Finally at year 2015, the Spartan Race reached Malaysian shores held on 10 October 2015 at Setia Alam, Selangor. The Spartan Race is an international well-branded obstacle race event with Reebok as the official apparel for the race series. The early bird registration for the first ever Reebok Kuala Lumpur Spartan Sprint race opened since July 2015.
Registered myself for the OPEN HEAT category at RM169 inclusive of tax. I was running with my Borneo Tribal Squad partner, Memey after attending ONE Championship 2015 live match the night before at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil.
I assumed that this Spartan Race was a replacement for Reebok ONE Challenge. Was actually eagerly waiting for Reebok ONE Challenge this year since I had a great experience in their obstacles event two years in a row.
Race Day
Parking was fine as participants were instructed to park at Setia City Mall to used the provided shuttle bus facility to the event venue few KM away. Banners and signages were placed from the mall west entrance till the transportation hub. No issue to navigate neither since most of the completed (AM) wave participants were around the shopping mall.
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| Transportation HUB |
The race pack collection was held on race day right at the main entrance of the event area. Participants were required to fill and signed a declaration form before collecting their race pack. Race pack collection was done according to participants BIB number. Received an envelope consisted of BIB headband, a wrist timing chip and wrist band for start entry.
Bumped onto my old running partner, Miss Turlena who had completed her wave (AM) earlier. Congratulations Lena for coming back strong from your injury.
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| Running Friend #Turtlena |
Memey and I then head to the baggage deposit tent to keep our belongings after a quick prep on our running gear. The 2PM wave was flagged by the assigned emcee / Radio DJ from local radio station. It's unfortunate that there was no pre-hydration water station at the start area. Had to wait until the first water station along the race route for about 30 - 40 minutes later.
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| Baggage Deposit Tent |
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| Start Area with Race Official |
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| Running Friends |
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| Flag Off |
The first few obstacles were basic running on dirt with some jump high, crawl low, and leap through. Various height wall jump and one over-under-through. The hot afternoon weather definitely was challenging too. Will definitely get the AM wave for this sort of race. |
| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Water Station |
Managed to complete the monkey net climb, traverse wall and tyre lift before reaching the long waited water station. Water station was a tent with sufficient mineral water supply manned by volunteers and RELA officials.
After a quick break under the tent, we continued the race with some sort of weight-drag. At this point I really wish I had a glove on. Pulling and lifting heavy weight with rope bare-hands were somewhat a painful experience. More challenging obstacles which require body strength were up ahead such as rope climb, hercules hoist, atlas carry, bucket brigade, monkey bar, etc.
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Running Friend |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
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| Race Obstacle |
The barbed wire crawl requires participants to get down and dirty by crawling over a muddy trail under barbed wire unscratched. There were some running along trail and mud-bath slide and spear throw too. The last obstacle was a fire jump less than 50 metres away from the finishing line.
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| Photo Courtesy of Spartan Race Malaysia |
Collected my finisher medal and a coconut water at the finishing line. Spent some time to take photos at the finishing area before exiting the race course section to collect our finisher tees at one of the tents there.
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| Finisher Medal |
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| Coconut Water |
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| Finish Line |
Got our baggage and had a quick clean-up near the Bomba vehicle before getting a proper shower at the prepared shower station.
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| Baggage Tent Volunteers |
Did a quick stroll at the event area to check out exhibition booths. The main event exhibition tent had Reebok merchandise sales and Re-Claim with their free RockTape application to participants. There were some exhibition booth by other race sponsors and partners too. Lined-up with the others to get my goodie bag by Spartan Race organisor.
Went to look for an event photowall but didn't see any. Left the area at 6:00PM by shuttle bus to Setia City Mall.
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| Spartan Race Finisher Tee |
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| Spartan Race Finisher Tee |
Comments
Excellent finisher medal. Love the category design with the trifecta puzzle part.
The finisher tee was fine. However, I found that the finisher tee redemption was lousy. There were only size L and XL available during my collection. Seem like its a first-come-first serve basis, but why bother asked for tee sizes earlier during registration? I assumed that the smaller sizes were taken up by the earlier waves. No proper checking was made during collection.
The race obstacles were up to standard, challenging yet fun. Race marshals were at each obstacle giving clear instruction. Some were not so strict though which was fine for beginners. Water station along the race route were good. Mineral water supplies was sufficient. Think that it will be best to have a water station near the starting line especially for the (PM) wave due to hot weather in future.
Post-race communication was timely. Official race photos were available about one week after race day. A message to informed was made thru its official Facebook page and also via email. The next Spartan Race series (Spartan Super) planned for year 2016 is already open for registration too.
I definitely don't agree with the sale of the Spartan finisher tee at the exhibition tent. Also, they were selling those tees with smaller size available. Should have given priority to participants on shirt sizes instead for merchandise sale. The Spartan finisher tee turned to be my least favourite due to large size and known could be bought easily by non-participant on event day.
Looking forward for improvements on your next series on 2016.
Big shout out to Dan Krueger for the free code giveaway. Thank you!
Congratulations to Memey from Borneo Tribal Squad for completing her first ever official race.
Summary: An excellent obstacle challenge race event by Spartan Race, Reebok Malaysia, partners and sponsors. I will definitely join the other future series to complete the trifecta medal.
Event Recommendation: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Reebok Spartan Sprint Malaysia 2015 Completed! Aroo!
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