This was the first time I had taken part in the Spring Monster Race having previously completed Winter Monster.

Logistically the site was very easy to get to and was well signposted, parking was free of charge and going to register couldn't have been easier. There were plenty of places to get food and drink before & after the race and the facilities (toilets) were kept in good order throughout the day. 

The pre-race briefing was thorough with particular emphasis on teamwork and assisting your "fellow Monsters" as much as possible. With OCR the teamwork is a huge part of the event and is very reassuring, especially for newbies. 

The course itself was fantastic, the obstacles are well managed by the marshalls who also give encouragement and offer advice where needed although there are plenty of other runners willing to help you out. I do advise going on the early waves though as some of our group opted to do the 10k and on the second loop some of the water crossing had got so churned up with mud that you could just walk across rather than swim. For me I like the challenge of doing the obstacles as they should be. The Spring Monster Race had more water-based obstacles than the Winter one, I particularly loved the huge water slide at the end.

With Monster you can either sign up for 5k or 10k. When you get there you actually find out that 5k equates to 6.5k therefore if you choose to run 10k you actually run 13k in total. I chose to do th 5k option, if I wasn't a second loop of the same obstacles again I would have opted for the 10k option. Some may think the pricing is steep however the event is well ran and all of the race photos are free and are uploaded very quickly.

Would I do it again?

Hell yes! I had already signed up for Autumn Monster in Malmesbury and signed up for the Monster Race in Exete next March

Decent fun, and I had a good time.

The course started off with about 50-750m before the first obstacle, then obstacles throughout the remainder of the distance... they didn't seem to have got an accurate measure though as course was nearer 6.5km than 5km and the 10k was actually about 13km.

water events were freezing and there was plenty of mud and falling over. I was doing it as a team and not going for an individual time. I imagine it cuhave been a bit frustrating if you were as some obstacles got congested waiting to cross. This was particularly painful when chest deep in freezing water! 

That said really good fun event, marshalls cheered you on and set in nice grounds. Decent burger afterwards for £4 and a nice medal so all good! 

Lovely location and throughly dirty! 

Booking this event was simple enough for three of us and, compared to other events, it was reasonably well priced. 

Arriving at the venue was fine, it was well signposted however some provision to prevent cars being stuck in the mud would have been helpful...thank goodness for 4 wheel drive! 

Plenty of loos and rustic but adequate changing facilities adorned a small but jubilant event village. Bag drop was simple enough and well ordered - no massive queue to drop bags off, or pick up for that matter...an important thing when you are cold and covered in mud! 

The course itself was good, lots of hay bales and walls which are classic staples of ocr but some more innovative ones also...crossing that icey cold stream, ouch. The atmosphere on the course was good, friendly with lots of helping hands and marshals to spur you on. Some of the walls were a bit hairy on the decent thanks to a bizarre design flaw with a slippy jutting piece of wood on most; great consideration for safety though when they realised one obstacle was too slippy and added a rope. 

The course was varied in terms of terrain and backdrop - running through eerie woods and brooks one minute to having a beautiful stately home as your setting the next.

Finish could have been made more of, no offical photo at the end and only a bit of water - could have done with a brew really. Excellent medal but no t-shirt, this was supposedly to lower costs but arguably didn't lower them sufficiently for a t-shirt not to be included.

Some great free photos after, nice touch. 

All in all...great race with room for improvement.