FLORIDA FALL SAVAGE RACE 2017... a review.

Although Pure Florida is primarily a nature and Florida rural life blog, it's no secret that I love Obstacle Course Racing (OCR).

So it is time for another OCR review.

This time it is the SAVAGE RACE and specifically the Florida Fall Savage Race that was held on November 11-12, 2017.

Let's not waste time here ... I LOVE SAVAGE RACE!

Here's why...

Look at that course map above.

The folks at Savage jam 29 obstacles into 7 miles.

29!

By comparison, I ran a Half-Tough Mudder in October, and while it was fun enough, the 5 mile course had 10 obstacles.

About 5 of those were challenging or at least creative. It was fun, but for a similar length run, it had much fewer real obstacles.

I run Savage every Spring and every Fall, so I think this recent run was number 8 for me.

So I know something about this course.

Savage likes to advertise that their race is "the perfect length", and I have to agree.

With a 7 mile course, you have more bragging rights than the typical 5K run, and with Savage it's never long until you come to the next obstacle.

At 59 ... almost 60, I appreciate the break in running offered by lots of obstacles.

Below: Not every Savage obstacle is super challenging, but these timbers aren't made of Balsa wood.

This year there were actual mud/water obstacles at the Savage Run thanks to a very active 2017 hurricane season.

Mud and water are fun, but the main focus at a Savage Race is upper body challenges.

They do a superior job at this, and every season, new tougher obstacles are added.

Above, I'm getting my "mind right" as Tony Horton would say, before I start the "Wheel World" obstacle.

The score so far is Wheel World 1, Powers 2. I failed it the very first time I tried it, but have had 2 victories since then.

The pinwheels spin and their are 4 or 5 of them to navigate. The important thing is to not lose your momentum. 

If you get hung up on a spinning wheel, you are probably toast.

Above, that's my, "Holy Smokes, I've lost my momentum!" face. It happened on the next to the last wheel, and it felt like an eternity before I could calm that spinning wheel down and make a lunge for the last wheel.

It was close, but I beat it again.

The nearly vertical slide is your reward after you beat the warped wall known as "Colossus". It is ridiculously fun and fast.

I'm just holding my nose so that when I hit the pool of water below, I don't have filthy water forced up into my sinuses.

No need to risk inviting one of our Florida brain-eating amoebas into my head.

I do the same thing on the 15 foot high water leap obstacle too.
 It's the biology teacher in me.

Leaping over fire near the end of the run is not difficult, but it can result in some cool, "Yeah, I leap over fires all the time" sweet pics.

So let's talk about race photographs before we close this review. 

I always wear a GoPro and I often run solo, so my video is almost 100% POV.

That means I really count on those free race pics that most OCR's offer post race.

This Fall Savage Race had the best pics of any race I have run and I've been OCR'ing for 5 years now.

Rugged Maniac and Spartan do a good job with this too, but Savage is holding the first place spot currently when it comes to quantity and quality of free pics.

(TIP: don't pin your race bibb to the back of your shirt or too low on the front. You find your post race photos by bibb number, and if it doesn't show in the photo, the software wont' match the photo to you. Also, a low on the front bibb may get rubbed off crawling through obstacles.)

I'm ending where I started, I love the Savage Race. 

Some reasons in a nutshell:

• Extremely well run.
• Very reasonable price.
• Reasonable bag check and parking prices.
• "The perfect length"
• A multitude of obstacles
• A beautiful venue (in FL).
• The right mix of obstacle difficulty.
• New creative obstacles every season.
• Great post-race pics.
• Great volunteer staff.

One change I would make is reinstate the corral fencing aisles at Colossus. These used to be present and they offered just the right amount of static crowd control. Without them, the crowd of runners are kind of a an unorganized blob and they are too close to Colossus, so the "run-up" distance is shorter than it used to be.

Savage Race is a gem in the crown of OCR and I already have my ticket for the next one in the Spring.

But, before that, I have to survive the "12-14 mile" Spartan Beast on December 9, 2017.

I love Spartan Race too, but ... what the hell was I thinking when I signed up for that one?

A few highlights of my Savage Race follow:

TIME SENSITIVE INFORMATION: SPARTAN RACE FATHER'S DAY DEAL!

SPARTAN RACE has a special offer just in time for Father's Day and it's pretty sweet.

