Race Review - 2014 Super Spartan, Las Vegas

Last year we were talking about some OCR things we wanted to do for the 2014 season. For one, we wanted to a race in another state. This pretty quickly morphed into "Why don't we just shoot for a Spartan Trifecta, then?". So our first stop in the quest, was to be the Super Spartan in Las Vegas. We chose this race because it's the closest Super to us, and with the UT Beast and the CO Sprint we figured we'd put together a sort of 'Southwest Trifecta' for 2014. We didn't really consider the fact that this would be a destination race for many people. When we arrived at the race, it was a whole other world from what we're used to here in Colorado.


IN THE BEGINNING

Neither my racing partner, nor I, are big gamblers. We had no desire to stay on the strip in some dirty hotel room. Been there done that. We did the whole "Vegas Baby!" trip several years ago for the SEMA show and wanted to stay off the strip this time, so we got ourselves a sweet little VRBO rental in Summerlin instead. We also wanted to get in a little rock climbing, and Red Rock Canyon was right down the street from our rental. Bonus!

We road tripped it in, stopping to take in a couple sights along the way. It was a long haul for sure, but airfare plus a rental car and the fact that we had a lot of gear (clothes, race bags, climbing equipment, etc.) we figured it would be a better option.

The added scenery of a road trip.

THE VENUE

We had an afternoon start time, so we slept in a bit and still had plenty of time for breakfast and to tape up our problem areas before driving the 30 minutes to the event location.

Parking was on site ($10), which is always nice, but it was a bit of a cluster when we got there. We sat for about 10-15 minutes, not moving in one of four lines of cars before something magical happened (like some dude who knew how to direct traffic showed up) and we were directed to a parking spot far enough away from the gates that we had to ask for directions. There was a sea of cars (and several cabs dropping people off, which was different) and the shear size of the event began to unfold.

Packet pick up was quick and smooth and we wandered around the grounds taking in the huge number of people there. This was easily the biggest obstacle race we'd ever been to and it didn't really dawn on us as to why at first. We figured longer races, like the Super would have smaller turnouts. For us, it was simply the closest Super to CO and offered the additional aspect of world class rock climbing down the street. For others, it's definitely a destination race. There were over 7,000 finishers for the day and many well known competitors were in attendance. There was even a wedding ceremony shortly after we arrived.

Before.

In addition to the Las Vegas draw, there's also the promise of seeing a lot of the big names in OCR as well as a couple specialty runs, namely the Hurricane Heat and it's big brother, the HH12HR, which is also a Peak Death Race qualifier if you're into that sort of thing.


THE RACE

We wandered up to our start and lined up in in the rear behind a 6 foot wall for a little bonus obstacle to start the race. Our heat was packed with people and clogged pretty quickly on the first narrow steep downhill section.

The race took place in some sort of gravel quarry. It was dry, dusty, full of pits and mounds and, for obvious reasons, very rocky. I nearly turned my ankle in the first 100 yards or so and quickly learned to pay attention to my footing. I saw at least one guy who looked like he had a race ending sprain and there were a lot of cramp stretchers and hobblers, including ourselves later in the race.

Lots of this.

I've got to say, I wasn't a huge fan of the quarry. We had to stop a few times to dump rocks and dirt out of our shoes and many of the obstacles just consisted of running up and down the gravel piles. The sharp, coarse stone made the wire crawl particularly unpleasant. It was jammed up when we got there, was a particularly long one to boot and took way too much time to slog through. The guy just in front of me walked out to do burpees instead and I considered it too. It would have been a lot quicker for sure, but I wanted to do every obstacle so I stuck through to the bitter end.

Not much of this.

This was the driest race to date for me. The races here in CO are loaded with water and mud. This one had the wire crawl, a water tank you submerged in and one other muddy hill that I can remember, aside from the water at the base of the rope climb that was about it for wet. The dry, dusty desert conditions made this pretty much a must to have water with you on the course, in my opinion. Although they had several water stations spread over the 8 mile course, sometimes they were so backed up that if you had even just a small a water bottle, skipping them could shave a lot of time off.

Interesting choice.

