Spartan announced the dates and venues of their 2019 US Championship series today.
The series will kick off on February 23 in Jacksonville Florida with an eight-mile Spartan Super race and culminate with the last race of the series on July 20th in Huntsville, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City.
Ryan Woods will look to defend his title as Spartan US Series Champion. “The series is starting way earlier this year.” Woods said. “It makes it pretty much year-round racing now, which is tough. In addition to his 2018 Spartan US Series win Woods was a member of “Lindsay’s Angels” who won World’s Toughest Mudder in the Team Relay division. “I got fat and now I’ve got to already lose it! I barely got to enjoy being fat” said Woods. He credits “a lot of Eggnog” and Biscoff cookie butter with his enjoyable weight gain.
In 2018 Wood’s biggest competition was Ryan Atkins. When asked what it would take to beat Atkins again Woods said “I have to stay healthy. If I stay healthy, I think the courses favor me. I have more wide-open running speed, and when you’re talking flatter courses like Seatlle, Jacksonville, and Alabama, that gives me an advantage.”
Looking forward to a year of defending his title Woods said “It’s a new year. Everyone starts even. We’ll see how it shakes out”
Lindsay Webster will look to defend their 2018 title of Spartan US Champion. Webster is not just the 2018 champion, but also the 2016 and 2017 champion. Lindsay Webster has won the Spartan US Series every year since it was introduced in 2016. She is arguably the greatest female athlete to ever run the sport of OCR.
Last year Webster was the leader of a group of the top five women in the sport. Any one of those other women could be Webster’s biggest competition this year, as well as the unofficial rookie of the year.
Faye Stenning has finished second to Lindsay at US Series race more than any other woman, including three of the five races last year. She finished second overall in the series, missing the win by only five points.
Rea Kolbl is a threat to win anytime she shows up at a race. She is the two-time champion of World’s Toughest Mudder and has shown she knows how to win a big race. Kolbl also handed Webster her only loss of the season last year in Big Bear. Kolbl finished the series in third place.
Alyssa Hawley finished in third or fourth at every race in the series last year. She has been a force on the course since the first year in the series and has won many races, but has not managed to break through and win the US Series yet. She finished the 2018 series in fourth place.
Nicole Mericle finished out of the top five in the series last year due to her missing the first two races in the series. Mericle is one of the fastest woman in OCR with multiple wins on a wide assortment of courses. In fall of 2018 she won the OCR World Championship 3k distance and in December she won the Red Bull All-In snow-covered obstacle course race that took place on a ski hill in Oberstdorf Germany.
Rebecca Hammond spent most of the year under the radar but came on strong at the end. She finished second to Lindsay Webster at the Spartan North American Championship race second again to Webster at the Spartan World Championship. With a full-time focus on racing this year, watch for Hammond to challenge Webster this year.
