In the early spring of March, a spartan racing day was held in Majorca, Spain. The program of the day was the SUPER distance in the morning, then the SPRINT in the afternoon, and sometime after lunch, the youngest in the KIDS category competed. What is it like there, what are the specifics of the race, what else is there for our people who are used to racing here in the CEU region?

It must be said at the outset that the largest of the Balearic Islands is definitely not a new location, and a few of our competitors have already tasted the offer of the Spanish organizers in previous years. A group of around twenty Czechs went there again this year. The main attraction was the Super, which was the opening race of the Spanish national series for age group competitors, and at the same time the Gold race for elite competitors.

The plant itself is located in a military area on the outskirts of the capital of the island, i.e. in Palma de Mallorca. It is beautifully accessible via the bypass road, not far from the beach or the airport. So for those who do not feel comfortable in complicated travel abroad, it is absolutely optimal. The military area offers not only great facilities, but a vast area full of wild vegetation and lots of rocks and hills. In the same way, there were better roads, possibly even a piece of concrete. Soldiers present everywhere in the role of volunteers at the obstacles or at the refreshment stations, then completed this atmosphere.

On the Super, the pre-published route showed a relatively rugged profile (some 600 meters to climb on an approx. 11.1 km track), and to the more experienced eye, 4 refreshment stations warned that it would not be easy. And here I come to the first news. If the competitor wanted to refresh himself, he had to have a cup, bottle or camelbag with him. That's what it said in the propositions and that's what it really was. The ecological trend "no more cups" was put into practice here for the first time on the obstacle course Spartan. Thumbs up for me.

The hilly track and slightly cloudy weather, temperature of about 17 degrees, sea breeze, classic sea air and ubiquitous dust from weathering deposits, these are aspects that everyone had to take a sip of water at least somewhere.

For the first time, as far as I know, only handicap loops (penalty loops) were marked out for the elite and AG categories, as the rules say from this year. Englishmen remained reserved only for open categories, again in accordance with the current rules.

The list of obstacles, as we at CEU are used to it, is not published elsewhere. So it was no different here either. I will try to go through the track again in my thoughts and stop at the obstacles that were a little more specific than we know from domestic tracks.

The very introduction, i.e. the entrance to the starting corridor, was interesting. In order to get into the corridor, the competitor first had to sneak about 5 meters under the barbed wire, where logs and bales of straw were still placed. Sneaking, then jumping over the already traditional wall, and only then was the starting corridor.

The first slightly different obstacle is balance. The beam here is about a quarter of a meter higher, but it is also wider. I usually encounter this mostly on western series. Olympus, twister, beater, and monkey bar in other stages of the track are identical to ours. Only the last two mentioned obstacles were built more demandingly, i.e. the components are further apart and some even a bit higher. Again, the practice of more important races. The only thing worth mentioning is that classic bars (for example, on a monkey bar) have a smaller diameter than ours. Likewise, the rings on the multirig here are metal and with a smaller material diameter. Straw bales are placed under the bender, not even for safety, but as a step for better accessibility for smaller competitors.

The track continued with more technical passages, and the next obstacles where I stop are the crawls. There were several of them. I mentioned the initial pre-start. There was another one on the track as part of the log carry (carrying a log), when you had to sneak with the log as well. After putting down the burden, another crawl followed, this time in dusty and fine limestone, beautifully into a heap!

A series of subsequent "wet" obstacles (mud roll and dunk wall) gave us space to wash off the dust. Other running passages and obstacles were more or less standard and as we know them from us. After one of the last long runs there was one more crawl. Although on the plain, but very long. And behind him a zetka wall.

The Spanish organizer built the Z-wall for us in such a way that no angle was right. Otherwise, the implementation is an obstacle as we had it in our country a few years ago. Full walls without a cut-out in the abdomen area, 4 wide holds and 4 steps on each wall.

Another run and the last hills before the festival offered a beautiful view of the sea and the harbor full of yachts. But there was no time to make love, because there were a lot of stones underfoot and a short inattention could be very painful.

Final obstacle sequence. The hurdles here are really high, I dare to say that some 160 cm from the ground for sure. We don't know this from us again. Now just a slip wall in the water tank, with water flowing over the board.

I think all Czech competitors reached the finish line, this time no one made it to the podium. In the men's elite category, the lone Petr Vinický took the place immediately behind the first ten, as well as the only Czech elite woman Petra Kadeřábková did not reach higher than a place somewhere in the third ten Bork women. The competition was great and the placements are not bad.

In the age group, we take several valuable but ungrateful potato medals and several other places in the top ten, or just behind it.

Our other competitors then appeared with black headbands of the open category. On the Super and on the Sprint, where it was run only in open waves. However, this category is not declared and in these regions it is not required to overcome an obstacle or fulfill an adequate handicap. It's more of a funny race, but ours enjoyed it and it's definitely worth recommending to try it sometime.