The impact of COVID-19 has implications on the fitness industry many of us had not previously imagined. Your local gym may has closed, or is going to be mandated to do so. All obstacle racing companies have postponed or cancelled events for March and April of this year. While most in the community hope things “go back to normal” by May/June, there are no guarantees. Last night, we received word from Spartan Race that the company is going to furlough a large portion of their staff, while they wait on word from government and health officials to determine when it is safe to hold large gatherings again.

Here is what they sent to employees:

Dear Colleagues,

First, we hope that everyone is staying safe. Our thoughts and compassion go out to everyone who has, or is caring for loved ones affected by, COVID-19. We recognize the toll that the novel coronavirus is taking on our global community (medical, social, emotional and economic), and we thank you for your continued efforts to support your Spartan colleagues and our customers. Every one of you has been critical to our success over the past 10 years, and you are crucial to our future growth.

As you know, Spartan is an event-driven business and we’re facing unprecedented challenges, much like all other sporting, events, hospitality, travel and a number of other companies across the world right now. While facing the business impacts of such a rapidly-spreading global pandemic, and in order to ensure the strength of the Spartan brand and community, we have to make temporary changes and remain nimble in our operational decisions in the days ahead. We are making numerous adjustments, and have made the difficult decision to place some employees on short-term furlough, in accordance with the need to suspend race operations to protect the health and safety of our staff and customers. All furloughed employees will receive a stipend and will continue to receive healthcare benefits, and we are exploring ways that we can provide additional resources to employees upon their return to work.

In keeping with the spirit of community and solidarity at Spartan, all employees in the company are impacted, and we are temporarily reducing the salary of all other non-furloughed employees as we continue to work through the business challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. If any financial assistance is provided by the federal government or state governments to Spartan, we will do our utmost to ensure employees are reimbursed to 100% of their salaries.

The Spartan Leadership Team will continue to follow federal, state and local government guidelines and will make adjustments to our events and business practices as needed in the coming weeks, keeping you in the know. Please know we do not make any of these decisions lightly, and all decisions will be in an effort to protect the longevity of the business and keep the OCR industry going strong.

We cannot stress enough how important you all are to our future success, and together, we know our strength, resilience and grit as Spartans will bring us back stronger than ever.

Thank you for all of your hard work, and stay safe,

The Spartan Leadership Team

Update – 9:07am – Spartan Race owner Joe Desena spoke on this live video to further discuss the situation. He is hopeful that people can get back to work in May and begin to hire people back for events to be held in June. This discussion begins around minute 23 of the video.

Click here for – All obstacle racing covid-19 related articles.

March 13 – Complete Updated List Here.

Spartan Race just announced the San Luis Obispo event, set to take place this weekend will be postponed to a later date. There were 3 OCR distances planned as the Super, Beast, and UltraBeast were to take place.

In addition, the San Luis Obispo Spartan Trail races of 10k and 13.1 miles will also be postponed.

Update March 12, 2020 – San Luis Obispo Spartan weekend is now moved to November 14-15.

Spartan Race postponed the San Luis Obispo races at the recommendation of the County Health Officer. (We have included the local health Officer’s statement below)

We have also included the full release from Spartan which includes this statement about additional races:

“At this time, all other US events will proceed as scheduled unless otherwise noted”.

We are keeping track of all major obstacle race cancellations and postponements on this post, which we consistently update.

Here is the official statement from Spartan Race regarding this location and COVID – 19

Spartans,

As we actively monitor the developments of COVID-19 and comply with local governments, we regret to inform you that after consulting with the County of San Luis Obispo Public Health Department, they have determined that it is necessary to postpone this weekend’s events scheduled to take place at Santa Margarita Ranch. We will inform you of the new date by Friday.

We are automatically moving all racers to the new date, once confirmed; no further action will be required. If you are unable to attend the new date, you will have 60 days (until May 13th, 2020) to defer your event free of charge. You will be able to defer to any other distance event in the US in 2020 or 2021 that is open for registration. Should you need to defer your event, we will provide information in the next email communication.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Service Spartans via Live Chat (look for the red help button at the bottom of any Spartan.com page!), or directly via email at: us@spartan.com.

Spartan continues to closely monitor developments pertaining to COVID-19 and operate in accordance with local government policies and/or requests. At this time, all other US events will proceed as scheduled unless otherwise noted.

Spartan Cancelled at Recommendation of County Health Officer .

Health Officer evaluating events on case by case basis; No mass cancellations at this time

San Luis Obispo, CA—County of San Luis Obispo Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein has advised the Spartan organization to postpone the Spartan obstacle course and trail running events scheduled for March 13-15 in Santa Margarita. As a result, event organizers have postponed the event to a date to be announced later this week.

Nearly 7,000 participants from 11 countries had registered for the event, including participants from U.S. cities with local transmission of COVID-19 and several countries currently subject to CDC travel advisories. The decision comes as cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in California.

“It is important to cancel this event to protect the health of the participants and, ultimately, the health of our entire community,” said Dr. Borenstein. “This is an event that by its nature includes close physical contact. With attendees planning to participate from across California and across the world, we need to take a proactive approach to prevent the spread of illness.”

The Public Health Department is closely monitoring events scheduled in SLO County and Dr. Borenstein is providing guidance on a case by case basis.

For organizers of events in SLO County: The Public Health Department recommends that event organizers create an emergency contingency plan for how to modify, cancel, or postpone large events if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs in the community. Event organizers should refer to the Mass Gatherings Guidance on Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 from the California Department of Public Health.

Click here for – All obstacle racing covid-19 related articles.