Aside from the gravel pits, there were less obstacles than I expected. The staples were there: rope climb, spear throw, tire flip, tire drag and pull, monkey bars, pancake and sand bag carry, etc. And there was the gravel bucket carry, which was new to me. But all in all, it was about the same as the CO Military Sprint in number of obstacles, or perhaps even less. I guess the biggest things were the length, there's a lot more running between obstacles, and the environment, the hot dusty trail was a bit of a drag for sure.

The gravel hills tended to erode and/or get worn down into deep tracks. People, being herd animals, would naturally just follow the person in front of them, stay in the rut and meander along. This causes delays when you get someone who's timid about going downhill, which there seemed to be no shortage of. Do yourself a favor and break away from the group and bomb down those hills. You shave time and get in front of a lot of slower racers in short order.

Practice those farmers carries and this one isn't so tough.

We finished in 2:41 deciding to run together for the entire event, rather than our usual 'every man for himself!' approach. We both managed to run clean races, meaning we completed every obstacle and had zero penalty burpees. Dave nailed the spear throw for the first time and my hit put me 3 for 3 on what is probably the most hated Spartan obstacle. We were happy to lock in our first blue medals and get the first piece of the 2014 Trifecta Pie without paying too dearly for them.

After.

POST

The fairgrounds had quite a bit of content. The challenges like slosh pipe, pull-ups, traverse wall, etc. that have become a part of the Spartan, were all there. Unfortunately the actual contests all went down while we were running, so we sadly missed a lot of that, which I do enjoy.

The place was packed, this was just one small corner.

We wandered around a little bit, had a couple beers and some food, but being late in the afternoon, a lot of people had already left and the dust storms started to kick up so we split to go soak in the hot tube and eat some well deserved steaks.

This is probably an event you want to run early, if possible. We didn't know what to expect, so we had a noonish heat, which of course was hot, packed with people and a few backed up obstacles. Running elite would be fun, because you'd get to see all the OCR superstars and get chicked by all the bad ass females that you've come to know and love through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Plus you'd probably be able to really get into the meat of the festival and chat it up with people a little more.

This was one of the few events where we really didn't get to meet and talk with too many people. Maybe it was the non-local vibe, the shear size of race, the fact that we ran so late in the day, or (likely) a combination of all three. There were some bar hopping meet ups going on later in the evening, but we had another big day ahead of us so we laid pretty low, which also contributed to our solitude experience I'm sure.


CONCLUSIONS

I expected it to be harder. In my head, I thought it would be a Sprint x2, at least. It was that in length, but not in obstacles. The venue was more of an irritant (stopping to empty rocks out of shoes, the sharp stoned wire crawl) than a challenge. In fact the hardest part was probably just running in the dusty hot conditions for me (I would've killed for a tube of ChapStick about halfway through), and that was more of just an irritation as well. My partner suffered some pretty bad calf cramps, which was probably the hardest thing for him, since we had to stop a lot and that dragged the race out. Keep in mind the only other Spartan I've done is the Military Sprint (twice) at Ft. Carson, which I've heard is one of the tougher sprints, and we came in with a huge elevation drop in our favor, so my expectations might have been a little higher than most. There certainly were people having a very tough time out there.

The event itself was well organized as you'd expect from Spartan Race. Plenty of vendors and booths, music, beer and the merchandizing tent has grown significantly, even if it is a bit on the pricey side (I think my hoody was $60 with $5 off from bag check coupon), but they do have some cool offerings. The Las Vegas Sign shirt was going fast, already sold out in large by the time I saw it, so get your gear early!

Overall I liked it and *might* do it next year if it's in the same place and will likely do it if it's at a different locale. People at the event said it was at a nearby lake in 2013, which sounds more to my liking. It's a good stop on your trifecta quest and if you're into gambling, partying or rock climbing, there's plenty of extra stuff for you to do while you're in town. If I had to do it again, I think I'd have extended our stay another day or two to explore more of Red Rock Canyon, because it was a truly amazing place and we only got to see a small piece of it. I'd also run an earlier heat and maybe hit the strip with my fellow Spartans for the full experience.

Save some time for the local sights.