OCEAN CITY – The Mayor and Council week approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the first-ever Spartan obstacle course race in Ocean City set for Oct. 5.
Spartan, a national sports event company based in Boston, produces high-intensity obstacle course runs all over the country. For the first time ever, Spartan is bringing it obstacle course run to Ocean City on Saturday, Oct. 5, after the council on Monday approved an MOU outlining each party’s responsibilities for the event.
The Spartan event will include a festival village at the Inlet parking lot featuring tents with food, music and vendors. The obstacle course itself will take place largely on the Boardwalk in the downtown area including some obstacles at street ends.
Thousands of competitors are expected to compete in the race, which includes obstacles such as cargo nets, walls to traverse, rope climbs, monkey bars, water hazards, atlas carries, box jumps, spear throws, sandbag carries and others. The Ocean City event is characterized as a sprint, “delivering 20 obstacles” over the three-mile course, according to Spartan’s website.
Tourism Director Donna Abbott explained Spartan produces similar events all over the country. Indeed, a check of the company’s website revealed there are obstacle races practically every weekend in different areas around the country including three others on the same day as Ocean City’s event.
“It’s a rather large-scale event,” said Abbott on Monday. “I believe they have 3,200 to 3,300 competitors already registered. It’s the first one in Ocean City and the hope is it becomes an annual event.”
The layout of the course planned for the Spartan sprint event is shown. Photo from council packet
The town’s contribution to the inaugural event is $80,000, which is coming from the Tourism Advisory Board allocation in the Tourism Department’s budget. The town’s allocation will cover Spartan’s host fee, banners and a temporary pedestrian bridge. Abbott said the event’s footprint will require some traffic modifications in the downtown area on race day.
For example, North Division Street between Baltimore Avenue and the Boardwalk will be closed entirely on race day from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition, single lanes of Baltimore Avenue will be closed from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on race day between Caroline Street and North Division Street, and between 7th Street and Surf Avenue. The Spartan race will cause the closure of the Inlet lot, which will also be shared with a Corvette event the same weekend. Later during Monday’s meeting, the council approved a resolution allowing Spartan to sell food and drinks only in the festival village at the Inlet lot.
