Thanks to a blog post, 5 Obstacle Racing Trends to Watch in 2015, by Ekaterina Solovieva, the rumor mill was crazy with the idea that Spartan Race had eliminated penalty burpees from their races (her blog has since been updated assuring people the Spartan Burpee is here to stay and with her apologies). With each rumor I read there was a different understanding on how Spartan would be making the change. Some were in line with how Battlefrog handles elites, others were in line with how OCR World Championships worked.
When a search on Spartan’s Facebook page and website couldn’t corroborate what I had read, I reached out to Aja Varney, Customer Service at Spartan Race. Here’s what she had to say: “Hey! So, that was speculation by blogger that seemed to turn into a crazy rumor. There is no plans to get rid of burpees at this time – we love them too much.”
A few helpful links with the current rules and guidelines:
Rules, Guidelines and Penalties for Spartan Race Obstacles
Standard Obstacle Specific Instructions
Spartan World Championship Athlete Standards and Guidelines
Spartan World Championship Penalties & Disqualification
And just in case people are still unclear on what a Spartan Burpee is!
yep, seems like I unintentionally caused quite a stir. Sorry about that. 😉