Showing posts with label cincinnati. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cincinnati. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

2025 Spartan Cincinnati Race Review

 2025 Spartan
Cincinnati
Race Review
By OCR Kings Reporter At Large
David Best


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 Cincinnati Race Review

 2025 Spartan Cincinnati Race Review By OCR Kings Reporter At Large David Best She's a vicious, life sucking bitch from which there'...