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.
Any of you who follow my race reviews know that I am always open to try new things and we gals love an adventure. Last weekend we were pleasantly surprised by a new event that just launched in our own neck of the woods; it was a great short drive to the race site and there was an element of intrigue as we were only given snippets of information prior to race day.
Spartan made its first appearance in the Asheville area in Black Mountain, NC today using The Grove Sand & Stone Company as its location. There was plenty of parking relatively close to the start line and the festival area was also nicely spread out on this beautiful property. The scenery was amazing.
It goes without saying, when you hear the name “Tough Mudder” you picture getting down and dirty. The Pittsburgh event for my second year in a row has delivered big time, only in two different ways. Last year’s event located at Powerline Park, in Southeastern Ohio, was mud drenched throughout the course. It was my first try at any OCR and I thought they would all be as muddy. Unfortunately however, I was wrong. Most of the Tough Mudders this year in the Mid-Atlantic have been on the dry side with spots of mud only here and there, leaving Mudders with a thirst for more mud in their mouth.
The Reebok Spartan Race returned to New England for the Sprint version of their famous racing series. For me personally, the buzz that usually surrounds a Spartan weekend just wasn’t there. A couple months earlier, they brought the first even Super to the area and held it at a brand new venue, a local dairy farm in Central Massachusetts.
Wintergreen, very few events regardless of which OCR company is doing them, brings to mind such suffering. While Spartan does have events that are more difficult, this is the mass event which everyone respects. The weather this year was a huge improvement from last year. The few days leading up to the event looked like it could be a repeat of the rain and fog. But Spartans everywhere prayed to the proper gods and the skies opened to allow for beautiful views of the epic scenery and a light breeze to keep it reasonable, but in true Spartan fashion that is where the nice things ended.
Having raced with the Mud Mulisha crew recently at Tough Mudder, both myself and my husband Ryan were excited that we were able to make it over to Victoria to run a race designed by our team mates. It ended up being a gorgeous day for a race, which made things even more perfect.
Rugged Maniac returned to the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, GA and once again showed that they are making moves to become one of the big players in the OCR world. They staged the event in a familiar venue where Spartan, BattleFrog, and Merrell Down and Dirty have staged races in the past; yet used their imagination to make sure they stand apart from the others.
As the emails started to roll in, our interest was piqued! The advertising for SuperSplash 2015 kept us informed yet teased us as to what to expect at the upcoming event. We had booked our hotel rooms well in advance at Mont Habitant and were excited to head up early and enjoy the town, the food and the beautiful mountainside with lakefront properties.
This BADASS Dash was held at the ROC (Recreational Outdoor Campus) located at 26749 Civic Centre Road in Georgina, Ontario. It was easy to navigate to and was directly north of Toronto on Hwy 404 until it ended at the lake. Garmin found the location easily and traffic was quite good considering it was a long weekend. There was good some signage once you approached the venue that clearly directed you into the grounds.
