* From: Dan Eldredge
* Event Details
Parking was a 10 minute shuttle bus drive from the venue. A long walk from your car to the shuttle buses, with a line of porta-potties available before you got on the bus. Having them there was good, but at 8:45am, several people were coming out of the porta-potties warning others that they were already out of toilet paper… The bus took you to the farm where it was another walk to registration. Registration was well-organized and fast. Bag check went smoothly as well. Vendors were selling Beer, some sandwiches, smoothies, and the farm had its own kiosk. I might have missed some vendors, but it appeared that the food options were limited, especially for kids. It was good to see several obstacles set up for kids in the Festival area: a climbing rope, a kid’s sized wall to climb over, and of course the kid’s race itself. I’m slow on the course, and so I’ve been reluctant to bring the family along to spectate for fear that they’ll all get bored while waiting for me.
The more activities for kids to do to keep them occupied, the better! Race schwag was good, the Finisher’s shirt seemed to be an updated version of last year’s, and was race-specific to the Super. The medal consisted of the pie-piece and a medal that is a little bigger than last year’s version.
* Race Details
The course itself was good, but a little shorter than I expected (my GPS registered 7.57 miles). The obstacles were for the most part standard, with a handful of ones I hadn’t seen before at a Spartan race yet, including the A-Frame Cargo net, Stairway to Sparta, etc. It was good to see some obstacles that included a “mental” element (some people were having trouble with the height) as opposed to purely physical obstacles.
Volunteers were good throughout the course, enforcing the obstacles’ rules without being overzealous, and also cheering us on. There were plenty of water stations along the course, and although Spartan said there would be no food on the course, there was one location giving away power gels. Several of the water stations also had a porta-potty or two.
There were a lot of locations where you had to slog through deep mud–just as part of the course, not as an obstacle. I was lucky not to, but people were losing their shoes in the muck. Near the end, my GPS had registered 7 miles, and I was gearing myself up for the final or so, but it turned out to be at least a quarter mile of nothing but slogging through ankle deep mud (I sank up to my knees at one point) in the woods. The mud ended and we broke out into the clear, ready to face the final obstacles…and there weren’t any. Just the fire jump and the finish line, which felt anti-climactic. All in all the course made good use of the terrain, and my only real complaint is the long mud slog right at the end. Lots of mud in the middle of the race is fine, but making it the “climax” was a let down. All in all, this was still a good race.
* Rating
Above Average
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* From: Chris Bordenca
* Event Details
(It rained a lot *SUNDAY*) Parking was in a huge field with an initial hill that prompted volunteers to instruct cars to gun it to get up the incline. (Fun). There was never a wait to get on a bus because the crowd was so thin. Vendors were the same as the day before. Mercy tent, food, beer, etc. Tons of Port o’ potties.
* Race Details
The obstacles were pretty standard for a Spartan, they even seems somewhat easy the day before when it was dry and sunny, but the added element of rain really changed the nature of the course. First of all there was the mud. Deep, shoe sucking mud made up almost 90% of the course. Even without the steep hills of a mountain, the terrain became as much of an obstacle as the actual obstacles. You never knew how deep it would be or where a rock or root may be hidden. All of the obstacles were wet leading ro a higher failure rare, especially on the monkey bars, the zip zag wall, and the rig with a bar that transitioned to knotted ropes. I didn’t see a single person accomplish that obstacle. Wooden walls and climbs were slick and far more treacherous with the added mud and water as well. Obstacles seemed to be bunched together by category with sand bag carry, sled pull, Atlas carry and bucket brigade all on the heels of each other. After those was a group of water / mud pits that ended with a thankfully high dunk wall that didn’t require submerging your face into the brown farm water. Then it was all upper body obstacles starting with the rope climb which start with chest deep water and gloriously knotted ropes. From there it was straight to the Tyrolean traverse over land and then to the despicable bar to knotted ropes to bar rig developed by the devil himself. After a bit more running through more and seemingly impossible more mud we wound up at the Hercules hoist with one alleged 45lb sandbag for women and three for men. It was almost impossible the previous dry day, but on this muddy day it proved mostly impossible without assistance. There was a short run to the large cargo net A-frame and then a Slush through some woods with very deep, under mud to the glorious fire jump. There was a major mind game both days with a memory test that was never actually tested during the race, but it at least gave something to focus in other than the constant rain and mud. The
only new obstacle was a large wooden A-frame that include a 6-8 foot wall that needed to be overcome in order to reach the first rung of the climb. Overall it was still a fast course due to the lack of steep hills but a very worthy adversary as Super particularly because of the weather.
