Spartan Race 5KHere's how RW members rated this race in the past (7 votes). | 1 to 7 of 7 ratings | Page: 1 |
| The big picture (7 votes) | | Overall score | | 57% | | How many would do it again? | | 50% | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 63% | | PB potential | | 37% | | Atmosphere | | 63% | | Organisation | | 43% | | Value | | 49% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 63% |
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2011 race reviewed by: Zoey Tattersall
 | | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Hardest Race I've ever completed but would do it again a thousand times over!!! It was just brilliant, the comraderie was fantastic, organisation great (changed the numbers last minute which was a little annoying but everything else was smooth.
Date of review: September 8, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: crouchy
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 40% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 20% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Terrible organisation, felt like the organisers were squeezing every last penny out with the race itself as an afterthought
In full: Pros:
- Nice weather
- A few interesting obstacles
Cons:
- Arriving 1hr before the final race of the day, we were directed to park in an area that was 1.2 miles away from the start line, despite there being parking spaces next to the start (most of the running we did was getting to and from the car)
- We were told there was an opportunity to run the course twice for the 1.00pm start, making it a 10k race... there wasn’t, or if there was it was so poorly organised that no one could see how to do it
- The race marshals were sparse and useless, I am all for using army cadets in the right situation, but here there was no one shouting what to do on any obstacle (meaning most people made it up when they went along) and when I witnessed one lady go down at the side of the race quite badly, the only marshal within 1km was a 10 year old with a bottle of water who was in panic, and it was down to the other racers to help her out
- The course layout was completely unclear, with no signage at all, repeatedly other racers turned round to each other asking “were we supposed to go that way?”
- The final sprint to the finish line was littered with non racers just hanging around on the course itself, meaning you had to run around push chairs, and people cueing for 2 of the worst placed toilets I have ever seen at the point of the race you should be giving it your all to finish
- There was a serious lack of thought in the whole start/finish area. There was a key drop, and you got your t-shirt at the beginning of the race. For £40 is a bag drop too much to ask, and seeing as everyone was 100% likely to be wet, why not give the t-shirt out at the end of the race?
I won’t mention the bottlenecks, as you are going to get these at any race of these kind and they are inevitable.
All in all this felt like with a few tweaks and a lot more thought, it could have been a great race, but it ended up feeling like the organiser had done the bare minimum to be able to take a few great photos, and then run off with as much money as possible giving very little thought to the race itself.
If you like these kind of adventure races, in my experience any of the others (Hellrunner, Grim Challenge etc) would be a better place to take your money.
Date of review: July 25, 2011
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2010 race reviewed by: Delboy1978
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Was great fun but the organising could have been better
In full: I had a great time with my team mates on this one. Marshalling was an issue...some of the track taping had snapped: we bumped into some people who had gone the wrong way sending them back otherwise they would have missed half the good obstacles.
Wished it had been harder though....the organisors messed up my registration: I wasnt even on the list and no response from the emails i sent to the organisors...turned up on the day spoke to someone about it and was just told to run it anyway. Mixed opinions would do it again with the right crowd.
Date of review: September 20, 2010
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2010 race reviewed by: Mark Cowen 2
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Expensive and poorly organised
In full: Marshalling was virtually non-existent. I luckily managed to find my way around the course, although plenty of others didn't.
Although the tunnel crawl and lakeswim were good - bottlenecking meant long waits at each obstacle. Also, some obstacles were poor and only consisted of kiddies playground balancing beams etc.
Registration was also a joke, they claimed half the registration packs had blown away?! In truth all ~1000 of them were just randomly shoved in a box and they couldn't be bothered searching through them.
Date of review: September 20, 2010
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2010 race reviewed by: Floydy66
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Epic Spartan Failure
In full: Pros
- Stash (technical t-shirt and medal)
Cons
- Poor Organisation
- Minimal marshalling/route markers
- Did not live up to website billing
- Mediocre obstacles
Date of review: September 19, 2010
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2010 race reviewed by: JugglingJunky
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Give it a go - it will make you smile
In full: Marshalling didnt really exist but lots of markers showing route - guess if you got away from the pack then good chance of losing the trail.
Not as challenging as I expected but still enjoyed the course (apart from the tunnel which was just pain!) Lake was good with a nice fire to dry you off!
Would be a great event in the summer to be followed by the beer and BBQ - even if they had have been supplied today I doubt whether I would have stuck around as cooled off pretty quick
Needs more challenging obstacles and slicker organisation - will be back next year to check it out though as nice change from your average 5k - nice medal too :-)
Date of review: September 19, 2010
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2010 race reviewed by: Row Runner
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Fair race but would be better if you could find your way...
In full: Unfortunately I'm left a little disappointed by this race. It's cost £30 which is OK, Im not tight but I just like to get my moneys worth - I didn’t feel like I got that on this. I ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere and missing out on some of the key obstacles. I wasn't trying to cheat (honestly!) but the mashalling was poor and the marking clearly wasn't good enough. Again if I pay £30 then I think there should be some investment into the marshalling. Afterwards, speaking with a number of other competitors it was clear that many others did the same. There was a promise of a "Post Race Party with beer, BBQ and live entertainment" (Im quoting from the website) and there was none of that - perhaps that's the case in the US races but it certainly wasnt present at this one. It's fine if that's not available but I think that should be made clearer on the website. Additionally they ran out of water for the final heat.
Positive attributes of the race? Course scenery was nice, mixed terrain and challenging in cases (particularly the tunnel). Good crowd of people, a range of abilities and a fun set of obstacles.
Date of review: September 19, 2010
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