By Catherine Richard
Over 5,500 are expected to compete in the Spartan races on Nov. 23 and 24 at Sandy Oaks Ranch in Devine, with the majority coming in for the Saturday race.
Spartan is a national organization which creates competitive, physically challenging events. They are best known for their obstacle course races.
People are expected to arrive from all over the state and even from different countries for the first Spartan race to take place in Devine.
At Sandy Oaks Ranch there will be three different competitions, spanning roughly 200 acres of land.
The Sprint is a 5K with 20 obstacles, including monkey bars, mud pits and climbing walls.
The Super is a 10K with 25 obstacles of greater intensity, including rope climbing and more demanding climbing walls.
For these races, groups of 250 will compete at a time.
There will also be a set of children’s races, which take into account the child’s age and physical abilities. This category has 1km races for ages 4-6, 1.5km races for ages 7-9 and 3km races for ages 9-14. There is also a special 1km race for kids with physical or mental challenges. Children must be accompanied by their parents and have constant adult supervision.
