New Spartan 10K Distance

David Watson, Vice President of Product at Spartan Race, went on the OCR Audio Podcast today with some big news. He told the hosts that Spartan Race will be reducing the distance of the Super distance to 10K or 6.2 miles. He stated the logic behind the decision is to standardize distances that the running community are already familiar with. A Sprint, Super and Beast will now translate to a 5K, 10K, and half marathon in 2020.

Additionally, David went on The Obstacle Dominator Podcast and spoke a little bit more about the Elite Wave Qualification that was teased earlier in the week.

Thousands are commenting across our social media, and you can read them all on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Additionally, we reached out to a few top OCR athletes to get their thoughts.

VeeJay Jones told us:

“I like the idea of standardizing, but I feel like there’s a bit too much of a gap between super and beast. I mean don’t get me wrong, shorter races are definitely my strong suit and the adjustments are great for me personally.”

Brakken Kraker said:

“I think it’s great! This lives up with the format of every major endurance sport, which is great for the legitimacy and clarity of the product.”

Nicole Mericle posted:

“The 800m is not easier than the 5k in Track, they are different disciplines. If you think 6 miles is easier than 8, youre just not racing the 6 miles fast enough I think the move to 5K/10K/Half Marathon distance is great and more recognizable. I do agree with you that Spartan has become easier in some ways. It’s supposed to be an obstacle course race and they’re shortening obstacles and making heavy carries lighter and shorter (shrug emoji)”

Aaron Newell said:

“I am “super” happy for some clarity on the distance and will be overjoyed if they keep the same amount of obstacles!”

Robert Killian chimed in with:

“That was supposed to happen this year. I talked to Charlie about it last year at ‘The Running Event’ in Austin when they announced the Trail series. I think it will help standardize the sport more for trying to meet criteria if the Olympics is the goal. I mean we already see specific distances in other OCR Brands. But if that’s the overall goal; no race brand like Spartan, Adventurey LLC, Tough Mudder etc can ever be the format. Since the Ted Stevens Sports Act passed into US LAW states only a NOT for Profit organization can be the governing body and deemed an official sport, hence USA OCR which has had an extremely difficult time getting brands to allow USA OCR to sanction certain Championship events. So we can have more TRUE National Championship races sanctioned under the Olympic Committee giving us more credibility.

But I do believe Spartan is BY FAR the brand making the largest effort to push the idea of OCR in the Olympics. I mean Joe met personally with the Olympic Committee but they quickly shut him down and like most things, there is a very long and in-depth political process that goes into anything with the word Olympics. There’s a reason the world committee is based in Switzerland, they don’t have to report how they spend the $9B they get from broadcasting rights, country bids, and sponsors.

Then they stuff Rule 40 down the athlete’s throat, not allowing them to make any money during an Olympic Cycle since you get ZERO dollars for winning the Olympics. I could go on about this for hours. There is a good reason the X-Games and World Games were formed.

I actually say we don’t need the Olympics, stop wasting time and focus on improving what we love about the sport vs changing it to meet criteria for possible, very slim, Olympic consideration. I mean look at Cross Fit and Football, neither are Olympic sports but so successful and of course Football is on a completely different level than anything but Cross Fit will never be in the Olympics, USA Weight Lifting has adopted ‘Functional Fitness’ kind of but the official title is still Weight Lifting. The Crossfit Games runs it’s own way and makes changes as it deems fit which seems to be working plus a $300k paycheck for winning, now that’s a real professional athlete salary worth destroying your body for year after year for the entertainment of others.

If more pro athletes would understand the big picture and band together we could help make some real progression!

and finally, Ryan Woods told us:

“8 miles, 10k, 900,000cm… I don’t give a shit”. (and yes that’s him, we didn’t make that up)

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Matt B. Davis

is the host of the Obstacle Racing Media Podcast and the author of "Down and Dirty-The Essential Training Guide for Obstacle Races and Mud Runs". He is also the only (known) #wafflehouseelite obstacle racer.

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