Events

There's been some discussion recently regarding the Virginia Super Spartan...a commentor on one particular web site that I follow referred to it as complaining.  Sorry, but I don't necessarily think that just because you share your experiences with others that it should be considered "complaining".

I've posted before on Event Flavors, and I've had a lot of friends ask me, "Which is harder...the Spartan or the Tough Mudder?"  I don't think that's an apples-to-apples comparison, really, because each event has their own "flavor".  For example, what first drew me to these events was the Tough Mudder's "no participant left behind" approach...not everyone is going to be an expert at every obstacle, and some folks may need help.  And at some point along the course, you may need help, as well.  I love the challenge and the idea of enduring through the challenge with others.  Remember, the Tough Mudder doesn't have timing chips, and they tell you from the very beginning, it's not about your time.  The first event that I ran, I found it harder to help 4 or 5 people get up the Everest obstacle than it was for me to do it.  A lot of these events require a great deal of pulling strength to get over obstacles, and you can really get a good push workout helping people over walls.

The Spartan Race has a different flavor.  The obstacles are different, for the most part.  Take the monkey bars for example...at the Super Spartan this passed weekend, the bars were all horizontal, with only about 9 rungs.  I saw women whip through it, and I saw dudes fall off at the second rung.  At the Tough Mudder, there is an incline that you have to climb up, a nice sized gap to cross, and then a decline to come down.  The first time I did the Tough Mudder, the bars you grabbed had a larger cross section than most monkey bars, they were wet and muddy, and they rotated...they weren't secured so that when you grabbed them, they didn't move.  You grabbed them, they rotated and instead of hanging on by the meat of your hand, you had just your fingers.  The Savage Race this passed summer added a twist by having a saw tooth in the middle of the monkey bars.

Now, the night before the Super Spartan, at dinner, a participant was pontificating on events, saying that the Spartan events are for "elite" athletes, and the Tough Mudder and the Warrior Dash are for folks who want to party.  This may be one man's view, but I tend to think that not only does each event have it's own flavor, but what each participant brings to the event is different.  Some folks run as individuals, others will only run with a team.  Some go out with little preparation, others dedicate significant time, effort and resources to their training.  Some create mock-ups of the obstacles that they see so that they can develop their technique, and others simply take each obstacle as they come.

Every event has a different flavor, and every event is approached differently by those who participate.  I think that the best you can do with respect to comparisons is to look at one runner's approach to two different events.

On a side note, I did pick up The New Wave of OCR's post recently, and I have got to tell you, I think that this is great.  This is NOT a saturated market, not by a long shot.  In fact, I really think that even with all of the different types of events that we're seeing out there, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I really hope that this continues for a long time.  I'd like to get to the point where, when I'm to the point where I'm not jumping off of something, I'm cheering on my grandchildren as they do so.

To demonstrate how much room remains in the OCR market, here is the link to the MudRunGuide's list of races and events in Virginia.  I checked the site just before 9am, EST, on 26 August 2013, and the event that I'm looking at doing on 14 Sept isn't even listed.  My point is that there are so many of these events, and so many different types, that we don't even have web sites yet that consolidate all of the scheduled events for a particular area.

Super Spartan, 24 Aug 2013

I attended and graduated from an all-male military college in the late '80s.  I went into the United States Marine Corps immediately after college, and also during that time, I ran two Marine Corps Marathons.  At the first one, I qualified for (and later ran) the Boston Marathon.  Yesterday's Super Spartan Race in Wintergreen, VA, was THE TOUGHEST event I've done.  EVER.

I participated in the Super Spartan Virginia in 2012, which was located at Morven Park in Leesburg, VA, which is a former equestrian event center.  As such, many of the obstacles we went over were old steeplechase jumps, which for many folks, had a pretty devastating effect.  All the pounding from jumping down off of those obstacles really tore up folks' legs, particularly if they hadn't done any hill training...at least, the part where you come down the hill.

