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OCR-KINGS
She's a vicious, life sucking bitch from which there's no escape...
and we can thank are arch nemesis and Spartan tormentor, the
infamous Darth Vader AKA Tyler Andrew Spencer as he was
the race director for the 2025 Spartan Cincinnati event held the
weekend of June 7-8. He truly painted his masterpiece of pain
and anguish......and the canvas used was the Perfect North Slopes
Ski Resort in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. It was a 15.2 mile Beast
course (before penalty loops) and a soul sucking test of mental
and physical stamina. I participated in this race 2023 and vowed
never to return.....so what do I do, sign up for 2025 and I'm here
to tell you, that this years race made that one look like a walk in
the park!!! All four race types were offered and the only thing I'll
say about the Ultra is there was a 74% DNF percentage rate, so if
you ever meet an Ultra finisher for this race, do your best Wayne
and Garth “We're Not Worthy” imitation and pay homage to these
true Spartans. Now, if you dare, come with me to the dark side,
but beware, you may not come back!!!
Logistics & Venue
Information
I have a love-hate relationship with this venue, so lets start with
love. I love the proximity of the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky
Airport to both the City of Lawrenceburg, Indiana and Perfect
North Slopes Ski Resort. In 35 minutes, you're in town or at the
venue from the airport. The ski resort is one of the nicer venue
sites on the schedule as we Spartans have full access to the resort
and amenities. The resort has multiple outdoor viewing areas that
are taken well advantage of. Part of the race course is run next to
the viewing areas, so spectators are able to enjoy watching us
suffer while drinking their beverage of choice. The Spartan
Members area is indoors as well as bag check and a large open
area for all in attendance. There are also a few dining options
the resort makes available as well as the normal vendors that
travel the circuit with Spartan.
Course Layout &
Obstacles
Now the bad....this is a TOUGH course!!!! And as we've seen at
other Spartan races this season, weather has played a part and
this race was no exception. This area has had its share of rain
which means mud. Combine wet and muddy conditions with
the severe undulation of the ski slopes, you have injuries from
racers losing their balance and hurting themselves and others....
in other words, gravity is a bitch!!! The course started out with a
muddy Armageddon into the corral, then onto the course where
you hit a nice knee deep mud bog to start the day off right, then 4
foot wall to the first creek crossing of the day. This is the first time
I've ever done a Spartan race where they had to have a guide rope
and a volunteer stationed at the creek to insure safety. With the
rain the venue has been receiving, the creek was at a 4 foot crest
and flowing hard, so hard that a young lady next to me in the
creek lost her balance and was being swept downstream, but have
no fear, Maximus Bestimus Delirious leapt into action and saved
her from impending doom. In hindsight, I'm sure that young lady
would have preferred the impending doom over finishing this
race. Then on to hay roll wall to over unders. Spartan used what
was on site and the over unders were just that, part Spartan and
part venue...large metal pipes. To 6 foot wall, then multi-rig and
to the second creek crossing just as the first, but we were given a
bonus of a rope climb out of the creek and up a muddy bank to
Atlas Carry, rope climb, bucket carry, spear throw, rolling mud &
dunk wall. That part of the course was relatively flat, but now the
hills begin and we hit Helix, Twister, Olympus, Beater, another
hill to Bender and then a snow climb....that's right.....SNOW in
June. I did stop for just a minute and play in it and it did feel
good!!! Up hill to 7 foot wall, Stairway To Sparta. Now downhill
and into the jungle for the Beast part of the race.....very few
obstacles and a lot of trail running to 8 foot wall. Darth Vader
placed the wall on an incline making that 8 foot wall more like a
10 foot wall ( The Ultra course actually had a 10 foot wall on their
course......good luck doing that) then up another hill to a home
grown Mini A Frame that was made of wood and pipe stuck out
in the middle of the woods. Then up and down multiple muddy
hills dodging downed trees as well as the occasional downed
racer to Irish Table. More muddy hills that seemed to go on
forever to Tyrolean Traverse. There was a water station near so I
stopped for a quick drink the the volunteer told us 3 miles to go...