* Rating
Excellent
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* From: Larry King
* Event Details
The Vendors were really good here. Lots of things to look at, lots of choices. I jumped on the Cape Cod fruit smoothie before my heat (11:45). The parking was fine and easy enough off the main road.
* Race Details
This was my first Super so I can’t judge on the difficulty except that I think the Barb wire crawl was brutally long (and the one area I got the most cut up on the knees and elbows). The Traverse wasn’t bad but following that right up with another obstacle (forget name) which was tough on the arms was tough (30 burpees on that one). Maybe that was the idea or maybe having them a bit apart might have made it more possible for a success. The overall distance was short compared to the level terrain. There were barely any lines at any of the obstacles which was AWESOME compared to other races I have run recently. Maybe toss a few more chairs in the changing area would be all I could think of (lots of us looking around) but that is minor.
Quite the tease with the memory test. I still would have asked people after the sandbag carry and 5 burpees if you didn’t know :).
* Rating
Average
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* From: christine sylvester
* Event Details
It was pouring when we pulled into the parking area so we were instructed by the police and volunteers to gun it in order to make it into the parking area due to the wet muddy field. I was fine since I have a subaru (and 4 wheel drive) but I did feel bad for anyone who didnt. From there it was a 10 minute shuttle ride to the course/festival, which was fine. Lines were short and buses were plenty. Registration went very smoothly as well as bag check. There were some food and drink vendors, and carter and Stevens had their own tent which sold sandwiches, strawberries, ice cream ect. (If you didn’t get their ice cream you’re missing out!) The one thing I didn’t notice it seemed like there was no place to fill your hydration pack before going on course. You could buy water bottles but there was no other eater anywhere but on course. Also the whole festival area just became a mud pit by the end of the day due to the rain, but that was expected.
Standard shwag, 2015 super shirt and the newer medals with the pie piece.
* Race Details
This course was basically 7.5 miles of shoe sucking black sticky mud thanks to the heavy rain. There were tons of deep water sections which were unpredictable since you couldn’t see if there was a rock or a root in front of you. Lots of people were falling and slipping around.
Due to the rain all the obstacles were just covered in mud and more treacherous, causing high failure rates. (Especially the monkey bars, z walls, the damn rig.) Per usual, lots of obstacles seemed to be lumped together, with the heavy carries being close to one another, and the arm strength sucking ones all being next to each other (rope climb, rig, Tyrolean traverse). The hercules hoist was almost damn near impossible without assistance due to the bags becoming water logged.
the volunteers were very friendly and helpful despite the bad weather they had to stand in, and not too overzealous. And thanks to the ne spahtens, the course has little to no trash on it from what I saw.
Due to the extreme amounts of mud the course and terrain was much more difficult the navigate, which made up for the lack of hills. Also obstacle difficulty was upped due to the slipperyness. With everyone’s complaints about the race Saturday I was ready to almost underwhelmed and bored but the extra mud did make it a bit more interesting. Overall, fun but very messy race
* Rating
Above Average
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* From: Marissa S
* Event Details
Good parking situation, timely buses, good music/DJ, friendly and helpful volunteers, adequate bathrooms. Could have used more chairs in the women’s changing tent — some of us were struggling for space/places to hang wet stuff in there a little bit. Nice to see all the freebies (seltzer, clif bars, water, etc.).
* Race Details
I would have liked to be able to say that the race was actually at least 8 miles, but can’t complain too much about the short length since the rain on Sunday added the additional challenge that I needed. That barbed wire was intense…it just went on forever! Thanks for a great weekend.
* Rating
Above Average
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* From: Jeannine Pierce
* Event Details
Our first ever Super in Massachusetts was held at Carter & Stevens farm in Barre, MA. The farm is as Massachusetts as it gets–flat & rocks everywhere. I raced on Sunday which because of heavy rains overnight and all day was…Oh my!! The glorious amounts of mud have never been seen like this. It was slippery, deceitful, ankle deep, knee deep, menacing and it made the course a fun challenge. Icebugs were my saving grace way too many times as I maneuvered rock to branch to the unknown beneath the surfaces. I’ve been running Spartan Amesbury & Fenway since 2012. Finally getting a Super meant a step closer to the elusive trifecta. I expected Barre to mentally prepare me for the next step towards Killington. This course is fun; fast for those who love the running-end of ocr and entirely Sprint worthy. Spartan Supers are supposed to be 8-10 miles according to their website. We often learn they run longer depending on the venue. I expect Spartan Race to deliver, not come up short. Yes, for someone who runs these for pure fun and camaraderie, I am demanding. I will compare each course to the ones I have run in the past. Just as I will judge my own performance against my expectations.
