As we’re all aware, Savage Race had an awesome showing here in New England – and Steve was immediately interested in heading down to their Maryland event to find out if that showing was a fluke. As you’ll read, it certainly wasn’t!
This past weekend I ventured the 5.5 plus hours down to Kennedyville, Maryland to participate in the Savage Races Maryland fall race. The venue was easy to find. Parking was $10 and on site. A short 2-3 minute walk brought you to the entrance/check in, passing 8 port-o-johns. A premium parking option was also available for $25, and basically got you within feet of the entrance/check in area. After check in you walk thru the merchandise area into the festival area. The festival area was neither too big nor too small. The start line was on one end and the finish was on the other. In between there was a stage, two different BBQ vendors, a shaved ice vendor, the ubiquitous beer tent, a gear drop for $5, the Syndicate tent, a Krave jerky vendor, some extra obstacles to test yourself on, about 25 port-o-johns, and a few more location specific vendors.
Our start time was 1pm, though we went off closer to 1:20pm, due to the awards ceremony. We were given an apology because they only had one DJ at the venue this weekend, as the second one was still in Florida dealing with the hurricane. Pre-sendoff speech was given to get everyone in the correct frame of mind and we were off. The terrain was different from what I am used to, most areas had room enough for 3-4 runners to run side by side. Hardly any single track or technical trails here, folks. It was mostly run on grass and well-worn trails. We started on grass and ran for about three quarters of a mile before we encountered our first obstacle. This was the longest we had to wait for an obstacle for the entire 6.5 mile race. The terrain was well used; including flowing river beds on more than one occasion and to good effect.
The obstacles: what can I say? All were well built, sturdy, and fun. Some of the obstacles we did see were: Shriveled Richard (little kid in me is laughing even now), sawhorses, slippery incline, Big Ass Cargo, Sawtooth (the distance between the last bottom sawtooth rung and the top rung to start the downwards monkey bars made this one of the hardest monkey bar rigs I’ve attempted yet), Hangerang, Lumberjack Lane, Davy Jones Locker (fun, fun, fun), Wheel World, Colossus, and the Savage rig, among others. A few that we didn’t see in Massachusetts included Twin Peaks, and a unique slip wall with slats that you can grip or wedge yourself up to the top. Savage Race has shown great innovation and originality in their obstacles that make them incredibly refreshing among big brand races.
After about 6.5 miles the race was over, smiles on everyone around. You were given a medal, a shirt, and a bottle of water for crossing the finish line. Headed over to the Syndicate tent to pick up an amazingly huge spinning medal and corresponding state pins, for completing two races (for me it was Massachusetts and Maryland). We cleaned up and changed, however the one small gripe I have, and it is really small, is that the changing tents and the showers were too far away from the festival area. You had to walk to the other side of the parking lot, the furthest point away from the festival to clean off and change. But like I said it is a small gripe. Then we headed over to the beer tent for the free beer, which was Coors light, but you could “upgrade” to Blue Moon for $1 if you preferred. Additional beers were available for a nominal price. We hung around the slowly ending festival for a while where I ate pulled pork tacos and Beef brisket nachos from one of the food vendors and was very happy I did, while enjoying our beers and the atmosphere.
All in all I had an amazing time at the Maryland Fall Savage Race; great race, great company, good food. I would recommend this race and venue to anyone. I am looking forward to next year’s Massachusetts race, and possibly a few others. Great job Savage Race!!
Do you want to run the 2018 Savage Race in MA with the New England Spahtens? Scan the QR Code, or click and join us!