man, was that a lie...more like 5 miles!!! Then to Armer, then an
uphill climb to a corded snow crawl which felt so good to roll
around in. On to hurdles, A-Frame Cargo and now begins the
ski slope part of this “Endurance Challenge” Down the hill, most
sliding on their ass as the hill was so beat up and muddy that
keeping your footing was close to impossible, back to the ski
resort area where inverted wall as well as Herc Hoist, Monkey
Bars and barbed wire crawl....and not a 50 yard crawl, not a 100
yard crawl, but a 200 yard crawl uphill with muddy deep holes,
all the while being bombarded by water ALL THE WAY up the
obstacle. It reminded me of a scene from the movie “1918”. Then
up the slope where many were crawling due to the poor footing to
the peak where a nice sandbag carry awaited taking us down and
up another hill to dump your bag, then downhill once again to the
bottom where Z Wall awaited. This was a high failure obstacle
due to it being at the bottom of the hill where all the water ran
from the barb wire crawl causing a muddy quagmire where
footing was almost impossible. One more hill as well as slip wall
and fire jump ended my day. I was never so happy to see a fire
jump in all my life.
Final Thoughts &
Recommendations
There are three race venues on the USA Spartan schedule that will
give you a true evaluation of where you are in Spartan...Big Bear,
Killington and Cincinnati. Where you rank them really depends
on what race director you get and how bad they want to torment
you. I spoke to Darth post race and told him not to take personally
what was being said about him because it wasn't that Spartan
talking....it was their weakness talking and I should know because
mine was talking more then once during this survival challenge.
Weather again effected the race as more rain Saturday night
caused those creek crossings to crest at over 6 feet and at that
point, it was deemed unsafe so the Sunday Super/Sprint had to be
rerouted to omit the first four obstacles....it looks like to me this
Spartan season is going to be dominated by weather. As far as
recommendations are concerned, sign up for the Beast only on
Saturday as I signed up for the Beast/Sprint in 2023 and found
out very quickly how sadistic and unforgiving this venue can be.
Only high end seasoned athletes should try to do both in one day.
I would also buy the insurance for the Sunday Super/Sprint events
as your body will be talking to you and telling you “NO” as it did
me after the Beast on Saturday. Spartan isn't just about brawn, its
also about brains and knowing when its better to withdrawal so
you can fight another day. So until my next report, this is your
OCR Kings Reporter at large, David Best, bringing you all the
BEST Spartan offers us!!!!!
2025 Spartan
Colorado Springs
Race Review
By OCR Kings Reporter At Large
David Best
DIZZY....................
I'm so dizzy, my head is spinnin'....like a
whirlpool it never ends!!!
This hit song by Tommy Roe aptly describes the
Colorado Springs
Race weekend held at Fort Carson on May 31-
June 1, 2025. All
four race types were included (Ultra, Beast,
Super and Sprint) as
well as the kids race. The race has been held
here since 2022 and
is one of the two Trifecta race weekends on
the Spartan calendar
where you will receive a special honor series
medal upon
completion of your race of choice (the other
is Newberry, SC the
weekend of November 15 – 16....the Ultra
medals are especially
cool!!!)
Venue
History
Camp Carson was established in 1942 following
the attack on
Pearl Harbor by Japan. The city of Colorado
Springs purchased
land south of the city and donated it to the
War Department. The
city has gotten more then a nice return on
that investment!!! The
name was changed to Fort Carson in 1954 and
encompasses more
then 137,000 acres and was named after the
legendary Army scout
and General, Christopher “Kit” Carson. The
fort is currently home
to the 4th Infantry Division as
well as the 10th Special Forces
Group.
Venue
Logistics
Fort Carson is located about 20 minutes from
Colorado Springs,
so there is a bit of a drive to get from your
lodging of choice to
the venue itself. The city offers an abundance
of hotel, dining and
entertainment options and if you're an outdoor
enthusiast as I am,
then you will be in heaven. You will have two
options if your
plan is to fly in for the event....Denver,
which is about 85 miles
from Colorado Springs or the airport in the
city of Colorado
Springs. I've done the race twice and used
both airport options
and if at all possible, fly into Colorado
Springs!!!! They have a
beautiful airport that's not busy, plenty of
rental cars and the best
part is you don't have to waste your time in
that Denver traffic
which gives you more time to enjoy what
Colorado Springs has
to offer we Spartans.
