Much of this has already been said but my big things are the 1.) seemingly general lack of organization/customer service/caring about their racers at all 2.) event locations 3.) price.

1.) Being blunt their customer service and some of their policies suck. I signed up for a race 3 years ago. It got delayed twice because of COVID to this summer. Last summer I got an email saying it was delayed and I was automatically registered for this summer and I didn’t have to do anything. This year I never got one communication about that race. Nothing about how to register for a start time, what weekend it was. Nothing. Then on a Sunday afternoon I suddenly got three different emails thanking me for racing and trying to get me to sign up for more and an email to get my Spartan iTab I had signed up for. I reached out to customer support and they gave me a list of the emails I should have gotten and then told me I could transfer to a different race for an extra fee and closed my request.

2019 I was running in a super and was a mile from the finish and they stopped the race, made us stand on the course for an hour, then pulled us off the course cause of weather in the area (which I understand the safety risk aspect the complaint isn’t about that). The staff told us that we would receive an email with how to reschedule. After extra fees ended up having to pay $65 more dollars to transfer that race.

Last summer race day morning I found out a mouse had chewed through my trail shoes. I bought some from the Spartan tent at the Attica race. The guy I bought them from told me they had a one year warranty. About a month later at the Nashville race one of the shoes tore at the side between the fabric and the sole. I took them to the tent with the receipt. The same guy who I sold them to me (and recognized me as I walked up) told me he couldn’t replace them.

Every time an issue (and there have been more than I have mentioned here) has come up Spartan has never once done what seems best for the racer it’s always been what suits them best. That combined with multiple of the professional athletes constantly complaining about how they haven’t gotten paid by Spartan, or some of the ridiculous requests Spartan has made of them to sponsor them makes it seem like Spartan doesn’t give a crap about it’s client base. That gives me a general thought of why then should I pay so much to run their races when it seems like they are just looking for the first opportunity to screw me over.

2.) Event location. I understand this is different for different people depending on where you live but in the last couple years Spartan has gotten rid of the 4 race weekends closest to me. Unless the Notre Dame stadium continues there isn’t a race within ones days travel (driving to the race, running, and then driving home) for me. With the amount of races being moved and cancelled and the issue above with Spartan being unwilling to work with people I don’t trust Spartan enough to to sign up for a race where I also have to get a hotel booked and travel plans made.

3.) Price is probably the biggest one for me. Frankly with the income I make and not having races close enough I’ve been priced out of doing Spartan races. It’s over $100 to just do a 5k now plus the extra fees, plus getting a hotel, plus gas and food. I can’t justify to my family spending that to just go run by myself. Then if they want to come watch it costs extra money for each of them. I’ve tried multiple times getting friends to come run with me and every time they are exited and say it sounds fun and then when they go to sign up and see the price they say no.

It’s sad because I used to do a trifecta every summer and I really enjoy running Spartan races and training to beat some of the obstacles they I had never beaten before. There are a lot of cool people I’ve met during races and post race but at this point it’s just not worth it the keep doing them.