After each mud run or obstacle race I compete in, you'll get my review and grades for each event to help you decide which ones you might want to sign up for. The following categories will be discussed:

1. COURSE- the design, venue, and setup of the race itself- how creative/ adventurous/ difficult the obstacles were, and obviously... how was the MUD?!?

2. FESTIVAL- all the fun beyond the actual race- the social atmosphere which usually includes food, beer garden, dj/ music/ concert, contests, vendors, and more during the after-party

3. SWAG- the included goodie bag and prizes up for grabs- all the "free" stuff that comes with price of entry and the quality of awards, shirts, and other giveaways

Feel free to use the search box to read up on any past topics you might be looking for.

SPARTAN SUPER, Kane'ohe HI, 8/6/17

Well, after a mere 130 races in my OCR career, so far I'd say it would be hard to find a more beautiful venue than this one Spartan used for the Hawaii Trifecta weekend that included every race distance on the list.  Short of jumping molten lava flow or swimming with turtles, the course was just as spectacular as could be imagined.  Visiting these islands has been a lifelong dream of mine, and getting to do an obstacle race here (two actually- Sunday's Super and Sprint), was just the icing on the cake!

1. COURSE-  Set on the island of Oahu's sprawling Kualoa Ranch, famous for numerous movie location filmings (most notably Jurassic Park of course), parts of the course might have felt like you were Hollywood dreaming and not actually running through one of the most storied and spiritual places on earth.  While the tall green sheer mountain cliffs weren't part of the run inclines (thankfully), there were enough other types of terrain to adequately crush runners legs, mine included as the heat had my calves cramping up for most of the Super course.  My favorite section was the waist deep river run, just a quarter mile in from the start, which was an instant relief from the hot morning sun.  Obstacle wise, not much was a surprise or new from the 2017 season.  It also seemed like the bulk of them came right near the festival and finish area, as a gauntlet of failures might have made the last hundred yards feel like a hundred burpee miles.  GRADE = A

2. FESTIVAL-  This was a great set up, where the pre-race weekend Spartan Luau was also held on Friday night, right in the center among the giant walls of green mountainsides on almost all sides.  As mentioned, many of the final obstacles were on view right from the festival, and a handful of others were also a short walk from there.  One big gripe I had was the transportation "issue" on Sunday, when they announced over the loudspeaker (at around 10am) that the shuttle buses were already no longer running- which meant over a mile walk back with tired legs and all our gear to the parking lot on the other side of the ranch.   GRADE = B

3. SWAG-  Same shirts as all of 2017's other races (I did both Super and then Sprint), and same medals except for a very cool commemorative ribbon specific to these Hawaiian races.  Not sure if I was expecting to "get lei'd" at the finish line haha, but it would have been cool for them to do something more festive for this race, as it's also clearly a "racecation" for all of us mainlanders (and many Aussie's) who came to run here.   GRADE = A


OVERALL GRADE = A