2025 Spartan Palm Beaches
Race Review
By OCR Kings Reporter At
Large
David
Best
The 2025 Spartan Palm Beaches race was held
at the Sunset Cove
Amphitheater
and grounds the weekend of March 29 –
30. The
amphitheater has played host to many
national acts such as The Zac
Brown Band, Willie Nelson, Darius Rucker,
Sublime with Rome, Yes
and numerous others. The venue can
accommodate a maximum of
six thousand people. The venue also has two
lakes for fishing and
other water sports as well as picnic areas,
ball fields, a dog park and
a 27 hole public golf course. There are
plenty of things to keep you
busy at the venue once your Spartan Race
experience is over for the
day.
Venue Logistics
The venue is evenly spaced between the Palm
Beach International and
the Fort Lauderdale International airports as
well as easily accessed by
both the Florida Turnpike and I-95 so traffic
delays are minimal. The
venue has numerous dining and hotel options
available within 5 to 10
minutes. The beach is about ½ hour from the
venue if you need to work
on your post race tan. Parking at the venue
was no problem as we parked
on the grass near the entrance to the venue.
Festival Area And Race Review
The festival area was in the same area as in
previous years with dining
options that included Up In Smoke BBQ as well
as Travelin' Tom's Coffee
and Tikiz
Shaved Ice & Ice Cream. Spartan has now partnered with Real
American
Beer so at least we Spartans now get a real beer post race
instead
of the seltzer they've been handing out in prior races.
The
race was a Sprint only event week and the obstacles reflected that.
The race began with hurdles then over walls
(4 foot) before coming to
a slight cliff climb that included ropes to
aid in the climb. Then monkey
bars, bucket carry that did include some
undulation, then a decent run
before hitting the inverted wall, another
long run before coming to the
six foot wall and a shallow lake crossing.
Then vertical cargo, sandbag
carry, spear throw, helix and then to herc
hoist. One thing that never
gets old at the Sprint events are the new
racers and watching them learn
about the obstacles and herc hoist didn't
disappoint. A young man was next
to me and got his bag to the top....the next
thing I know the bag was
speeding down with him still holding the rope
and he goes head over heels
into the metal fencing that surrounds the
hoist. The only thing he hurt was
his pride as his buddies got the whole thing
on video. From herc hoist, we
hit slip wall, atlas carry, plate drag, barb
wire crawl, rope climb, multi-rig,
A frame cargo and the finish line. The
obstacles omitted from this years
race were rolling mud, dunk wall, Z wall and the fire jump. The race
weekend was well attended with over 2,900
racers on Saturday and 1,100
on Sunday. The weather was partly cloudy on
both Saturday and Sunday
with light showers on Sunday morning that did
make the overhead grip
obstacles quite challenging. One thing the
venue didn't have this year was
a shower area, but since there wasn't really
any mud at this years venue,
it wasn't a big deal and if you needed a post
race bath, just hit the lakes.
Final Thoughts And Recommendations
Even though this is just a Sprint only
weekend event, I just love this race.
After pounding out Trifecta weekends in
SoCal, Houston and Atlanta, this
race comes at the right time as you can relax
and have fun as well as work
on your spear throw and grip obstacles. It's
also a great venue to try for
your personal best time on the Sprint, but if
you do, sign up for the Sunday
morning Sprint as there are a lot less
participants. This is also a great
venue to bring the family to as you can fit
in two Sprints and have the
rest of the day to swim, fish or hit the
beaches. Until my next Spartan
race review, this is your reporter at large
for OCR Kings David Best.