge to “Conduct Your Business” on the course. And just like that, you’re off! You are a world championship competitor and you are about to make history.
You will experience the same enjoyment on City Challenge as on any other OCR, with or without the mud. This is just their unique way for advertising their race and also to encourage people to try new things. Give it a try if you have not done a City Challenge Race yet, highly recommended.
The Citizens Bank Stadium Spartan Race Sprint, the forgotten stadium race of the East Coast. Citifield and Fenway being the wildly popular stars of the Stadium circuit, Citizens Bank Sprint are the Goldilocks of the stadium sprints. Offering not too hot but not too cold weather, a well-designed course, and the perfect amount of space on course to not feel like you’re standing in a line all day.
As I continue to do more obstacle course races, it’s very humbling to get to see them evolve, sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. While I can say the Central Texas Tough Mudder was one I thought improved and was better than it was the year before - I can honestly say I was shocked to see the Dallas course take the opposite effect from last year.
Forget the shoe-swallowing mud of Spartan Race Seattle’s past. This Seattle Beast and Sprint events were held once again on the beautiful terrain of Snohomish, Washington, under beautiful skies, a slight smell of smoke in the air and completely dry terrain. Perfect race conditions are a rarity in the Pacific Northwest, but the Meadow Wood Equestrian Center was pretty close!
The running joke in Georgia is that if Savage Race is coming to town, it's going to be a cold & wet weekend. Their race this fall proved to be the exception to the rule as it was a beautiful weekend for a race that bills itself as "The Best Obstacles. The perfect distance". The following is our quick overview and recap of the race.
It has honestly taken me a while to process everything emotionally and physically that I went through during the Sun Peaks Spartan Race Beast. I have never had a race break me like that (not even a marathon). To put it lightly, the Beast was the hardest race that I ever conquered and the last piece of my Trifecta puzzle