Why would I run this race again? Because the New England Spahtens will be there. To be out on the course and help, be helped or witness the spirit of this team in action will make anyone a better person. Spartan did step up a few of their obstacles. Much of the barbed wire crawl was truly a crawl or lower. It was fun to have a tyrolean. The pipe to Tarzan ropes to pipe will be my nemesis for quite a while. I have work to do before I return, but that is what ocr is all about. Run your race. Meet your expectations or not. Get back up and keep getting stronger.
Bonus obstacle: getting out of the parking lot which had become a slip & slide for vehicles because of the rain. My car slid sideways a good 10-15′.
Final note: thank you Paul for putting out the trash challenge. There were far too many fuels discarded along the course. I’m sure many a Spahten picked up at least a few.
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* From: Michael Downey
* Event Details
my review is going to cover the race and small changes and issues from doing it both days
First time for Spartan at this venue. parking was a few miles from the venue in a giant open field and was fine the first day but for sunday quiet a bit of rain made a giant mess and required them having tractors onsite to help pull people out, thankfully sunday was lower in numbers than Saturday so was not as big of a issue but say the same situations happens during the sprint when there will be twice the crowd I can see this turning into a giant disaster so hopefully Spartan will take a look into this and tweak some things. facilities were as expected for a Spartan well organized and flowing village. schwag is the usual for a SR
* Race Details
ok so the course itself first time here so having to face a unknown place made It nice and challenging, the week leading up we were being told expect tall grass, very uneven ground and ticks. but thankfully by the team wave Saturday the grass had been knocked down a good bit and some paths were formed, the ground was rather un even but walkable and you really did not get your feet wet till late in the race. but for sunday you were in the mud instantly and the trails were very different to navigate and at times rather challenging. trail and course were very well marked out . there were a few slght changes in path from Saturday to sunday but they were well marked out.
the course itself was rather flat with minor hills most GPS seems to clock it in at around 7.25 Miles very shrot for a super and my first negative mark for the race. next negative part was the lack of obstacles really being visible from the village and the fact that it was a very back loaded race with most of the action coming in the last 1.5 miles, also the fact we still have yet to see much in the way of new obstacles in a few years. the only real new obstacle we got was stairway to Sparta. the biggest obstacle change was the barbed wire, Saturday it was a rather basic uphill on grass crawl but with the rain sunday made it a lot harder and challenging . my biggest disappointment was the moat, rolling mud , slip wall and dunk wall section. the moat pits were shit deep at best and Saturday this was the first time your feel really got wet, and the rolling mud on Saturday was knee deep at best and sunday the first pit there were sections of dry ground on the bottom, the slip wall was
about knee deep as well and the dunk wall was just pathetic and there was a good 2 foot gap between the bottom of the wall and the water. another obstacle note the monkey bars and multi bars id like to see those a little higher off the ground and maybe over water pits or replace monkey bars with the cargo monkey bars, I am 6feet tall and on both of those I am able to touch the ground while holding the bars so raising them another 6″ would make it easier for taller people to spend more time focusing on the bars and less about trying to tuck there legs so far up.
overall this was fun race would have liked to see more obstacles in the beginning and maybe a few more miles to really make it feel like a super. will be curious to see what Spartan leared from there first trip here and what changes are made for the sprint
* Rating
Average
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* From: Robert B Foster
* Event Details
Arriving at the Farm was pretty simple although there was a little confusion as to where to park. We had a volunteer pass but a different one was emailed and we couldn’t print it but ended up being a non factor as they didn’t check! Parking led right to the volunteer and main registration areas and both were very seamless to get through (my wife and kids volunteered, I went to main registration) There was plenty of signage, volunteers, and navigating through the festival area was very simple as was finding the biggest team tent.
* Race Details
This was my first super on a flat course so I instantly expected a simple course. Mountain courses call for more hiking which is less impact on the body and actually being able to run most of this course I found the terrain to be quite challenging. There were the staple spartan obstacles beginning with monkey bars and what seemed like a never ending barbed wire crawl over dry grass. Saturday was mostly dry with a few pockets of muddy areas. Sunday had rain and there was a LOT more mud! in the last mile of the race was a heavy concentration of the more difficult obstacles: Rope climb, Tyrolean Traverse, Multi Rig, and Hercules Hoist (after the rain was ridiculously heavy on Sunday) I finished my first lap Saturday in 1:46. I ran with my wife and a friend a couple hours later and ran sunday with the rest of my team. I must admit that I really enjoyed this race, despite all the cow s$#t!
* Rating
Above Average