I ran the Mid-Atlantic Tough Mudder in Oct, 2011 at this venue, so I had an idea of what the terrain was like, although no real idea of how it would be used.  I was in the 8:45am start wave, the same wave as the Enduring Warrior team (formerly known as Team EXTREME).  Change the name, whatever...it doesn't matter.  This is a hard core team of wounded warriors.  Anyone who's going to do this event in full cammies, with a gas mask, while carrying Cpl. Todd Love, takes bad@ssery to a whole new level...and here we had a whole team of these folks, several with prosthetic limbs.

The event started pretty similar to the TM, with the initial mile including two obstacles...so besides the terrain, we had some walls, nothing too difficult.  It was at the bottom of the first major hill, where the Tough Mudder folks had the Chernobyl Jacuzzi (now known as the Arctic Enema), that things changed.  Drastically.  And not for the better.  ;-)

Perhaps the most memorable "obstacle" from the Tough Mudder was the mile-long Death March up a double-black diamond slope.  At the Super Spartan, they not only provided us with that lovely climb, but 5 others, of various lengths.  I think that towards the end of the event, they allowed us a bit of a respite with a blue slope.  Along the way, we got to climb up the mountain along trails through the woods, as well as climb down the mountain a couple of times along the rocky streams that flowed down the mountain.  There was no fast movement on either of these, particularly going down.

The obstacles were pretty typical Spartan fare...walls, crawling uphill under barbed wire, the Tractor Pull, the Traverse Wall, climbing up a muddy rope.  There were two cargo nets this time...which was kind of like "old home week" for me...both shorter than the one last year.  At the 6 mile mark, after completing the Long Drag up the mile-long double-black diamond there was a water stop, and they'd set up the pulley systems where you had to grab a rope and pull a cement block up to where the knot touched the pulley, and let it back down.  We were told that the block, for the men, was 70 lbs...I weigh in at 185, and had trouble getting it off the ground.  ;-)  I did get it figured out, though.  There was a water slide "obstacle"...always a lot of fun...and a log flip, which was new.  This time, there were two weighted carries...one with the signature Spartan sand bags, another with a log.  The log carry went down the mountain...and then back up.  Of course.  Earlier in the event, we were treated to the spear throw and the monkey bars...which were completely horizontal, and nothing like those at the Savage Race.

Overall, the course length was 8 miles, which I finished in about 4 hrs...I'll be able to get my official time later this week.  At this stage, I'm not focused on my time, per se.  If and when I change that focus, I'm going to really have to consider a strategy for electorlytes.  In some ways, this event was tougher even than the Mid-Atlantic Spring Tough Mudder, but the comparison ends solely with the terrain.  The Tough Mudder was longer, with more obstacles, and more varied obstacles, and you had to contend with the weather.  This Spartan Race was primarily about climbing up and down the mountain.  Yes, there were some obstacles, and if you prepared, the monkey bars and walls were no problem.  I don't see anyone going out on a Saturday and doing 5 hrs of hill repeats...you can prepare for the hills, but only so much.

I heard people comment that the Spartan events are for "elite athletes", where as other events like the Tough Mudder and the Warrior Dash are for those who want to come out and party.  I don't agree.  I think that you get out of the events what you put into them.  If you're there to power through for time, then it doesn't matter what event you're running, as long as it has a timing chip.  If you're there to help others out where they need it, regardless of time, then so be it...it doesn't matter if you're at a Super Spartan with a timing chip, at a Savage or Superhero Race, or the Tough Mudder.

I'll close with this...I REALLY enjoyed this event.  Yes, it was tough.  Fortunately, the biggest physical issue I had to deal with was my quads cramping...no pulls or tears.  I feel like I handled the obstacles pretty well...I liked the Traverse Wall a lot, in part because I completed it.  The event was very well organized and very well run, as one would expect from such an elite organization.  Wash racks were plentiful after the event, and the main venue area was very well organized, which is particularly important when you've got so many competitors who are more than just a bit tired when they're done.  If I were pressed for any criticisms, they would be (a) back off of the use of the terrain a bit and have more obstacles, and (b) good God, we earned a free beer, so let us have one!