With less than six months to go, activity for the first-ever Spartan Race in 麻豆社国产is heating up.
One of the world's biggest obstacle course race series is coming to town on Sept. 22 and organizer Dean Stanton is putting the finishing touches on what should be one of the more unique events to hit Squamish.
"It's coming along but I'm still working on the course and we're just trying to basically figure out what we want the course to be," he said. "This kind of race is a little more complicated than your average trail run because we've got to be able to put up obstacles in certain places and keep all the cool trails in the race that 麻豆社国产is known for."
Stanton said he's still in negotiations with Loggers Sports Park officials. Ideally, that's where he would like to start and finish the race.
"We haven't signed a contract yet but that's where we're planning on running it," he said. "We already have the campground booked beside it and we're expecting about 1,000 people to eventually sign up."
He said the early plan for the course includes running along Loggers Lane, then into the parking lot at Smoke Bluffs Park and possibly into Valleycliffe and parts of Crumpit Ridge before looping back to Loggers Sports Park.
"Loggers Sports would be the perfect fit for this event as far as a start and finish goes," he said.
Stanton said the recent nixing of the District of 麻豆社国产trail use fee was a positive move by council and it will encourage events like the Spartan Race to come to Squamish.
"I personally think it's going to lead to bigger events coming to 麻豆社国产because of everything you have in terms of trails," he said. "I'm totally happy with the decision and it seemed like the fee was a bit overkill. The tourism value of an event like ours will more than offset the loss of any revenue from a trail fee. We're expecting several hundred people to stay overnight for this race and that's a phenomenal amount of money right there."
Despite the scrapping of the trail fee, Stanton did say that he will be giving a cash donation to the trails because it's something he believes in.
"The up to $5,000 we would have had to pay would have been a phenomenal amount of money for us," he said. "Now I can put that back into the race."
The Spartan Race series kicked off in 2010 and has three levels of courses: three-mile "sprints," eight-mile "supers" and 10-to-12-mile "beasts." Competitors have to run, jump and crawl their way over a dozen or more obstacles set up in their path.
The 麻豆社国产race, which will be rated as a "super," will be a 12-kilometre race featuring heats of up to 250 people hitting the course at 10 a.m. and every following half hour until 1 p.m. Super Spartans provide more than eight miles of mud running and 15 unique obstacles to test competitors' physical and mental strength. Those who dominate in the 麻豆社国产race will qualify to compete in one of the five "beast" races taking place after the local "super."
"We don't make these things easy," Stanton said. "We're all about obstacles. There should be 16 to 18 on this race and we're always trying to look at natural stuff we can throw in. It's all about trying to excel and being a Spartan, which is why we time our events and rank people nationally and internationally."
For more information on the series, visit www.spartanrace.com.