It's a limited time offer, so I am interrupting the usual Florida nature boy posts. Don't worry, soon come ... I'm volunteering on a dolphin research project this summer so, yeah, I've got critter news to share, but first...

REEBOK SPARTAN RACE is offering the following Father's Day deal:

1. This is a limited time offer. It ends at 11:59 pm on June 18, 2017.

2. The official fine print stuff: Free e-book download and $69 Sprint afternoon race offer valid with an adult registration during promotional period only. Must use SPARTANDAD code during checkout. Code cannot be combined with other codes, including GovX. Offer not valid with Spartan Passes, Volunteer, or Groupon entries. New, afternoon time block registrations only, cannot be retroactively applied. US events only. Offer ends 06/18/17 11:59PM ET. E-book download instructions will be supplied by 6/22/17.

3. The free e-book download refers to 2 books by Joe De Sena, the founder of Spartan Race. I own one of these books, "Spartan Fit", and it is a good read ... Joe is intense. Those 2 e-books on Amazon total about $22.00 currently and you get them free when you sign up for a race using this deal code:
SPARTANDAD.

4. With this code, the cost of a race (afternoon waves) is $69.00. Spartan races are not cheap, but that special price is!  Right now, the afternoon price for the December Spartan Sprint in Mims, Florida is $99 and that will just rise as December nears. This deal, without any of the extras, is saving you $30 already.

5. Signing up with this code also gets you a discount on official Spartan Race Gear... up to 50% on some items. 

Like an 8 foot vertical wall on a Spartan Race, you have to jump if you want it ... this deal expires in just a few days.

To make this easier, I've posted a banner ad off to the right of this post. That will take you directly to the deal.

AROO, y'all.

A Review: RUNNING THE 8.5 MILE SPARTAN SUPER AT 58...December 10, 2016 Florida Cracker Ranch

At last...
A Spartan Race. 
After 4 years of OCR running, including one missed Spartan Race due to an eye injury three years ago, and one delayed Spartan Race due to a change of venue ... I finally got to run one.
And of course, I jumped over the 4 mile Spartan Sprint and right into the 8.5 mile Spartan Super.

The race is done and this is my review.
My comments are based on over 30 OCR runs, starting in 2012 with the now defunct Superhero Scramble.
Some of those early "mudruns" have not survived in the survival of the fittest OCR organizations food web.
Spartan Race prospered during those shake out ... natural selection years, and is now one of the big dogs.
With Reebok as a sponsor and Spartan races on TV, the Spartan organization has risen to the top of the food web.
And finally, I got to be a Spartan at the Florida Cracker Ranch near Bunnell, Florida.

I love watching the Spartan Races on TV, so I was eager to see what the bucket of gravel felt like.

Not surprisingly it felt like Earth's gravity had multiplied to Jovian levels. The trek toting the gravel laden bucket was plenty long ... like talking to yourself at the end, "I WILL NOT SET THIS BUCKET DOWN", long.

I did not.

But ... and this is a HUGE "but", at least it wasn't uphill like in other states.

Too flat for that silliness here in Florida.

Not really an obstacle, but hey, it's a free picture.

Most of my OCR photo-memories are POV GoPro shots, so I am always happy for a shot taken from somewhere besides my head.

THE OBSTACLES:

The Spartan obstacles were good. I liked the variety and the spacing was well done. True confession, I do OCR for the "O" ... obstacles. I love them. Give me things to climb on, pull up,  jump over, and carry.

Running ... meh, it's an inconvenient truth.

At 58, when I get tired of running, I speed walk at a very fast, steady pace, conserving energy for the next challenging obstacle.
For me, each OCR run is all about the obstacles. My goal is to beat each one and I care not a bit about my overall time.

I never skip an obstacle either.

Like most OCR's, Spartan jams some of the best obstacles near the finish line so spectators have something to see.

The Spartan monkey bars were staggered with one high and one low, but not extremely difficult.

My reference here is the Savage Race obstacle called Sawtooth.

It is the most beautifully challenging monkey bar of any race in my opinion.

I would make the Spartan ones longer, but keep the up,down, up, down pattern, that was good.

That's a happy grimace.

Every race seems to have a platinum rig near the end now and these seem to have a high failure rate ... or is it just me?

No pictures of that, but Google it and you will see some variation of it.

The barbed wire crawl was insane. That was the lowest and longest barb wire crawl I have ever done in an OCR. I thought I would be there forever, rolling, and rolling, and rolling.

