The Pennsylvania Spartan weekend has been one of the most anticipated Spartan race weekends of the year for me as last year’s Pennsylvania Sprint course was my favorite Spartan course I did all year. I also was super excited that Spartan was stepping it up this year and offering a Super at the same venue and I had high expectations for both the Super and Sprint to be good races.
Reebok Spartan Race headed back to Palmerton, Pennsylvania on July 11th and 12th. The event was hosted at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in Little Gap Valley, this Super/Sprint weekend was one of my favorites to date. With #effNorm as the race director, he spiced things up this year by adding a very challenging Super course on Saturday in addition to the Sprint course on Sunday.
After patiently waiting years for Spartan Race to bring their Super event to New England, we were finally rewarded. We were close last year with a pre-registration for the event but it never materialized. However, many New Englanders were thrilled when one showed up on this year’s schedule. Along with the Vermont Beast and the Fenway Park/Boston Sprints scheduled for later in the year, it was our first opportunity to add that elusive blue pizza slice to our multi-colored all New England Trifecta medals.
The Spartan Race this year was held in the same venue that was voted “Muddiest Spartan” last year, and though there was less mud, it was considerably warmer and the race experience was an improvement. Many new obstacles have been added to Sprint Races this year, while several others receive modifications and upgrades from race to race. Overall the bar has been raised on what to expect from a Sprint.
2015 Spartan Race World Championships, new location, new prize money, new qualification system. Read about all the new changes happening this upcoming season.
OCR Sandy continues his 2014 OCR journey with another double race weekend. I could tell right away, the day was going to be much sunnier and hotter than the previous day in Ohio at OCR World Championships and I knew hydration would be a key for this race. I opted to wear my CamelBak hydration backpack and carried extra GU gels with me. I started the last wave of the day.
Spartan Race continues to innovate the world of obstacle course racing. Known for their Sprint, Super and Beast distance options, they recently unveiled their new "Olympic distance" of 1.5 miles in their preliminary steps to qualify as an Olympic sport in the future. The Spartan Race Invitational was recently held at the Reebok Headquarters in Canton, MA.
In the ultimate of brand synergies, Reebok (finally) takes some steps to more closely align two of the biggest fitness advocations in the world, in one place, at one time. Of course you know I'm talking about CrossFit and Spartan Race, as I'm sure you read the subtitle above.