Weather Conditions &
Oxygen Deprivation
As Fort Carson lies in the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains, it is
subject to weather conditions that seem to
change by the hour.
Cold mornings turn into dry and hot mid days
that turn into rain
soaked afternoons then to cool evenings. This
venue is also
know as being a hail magnet (see YouTube
videos from 2023)
and this year was no different. As the crew
members of Spartan
were putting the finishing touches on the
venue late Friday, a
hail storm hit causing damage to multiple
tents in the venue area.
Once the storm passed, the Colorado Springs
Spartan crew leapt
into action working deep into the night to
repair the damage done
and they did just that with flying colors!!!
The Spartan crew
members NEVER get enough credit for the hard
work and
dedication they bring to give us Spartans the
finest race
experience there is in OCR. But the weather
isn't the only thing
we have to battle on race day....it's
literally trying to catch our
breath. Colorado Springs lies at 6,035 feet
above sea level and I
always thought that the higher above sea level
you went, the less
oxygen there is....but not
so.....it's actually the lack of pressure at
the higher altitudes that allow the oxygen to
spread out so you
are taking in less oxygen per breath then you
do at sea level....
about 20 percent less at this venue. They say
it takes 3-5 days to
acclimate to this, but personally, I think it
would take weeks and
then maybe.
Paul
Lachance &
The American
Warrior Initiative
In previous race reviews, we have highlighted
so many great
causes like the Teddy Bear Crawl and More
Hearts Then Scars,
but I would like to tell you about Paul
Lachance and his work
with the American Warrior Initiative. American
Warrior Initiative
provides fully trained service dogs to wounded
veterans as well
as first responders that need the help and
companionship these
dogs offer our heroes. Paul has shirts made up
and and 100%
of the funds received for the shirts go to the
initiative so they
may continue to service the needs of our warriors. Paul is a
retired Navy veteran of the Viet Nam era and
currently the oldest
Spartan racer in the world which gives him a
platform so he may
continue his work for the Initiative. If you
are interested in
supporting the cause, just look him up on
Facebook by his name
or you may try Spartan 4-0 on Facebook as
well.
Course &
Obstacle
Review
The course this year seemed to take the same
route as in previous
years with a mixed bag of rock, mud and grass
with a decent
spacing of hills and flatter straightaways to
help with making up
the time lost on those hills and looking for
air (LOL). We did
have an added bonus this year....with the rain
came the wild
flowers. Flame orange and well as purple and
blue dotted the
course and we were also serenaded by many a
happy frog that
enjoyed the ponds created by the needed rain.
The course
obstacles were as follows: hurdles, overunder
walls, 4ft wall,
rolling mud, dunk wall and to slip wall. I ran
both the Beast and
Sprint on Saturday and the difference between
the dunk wall &
slip wall between the two races were night and
day. The Ultra &
Beast racers had to problem with the mud and
slip wall, but the
Sprint racers and Saturday as well as the
Super/Sprint racers on
Sunday were treated to what I call a suicide
mission trying to get
up that wall. The consistency of the mud
changed so much in
just those few hours that racers were only
able to make it up about
half way before tumbling down the wall and in
more then a few
cases, taking other racers with them. One
ingenious Spartan even
sat on the slipwall and pulled himself up to
the top and over the
obstacle. Then on to bucket carry, Stairway To Sparta, 7ft wall,
beater, Irish tables and twister. We then had
to tackle 8ft wall,
Tyrolean Traverse, vertical cargo, Armer and
then Olympus......
my Kryptonite. Just before the Olympus, there
was a water
station with a volunteer overseeing both the
Olympus and the
water station. As I drank my water, he asked
“How you doing”
and I responded “I'm pissed off” and pointed
toward the Olympus
to show him the multiple “racers” that were
stepping on the
handholds to complete the obstacle. I then
proceeded to tell him
how tired I am trying to complete Olympus not
only battling the
obstacle, but the mud and dog **it left behind
by those “racers”
on the handholds. He then told me it's hard
for him to handle both
things and he figures the water comes first.