The Spartan rope climb was near the end of the race and it was a really good one.

The rope was long... (20 feet?) ... with no knots. Knotless rope climbs used to intimidate me, but not anymore.

Once I learned the Navy Seal foot lock, a knotless rope became ... still challenging ... but no longer a thing to fail at.

The Spartan obstacles were challenging over all with a nice mix of difficulty levels.

VOLUNTEERS:

They were great. 

Helpful, friendly, and plenty of them.

WATER STATIONS: 

Way more than I expected from the website. I think there must have been one about every 2 miles... and one of them had high carb/protein refuel food.
Nice.

BAG CHECK:

A reasonable $5.

Nice.

SHIRT, MEDALS, BLING, BEER:

All fine ... the one free beer was a Michelobe Ultra ... kind of like drinking beer flavored air ... but beer should not be the highlight or goal of your obstacle runs.

The finisher medal is primo!

PARKING, Etc:

Okay, now here is where there is room for improvement, but to be fair, this was a new venue for Spartan, Inc., so we accept some WTH things in this category.

Case in point, Unless you paid for some pretty limited VIP type parking, you had to park FAR, FAR AWAY from the starting area.

AND ... you had to walk a really long way just to get to the bus area to board a bus for the race start/registration area.

Spartan is new to this venue, but the FLROC obstacle course used it for years. I did that run about 6 times.

FLROC parked us in the same area as Spartan, (In a vast field next to a pretty lake), but they set up their race HQ right next to the lake.

This gave everyone a short walk to the registration and start/finish area, plus the lake beach provided an awesome rinse off station post race.

For some reason, Spartan parked us there, had us walk a quarter mile to a bus pick up, and then ride school buses through the woods on twisty, narrow, dirt roads.

This plan came back to haunt them (and us) when after the race, a bus got stuck on the dirt roads, effectively blocking the other buses.

We waited in an ever growing line of tired and dirty finished racers for about 45 minutes while the hard working Spartan crew wrangled tractors to pull the stuck bus out.
Once the lead bus was unstuck, the others followed and we got moving again pretty quickly.

Of course,  they still dropped us off at the original bus pick up site far from most of our cars, so we got to do the quarter mile hike back to our vehicles.

I'm pretty sure I put in close to 10 miles that day, not just the 8.5 race miles.

Conclusion:

Overall, it was a great OCR course and I really enjoyed the experience.
Based on just this one Spartan Race and many Savage Races, I think Savage has them beat for numbers of obstacles and obstacle innovation. 

This Spartan Super was a REALLY good time though.

Were it not for the little transportation issues, I would have given it an A+.

Just like I tell my students ... and myself, there is always room for improvement.

I'm looking forward to more Florida Spartans in 2017!

Video:

Check out the add below to learn more about the new season passes that Spartan Race has come out with.
Sounds like a deal if you love the Spartan Life!!

My 2016 Obstacle Course Race Schedule ... So Far

It's the start of my 4th year of OCR, Mudruns, ...whatever you choose to call them.
It all started with a Groupon back in 2012 for the now defunct Super Hero Scramble. I was immediately hooked.

(note: this was written while battling a cold last week)
Today, I'm home from work with a miserable cold, staring wistfully out the window at my climbing rope and pull up station and thinking I should at least do a round of P90X in the living room.
It's only a cold after all.

The OCR schedule so far looks like this:

• February 6 = The Play Dirty Adventure Run in Largo, FL
• March 12 = BattleFrog in Tampa, FL
• March 19 = Savage Race in Dade City,FL.
• May 7 =   FLROC in Bunnell, FL
• December 10 = (drum roll please) Jacksonville-Palm Coast Super Spartan ... at last, a Spartan. I am really excited about this one since it is a Spartan Race and the venue is the fantastic Florida Cracker Ranch in Flagler county.

So, that's 5 new T-shirts, 5 new finisher medals, 5 new GoPro videos, and an unknown number of scrapes and bruises.

Hopefully other races may come along between May and December, but currently this is it. 

Based on past history, I'll probably do the Fall Savage Race too.

If you haven't tried an OCR and you are trying to get fit, they are awesome motivation to "just keep pushing play" on your home workout program, whether it's Insanity, PiYo, P90X, or some other plan.

Works for me anyway ... I'm pretty sure I'm stronger at 58 than I was at 28.

Keep moving my friends.