(I missed on Olympus
during the beast, but completed in during the
Super). Then
Bender, Inverted Wall, Spear Throw, Atlas
Carry, Sandbag Carry,
Z Wall to the last hill of the day and that
one will have you
searching for oxygen!!!! To rope climb, a very
long barbed wire
crawl to monkey bars, A-Frame Cargo, Herc
Hoist, Multi Rig
and finally the fire jump.
Final Thoughts &
Recommendations
This venue is a very deceiving one. You can
look at the map and
say to yourself “That doesn't look that hard”
but when you're hit
with the terrain, weather conditions and not
much oxygen, you
will be feeling all that come fire jump time.
The weather got me
on Saturday as I was doing both the Beast and
Sprint, but an
afternoon thunderstorm came in and I was only
able to complete
about ¾ of the Sprint course before Spartan
closed the obstacles
and made us walk the rest of the course to
finish. Yes, we did do
the fire jump and we did receive our Sprint
medals. Something
that Spartan needs to address is attracting
seasoned racers to
volunteer to man these obstacles and to have
these veterans take
the new racers to school on how Spartan is
properly done. I
purchase the season pass each year since I
race more often then
most, so a free race code doesn't really
entice me to volunteer.
What can we do to entice more qualified
Spartans to volunteer?
If you have any ideas, please leave them in
the comments section
and if they're good, I'll claim them as my
own!!!! LOL!!! Until
my next report, this is your OCR Kings
reporter at large, David
Best, bringing you all the best that Spartan
offers us!!!!!!!!!
• Spartan Race Sprint 2025 (All Obstacles)
Send us your video, get a free Spartan Race: • Free Spartan Race and Tough Mudder Giveaway
Save 20% on your next Spartan Race, use Spartan discount code: OCR-KINGS
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• Spartan Race Sprint 2025 (All Obstacles)
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2025 Spartan
Raymond James Stadium
Race Review
By OCR Kings Reporter At Large
David Best
Are You Not Entertained...........Are You Not
Entertained.............
Is That Not Why You're
Here!!!!!!!!!
The answer is yes and and I was quite
entertained at the Spartan
Raymond James Stadion Race event held on May
10, 2025. It
was a one day only event that included a kids
race as well the
Teddy Bear Crawl done for charity. The race
has been held at
this venue since 2023 and is contracted to
run until 2026. This
particular race is part of the Honor Series
that commemorate and
honor the military and first responders who
overcome those
everyday obstacles in an effort to serve and
protect our country
and communities. There is also a special
Honor Series medal
awarded upon completion of the race.
Venue History
& Logistics
Raymond James Stadium is home to the two time
Super Bowl
Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002 &
2020) as well as
the University of South Florida Bulls
football team. The stadium
opened in 1998 and can seat a maximum of 75,000 and has
hosted three Super Bowls ( 2001, 2009 and
2021). It has also
hosted such musical acts including Beyonce,
Taylor Swift, U2
and The Rolling Stones ( I was lucky enough
to attend that one).
The stadium is conveniently located less then
10 minutes from
Tampa International Airport and about 20
minutes from Busch
Gardens and Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Once
your Spartan
Race has been completed, there are more then
enough things to
keep you entertained afterword. Hotel and
restaurant options
are to numerous to list since this venue is
so conveniently located
in the city and if you need to work on that
tan, no problem as
there are multiple beaches and parks within
minutes of the
stadium.
Parking, Registration and
Security Check
I was able to attend this event last year and
parking, registration
as well as the security check into the
stadium were a snap. It
wasn't like that this year. Parking and
registration were a
nightmare, but is wasn't the fault of
Spartan......it was actually the
fault of Hurricane Milton & the Tampa Bay
Rays . Since their
home venue, Tropicana Field, was destroyed
during the
hurricane, they are playing their home games
this season at
Steinbrenner Field (spring training home of
the New York
Yankees) which is across the street from
Raymond James
stadium. The Rays had to use the parking area
located at
Raymond James because the Rays had a 4:10
game scheduled the
same day as our event with the Milwaukee
Brewers. That meant
Spartan had to reconfigure and reroute the
race to accommodate
both events. Parking was very slow as they
only had two people
collecting the $10. parking fee that could
only be paid by credit/
debit card. The registration tables were
placed in an area that had
limited access and people thought they had to
wait in one long
line instead of multiple smaller lines we
Spartans are accustomed
to. Some Spartans waited in line for hours.
But just when you
think you've made it into the venue after
battling your way past
parking and registration, then comes the
security check. Passing
through the metal detectors and having the
security force search
your bags was quite the ordeal for more then
a few Spartans.
Numerous Spartans had their gel and mustard
packs as well as
their electrolytes packs confiscated and one
young lady had to
throw away an empty nalgene bottle she
planned to fill once she
entered the venue. There was also a racer that wasn't allowed to
bring in a banana and had to eat it before
entry was granted. Once
inside, there was the normal bag check, store
and vendors.
Course Conditions And
Obstacle Layout
Last year's race was HOT & HUMID and I
was hoping this year's
race would be different......well, it
wasn't!!! It was very HOT &
HUMID and I'm a lifelong Floridian, so I know about heat.
Over 3200 racers and many more spectators
battled the elements
both natural and man made to participate in
this stadion spectacle.
The course layout was as follows....4 foot
overwalls, jerry can
carry, heavy jump rope, herc hoist (Spartan
even lightened up the
bags and some racers still dropped them),
then slam ball, push
ups (both slam balls and push ups were in the
air conditioned
South Florida Bulls locker room), then onto
the stadium grass
field for rope climb, a barbed wire crawl
(not usually seen at a
stadion race), box jumps, back into the
interior of the stadium
for monkey bars and then to atlas carry. Then
a multitude of
corded low crawls up to the top of the
stadium where a nice
sandbag carry up and down multiple flights of
stairs awaited us.
I passed many Spartans resting in the stadium
spectator seats
completely gassed from both the heat and
those stairs. Then a
weighted vest along with more corded low
crawls took us down
to level two of the stadium where we then
engaged the 6 foot
wall and then down to the ground floor where
a short run took
us to the multi-rig. The multi-rig has a
special configuration for
stadion events as it is rings only and the
rings are made of nylon
instead of the medal rings we are used to at
the other Spartan
events. This will cause you problems with
wet/sweaty hands and
with the rings being so light, they can get
away from you very
quickly. Another short run to spear throw.
Spear throw was set
up in an area of asphalt and concrete and
while I had no problem,
Spartans that ran in the afternoon were
limited to one working
spear throw lane as the others were all
broken from the impacts
with the asphalt and concrete. Then onto the
field for the 7 foot
wall, z wall, ram burpees to A frame cargo,
the gauntlet and
then the finish line. The obstacles omitted
from this years stadion
race were the tonal rotational chop and
rolling epic.
Recommendations And Final
Thoughts
I think Spartan needs to address the
following to make this and
all future stadion races more user friendly
for both spectators and
participants. They need to double the amount
of people collecting
the parking fees from two to four. The
registration area needs to
be in a more accessible area as well as
someone to direct people
on where they need to go. They need the race
director to meet
with both stadium and security staff to
review entry procedures as
well as what is allowed into the venue.
Bananas, goo, gels and
electrolytes should not be prohibited items.
Racers need to wear
large wrist sweatbands and carry a microfiber
towel to help
alleviate wet hands which will help in
completing the grip
obstacles since this race is hot and
humid. With that being said,
I highly recommend trying a Spartan stadion
event as it is such a
unique experience. The stadium, the music,
seeing yourself and
other Spartans on the jumbotron as well as
your interaction with
the spectators. For just a few hours, you are
transported back to
the days of ancient Rome, where you were able to participate in
such a spectacle. I was effected in this
way....I was transformed
from your mild mannered OCR Kings reporter at
large into your
gladiator, your champion.......... Maximus
Bestimus Delirious!!!!
I will leave you with this one final
thought.......what we do in
life......echoes in eternity. And until my
next report, this is your
OCR Kings reporter as large, David Best,
bringing you all the
BEST Spartan offers us!!!!!!!!!
x
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